Foreshadows Achilles Return example essay topic

The writings of Homer were a centerpiece of Greek culture for a thousand years, and were so powerful that, 700 years later, Alexander the Great coveted a reputation as a modern Achilles Cattle and fat sheep can all be had for the raiding, tripods all for the trading, and tawny-headed stallions. But a man's life breath cannot come back again-... Mother tells me, the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet, that two fates bear me on to the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies... Explanation for Quotation 3 With these words in Book 9, Achilles rejects the embassy of Achaean commanders come to win him back to the war effort.

His response here shows that Agamemnon's effrontery-which he discusses earlier in his speech-does not constitute the sole reason for his refusal to fight. Achilles also fears the consequences in store for him if he remains in Troy. His mother, Thetis, has told him that fate has given him two options-either live a short but glorious life in Troy or return to Phthia and live on in old age but obscurity. As he confronts this choice, the promise of gifts and plunder-cattle, fat sheep, stallions-doesn't interest him at all. Such material gifts can be traded back and forth, or even taken away, as his prize Briseis was. In contrast, the truly precious things in the world are those that cannot be bought, sold, seized, or com modified in any way.

These include glory and life itself. The choice that Achilles must make in this scene is between glory and life; it is not merely a matter of whether to accept the gifts or to continue protesting Agamemnon's arrogance. At this point in the epic, Achilles has chosen life over glory, and he explains that he plans to return to Phthia. However, the allure of glory later proves irresistible when he finds a compelling occasion for it-avenging the death of his beloved friend Patroclus.

We everlasting gods... Ah what chilling blows we suffer-thanks to our own conflicting wills- whenever we show these mortal men some kindness. Explanation for Quotation 2 Ares voices this lament after being wounded by Diomedes in Book 5. His plaint concisely captures the Homeric relationship between gods and men and, perhaps, Homer's attitude toward that relationship. Homeric gods frequently intervene in the mortal world out of some kind of emotional attachment to the object of that intervention. Here, Ares describes this emotion as simply a desire to do "kindness", but kindness toward one mortal often translates into unkindness toward another-hence Ares' wound at the hands of Diomedes.

Divine intervention in the Iliad causes conflicts not only in the mortal sphere but between the gods as well. Each god favors different men, and when these men are at war, divine wars often rage as well. Ares thus correctly attributes the gods' "chilling blows" to their "own conflicting wills". Ares' whining does not make him unique among the gods.

Homer's immortals expect to govern according to their wills, which are in turn governed by self-interest. Correspondingly, they complain when they do not get their way. Ares' melodramatic and self-pitying lament, which is greeted with scorn by Zeus a few lines later, probably implies some criticism of the gods by Homer. Ares' appearance here as a kind of spoiled child provides just one example of Homer's portrayal of the gods as temperamental, sulky, vengeful, and petty-a portrayal that may seek to describe and explain the inequities and absurdities in life on earth. There is nothing alive more agonized than man of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.

Explanation for Quotation 4 Zeus speaks these words to the horses of Achilles' chariot, who weep over the death of Patroclus in Book 17. Grim as they are, the lines accurately reflect the Homeric view of the human condition. Throughout the Iliad, as well as the Odyssey, mortals often figure as little more than the playthings of the gods. Gods can whisk them away from danger as easily as they can put them in the thick of it. It is thus appropriate that the above lines are spoken by a god, and not by a mortal character or the mortal poet; the gods know the mortals' agony, as they play the largest role in causing it. While gods can presumably manipulate and torment other animals that "breathe and crawl across the earth", humanity's consciousness of the arbitrariness of their treatment at the hands of the gods, their awareness of the cruel choreography going on above, increases their agony above that of all other creatures.

For while the humans remain informed of the gods' interventions, they remain powerless to contradict them. Moreover, humans must deal with a similarly fruitless knowledge of their fates. The Iliad's two most important characters, Achilles and Hector, both know that they are doomed to die early deaths. Hector knows in addition that his city is doomed to fall, his brothers and family to be extinguished, and his wife to be reduced to slavery. These men's agony arises from the fact that they bear the burden of knowledge without being able to use this knowledge to bring about change. Key Facts Full title - The Iliad Author - Homer Type of work - Poem Genre - Epic Language - Ancient Greek Time and place written - Unknown, but probably mainland Greece, around 750 B.C. Date of first publication - Unknown Publisher - Unknown Narrator - The poet, who declares himself to be the medium through which one or many of the Muses speak Point of view - The narrator speaks in the third person.

An omniscient narrator (he has access to every character's mind), he frequently gives insight into the thoughts and feelings of even minor characters, gods and mortals alike. Tone - Awe-inspired, ironic, lamenting, pitying Tense - Past Setting (time) - Bronze Age (around the twelfth or thirteenth century B.C. ); the Iliad begins nine years after the start of the Trojan War Setting (place) - Troy (a city in what is now northwestern Turkey) and its immediate environs Protagonist - Achilles Major conflict - Agamemnon's demand for Achilles' war prize, the maiden Briseis, wounds Achilles' pride; Achilles' consequent refusal to fight causes the Achaeans to suffer greatly in their battle against the Trojans. Rising action - Hector's assault on the Achaean ships; the return of Patroclus to combat; the death of Patroclus Climax - Achilles' return to combat turns the tide against the Trojans once and for all and ensures the fated fall of Troy to which the poet has alluded throughout the poem. Falling action - The retreat of the Trojan army; Achilles' revenge on Hector; the Achaeans' desecration of Hector's corpse Themes - The glory of war; military values over family life; the impermanence of human life and its creations Motifs - Armor; burial; fire Symbols - The Achaean ships; the shield of Achilles Foreshadowing - Foreshadowing is prominent in the Iliad, as the poet constantly refers to events that have yet to occur and to fated outcomes. Patroclus's return to battle foreshadows Achilles' return to battle, for example, and Hector's taunting of the dead Patroclus foreshadows the desecration of his own corpse by Achilles. Also, Achilles and Hector themselves make references to their own fates-about which they have been informed; technically, only Hector's references foreshadow any event in the poem itself, however, as Achilles dies after the close of the epic.