Role of Wrath in the Illiad Essay - 1787 Words

Niraj Khatiwada Seminar Paper Mr. Davis amp; Ms. Davis October 29, 2012 What Role Does Wrath Play In The Iliad? The very first line in the Iliad states the main theme of the whole story, as Homer asks the Muse to sing of the wrath of Achilles. This wrath, all its occurrences, transformations, influences, and consequences, unfold the devastating events in the Iliad. Initially the book starts showing people in a normal state of life, but the main story of Homer’s Iliad, however, starts once there is the ignition of wrath among prominent characters of the story like Agamemnon and Achilles. In the normal state, people are capable of behaving rationally, using experience and wisdom to guide their action. However, during the main†¦show more content†¦Indeed, in their submission to base appetites and shallow grudges, the gods of The Iliad often seem more prone to human folly than the human characters themselves. This can also be seen when Zeus promises to help the Trojans, not out of any profound moral consideration but rather because he owes Thetis a favor. It is not only the mortals who pose anger in the Iliad, but the gods too are not inseparable from it. Once Achilles petitioned Zeus for revenge, Zeus started his involvement in the war, which in turn angered Hera against Zeus, as well as the anger of various other gods, each with his/her own agenda. This way the anger of human beings involved the anger of gods and the situation turned out to be fearful and irreversible. Gods like Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite directly or indirectly took part in the war. Ares and Aphrodite were even wounded in the course of the war. However, the passion of gods was stimulated by human beings that intensified the course of the war. Many mortals were killed in the course of war, and no mortal could survive the attack of gods. With these events, Homer tries to maintain that dealing with the divine power with the limited abilities of mortals will only result in harm to humans. Therefore, he points the danger of the involvement of the anger of gods. Initially human actions initiated events in the Iliad.Show MoreRelatedSympathy : Sympathy And Mutual Identification1435 Words   |  6 PagesSympathy or mutual identification in Iliad Sympathy and mutual identification, serving important psychological roles in Illiad, function differently in regarding heroes and immortals. The words â€Å"sympathy† itself means to feel sorry or grief for others, which is a mutual psychological process. It can be either one-sided or both-sided. â€Å"Mutual identification† means people find something about themselves from others, which is a higher stage of sympathy. For this mutual process to happen, people needRead MoreEssay on Tragic Hero: Agamenon by Aeschylus1447 Words   |  6 Pagesavenged a woman’s loss/a bridal rite that sped the men-of-war† (Aeschylus 110). Agamemnon was put between a rock and a hard place; no one could deny this. He had to either kill his firstborn child and risk the wrath of the furies, or abandon his promises to his fellow sovereigns, risking the wrath of the Olympians. Agamemnon made the impossible choice and killed his daughter. One could make the argument that he was jus t doing his job, but in reality, he made a calculated risk. What is the worst thingRead MoreFacilitating Learning and Assessment in Practice3273 Words   |  14 Pagesword of the day presented by my English instructor. I continued to write poetry, essays, critiques and creative short works throughout junior high and high school, where I was exposed to a bevy of literary compositions such as Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Huxley’s Brave New World, Dante’s Inferno, Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter, Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Arthur Miller’sRead More Comparing the Struggle in Dante’s Inferno and Book VI of The Aeneid4312 Words   |  18 Pagesthe former as â€Å"the canonic epic model† (Jacoff 3). By definition an â€Å"epic model† dramatizes events of historical or legendary importance (Webster). Thus Dante, who â€Å"had no direct access to Homer† and the first epic models of Western literature--The Illiad and The Odyssey--chose Rome’s national epic, The Aeneid, as his historical inspiration (Jacoff 3). Specifically, the Inferno finds its overarching structural and thematic antecedent in Book VI of The Aeneid, where Aeneas descends into the realm of