Free Essays on Iliad to Get Inspired & Learn by Example

The Iliad (By Homer)

The great name of Homer is primarily connected with the birth of the author's poetry. Exactly Homer is the first European poet. For thirty centuries, Homer’s poems admired a lot of people. Readers are experiencing delight, poets and critics study the features of the great poet. However, the creative legacy of Homer is not so great. It's just two poems: the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey,’ and a little of hymns. We can not say that the poem the ‘Iliad’ superiors ‘Odyssey,’ but ‘The Ilfiad’ is considered the number one poem in the world.
The poem ‘Iliad’ was created on Continue reading...

The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer are two of the world masterpieces that have survived the times. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, much is made of justice as a recurring theme. In both stories, justice is divine as there are no courts to determine what are just and what is not. In the Iliad, during wartime, justice is seen as being corrupt or irrational while during peacetime, it is seen as a rational and acceptable. It is contradictory because, the lives of the characters in the epic are seen as divine and every individual is seen as Continue reading...

The epic of Gilgamesh dates back to the eighteenth century from Mesopotamia and is considered to be a great work of literature. It is a story of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk and Enkidu his friend. When Enkidu dies, the king mourns the death of his friend. Most of the story in this epic is narrated from the point of view of Gilgamesh. In the early parts of this story Gilgamesh is portrayed as an ironical person who is rash and does not heed death. However, towards the end of the story, after seeing the travails of his dear Continue reading...

One of the prevalent elements in Homer’s “The Iliad” is the notion of honor. This virtue seems to be greatly emphasized in the Homeric culture. Homer depicts the Greeks as individuals whose main aim in life was to maintain a high reputation and not be disgraced. In fact, throughout “The Iliad”, a majority of the characters are at one time another embroiled in a struggle to either gain honor or to avoid public shame. Some of the characters go to great lengths to gain honor and others go to great lengths to avoid public shame and for those Continue reading...

Women have lived in patriarchal societies for a large part of human history. Studying literature and scriptures of the antiquity can shed light on the manner in which those societies were patriarchal and oppressive of women. Common elements of the two were that women were restricted to the domestic sphere of the civilization and were never involved in any kind of decision making. Beyond this similarity there exist many differences in the two narratives that we shall consider in this paper – The Iliad and the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament). The Iliad is a tragedy at large while Continue reading...

Human vs. Divine

Myths and divinity have always worked as enigma in the psyche of the people of the world. The enigma and the aura encompassing mythology have transcended the distinctions of culture, community and age. Myths are cultural and social markers of a community or religion. The world has always found the Greek and Roman mythology intriguing to the utmost degree. The content of the mythology of these civilizations have attained to limelight in research work for a long time owing to the intricacies, banalities, and superhuman transcendence. A close introspection into the nature of the mythological characters of Roman and Continue reading...

The Ancient Greeks worshiped many gods. Of the twelve gods associated with Mount Olympus, they called theme he Olympian gods. Hera was one of these gods, and she was a female goddess with all the attributes of woman, mother, jealous wife, and protectress of Greece. In the pattern of Greek culture and history, the gods the Greeks worshiped were divine human-like figures of humanity. In other words, the Greeks made their gods and goddesses fully human but filled with heavenly power. Hera is no different in this respect. In this paper, the attributes and contradictions of Hera will be Continue reading...

For the film review, the movie that has been chosen is Troy [2004]. Troy is one of the classics of Hollywood; the film has also received 11 awards and several international awards on performances featured in it. It was the reason due to which I preferred to choose this epic war film. Moreover, my interest towards army and war-related historic films, and the cast of the film was a reason to choose this film for review.
Anciently, Troy is the name of a city from the Bronze Age, which was once a part of today’s Turkey. It has Continue reading...

Introduction

In Homer’s “The Illiad”, three pivotal characters, Sarpedon, Hektor and Patrokolos meet an untimely death at the battle front. The desire for glory and wealth is what drives the characters to the battlefield and in the end, it is what leads the characters to their deaths. The factors responsible for the deaths of Hektor and Sarpedon are easily identifiable but when it comes to Patroclus, clearly pointing out who or what is responsible for his death becomes hard. However, all factors considered, it is reasonably safe to conclude that Patroclus is responsible for his own death mainly because Continue reading...

Main Idea:

The book Iliad by Homer glorifies the war and the life of the warriors but the depiction of everyday life which appears on the shields seems to have the same importance or even more, being seen as equally noble, suggesting that every actions in life has its own importance.

Supporting point:

Power-symbolic, implicit and explicit is very powerful in this story. The Iliad by Homer treats a lot of themes from human experience being one of the most compressed narrative stories. One of the elements which represent power as a symbol is the shield of Achilles which is even a single Continue reading...

The Aeneid, written by the great poet Virgil, tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas in the years after the events of The Odyssey. Aeneas and his wanderings were incredibly important to the Romans of the Augustan era of Rome; Rome was, at this point, in a time of turmoil, and Virgil wrote The Aeneid as a show of solidarity for Rome, and to encourage Romans to stay bound together by their common identity (Fagles). The Greek poet Homer discussed Aeneas in his famous epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey; however, in these books, the focus certainly Continue reading...

The ‘Iliad’ portrays several of its male characters as heroes, which conforms to the heroic warrior code during the ancient Greece. Every warrior is determined to win the battle. Hector and Achilles emerge as the major characters in the war. The Greeks and the Trojans are at war with each other and despite the similarities in the characteristics of Hector and Achilles, who belong to different sides of the war, they differ greatly. Moreover, Hector comes forth as nobler than Achilles. In this discussion, the similarities between Hector and Achilles will be addressed, as well as the differences that Continue reading...

The Odyssey by Homer is considered a sequel to his other work, the Iliad. The Odyssey recounts the epic journey of Odysseus (Roman, Ulysses) following the battle of Troy. Odysseus also appears in the Iliad as one of the supporting characters; however, although considered a hero, Odysseus is more or less ordinary as compared to Achilles and other Greek mythological heroes. Odysseus is portrayed as a wise man; indeed he is perceived as such by his peers. His intelligence enabled him to stand out in the stories filled with many characters. He is notably known for planning extraordinary strategies, Continue reading...

Iliad

This is an ancient Greek poem that was set in the era of the Trojan War. To a large extent, this poem gives a vivid narration of the events and battles that took place during such time. Apparently, the quarrel that existed between Achilles (the warrior) and Agamemnon (king) cannot go unnoticed. Two of the main characters, Agamemnon and Priam plot embassies with the aim of changing the mind of Achilles. Agamemnon’s embassy (to bring Achilles to war) fails, whereas Priam’s embassy (to return the body of his son) succeeds. All this was despite the fact that Continue reading...

The Greek and Roman culture are undoubtedly two of the most well-known cultures whose foundations and history continue to be the subject of many researches and studies aimed at understanding the formation of civilization and development of societies. Usually, Greek and Roman cultures are perceived to be interchangeable and inseparable due to their great resemblance with one another. However, Greek and Roman cultures are two distinct civilizations with different system of governance, religious views, and other societal elements. Understanding these two civilizations, it is necessary to take into consideration the various elements that make them distinct from one another Continue reading...