Essay on The Roles the Gods Played in the Iliad and Troy

Religion is a major cultural factor in both epics as gods and goddesses are a daily presence in people's lives and have great influences on them. In the Iliad, the gods were called more to intervene the mortals' affairs than they were in the Odyssey. In the Iliad, the gods are portrayed as deceptive, volatile, and conniving as there were a lot of sneaking behind one another's backs to aid one side over the other. For example, Hera wanted the Achaeans to win, but Zeus tries to remain neutral. In result, some of the god's plot to put him to sleep so they could help the Achaeans win. It appeared as though the battlefield was a theatrical play and the mortals were their puppets. The extent of their generosity was even exposed. The priest of Apollo, Chryses, stated, "Hear me, lord of the silver

In almost all instances of war the cause has been related to greed, or the gaining of land and possessions. Greed is presented in the very first book of Homer’s “The Iliad.” It isn’t displayed by the cowards, but the “heroes” of the war such as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Pandarus. The entire cause of the Trojan War is the result of the greedy and cowardly behavior of Paris. There are many factors that had sparked the war, including the interference of the gods; however, the main factor to be blamed for the war is greed.

Godly colossal Greek epic, “The Iliad” constituted by the poet named, Homer, articulate the chronicle of the Brobdingnagian Trojan War. It is swarming with the interventions of the gods enchanting their coveted mortals (humans) and altering the heterogeneous scenes of the Trojan War. In this poem, gods have an assortment of relationships with humans which include love, fornication, and mother or father relationships. Gods interact with mortals in human shapes and stimulate them. Also, gods cognize that every human is eventually destined to die and they anticipate humans to pray to them for every obstacle humans encounter. However, for humans gods are omnipotent, authoritative, dominant, and immortals, who they supplicate to if they have

During that entire time, Achilles’ justification for wallowing in self-pity is that he has been “dishonored”. This argument becomes null and void when Agamemnon offers lavish compensation for the affront. In addition to returning Briseis, Agamemnon offers Achilles seven unfired tripods, ten gold bars, twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen horses, seven beautiful women from Lesbos, twenty Trojan women, his daughters’ hand in marriage along with a rich dowry, and the ownership of seven populous cities. Any reasonable person would have taken the offer but not prideful, bitter Achilles. Instead he continues on with the same old rhetoric and refuses to fight. As if standing idly by while his countrymen were being killed was not enough, Achilles has his mother call in a favor to Zeus asking him to help the Trojans so that even more Greeks would die during his absence. Not only did he abandon his comrades, he actually prayed for them to die because his pride had been hurt.

When the men of Agamemnon come to take Briseis, Achilles gives her up without a fight, despite how heavy his heart is at the thought of losing her. Once she is gone, Achilles withdraws from his companions and sobs, praying to his mother to understand why he is treated the way he is, why he isn’t treated with respect. His mother, hearing his laments, comes to console him, telling him that she will visit Zeus and try to sway him towards helping the Trojans and destroying the Achaeans, to make them pay for disrespecting the son of Thetis.

The Iliad: Book I, is about the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in the beginning of the Trojan War. It shows how vigorous Achilles’ rage was and that he is no one to mess with. The book states “Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed”. This shows his fury in just a few words. Achilles was a Greek hero who was the son of a Goddess named Thetis. He was an incredible solder; brave, violent and godlike. However, Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaean Army. He was greedy, aggressive and selfish. He was described as “the most grasping man alive”. He absolutely hated Achilles. I feel that he was jealous of how respected Achilles was among the ranks in the army because of his superior skills in the field of battle. Agamemnon claimed Chryseis as his prize, after sacking a Trojan town. Chryseis was a daughter of a Priest of Apollo, Chryses. He offered an enormous ransom to get his daughter back. At first Agamemnon didn’t want it but the people round him persuaded him that it would be best to let her go so they could be released from the plague that Apollo put on them. Agamemnon then poised to Achilles that he is going to steal Achilles prize, Briseis. This is when Achilles’ rage shows at its best. He nearly draws his sword to kill Agamemnon but he is stopped by the goddess, Athena.

Throughout the world there are many religious beliefs. Religion has been existing for a very long time, even before christ, religions serve as a worship to a “god.” There are different perspectives on how one sees religion, even though all religions tend to have similarities they all have a branch that that guides them to a different path than the rest and makes them unique. As Joseph Campbell said, “your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” (Campbell, 158-print). He meant that one does not have to follow someone else’s beliefs if one is not happy with what one is worshipping. Campbell emphasizes the fact that every religion is a way to express the human feelings towards a certain god or a thing of either an ancient civilization or a current one. Every generation and tribes have had different systems of beliefs. Take for example “Buddhism” which is a religion that began in the seventh century, before christ” (Religion, Funk and wagnalls- online). It is a very popular religion that has been going on for many centuries with more than 300 million followers. “Christianity is currently the world’s number one religion, and just like Buddhism they both worship some type of God” (Religion, Funk and wagnalls- online). Others religions are based on mythology, because humans do not have many information on whether that “religion” was real or not. Greek mythology is an

The problematic return of Odysseus’ to his homeland was described by The Odyssey. About ten years have elapsed since the end of the Trojan War, and it is observed that Odysseus who is seen to be the most cursed of all the present living things has been missing and many individuals supposed that he was dead. In the narrative, it can be seen that gods play a crucial role in the destiny of Odysseus as well as many other characters.

His brother Hector and he were on a peace mission in Sparta on behalf of Troy visiting the king, Menelaus, when Paris ran off with Menelaus’ wife, Helen. This action divides the Gods who constantly meddle with the mortal’s lives. Naturally, Aphrodite is on the Trojans’ side, as was her lover and God of War, Ares, and Apollo. Although Zeus, King of Gods, tried to be neutral, he was pro-Trojan. Hera, Queen of Gods, and Athena help the Greeks because they were mad that Paris chose Aphrodite. Poseidon, God of the Sea and Zeus’ brother, also sided with the Greeks whenever Zeus was not looking. An example of this constant intrusiveness of the Gods in the Iliad was when King “Menelaus hurls his spear, lightly wounding Paris. Paris’ helmet strap becomes caught at his chin and Menelaus has nearly dragged him away before Aphrodite intervenes, breaking the strap. She then wraps Paris in a mist, sets him in his own perfumed bedchamber, and hurries to catch Helen” (Bloom 13). Of course, in the movie version, when Paris becomes wounded he crawls to Hector’s ankles. King Menelaus becomes angered and says Paris is not worthy of royalty nor his wife Helen. Hector is then forced to defend his little brother and kills Menelaus. The elimination of the Gods from Troy, although unsatisfactory, does simplify the movie compared to the complicated plot of the Iliad. Wolfgang Petersen may have had motivation to remove the Gods because it

It is the central plot of the epic, yet it is easy to neglect that the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon begins over a woman. Achilles war prize was Briseis and she represented his glory he gained from fighting. When Agamemnon takes her, he does not do it because he is attracted to her, rather than to make up a lost. Again, women are seen as objects being taken and given to others as if they are not human. Even Nestor discusses Briseis in a third person perspective, creating an image that she is an object rather than a human.

Over the thousands of years that the epic story the Iliad has survived, there has no doubt been some form of alteration to Homer's original. Last May, Wolfgang Petersen directed a movie based on the Iliad. This movie, Troy, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer's original, as are almost all stories that are made into movies, unfortunately. With its timeless storyline, amazing scenery, gorgeous actors/actresses and most of all, its reported two hundred million dollar budget, it is easy to see why Troy was hyped up to be a box office hit. However, the film critics were harsh on this movie, as they had every right to be, and it ended up being a total flop. Compared to Homer's Iliad, Troy is rather disappointing. But, to be

Q1.Describe the relationships between the gods and mortals in The Iliad .What are the Greek gods like?

be looked at as "the wife of Hektor, who was ever the bravest fighter of

Achilles arrived at a shack on the beach to find Briseis, cousin of Hector and Paris. He found out that Briseis was Royalty, not just entertainment for him. Agamemnon did not see that the victory of the Trojan beach was earned by Achilles and his men. Briseis shouted at Achilles that his only talent was killing and that was his curse. That silenced Achilles. Achilles explained, “Before my time is done, I'll look down on your corpse and smile.” He showed no mercy for Agamemnon, only mercy for Briseis. Achilles wanted no harm for Briseis and was the only soldier that would say that. No one else saw Briseis as he did. No one else understood her like he did. Achilles had great respect for her.

The beginning of the movie Troy, starts off with the Greek army, led by King Agamemnon, ready for battle against the troops of Triopas. The kings agree to have a battle of their greatest warriors. Triopas summons Boagrius, a very large soldier that would set fear to any other hero. Agamemnon summons Achilles, who isn't present at the time. He arrives shortly after and without hesitation, he defeats Boagrius single-handedly. Many great heros would fear Boagrius because of his great size and strength, but not Achilles. He was considered the greatest warrior ever born and on Agamemnon’s side. He is very hesitant to fight for a king and has no interest to fight for a king. Achilles goes from wanting to be remembered as the greatest warrior with no ruling and not caring, to a warrior that cares for a woman named Briseis.