Trojan War Essays (Examples)

As stated earlier, Burgess' writings were very scientific in nature, and naturally they read in a very scientific way. The book is presented as a study of the makings of Homers poetry and how his poetry (especially Iliad and Odyssey) became known as the Epic Cycle genre. He states, "Indeed, eventually the whole genre of epic poetry became equated with Homer." (pg 130)

The only problem that a reader might have with Burgess' work is that, even though it has a solid thesis, and a lot of supporting evidence, there seems to be little, if any, real purpose to the book. In actuality, Jonathan could have probably started his book with a statement from page 33 that states, "Trojan ar material found in the Epic Cycle has very old roots and continued to be used by poets and artists throughout antiquity" and would have made his point just as well…

Cassandra's aunt said, "The world is changing, I tell you - but it is the fault of the women who did not keep their men in place." (1-193) the second story is a much more modern story set in a "post-nuclear- holocaust world" and is a rather discouraging tale of men 'servitors' playing the role of servant to the remaining women and children left in the world. There are still some men left that are warriors, but the real 'manly' characters are the ones who 'serve' the ladies. The children borne to these woman are raised as peace-loving individuals, while the woman try desperately to breed violence out of their men-children.
The strength of this book is the exquisite detail to be found concerning the fall of Troy and the stories that still abound today about that fall. Thompson has done a terrific job of research and it shows.

The…

As the army is moving closer towards his position, he has fear about what the upcoming battle will bring. Yet, he sets these concerns aside in order to fulfill his duty as a warrior. (Homer, 1876) (Harris, 2011)
While Achilles, is the complete opposite. An example of his selfish behavior occurred after he killed Hector. Instead, of leaving his body behind, he drags it around to show everyone in Troy his latest conquest. This is clearly, an example of him wanting to illustrate his own personal ambitions over everything else. In this aspect, one could argue that Achilles did not have any respect for Troy, the traditions of sacrifice / selflessness and only fought for his own glorification over everything else. The fact that Hector defended these larger ideals is what makes him more admirable than Achilles. (Homer, 1876) (Harris, 2011)

The ancient Greeks had two different concepts of heroism.…

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This approach contrasts sharply to the constant calling out to the gods and the direct actions of the gods as presented in The Iliad. Especially when read as a piece of social and political commentary, as it was very likely intended when written and first performed, it becomes clear that at this point in their history the ancient Athenians placed greater emphasis and value on the actions of people rather than the actions of the god. Civic responsibility and humanitarian action are valued above brute militarism and religious devotion, showing a clear contrast from the values that are implied in even the most cursory reading of The Iliad. Though both of these works come from ancient Greece, there was obviously a great deal of change in the cultural values and perceptions of the Greeks during the intervening centuries.

Troy

Several more centuries -- millennia, in fact -- later, the…

Iliad is the tale of two male warriors, Hector and Achilles. Hector, a Trojan prince, fights nobly to defend his doomed city, even though the most powerful gods stand against him. Meanwhile Achilles, the Achaian warrior who knows he is fated to die in battle, must fight his own nature as well as his enemies. omen appear only in minor roles; there are no fully developed female characters among mortals or gods in The Iliad. hen female characters do appear, they are typically portrayed in one of three ways: as property, as betrayers of men, and as devoted wives and mothers.
The idea of women as property lies at the very center of the Trojan ar. The Achaians are fighting to reclaim Helen, wife of Menelaos, from Paris, son of Priam of Troy. Paris, in turn, believes it is his right to have Helen, pointing out that she was a…

Thucydides Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War history is based on the historical account of Peloponnesian War between 431 and 404 C. The war was led by Athens (the Delian League), and the other led by Sparta within the Peloponnesian League. Thucydides (an Athenian historian) serving as a general in the war developed the focus of the battle.

Together with a lack of trust in Thucydides' information, the narration is not a firsthand experience as Homer's did. However, he uses poet's epics in inferring facts about Trojan War. For example, while Thucydides valued the amount of Greek ships to be over 1,000 towards Troy as poetic exaggeration, he engages Homer's ships catalog when approximating the presence of Greek soldiers. In addition, Thucydides claims that Homer refuses reference for United Greek states for pre-Hellenic nations through disjointed while organizing the launch of effective campaigns. Thucydides adds that Troy was to be conquered…

Trojan Wars and Culture
The three epic stories namely, The Iliad, the Trojan Women, Pericle's Funeral Oration are powerfully written master pieces of work, that illustrate the element of horridness of war beautifully.

The Iliad

The story of Homer's Iliad focuses on the "rage of Achilles." eading this epic poem makes one believe that it is based entirely on the totality and gruesomeness of war. However, it tells us about the details of war with full description and information. Though war is an important aspect of the tale, but the real story is based on the remarkable fighter and hero-that man is none other than Achilles.

Achilles possesses the greatest military expertise of any of the Achaean ranks and also the greatest fighting ability out of all of the warriors, Trojan or Achaean. At the beginning of the epic, Achilles becomes liberated from his fellow warriors and retreats back to…

Is it a sign of inconsistency in Athena that at the end of the Odyssey she echoes the sentiment of Zeus and sues for peace whereas in Book 4 of the Iliad she is all too eager to ignore the sentiment of her father and manipulate the warriors into shedding more blood? Again -- not necessarily. hile, were it up to Zeus he would gladly see men work out their problems in a peaceful way, and, if he can help it, only sends strife and war when men need to be punished. The relationship between war and peace is complicated by the fact that he is not the only god (even if he is king of the gods). The gods seem to have just as many quarrels and disagreements among themselves as men do on Earth -- a point Zeus knows quite well. That is the reason he presides over…

In Book 19, Athena also advises wisdom when she provides Achilles with divine food to strengthen him. Achilles refuses to eat while he mourns Patroklos. Athena recognizes the lack of wisdom in this and encourages Achilles to gain strength for the battle ahead.

In Book 5 and 6, Athena's relationship with the other divinities show her urge to drive change. The Trojan War will result in a new era, but only if she encourages Greek victory. Hence, she enters a strategic partnership with Hera, who works with her against the will of Zeus to overcome the Trojans. Hera also helps Athena in her assistance to Diomedes.

As for Diomedes, his partnership culminates in change when he stops fighting Glaukos after finding out that their families are bound in friendship. This realization is indicative of the inevitable dawn of the new era: when conversation will reveal the need for further action,…

Achilles, in effort to match his personal loss on a national level, strives to kill Hector, again fueling the economy of revenge, but this time in a far more 'high stakes' manner. Now, the loss of a man will result in the loss of Troy's greatest warrior. But even though Achilles emerges victorious from this struggle, his is an empty victory. He knows that his own death will follow shortly after the death of Hector. He does not care; revenge means everything to him in the heat of the moment, just like sacrificing the Greek advantage was worth upholding his honor at the beginning of the poem.
Although Achilles' sudden loyalty to his friend may seem honorable to some degree, perhaps more honorable than Menelaus' obsession with Helen, it also shows how the dynamic of loss leading to more and greater losses has spiraled out of control. The one real…

Achilles' speech Agamemnon's embassy Book 9 " Illiad" it Achilles reflects codes behavior heroes
The Right to Pride

The Trojan ar was fought for a variety of reasons, the most fundamental of which was because Helen was abducted from Sparta and delivered to Paris of Troy. Yet for many of the individual combatants, and particularly for those who were regarded as heroes, the war was fought for far more personal and lasting reasons. As many of the heroes within this epic indicate via their speech and actions, the Trojan ar was ultimately a chance for glory everlasting, and the opportunity to claim a renown and fame for deeds done and opponents conquered that would not present itself for quite some time, if ever again. Achilles, the hero of the epic and one of its most unequivocal champions, personified this desire for glory that drove most of the heroes in the…

This temper surely gave Clytemnestra the ability to withstand her "wretched life" by serving as a type of emotional outlet for her anger and disappointment related to being imprisoned in her own household as the doting wife of Agamemnon who certainly experienced sexual encounters with other women as leader of the Greek armies at Troy.
Another example has Clytemnestra admitting "Thus harassed by these ever-rife reports

(i.e., that Agamemnon was dead)/Full often from my neck have forceful hands/Seized and untied the beam-suspended noose" (Swanwick, 179), a reference to attempting to hang herself from a roof beam. This indicates that Clytemnestra was indeed a very strong woman with sufficient inner strength to do away with herself because of her grief associated with Agamemnon and his alleged death at the hands of the Trojans -- "For a woman severed from her mate/To sit forlorn at home is grievous woe" (Swanwick, 179).

In…

Finally, Vigil's pesence thoughout the Divine Comedy is thee fo a philosophical eason, as well; he is meant to epesent the claity of eason in a spiitually chaotic univese.
Home, autho of the geat epic the Odyssey, also appeas in Dante's Divine Comedy, in the Limbo section of the Infeno. Home was also the autho of the Iliad, which tells the stoy of the Tojan Wa. Home's pesence in Dante's wok effectively connects the Floentine poet with the politics and poetics of ancient Geece. This is futhe symbolized by the fact that Home, in the Infeno, leads as "Lod" thee Latin poets - Hoace, Ovid, and Lucan. This futhe undelines the effect that the ancient Geeks had on the Romans - and the double influence that both had on Dante as a poet and politician.

The Latin poet Lucan, although not as well-known as Hoace and Ovid today, was an…

Although my family is not made up of English speakers, they have always stressed that succeeding in school is an important part of being successful in life. It is not just grades that are important. The lessons a student learns in school will help the student succeed later in life.
Learning English is an immediately useful skill. When I am learning algebra or chemistry, sometimes I wonder how these subjects can help me in my everyday life. When I am learning English, I know that I can use the language to communicate more effectively with others. I know that what I am learning in class can help me improve my writing for all of my classes. And someday, I would like to write stories that are just as exciting as the books I like to read.

I will succeed in English 1A because of my previous preparation, my determination, and…

In Homer, he can boast: "Do you not see what a man I am, how huge, how splendid / and born of a great father, and the mother who bore me immortal?" (Homer Book 21, lines 108-109, p. 421).
In Cassandra however, he can still boast but doesn't always get away with it. In a rather accusatory and insulting tone, olf referred to Achilles in this way: "A fiend in battle so that everyone would see he was not a coward, he did not know what to do with himself once the fighting was done...And this is the man to whom Calchas the seer later had to turn over his daughter." (83) Cassandra believed that Achilles' brave soldier act was but only a facade. hile Homer mentions facts to capture the essence of Achilles' personality, olf uses observation and perception to get her results. The bottom line was the same…

Despite some questionable choices in examples, however, Tuchman was able to supply an ample amount of evidence for her thesis in her information about the corruption plaguing the Catholic church prior to the eformation. This fact, while certainly acknowledged in history books, rarely receives the importance it deserves. This example, and perhaps that of Vietnam, were the most convincing ones that leaders throughout history have displayed an inherent proclivity that is decidedly "contrary to the way reason points and enlightened self-interest suggests" (Tuchman 1985, 1). Her chronicles of America's imperialist appetites and the wanton destruction it achieved in a fruitless siege in Vietnam for years should be taught as much as, if not more, than certain other areas of U.S. history.

Aided by the surety of hindsight, Tuchman's analysis of the evolutionary Way in the U.S. is equally adept and indicates the extent to which policy in British government contributed…

President Bush got government backing to go to war with Iraq. This is a classic example of Tuchman's point.

Even against all advice by the American public, and the outcry that has recently become deafening he pursues the war. Even though it has caused is popularity rating to nosedive he has pursued the war.

This book gave me a solid understanding of how and why such follies occur and make me wonder how we have evolved so far as a society without being able to learn from our past mistakes.

This book is a must read for anyone who looks at history with a question mark and wants to know whether history indeed repeats itself.

FOG of WA

The movie the Fog of War was not similar to March of Folly. It covered an entirely different topic and served an entirely different purpose.

This movie is about a very specific…

Histories of Herodotus
In his Histories, which chronicles the historical aspects of ancient Greece, Egypt and other regions of Asia Minor, Herodotus focuses in the beginning on the myths associated with these cultures and civilizations from his own distant past which at the time had acquired some relevance based on what was viewed as historical truth. Some of these myths, which now through archeological evidence may have some basis in fact, include the abduction of Io by the Phoenicians, the retaliation of the Greeks by kidnapping Europa, the abduction of Helen from Sparta by Paris and the consequences which resulted in the Trojan War.

Following this, Herodotus examines the activities and consequences of more recent historical myths associated with the cultures of the Lydians, the Egyptians, the Scythians and the Persians, all of which are interspersed with so-called dialogue spoken by the leading figures of these cultures. However, Herodotus' ability…

Achilles a Sympathetic Character
Achilles, the grandson of Aeacus was regarded as the greatest and primal character in Homer's Iliad, the ancient epic of Greek mythology. Even though Achilles is the central character of the epic, he is considered to be an unsympathetic character. Achilles was the son of the king of Meymidouns in Phthia, Pelues, and sea nymph Thetis. As the legend goes, Achilles made invincible by his mother Thetis by dipping him in the river Styx, however, ignored to wet his heel she held him by and made him vulnerable to be killed by a blow to that heel. (Achilles [Categories: LGBT mythology, People who fought in the Trojan ar]) Homer's Iliad, develops around the Trojan ar that spans for ten years between Greeks and the Trojans. Illiad depicts the involvement of gods and goddesses in the lives of mortal beings. (Troy Movie Review: arner Bros. Troy vs.…

Homer was a legendary Greek poet who is traditionally credited as the author of the major Greek epics the "Iliad and the Odyssey," as well as the comic mini-epic "Batracholmyomachia" (The Frog-Mouse ar), the corpus of Homeric Hymns, and various other lost or fragmentary workd such as "Margites" (Homer pp). Some ancient authors credited him with the entire Epic Cycle, which included other poems about the Trojan ar as well as the Theban poems concerning Oedipus and his sons (Homer pp). According to legend, Homer was blind, and aside from several Ionian cities claiming to be his birthplace, there is nothing else known about him (Homer pp). Aristotle and Pindar believed that Homer was born in Smyrna, on the coast of modern-day Turkey, and enjoyed years of fame on the Aegean island of Chios (Tolson pp). Although the great scholar-librarians of Alexandria scrutinized the epics for historical and geographic errors,…

goddesses Venus and Juno conspire and interfere in the lives of Aeneas and Dido to carry out their own plans
The struggle between the Gods is main theme of the narrative. There are many times that a reader might even fail to notice the actions of the human characters of the story due to over-interference from the gods. The conflict is between two gods, Juno and Venus. Juno is Saturn's daughter, Jupiter's wife and the patron god of Carthage. In the narrative he doesn't like Trojans because of a decision made by Paris (a Trojan) in a divine beauty competition. Juno is also aware of the prophesy that Carthage will be destroyed by the descendants of Aeneas (the Romans). On the other hand, Venus is the goddess of love, the patron god of Trojans and the mother of Aeneas. The conflict arises when Juno tries to destroy Aeneas (a mortal)…

War is a fact of life, a terrible fact of life, but when it is willed by the gods it cannot be ignored.
Achilles does have some positive moral characteristics: although he spends much of the Iliad retreating from the fighting, he is clearly not a coward, in contrast to the Trojan Paris. He wants to fight, but his honor is too bruised. Furthermore, Achilles harbors a deep and abiding affection for his friend Patroclus, and the Greeks idealized this type of male friendship often more than husband-wife relationships. When Hector kills Patroclus in battle, because he believes him to be Achilles, Achilles is thrown into a frenzy of grief. He puts aside the slight done to him by Agamemnon, and vows to kill Hector.

Still, unlike Hector, who is repeatedly shown rallying the Trojans to fight in more glorious ways through his wise leadership, Achilles' bravery is often emotional,…

There are enough similarities of story and characterization, however, that while one must take care not to see Troy as fact, or even as an essentially faithful movie version of the Homer's the Iliad, one may still learn something about the plot, characters, and setting of Homer's great poem by seeing it. Educationally speaking, perhaps one of the greatest benefits of a major motion picture like Troy is that seeing it might interest more people in reading the Iliad, for comparison, and/or in learning more about Greek legends, myths, and mythological characters in general.
The basic plot and setting of the film is this: the Mycenae Greeks (Greece and Sparta) and the Trojans, having been at war, have finally reached peace after many years. Two handsome young Trojan princes, Hector and Paris (sons of King Priam) are celebrating this fact with Menelaus, King of Sparta (Menelaus's brother Agamemnon is King…

For Paris was essentially a shepherd, and had only recently returned to Troy, thus, he had no military skills (Judgement pp).
Another way the movie made Paris a hero of sorts, is that he is portrayed as the one who tells his father King Priam to be cautious about the horse. hen actually, according to legend, it was his sister Cassandra, a priestess of psychic powers, knew the horse was deceptive and tried to warn her father, but he would not listen (Judgement pp). Then the priest, Laocoon, also tried to warn the Priam to beware of Greeks bearing gifts, yet he too was ignored (Judgement pp).

Another part of the legend that the movie left out was Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess Artemis, in order to obtain favorable winds for the voyage to Troy (Judgement pp). And according to legend, the gods were basically the…

Many have seen her as Aeneas's counterpart, as she herself has led her people from Tyre to Carthage in an attempt to escape environmental vicissitudes. Like Aeneas, she is a true leader, a strong willed character and independent woman. Juno and Venus (the Roman counterparts of Hera and Aphrodite) manipulate them and Dido is soon seen infatuated with Aeneas, neglecting all ruling duties. She cannot change destiny and realizes this in ook IV, as she points out that "What am I saying? Where am I? What madness / Takes me out of myself? Dido poor soul, / Your evil doing has come home to you." According to ancient traditions, for a strong character such as Dido, the only possible ending is by suicide.
A comparison between Dido and Helen, both in terms of the influence they have on men and on their power to change courses in history and determine…

Homeric Battle
The Iliad is a collection of poems by Homer describing the 10-year siege on Troy by Greeks in what is now famously referred to as the Trojan ar. Several Greek and Trojan characters are worth a special mention in these Homeric poems because of the roles they played in the battles before the war was won, how they conducted themselves to help eventually win the war for their side. This paper specifically investigates the writings in the Homeric poems to look are important in the overall text.

The author, Homer, portrays a society utilizing poetic fiction. He describes how humans directly talked and interacted with divine beings (Raaflaub 469), an act that can be seen in page forty six of the Iliad which starts by describing a dream that Zeus (god) had sent to Agamemnon. In the dream Zeus promises Agamemnon glory in when the war is finished.…

Odyssey
Throughout the text of the Odyssey, Odysseus finds recourse to rely on his inner resource to surmount incredible odds in order to finish his journey home. Indeed, often we think of epic heroes using their enormous physical strength to solve a problem, and certainly, Odysseus does have recourse to physical means on more than one occasion. Nonetheless, it is more often that he uses his cleverness and mental agility to defeat opponents who often have greater or strength or significant enough numbers to overcome whatever strength he has. Indeed, this makes sense in the case of Odysseus, because as we know from the Iliad, it was his suggestion to overcome the Trojans by the use of the Trojan Horse. Here, too, Odysseus proved that he was able to solve a difficult conflict that violence could not solve through the power of his cleverness and vision. Indeed, in The Odyssey,…

However, she is no bloodless female, absent of sexuality, despite her resistance of Apollo. In this respect, Wolf does update her story -- rather than a virgin or a sexless prophetess, Cassandra does have a relationship with Aeneas. She loves this hero with the ardor of a young woman, calling him the soul of Troy. But because he is a man, unlike Cassandra, Aeneas can master history and triumph. The admiration of Aeneas indicates the verisimilitude Wolf brings to her tale -- Cassandra has emotions and feelings, rather than simply spouts words, as in Agamemnon.
Wolf also interjects anecdotes into the story to make it more clearly told with Trojan eyes such as the Trojan's allegation that Helen was abducted because Priam's sister Hesione's eloped with a Spartan. Again, this underlines Wolf's theme of women as pawns and spoils of war -- it does not matter what Helen or Hesione…

In the second part, the role of Clytemnestra changes somewhat, but she is still depicted as a weak woman. The weakness of her position in society is further illustrated by the fact that her son, Orestes, confesses freely to his mother's murder, and also that he never shows any remorse. It is clear that to Orestes, his father, not his mother, is of importance to him, that he finally claims as his sole parent. Any persuasive capabilities of Clytemnestra are overcome by Orestes in the Choephoroe, as she is unable to successfully defend herself when he tries to kill her. In another related play Electra and her brother Orestes hatch a plan to kill their mother and step father. Clytemnestra is said to treat Electra really badly, almost like a beggar or someone living in poverty because she is still grieving at the death of her father. Electra deceives Clytemnestra…

Homer -- Was the Blind Bard a Poetic Activist for War or Peace?
Homer is a poet of war, namely the war between the Greeks and Trojans, and later in his "Odyssey," of the war between Odysseus and the gods whom would bar him from his trajectory homeward. He is a poet of war in the sense that war provides the narrative structure of how he outlines how a moral human being lives in a violent, conflict-based society. However, Homer also chronicles in his works with what might seem to the modern reader, a distinctly anti-war literary sentiment and tone. This is perhaps best embodied in the example of Odysseus himself as a character. Homer's most famous anti-hero initially attempted to simulate madness to avoid being a participant in the Trojan wartime events, because they were far away from his beloved home of Ithaca and wife Penelope.

However, Homer's anti-war…

Troilus and Cressida, characters significant to Homer's depiction of the Trojan War in the epic Iliad by Homer, have been portrayed as different personalities in versions of the play written by Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. Although the story is just adapted from Homer's epic, the two British writers created and used the lovers' story to make their own interpretation of life during the Trojan War, particularly the depiction of the characters of Troilus and Cressida during this significant period in the history of Western civilization. In Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, the setting happens in the midst of the Trojan War. Troilus is portrayed as an unloving man, who, after being struck by the curse of love, has loved Criseyde. Criseyde, on the other hand, is portrayed as a playful woman, going out with other men despite Troilus' devotion to her. The story ends with Troilus' tragic end, leading him…

The Myrmidon king took advantage of the opportunity and began to chase the Trojan, which had lastly realized his physical disadvantage and the fact that he had little chances of winning the combat. Hector had not been moved by his people's cries "and he stood his ground awaiting huge Achilles as he drew nearer towards him." The gods had also intervened in Achilles favor through Minerva, who tricked Agamemnon into thinking that she had been his loved brother, Deiphobus. Agamemnon responded to his brother's calls, stopping to fight Achilles, but shortly understood that he had been deceived, deducing that his "death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand." The clash had clearly been unfair, with Achilles putting an end to Hector's life both because of his physical advantage and because of the assistance received from the gods.

Observing that his son had been killed and that his body had been…

Ironically, Apollo who preferred Troy to Greece in the Trojan ar could have saved his city. Apollo's anger resulted in his beloved city of Troy's destruction. hen Cassandra warned that the Trojan horse would bring about the destruction of Troy, no one believed her, even her own father and mother.
hat is truly tragic about Cassandra, however, is not simply that the Trojan ar results in her eventual demise -- she is taken by Agamemnon at the war's end and killed by his angry and avenging wife Clymmenstra -- but of all the character of the Trojan saga, she alone does not chose her fate. Paris chooses to abscond with Helen, and thus brings about the war. Achilles on the Greek side chooses a short life filled with glory, rather than a long and uneventful life, and thus chooses to fight in the war. But Cassandra did not even chose…

He seeks to heal his broken relations with Achilles only when the Greeks are desperate, a transparent ruse Achilles easily sees through. Agamemnon does not go as one of the emissaries to Achilles, but sends Odysseus, laden with gifts. The general refuses to come humbly bearing a personal apology for his foolishness, as a good leader might try to heal the rift in the Greek camp. Achilles only agrees to return to war in Book 19 after his friend Patroclus dies, not because of the gifts Agamemnon gives to in reparation for his earlier insult. Agamemnon should have seen that Achilles was less motivated by material rewards than he was by love for people he cared about, like Brisesis and Patroclus. Agamemnon is too egotistical to understand the psychological motivations of other people. This is part of his self-obsession -- because he is motivated by spoils, he assumes all other…

Homer
Will the Real Greek Homer Please Stand Up?

Homer is the name by which the legendary Greek poet of great fame is known. He is credited with the Greek epics The Iliad and They Odyssey, as well as with the authorship of the mini-epic Batrachomyomachia, the corpus of the Homeric Hymns, and also the Margites. (Docu) Nothing about Homer's actual biographical information is known, (though he is commonly assumed to have been blind) and there are many theories that speculate Homer himself may have been completely mythological, or that he may have been more than one person. It is assumed, however, that Homer's works originated from the Greek settlements on the west coast of Asia Minor in the 9th century BC (Helenism), and several Ionian cities claim to be the birthplace of Homer. (Docu) Although Homer's works great works The Iliad and The Odyssey have shaped a great deal…

The Palace of the Emperor Titus was completed in 81 AD by the architect Rabirius.[footnoteRef:2] Located on the greater part of Esquiline Hill, the Baths of Titus (named the Palace of Titus by Pliny) extended from the “based of the Esquiline Hill near the Coliseum to one of its summits at the Church of SS. Martino e Silvestro, and to another at S. Pietro in Vincoli.”[footnoteRef:3] It is believed that the Palace was built rather quickly by converting an existing structure into the Baths.[footnoteRef:4] The Palace used the house of Mecenas and the Golden House of Nero which had come across from Palatine Hill as part of the construction that existed to make the Palace. There were “nine long corridors, converging together like the radii of the segment of a circle, divided from each other by dead walls, covered at the top and closed at the end” according to one…

The Palace of the Emperor Titus was completed in 81 AD by the architect Rabirius.[footnoteRef:2] Located on the greater part of Esquiline Hill, the Baths of Titus (named the Palace of Titus by Pliny) extended from the “based of the Esquiline Hill near the Coliseum to one of its summits at the Church of SS. Martino e Silvestro, and to another at S. Pietro in Vincoli.”[footnoteRef:3] It is believed that the Palace was built rather quickly by converting an existing structure into the Baths.[footnoteRef:4] The Palace used the house of Mecenas and the Golden House of Nero which had come across from Palatine Hill as part of the construction that existed to make the Palace. There were “nine long corridors, converging together like the radii of the segment of a circle, divided from each other by dead walls, covered at the top and closed at the end” according to one…

Mourning Becomes Electra
It must have come as something of a shock for the original audience of Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra in 1931 to take their seats, open their programs, and discover that this extremely lengthy trilogy of plays does not actually contain a character named "Electra." This may seem like an obvious point, but it is one worth considering as we approach O'Neill's American analogue to the Oresteia of Aeschylus -- the title essentially gives away the plot. Yet this would have been precisely the case with the original audience in fifth century Athens for a Greek tragedy: they arrived already knowing the myth of Electra or Oedipus or Medea, and so therefore what was being witnessed was, in some sense, a ritual re-enactment rather than a plot-driven narrative. Even the rare Greek tragedy that does introduce surprise into its plot, like the Orestes of Euripides, does so…

Yet, Odysseus is also rewarded for his loyalty and survives the Trojan War. His wit and intelligence provide a much different vision of an excellent hero than presented by Achilles. However, it is he who figures out how to end the lengthy war with the trick of the wooden horse. In the case of both heroes, it is not divine or monstrous adversaries that they face. Instead they fight a similar battle that Osiris did -- they must fight the greed and lust of mortal men. Although Agamemnon is their king, he is an adversary in that he forces them from their homes and places them and their men in danger for selfish greed and lust. However Agamemnon is later punished when he his murdered by his deceitful wife upon his return. Another human adversary faced by the heroes of the Iliad is Paris and his uncontrollable lust for Helen.…

e. women) (Millay 1611, lines 4, 2). But although the first and most commonly used definition of zest is "keen relish; hearty enjoyment; gusto," the word can also refer to "liveliness or energy; animating spirit" (dictionary.com). Taken this way, the seemingly passive and accepting sexuality seen in the beginning of he poem is disingenuous and even coy. This interpretation is borne out by another structural details of the poem -- the repeated use of so-called feminine endings in the closing six lines (or sestet). In adding an eleventh unstressed syllable to the end of a line of iambic pentameter, Millay is not simply marking the sonnet's structure as her own, but she is doing so in a way that coyly hints at the changing tide of feminine perspective -- the feminine endings in lines 9, 11, and 13 make the sonnet a feminine sonnet, just at the point where the…

classic mythology, Nestor was the wise king of Pylos, and son of Neleus (or Peleus) and father of Antilochus. He was one of the Argonauts and fought the centaur with the Lapiths. In the "Iliad," he was on the side of the Greeks at the Trojan War. He survived three generations, but he throughout that time, he remained strong and brave and continued to be an honored counselor to the warriors. In the "Odyssey," we see that the same wisdom and piety in him led the gods to allow him to return to Pylos after the Trojan War, without incurring any harm.
In ook 1 of the "Iliad," the elderly Nestor tries to pacify the quarrel between King Agamemnon and Achilles, a foremost Greek soldier. It was the last year of that War and that time, the god Apollo punished the Greeks for the crime of their king, Agamemnon. He…

In Cuba's case, there has really been no real opening up from the United States to the Cuban cause and no acceptance of the Cuban 'wound'. The embargo still stands and is thoroughly imposed, there are no diplomatic relations and no direct flights between the two countries. There are no signs so far that the United States is willing to warm up to Cuba and allow it to come out of its isolation. In other words, there are really no elements to help us determine that the isolators would be willing to allow the isolated to be released.

Drawing again on the parallel, we should point out that this was the same in Philoctetes's case, at least for most of the play. The reason he is able to come out of his isolation is not necessarily because the isolators have realized they have made a mistake or because they are…

Nevertheless, both heroes are very similar in their characterizations: they are both human and are subject to the whims of the gods. Odysseus confides his most troubling mistake: "From the start my companions spoke to men and begged me to take some of the cheeses, come back again, and the next time to drive the lambs and kids from their pens, and get back quickly to the ship again, and go off sailing across the salt water; but I would not listen to them," (Homer, 143). Despite the fact that Odysseus is responsible for the deaths of many of his men, once he manages to get them out of the predicament he still revels in his victory. So much so that he ends up exposing his identity to the Cyclops and opening himself and his men up to the retribution that the Cyclops' subsequent prayers to Poseidon incur. Similarly, Juno's…

Penelope: The Crafty Ideal of Greek omanhood
One might think of Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, as the Greek masculine ideal. He triumphs over his enemies in an open agonistic contest because he is a greater warrior than they. He shows the virtue of compassion when he finally yields Hector's body to Priam. Even Achilles's arrogance and his obsession with honor, his inability to deal with slights to his reputation, though they might seem repugnant to our sensibilities, are clearly meant to elicit the sympathy from Homer's audience. They might wish to act in the same way if they stood in his shoes. Yet Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, presents an entirely different masculine ideal. He shuns glory because it brings responsibilities that are not really in his best interest. Though a brave and able fighter, he is "the man of many wiles" who triumphs because of his…

Introduction The roles, ideals, views of men in the ancient civilization have been explored extensively in literature from the famous Kings of Israel to the mathematicians and philosophers of Greece. In contrast, the history entails limited literature of women in the ancient civilization. However, several masterpieces such as the Homeric poem, the Odyssey and the Iliad provides a glimpse of ideals, position, and role of women in the ancient civilization. Women play a fundamental role in life by taking multiple responsibilities as portrayed in the epic poem Odyssey. The epic poem presents the role of women in the facet of power, sexuality, and interaction with men.
An analysis of the women in the poem demonstrates a challenge of the space of women as traditionally defined by the patriarchal Greek society. The Homeric poem has a distinct feminist message of the struggle women endure as they try to extricate themselves from…

mythology and ancient beliefs. Specifically it will compare the myths of heroism in the myth of Achilles to the modern film "Troy." The film "Troy," from 2004, is a remake of the Homer classic "The Iliad," which recounts the legend of the Greek warrior Achilles. In the film, actor Brad Pitt plays Achilles, giving him a larger than life, heroic quality. Achilles is the child of a mortal and a nymph, and his parents attempt to give him immortality by dipping him in the iver Styx, but they miss a tiny spot on his heel, and this leads to his downfall.
Both of these myths center around the idea of the hero in mythology, and in fact, they show the importance of heroes in the Greek society 3500 years ago. The translator of the Iliad writes, "Heroes are born into positions of prominence, which they also reaffirm by their public…

Greek Concept to Movie Troy
Ancient mythology as never ceased to amaze and fascinate its readers and followers. Especially Egyptian and Greek mythology, having followers everywhere; in the current times it has found a new fan, that is the movie making business, with a special interest in Greek mythology. Nothing is better than watching your favorite characters brought up to life and actually see them doing all the things we had previously only imagined them doing. One such captivating movie is 'troy' based on the Greek Trojan war starring Brad Pitt. Various Greek concepts were shed light in this movie, which will be discussed, in relation to the movie.

The first concept is Fate, since in Greek mythology fate does not just happen. The gods make things happen, in their own engineered ways, and interfere to make things happen on their own account. Then there is MOIA, which means that…

However, when Achilles touches Priam as token that he should have no fear; both gods and mortals are said to be asleep. There is a sense of will in Achilles' gentleness towards the man, and his willingness to touch Priam's sleeve that night. In other words, human and divine reconciliation and pity is not simply a law, humans must accept the will of the gods, but they are also capable of choosing to add or subtract the misery of the world by showing pity to their fellow humans. Odysseus' cleverness, although aided by the gods, is also partly drawn from his own resourcefulness and character, as well as merely because Athena helps him.
Achilles makes what is said to be the greatest gift to Priam, that of Hector's body. In Greek custom, gifts were customary to give to visitors. ith such a gift, Achilles gives up his determination to mourn…

Achilles and the Search for Immortality
Achilles, as a heroic and mythical figure, is representative of the Western search for immortality and truth in a world of temporality and illusion. The figure of Achilles expresses the desire within all men for a transcendence of the world in the search for truth and permanence through the quest for immortality.

This paper attempts to address the question of myth and immortality through the study of Achilles in the Iliad. The central thesis is that Achilles has a choice between human life and immortality through death. He chooses death and immortality over a mundane comfortable life. This choice makes him a heroic figure as he represents the archetypal desire of humanity to escape the finite and temporal world.

Another aspect that is explored is the realization that total transcendence of the world and Godlike immortality is not humanly possible. This paper attempts to…

Agamemnon claims that he loves Chryseis more than his own wife, but agrees to give her up as long as he gets another prize. hen he demands Briseis from Achilles, it is clear that one sexual being can simply be traded for another in Agamemnon's eyes. Indeed, when Achilles refuses to fight because of Agamemnon's demand, it is not because Achilles deeply loves Briseis, but because he is insulted with Agamemnon's demand. The only redeeming treatment of women in the epic is the Chryses' love for his daughter, determination in getting her back again, and excitement when his request is fulfilled.
hen compared to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad often seems muted in references to women's sexuality, but it can be argued that the contents of this epic poem show women in a far worse place in society than women in Gilgamesh's epic. hile Gilgamesh's epic presents women as…

The mood is not unlike the effect of the lotus, being a state of languor. The landscape is lush and detailed, the sort of landscape that would be appealing on its own and that visitors would not want to leave for its own sake.
Such description begins as the ship apperoaches the land and Ulysses tells his men to have courage:

In the afternoon they came unto a land

In which it seemed always afternoon.

All round the coast the languid air did swoon,

Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.

Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;

And, like a downward smoke, the slender stream

Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem. (lines 3-9)

Tennyson says this is "A land of streams!" (line 10) and describes those streams and their effects in some detail. After making the appeal of the land clear, Tennyson notes…

Odyssey
Much of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey deals with the trouble the titular character finds himself in, and the suffering he and men must endure as he makes his way home over the course of ten years. Upon cursory examination, one might think that suffering in the Odyssey has some actual value, in that Odysseus is ultimately rewarded for his long-suffering efforts by being able to go home and murder everyone who wanted to marry his wife. However, this does not take into account the majority of the play, in which Odysseus' men suffer with no reward, being brutally killed and tortured for no reason other than to fulfill Poseidon's curse against Odysseus. This is most clear when Odysseus and his men visit the island of the lotus eaters, and by examining this scene in conjunction with the conclusion of the story, it becomes clear that the suffering in…

videos presented week. Chapter 2 Identify a piece art, music, architecture,
The piece of art, music, architecture, philosophy or literature from ancient Greece, ome, China, or India that this document will examine in depth is The Odyssey, which was written by Homer. There are numerous ways in which this piece of literature is representative of, and important to ancient Greek culture and that culture's relationship to the culture of ancient ome. In some ways, it continues the chronicles of The Iliad in that it is based on the Trojan War and its aftermath (Homer). The Trojan War, of course, is directly related to the founding of ome since Aeneas was able to flee and establish this state in the wake of the war's ending. The Odyssey, however, chronicles the fortune of a different hero, Odysseus, as he also attempts to return home from this particular martial encounter.

Many of the…

In the traditions of Greek epics, he has not only been a hero in his lifetime, but strengthens his legacy by passing the ability to his son.
In addition to accomplishing works of great military valor, Odysseus's character also lends to his heroism. Neither he nor Telemachus exercise their physical abilities for their own sake, or to get praise, but both do it for a very valuable reason. During the Trojan ar, Odysseus fights for his people. His desire to return home is inspired by the love of his wife and his family. His anger towards the suitors is not just because one of them might have taken his worldly riches, but more importantly because they have been threatening his wife's devotion to him. That Odysseus is a family man of great character can be best witnessed through his interactions with Calypso, who fell in love with him and forced…

Even though Odysseus's family holds high opinions of his character as a family man, his actions with Calypso are the true measures of his character. In book five of the epic poem, Minerva, who goes to rescue Calypso, finds the father and husband "sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever filled with tears of sheer home sickness" (Book V). The poem goes on to explain that while Odysseus is forced to sleep in Calypso's cave each night, he does not do this of his own volition, and would much rather be home. Thus, while Calypso, a goddess, attempts to seduce Odysseus, he does not betray his home and his family, but rather remains homesick for them, while being tired of the goddess. Though Calypso is a goddess of extreme beauty, Odysseus is more enticed with his own wife and son. In fact, Odysseus loves his family enough to cry…

Gorgias, Encomium of Helen
In the English language in the twenty-first century, the term "sophistry" still exists to refer to a plausible-sounding but misleading argument, an evaluatively negative term to describe bad reasoning. Although the term derives from the original Sophists in Athens in the 5th century BCE, the modern usage of the term is inaccurate in describing the likes of the Sophist Gorgias. By examining Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen" and the related "dissoi logoi" fragment (sometimes attributed to Protagoras) we can see the real origins of sophistry in legal argumentation. In a society -- like that of Athens, or like most of the contemporary world -- that believes in jury trials as a means of obtaining justice, a work like Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen" represents the idea that even the most unlikely candidates deserve a good defense.

Athenian sophists like Gorgias were basically teachers of rhetoric. Because Plato frequently…

artwork entitled "The Judgment of Paris," by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Specifically, it will briefly describe the subject of the work, and analyze the work in regard to its expressive content. What statement do you think the artist wanted to make? What techniques did the artist use to make this statement? Discuss the composition; the treatment of figures; the use of color, light/shade; scale; the treatment of space; the handling of paint; the organization of space. "The Judgment of Paris" depicts a famous mythological scene with great attention to detail and reality. Cranach's work expresses the myths of old set in his current time of the 15th and 16th centuries. His ability to combine ancient stories with modern settings might have been incongruous, but instead, his paintings are stimulating examples that blend elements to created a coherent and charming whole.
THE JUDGMENT OF PAIS

Lucas Cranach the Elder was a…

For Aristotle, true freedom and liberty consists in ruling and being ruled in turn and not always insisting on fulfilling one's own personal desires at the cost of others. Thus, for dysseus, true freedom can only come about when one is allowed to contribute to society for the betterment of everyone involved, a sure sign of moral correctness and rational thinking.

In addition, Aristotle stressed the importance of justice and goodness, for he believed that people possess a sort of inborn knowledge concerning what is right and what is wrong; however, irrational desires often overrule such knowledge and leads people to commit wrong acts or behave inappropriately. This conflict of desires in human beings could be overcome by achieving self-control via training the mind to win out over primitive instincts and passions. Thus, intelligence is the finest human quality and the mind is the true self, the god-like aspect of…

Nestor seems saddened by the fact that some of the best Greek warriors were killed in Troy, including Ajax, Achilles, and Patroclus as well as Nestor's own son. The fact that Nestor's own son died may make him particularly sympathetic, of course, to Telemachus' need to hear news of what happened to his father, and how the Greeks became separated at the end of the Trojan War.
Nestor explains to Telemachus that his father acquitted himself bravely during the siege of Troy, and thus he should be proud of his father's conduct as a warrior. He also says that his father was a wise and noble counselor, and the two were often in agreement during the frequent arguments within the Greek camp. But because Zeus sided with the Trojans, the god was angry with the actions of the Greeks during Troy's sacking, and tried to upset the Greek's homeward journey,…

Both Spartan men and women exercised together in the nude, and both were "encouraged to improve their intellectual skills" ("omen in Ancient Greece"). Being a woman in Sparta certainly ensured a greater sense of gender equality -- but that does not necessarily mean Sparta was the preferred residence of women in Greece. After all, Sparta did without a lot of the creature comforts that other city-states like Athens took for granted as essential to civilization. There is a reason the phrase "Spartan living" has come to be synonymous with the bare necessities.
As for variance in the social structure of the various states, democracy prevailed in Athens for a time (but so did tyranny and corruption as well). Thebes also had its monarchy and later on its heroic warrior citizens. Sparta had two kings who ruled simultaneously. But its social structure was also more slave-based than anywhere else. In fact,…