Tying Homer's Iliad to Virgil's Aeneid Through the Theme of Warfare

an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior

In Ancient Greece, tensions were always high as city-states competed for resources and territories, which led to constant battles between city-states in an attempt to steal resources or territories. There are also periods where city-states banded together to fight a common enemy, like the Persians, the Trojans, or other city-states. This means that warfare was an integral part of life in ancient greece. This meant that warfare frequently appeared in classic greek literature, such as the Iliad and Ajax, although different authors have different interpretations about warfare which is shown through their work of literature, with the Iliad having warfare as a glorified battle, while Ajax is about an uncompromising hero who turned mad which driven him to commit suicide.

Battle and bloodshed are celebrated in Homer’s, The Iliad, because of the bravery that is portrayed when a man chooses to fight. For example, Paris in known as cowardly because he is not a fan of violence and battle, while Hector is one of the epic’s greatest heroes. In fact, he speaks this famous line, “Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me

omer’s epic poem The Iliad, reports the tenth year of the savage Trojan War with Achilles, the leader of the invading army as the protagonist. Another adventurous story, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tells of Arthurian knight, Gawain, who sets out on a journey to fight to the death, with an anonymous poet. The stories’ leading characters resemble each other in their fighting, but ultimately contradict each other because of their different beliefs. These brave men similarly fight and become military heroes for their own countries. The armor of the soldier and knight bear many symbolic features.

When reading the Iliad by Homer and With the old Breed by E. B. Sledge, the two stories that revolve around warfare are surprisingly different. Not because of the time period but because of how warfare is viewed in each of these works. In the Iliad, warfare is not only conducted differently but it is viewed as a very heroic and noble thing. Throughout the Iliad, Homer avoids all of the gruesome or evil topics of warfare and simple shows the noble aspects, so much so that he ensures that most of the important characters get a heartfelt and heroic monologue before they die. On the other hand With the old Breed by E. B. Sledge shows warfare to the exact opposite of what Homer has portrayed, a mentally taxing experience that most of the time breaks the soldiers to the point where they would never be the same. According to Shay, “The Iliad is a work of poetry, not sociological or historical scholarship”(Shay, 121). Seeing as how the Iliad focuses more on only positive aspects of war, Shay is correct in his statement. These two works are vastly different from one another through their descriptions of the various aspects of warfare.

Bing! Bang! Boom! Cannons, bombs, destruction, arrows, swords, fists, and guns are things that we associate with war. But, what is war? Is war a fight? Is war a disagreement? Is war a conflict? Are all wars bloody? Are all wars violent? Are violence and war inversely related? Are all wars politically motivated? Are Wars self motivated? War is described as described as being “collective violence waged between violence waged between two or more opposing groups that have been armed and organized for that purpose.”(Lecture) In ancient texts such as the Iliad, Thucydides ’Funeral Oration’, and Herodotus on the Battle of Thermopylae all show how war was an essential part of life in the ancient world.

The violence of war that takes place in the Iliad is directly related to the war that the United States is facing now and has for the past fifteen years. Violence and war were major themes in the Iliad and today we see war, not only between our country and others but all over the world.

In The Iliad, war generates the most meaningful, noble, and glorious actions along with destruction and self-destruction. Homer understands the allure of war as Weil does not, her interpretation is one-sided and fails to recognize the humanity and pathos behind of the slayers. Weil makes this exclusion because, she reads The Iliad as an antiwar poem due to her own experiences in war life. Therefore,

In Virgil’s “The Aeneid” and Homer’s “The Iliad” two men start catastrophic wars over one woman. “The Iliad” depicts two armies, the Greeks and the Trojans, who go to war over Menelaus’s kidnapped wife, Helen. Also in “The Iliad”, Achilles is having an altercation with Agamemnon over a maid Achilles won, who was taken from him. Achilles refuses to stand by his countrymen and fight the Trojans until she is returned to him. Meanwhile, in “The Aeneid”, Turnus goes to war with Aeneas over the loss of his bride Lavinia. The wars of each epic result in a great amount of bloodshed; bloodshed that each hero tried to prevent by

Odysseus and his people had the mindset that very heavily supported war and they encouraged it through the honor and respect someone can attain during battle. This mindset leads to people not only fighting for honor, but it leads to people using fighting to their advantage and for their gain. Greek kings and warriors were constantly fighting and finding new things to fight about and this led to conflict amongst the people of Greece. As Odysseus strung his bow, the insolent suitors who ruthlessly taunt him, “with slaughter the last thing on [their] mind”, became aware of the situation and a fight broke out amongst them all(Fagles XXII.11-12). Fighting was how Odysseus and his people at the time fixed problems between people; so their mindset on war encourage it while the veterans in Owen’s work show regret and shame towards the act of war. Many veterans after returning home are usually broken from war, and have to go through so much grief to try to recover from it once they can be home again. They believe it is a “ pity of war,” to do this to them and wish that the “pity [of] war distilled” so people would no longer fight so they do not have to suffer anymore(Strange Meeting 25). They wish that war would disappear so that it would not hurt anyone anymore unlike Odysseus’

The opening words of Virgil’s poem, “I sing of warfare and a man at war” directly reminds the readers of both the Iliad and Odyssey (Lawall 930). In this line, Virgil throws his hero back on his last inner and human resources making him the primary dimension of his heroism (Galinsky 77). The opening lines in The Iliad “Sing,

Usually, epic war poetry attempts to depict the central values of a particular society, and the Iliad and the Aeneid are no different. The Iliad and the Aeneid hold up their perspective heroes, Achilles and Aeneas, as what it means to be a true Greek or Roman. Achilles and Aeneas are vastly different in character and ideals, yet there is some overlap between the two, as they deal with strangely similar circumstances in roughly the same way. Achilles is a man of passion and selfish desire who directs his rage towards whoever he chooses. On the other hand, “duty-bound Aeneas” is far more pious and in control of his actions, as although he still is capable of rage, he keeps it in check because he is governed by reason and a sense of duty towards

      The Iliad is a story of rages of Achilles and the War of Troy. Thanks to the techniques of the author, Homer, The Iliad is very colorful, romantic, and it makes the readers imagine the ancient Greeks and their times of war. Homer is believed to be the author of epics other than the Iliad, although their authorship remains uncertain. Historian believes that Homer probably lived in the eighth century, B.C.1 (Discovering World History). However, there are very few things that we know about him. Some historians think Homer's birthplace may have been on an island on the eastern edge of the Aegean Sea, or perhaps in a city on the nearby coast, but they don't have evidence to

The Iliad is a descriptive and exceedingly long poem by an incredible poet, Homer, the Iliad describes the ten year long siege on Troy. The Iliad focuses on the last 52 days in the final year of the prodigious battle. The poet himself, Homer, drifts between fiction and fact. Some say this blind poet was simply a pen name for many highly honored scribes recording the details of battle. There is no question that the Iliad is magnificent, though many question the poet. The knowledge for this poem was passed down through 500 years of oral poetry. Homer wrote of life at war and how the battle initiated.

Many of the characters in the Iliad are similar in one way or another but what distinctively sets them apart from each other is how they are in war. Every character reacted to and dealt with battle very different because there are characters that are cowards, bitter, and afraid, as well as characters that are confident, prudent, and know what it takes to be a great warrior.