mr, Mythology, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Mythology

mr

mr The Iliad, by Homer, tells a part of the tale of the conquest of Troy by the Greeks. In the Greek army there are many prominent figures. These important Greeks have distinct personalities. This paper hopes to demonstrate that certain famous Greeks each get some form of comeuppance based on their respective bad character traits and actions. In essence, this paper will show that justice is served against the Greeks for their actions. It seems appropriate to start with the head of the Greek army, Agamemnon. Agamemnon displays great arrogance (hubris, if you will) by forcefully taking Breseis from Achilleus. This action leads to Achilleus refusing to fight and almost costing the Greeks the war. Eventually, Agamemnon apologizes and Achilleus rejoins the fighting. Yet, even when apologizing Agamemnon refuses to accept any blame for his actions. Instead, Agamemnon claims that it was not his fault because Zeus made him crazy. Since Achilleus does rejoin the fighting and Agamemnon does not take blame for his actions, Achilleus’ brief lapse from the fighting is insufficient justice for Agamemnon’s arrogance. The justice for Agamemnon’s arrogance will be discussed a below. There is another facet of Agamemnon’s character that plays a key role in his eventual punishment. That role is the role of Agamemnon the adulterer. Adultery plays a double role with Agamemnon. First, there is the girl Chryseis about whom Agamemnon admits to liking better than his own wife. Second, the Trojan War is about adultery. The entire war is centered on Helen’s act of adultery. Agamemnon is acting on a double standard. Adultery is the cause of the Trojan War, and is therefore bad. Yet, Agamemnon is cheating on his wife, and happy to do so, with Chryseis. Agamemnon’s arrogance and acts of adultery combine to make his punishment most fitting. Justice is served against Agamemnon through his death at the hands of his wife, who is also an adulteress, and the man with whom she had been cheating on Agamemnon. The wife as adulteress compensates for the husband as adulterer. Being killed by a woman punishes Agamemnon’s arrogance. Since women did not fight in the army, being killed by a woman was certainly a disgraceful way to die. This disgrace compensates for Agamemnon’s previous displays of arrogance. Achilleus also gets punished appropriately. In The Iliad, Achilleus acts quite arrogantly. Achilleus refuses to fight in the war all because of an argument with Agamemnon over a concubine. When Achilleus kills Hektor, Achilleus attempts to desecrate Hektor’s corpse. Such an act of desecration is very demeaning to the corpse. Justice is administered to Achilleus, though not in The Iliad. Paris eventually kills Achilleus. Paris is an archer and, therefore, considered a coward on the field of battle. In other words, Achilleus, the great fighter, is killed by one of the most cowardly, if not the most cowardly, of the Trojans. Such a death is indeed humbling. Achilleus demonstrates that he has been humbled when, in an encounter with Odysseus when Odysseus visits Achilleus in Hades in The Odyssey, Achilleus says, “O shining Odysseus, never try to console me for dying. I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead.” Odysseus receives punishment appropriate to his actions, too. Odysseus uses his craftiness to defeat Aias and win Achilleus’ armor. Aias, the better fighter, commits suicide out of anguish at having been beaten. Odysseus thereby brings about the death of Aias with Odysseus’ craftiness. Odysseus’ punishment is the incident with the cattle of Helios. As a result, the remainders of Odysseus’ entourage are killed. While this punishment only resolves the death of Aias, Odysseus’ punishment for inappropriately using his craftiness will be explained below. Odysseus’ craftiness is the source of Odysseus’ idea to use the Trojan Horse in order to conquer Troy. In conquering Troy, almost all of the residents of Troy are killed. Odysseus’ punishment for bringing about the slaughter of so many people is that Odysseus is the only person from his army that left Troy to reach home alive. The punishment for Odysseus’ craftiness, itself, is twofold. First, Odysseus is cursed by Polyphemos and, consequently, spends ten years of his life trying to get home from Troy. Throughout Odysseus’ wanderings he is frequently disguised and hides who he truly is. The second aspect of Odysseus’ punishment is that he is always disguised as an old, frail, etc. man. Instead of being presented as strong, crafty Odysseus he is a weak, old man. Odysseus’ punishment for using his craftiness to gain the upper hand is to frequently play the role of a weak and lowly man. Not only are individual characters from The Iliad punished appropriately, The Iliad, itself, receives its own “punishment.” This punishment is Virgil’s The Aeneid. In The Aeneid, Aeneas, with a band of men and women, flees Troy the night it is destroyed by the Greeks. The Aeneid is the story of the travels of Aeneas, leading to the inevitable founding of Rome. Character descriptions in The Aeneid are quite different from character descriptions in The Iliad. Homer, for instance, describes Achilleus as “brilliant swift-footed Achilleus.” Virgil describes Achilles as “pitiless Achilles.” Homer describes Hektor as “breaker of horses.” Virgil describes Hector as “Trojans’ trusted hope.” Why are these descriptions so different? Homer, a Greek, described Greek heroes favorably and Trojan heroes unfavorably. Virgil, a Roman and therefore a descendant of the Trojans, does the exact opposite. Trojan heroes are described favorably while Greek heroes are described unfavorably. Homer demonizes the Trojans and, in retribution, Virgil demonizes the Greeks. A repetition of events is another way in which The Aeneid is written to The Iliad. Repetition of events refers to an event that happens in The Iliad and is repeated in The Aeneid. In The Iliad, the Greek hero, Achilleus, receives armor made by Hephaestus at the request of Achilleus’ mother, Thetis, before Achilleus returns to battle against the Trojans. In The Aeneid, the Trojan hero, Aeneas, receives armor made by Vulcan at the request of Aeneas’ mother, Venus, before Aeneas begins the war against the Latins. Another example of a repetition of events occurs with respect to the death of the enemy hero. In The Iliad, Achilleus chases the enemy Trojan hero, Hector, around the city a few times before finally killing him. In The Aeneid, Aeneas chases the enemy Latin hero, Turnus, around the fighting circle a few times before finally killing him. In order to complete the circle of retribution, the Latins must be likened to the Greeks. The Sibyl provides the comparison when she says, “Wars, vicious wars I see ahead…You’ll have them all again, with an Achilles, child of Latium, he, too, goddess-born.” The Sibyl concludes, “The cause of suffering here again will be a bride foreign to Teucrians, a marriage made with a strange…A first way to safety will open where you reckon on it least, from a Greek city.” Turnus is “Achilles” and “the bride foreign to Teucrians” is Helen. Thus, the cycle of retribution is complete. The plot of The Aeneid is a third way in which The Aeneid is written to The Iliad. The Iliad is about Achilleus becoming a hero and about the Trojan War. The Aeneid is about Aeneas becoming a hero and about the inevitable creation of the Roman Empire. Achilleus is the hero, as opposed to Hektor, in The Iliad because Achilleus was Greek and because a Greek, Homer, wrote the epic poem. Aeneas is the hero, as opposed to Turnus, in The Aeneid because Aeneas was Trojan and because a Roman, who according to the myth of The Aeneid is a descendant of the Trojans, Virgil, wrote the epic poem. Also, The Iliad is about the Trojan War that leads to the fall of Troy. The Aeneid is about the events leading up to the founding of Rome. The Roman Empire will be greater than the Greek Empire. Therefore, The Aeneid can be read as the events that will cause the fall of Greece. In conclusion, proof that The Aeneid is written to The Iliad is evident. Greek heroes are described favorably in The Iliad and Trojan heroes are described favorably in The Aeneid. In The Iliad, Achilleus received armor before going to battle. In The Aeneid, Aeneas received armor before going to battle. In The Iliad, Achilleus chases Hector around the city before finally killing him. In The Aeneid, Aeneas chases Turnus around the fighting circle before finally killing him. These similarities further show how The Aeneid is written to The Iliad. Finally, The Iliad deals with the events leading to, but not including, the fall of Troy. The Aeneid deals with the events leading to, but not including, the rise of Rome and the fall of Greece. Therefore, The Aeneid is written to The Iliad. Also, it is evident that certain characters from The Iliad are punished after the Trojan War according to their misdeeds during the Trojan War. Agamemnon commits adultery and is killed by his wife the adulteress. The great warrior Achilleus arrogantly attempts to desecrate the corpse of Hektor. Paris, one of the weakest members of the Trojan army, kills Achilleus. Odysseus is punished according to his craftiness. Therefore, these characters from The Iliad are punished according to their misdeeds. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1567