Iliad Teach Us About Humanity

¶ … Iliad teach us about humanity in war

Humanity and War in the Iliad

The Iliad, one of the greatest works of ancient literature, is essentially a poem that celebrates war and the warring codes. The action of the poem spans a large period of time during the Trojan War, without actually seeing the battle through the end. The view of war presented in the Iliad differs widely from the modern view of war. The poem certainly presents the dark and destructive side of the conflict, which leads to the deaths of significant heroes (Patroclus, Hector, and even Achilles towards the end of the war), the pain and the suffering of the wives who lose their husbands and brothers in the fight and many other tragic events. An instance of the dreadful effects of war is given in Andromache's speech at the death of her husband Hector: "O my husband... / cut off from life so young! You leave me a widow, / lost in the royal halls -- and the boy is only a baby, / the son we bore together, you and I so doomed."("The Iliad," Book XXIV)

However, war and military glory are crucial values in Ancient Greeks. Both heroes and gods are appreciated according to their valiance and strength: the main virtues of Achilles and Hector are their undaunted courage and their warring skills, while Paris who is unskilled in war and unfit for it is despised by the rest of the characters, including Helen. The Iliad thus offers a complex insight into the human condition as well as the human nature, both insights being gained through the central theme of war. One of the most important lessons that the Iliad teaches is a significant lesson in humanity: Achilles, a very complex character, is at first motivated by his "rage" as the opening lines of the poem indicate: "Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, / murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, / hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, / great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion, / feasts for the dogs and birds, / and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end [...]"("The Iliad," Book I) at first, Achilles' gives vent to his rage against Agamemnon, who asked him to give up his pray of war, Briseis, the daughter or Chryses. As a result of his impulsive nature, Achilles refuses to fight in the war and thus causes many losses in his army. His second wave of rage comes when his good friend Patroclus is killed in the fight by Hector. In his mad desire for revenge, Achilles eventually kills Hector, with the aid of the gods. The lesson that the Iliad teaches in humanity is obviously related to evolution of Achilles until the end of the poem. The "rage" that makes him almost inhuman in his thirst for revenge and the cruel way in which he performs it, literally butchering Hector's corpse, finally subsides at the end of the poem. The noble but wrathful Achilles becomes fully human when he gives Hector's body to his father Priam, for proper burial. His gesture is one of true and superior humanity. Achilles manages to overcome his wrath and learns how to forgive and how to be animated by nobler feelings. The fact that the poem ends with the burial of Hector is indeed very significant. The Iliad thus teaches an important lesson about humaneness and war: the ancient ideal of valor and warring skills are counterbalanced by the importance of acting humanely in the midst of the cruelty of war. Without casting away the ideal of the perfect war hero, the Iliad merely proposes a more complex definition for this: Achilles learns to be not only wise, strong and cunning, but also humane. The fact that burial was a sacred practice for the Ancient Greeks only emphasizes the significance of Achilles' gesture, which represents the supreme respect for man.