The earliest form of Greek literature is Homer’s Iliad. The Iliad idealizes the Greek hero Achilles as following the warrior code of personal honor and glory. Another ancient piece of literature coming from Rome is Virgil’s Aeneid, which portrays Rome’s ideal hero Aeneas, as a model for the future leaders of Rome. The Aeneid was written in nineteen BC and was the Romans way to compete with the wanted to have their own epic history like the Greeks had before them. Both give men their respective societies demonstrating a hero, so men could generate an idea of what an ideal solider should act in society and in war. Both the Iliad and the Aeneid portray the ideal warrior in the cultures of the Romans and the Greeks by utilizing the traits of a true warrior in the Iliad and the possible future leaders of Rome in Aeneid.
The original audience of the Iliad by Homer was the upper class men of Greece who were able to read the epic poem of history of the Greek people. The men of the time looked up to Achilles as Greek hero because he follows the right path in order to live a moral life. He would choose to die as long as he would die in glory. Achilles wants to go after Hector for killing his friend no matter the cost, “For my own death, I’ll meet it freely”, “I’ll lie in peace, once I’ve gone down to death. But now, for the moment, let me seize great glory” (Fiero)! Achilles knows dying in honor will result in great honor because he was doing the bidding of the gods. Throughout the
