Throughout human history, people have been infatuated with the role of the “hero”. The concept that someone would be willing to risk life and limb for someone else never ceases to amaze. Just take a trip to Washington, D.C. The monuments and...

Essentially a tale of warfare, Homer’s Iliad presents the Trojan War as a traditionally male-focused conflict. However, embedded in the story is the inevitably female-centered core of the battle. While not fully explored in the frame of the epic’s...

In today's society, movies in all genres thrive on romantic plots and subplots. There is often a form of "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back" or a variation of that, wherein the guy's decisions are all centered around securing a...

For centuries, Homer’s epic Iliad was taken as literal interpretation of the Trojan War. Only rather recently has the reliability and accuracy of the Iliad in terms of depicting the war come into question. Modern historians and scholars have come...

Throughout the Iliad, conflict commonly arise between characters regardless of whether they are allies, close friends, or enemies; many of these conflicts arise due to issues involving pride, power, glory, and honor. In Book Nine of the Iliad,...

Considering divinity, destiny, and the existence of free will is not a concept that is exclusive to Greek Literature; in fact, whenever there are predetermined, all-powerful entities that guide the actions of lesser beings, it is quite natural to...

Both vicious and highly intelligent at once, wolves and leopards are often compared to the most venerated hunters and warriors of Homeric poetry. Though the role of predator and prey are switched in each of these pregnant pauses, the skill and...

Symbolism is a reoccurring theme in the Iliad; one commonly takes note that after the death of Patroclus, Achilles’ old armor transforms from representing “divine Achilles” to the symbolism of death, or Patroclus symbolizing the sacrificial...

Book VII and Book IX of Homer’s Iliad present opposing views on the significance of material wealth in relation to the heroic code, contrasting Hector and Achilles consecutively, who have already been established by the poet as polar in character....

Human government and military seldom see eye to eye, no matter how vital each is to the other. Homer’s Iliad illustrates such a struggle quite well in its capture of the tension between political authority and military force, most notably the...

This paper will explicate The Iliad, Book 21, Ll. 99-127 with respect to syntax, diction, and figurative language. This passage is the scene of Lycáon’s death at the hand of Achilles, who is on a killing spree after the death of Patroclus. The...

Literature is one of the best ways to understand a culture. Through literature, in fact, it is possible to analyze the customs and traditions of a specific society and to comprehend its way of life. While the Homeric poems, for instance, offer a...

Humans are complex beings, each with individual traits, and an individual set of traits that they value in others. Despite this individuality, cultures are formed, in part, by the values they possess and nurture in their society as a whole. In the...

If the Iliad were a simple war narrative with a clear bias towards the protagonist's side, Sarpedon would be portrayed as a two-dimensional enemy soldier who dies during the action. However, the Iliad is no such story. Complex and intensely human...

Homer’s Iliad tells the tale of how Achilleus, the all-powerful warrior of the Achaian army, turned the tides of the Trojan War following a dispute with Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. While this story does not serve as a telling of the...

Most translations of Homer’s The Iliad keep the entire narrative of the story, incorporating Homer’s themes on the glory of war. Alice Oswald, however, chooses to deviate from this aspect of Homer’s epic in her Memorial: A Version of Homer’s...

Defining boundaries of morality is no easy task, but it is one humanity must perform every day. The characters of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and the book of Genesis are no exception to this. Throughout all three literary works, the characters are...

Despite the passage of time, core values have prevailed as timeless and defining characteristics of human beings. Among them, friendship plays a pivotal part in the development of a person, making it stand out as one of the most valued. Friendship...

The Greek minstrel Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, is one of the most popular works of literature in history, and for good reason. In it, and its companion poem, The Odyssey, the happenings of the legendary Trojan War as well as certain events...

In Homer’s Iliad, readers can observe the dueling and opposite nature of the personalities and characters of Agamemnon, king of the Achaeans, and Priam, king of Troy. Some may wonder, if when a king must choose a method of ruling his people, is it...

In Homer’s Iliad, Andromache expresses her feelings of abandonment and grief after her husband, Hektor, tragically dies in the Trojan War. In Book 22, the narrator uses word choice in order to display Andromache’s feelings of abandonment, while...

Homer’s The Iliad is an epic poem written in Ancient Greek times about the conquest of Troy by the Achaeans. It details the heroic tales of many famous Greek warriors and figures such as: Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Ajax. The poem...

The oral tradition of Archaic Greece involved reciters who recreated the individual characters and incidences each time the poems were orated. The Iliad as among literature conceived during ancient Greece were preserved through oral culture in...

The oral tradition of Archaic Greece involved reciters who recreated the individual characters and incidences each time the poems were orated. The Iliad as among literature conceived during ancient Greece were preserved through oral culture in...