The section of the Iliad we read had many “universal truths.” They are love, war, greed, immaturity, for lack of a better term “a pissing contest among males,” but the most important themes in this story are the pride and power one fights for. The Trojan War had been going on for nine years already, it all started when Helen of Troy left her husband for Paris. This story is ancient yet we are still reading into it. One probably wonders, why is this story still around and why are we still reading into it? We still read this story because the Iliad is still very important to western literature. It reflects the way people are today and how times have evolved. For example, Agamemnon and Achilleus were fighting over power, just like today with Democrats and Republicans; they all choose to fight over the little things in life, which are easy to compromise. As you know the Iliad is initially about two men fighting over power. The fight between Agamemnon and Achilleus all started when Agamemnon takes Chryses’ daughter and refused to give her back. Though he agreed to give her back if he had to, so his people wouldn’t perish form the plague that Apollo created. Agamemnon then told the Achains he wanted something in return. Achilleus stated, “How shall the great-hearted Achains give you a prize now? There is no great store of things lying about I know of.” Agamemnon then told Achilleus that he would take his girl, Briseis. Achilleus then gets angry and states that Agamemnon does not deserve his great prizes, simply because he does not fight with his people, and Achilleus works hard for his people but does not get anything in return. After that event Achilleus considers killing Agamemnon, then Athene descended from above and states, “Keep clear of fighting, though indeed with words you may abuse him and it will be that way.” So he did just that, Achilleus approached Agamemnon and then said, “You wine sack, with a dog’s eyes, and with a deer’s heart. Never once have you taken courage in your heart to arm with your people for battle.” That is there way of calling one a coward, which is one of the worst things you could possibly say to man then.
One sees the theme of pride and power everywhere, but a really good place to see these themes are in movies and television shows. One example of a movie / play we thought really fit this theme is Romeo and Juliet. One would notice that Romeo and Juliet have a forbidden love, but only because their families were fighting over power, and they kept fighting until their loved ones got hurt. That’s when they realized what they were fighting over was ridiculous and they finally made peace. The song, Louder Than Words, by Jonathan Larson quotes, “why does it take an accident before the truth gets through to us…why do we follow leaders who never lead, why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution.” As you see these examples show how power and pride affect everyone around you. Though one might think they aren’t harming anyone, someone or something always gets destroyed or hurt. -- Written by ENGL 083-36N Group 1
15 comments:
My name is Heather Olin and I am commenting on a blog post about the Iliad and group one wrote this. When we read the story in class, we went through it so fast, I did not understand it. After reading the post, I understood who took what girl and why they took her. I knew that a goddess stopped the fight by saying, ?Keep clear of fighting, though indeed with words you may abuse him and it will be that way.? I understood the fact that the goddess was telling the men that they can?t fight and they can only use words to speak evil to one another. I honestly disagree with the actions in the story because all of them only cared about power.
I agree with some of that group one said about the story. I think they hit all of the important topics in this book. I also disagree on the fact they said the theme was only about pride and power. I think it was also about honor because everyone wanted honor in the story and some people would die young just for it. I like this story in the Iliad, and even though it can be hard to understand, I think it shows hoe life has changed since back then. I like how it is a myth but it could be based on things that haooened in real life.
Blog comment for The Iliad.
In The Iliad Blog, Group one did well with getting their point across. I agree with all their points they made about the “power and pride”. They related the story to high school drama, in the story they are fighting over one another. Group one did miss some punctuation and did forget to mention honor. Honor in The Iliad is a very big part of the story, they show honor by fighting for what they want and standing up for their rights. Over all The Iliad Blog, group one did a good job.
I agree with the Iliad blog and how it is made to fit in with the present day. I believe that this fits in strongly with the present day. Every day you have guys or even girls trying to show off their boy or girlfriend to see which one is more popular stronger, cuter, prettier, or even outgoing everyday all over the world. Then you get into the guys that fight over the girls to see who is the toughest. These fights will go on forever there will always be that one guy that wants to try and go the extra mile to imprees a girl by beating another guy up!
The Iliad was an interesting read and I would have to agree with a lot that you said. I can see how Achilles and Agamemnon act like two high school boys fighting over a girl that picked that other guy but in this case they could care less about her she is just a pawn and they just can’t drop it because they are both alphas and have to have it their way. I do believe if Athena didn’t come done and talk to Achilles then someone would have ended up getting killed. I do see a lot of pride in this but I think it more self pride then anything I mean yeah they are fighting in a battle but both Achilles and Agamemnon get in a fight and there on the same side and it is over the dumbest thing and end up making their best fighter all upset because he didn’t get his way. He goes home to be a big baby.
Iliad Blog Comment
I have to agree with group one’s comment on the Iliad. It’s about power, winning, prizes, and honor. To me Agamemnon reminds me of a little boy who is being told to give a toy back. But like all little kids if I have to give my toy back i am going to take a toy of yours. People fight over the littlest things. It just goes to show you that history will keep repeating its self. Oh, I love the term “a pissing contest among males” it really summarizes this part of the poem. For many years men have fought over women and honor, and for many more years they will continue.
Two men get into a fight over a girl they both want. Achillies and Agamemnon get into it because Agamemnon kinnapps Achilleis daughter and refuses to give her backk. The only way he will return her is if he get ssomething in return but the greek gods tell him that there is nothing to give. He return her because he does not want a plauge to be sent to his people. The paper does describe the plot very well. It is very descrpitive. There is something I saw wrong. That is they did not relate it to real life.
This blog mentions that the Illiad is about pride and power. I myself agree that there is constant bickering of such but they did not express completely why. I feel as if they did not include the important support in some of the things they covered, like Agamemnon wanting to take Briseis and why Agamemnon is called a coward and why Achilles feels he does all the work.
Agamemnon says he is taking Briseis because they are forcing him to give Chryseis back, leaving him without a prize so he feels he needs a new one.
Achilles then called Agamemon a coward because he does not fight with Achilles and his people. Achilles tells Agamemnon he has no reason to fight the Trojans for they have done nothing wrong to him, but he does fight them as a favor for Agamemnon.
Without more supportive details you really dont understand the Illiad.
When I read the Iliad blog I relearned some interesting points that I had forgotten since I’d read the section of the Iliad in class. I agree with the group who posted the Iliad blog when they said it can be related to today’s life. This is very true when it comes to boys fighting over girls for their pride. I don’t really see this in music though. Maybe in the lyrics or something but I don’t really think it relates to it the Iliad. I thought the blog this group posted was full of a lot of facts and many will learn from it and also enjoy reading it. Good Job!!!
I think that there is a good description throughout the blog for the plot. Two problems that i did see were that the blog was a little repetitive, and there were a few grammatical errors. Other than that the paper explains the story very well. I do agree that this story is mostly about pride and power. It's not so much about the girl. It's about the pride that you have when you have the girl. However, when the girl is taken away from you by another guy the pride is gone, and the feeling changessince the power is gone.
Douglas Phillips
Eng 083
Iliad's blog
After reading the groups blog, I think is close with the facts. They repeat thereselfs a couple times, by just rewording a couple things. The group that wrote the blog, missed some punctuations. I also think that the statement, "a pissing contest among males" is not really nessarey. I find it a little sexes and uncalled for. But, it was filled with good facts and explains things well. One thing they forgot to put in, was a time, date, or something. Cause with out it, you have no idea what time it was. But, i believe they did a good job, for being the first group to write there blog.
This summary gives a good clue to what the Iliad talks about. Much better than the draft version I read.
It describes that Agamemnon, the antagonist of the section we read, is a coward and heartless person who has no sympathy for his people. That he hides behind his soldiers eating caviar and drinking scotch, though this is an example.
I really like this summary and appreciate its in depth detail about the Iliad.
when we read this story in class we went through it so fast and i didnt understand any of it. after the group got together and wrote the blog i really started understanding. The story was about pride, power and honor, something that each man wanted in this story. i believe that our group did a great job on this blog post.
Hi, my name is Kim, taking Literature of the Old Testament, ENGL 245. When I read the Iliad story, I didn’t understand at all. It was not familiar story to me. So I searched about this story. My conclusion is this story is not a simple story. It tells many history factors, power, winning, prizes, honor, love, war, and human being. People fight over greedy or littlest things. It seems to fit in strongly with the present day. Love and power are main theme in history. For many years men have fought over women and honor as this blog mentions example of Romeo and Juliet. I think I should watch movie about story of Iliad to understand more about.
My name is Sheila Gray and I'm a student from Mrs. Elizabeth Starr's English 245 Literature of the Old Testament Class. I found the Iliad blog interesting because even the Bible states that there were wars and rumor of wars to come. I don't understand this story but I am able to relate to how Chryses felt about someone taking something that is so valuable to him. I have learned in my experience that fighting is not the best answer to solve my problems. I can appreciate Athene how he presented another way to resolve their situation. This blog was very interesting and I hope that one day I will get the opportunity to get the whole understanding of it.
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