s religion. Many Greeks have such matter in them, as like Achilles in the description, who was no mere mortal among his people. Zeus once predicted, “Achilles is a man of great power and thought, he will slay the brave Hektor and bring honor to his people....”(236) Achilles was a Greek, so forth he was to bring honor to his people. There was much use of epic characteristics in the Iliad. The Iliad had enormous battles that were fought constantly between the two opponents. Homer writes in description to Hektor’s fighting, “Hektor in the huge pride of his strength rages irresistibly, reliant on Zeus, and gives way to no one neither god nor man...”(204). The characters fighting for the Greeks or Trojans all were eventually given some kind of supernatural ability to fight such incredible battles. The hero of the story, Achilles, contained superhuman strength beyond that of any other man. In description of his strength, “...and the door barred to his room took three men to open it, but Achilles himself alone could close it.”(488) The mother of Achilles was Thetis making him half god, half man. That enabled him to have such powers beyond mortal man. Another epic characteristic was that of the sacking of Ilion. In the beginning of the adventure the Danaans set sail to attack the Trojans, but Troy was surrounded by a great wall. Although the book does not describe the ending of Troy, it foretells the fall of it to the Greeks. After all of the struggle against a powerful opposing force they still overcame, and were victorious in the end. When Achilles killed Hektor, that was another sign of epic, because he fulfilled his deed as representing his race and his religion. He f...
