The Iliad: Heroes and Villains
The Iliad: Heroes and Villains
The Iliad: Heroes and Villains
Iliad Paper
Homers great epic poem, The Iliad, is perhaps the most well
known of the classical Greek literary texts; there are few who do not
Trojans for the return of the Grecian demigod, Helen. While Homer
the Iliad primarily focuses on two men: the Achaian demigod Achilleus
that serves as the ultimate climax of The Iliad. While the idea of two
men facing each other in mortal combat might at first seem a bit
endowed with superhuman physical traits, and but also will embody
with their ancestral Achaians, even, perhaps, if they had been the
wrongdoers. But as it is, the Achaians are certainly the wronged and
the righteous in this conflict, fighting to take back their kings wife,
leaving even the modern reader with sympathies for the Achaian
forces and a desire to see them succeed. With these points in mind,
the reader has high expectations for the semi-divine prizefighter of the
before he has even finished his invocation of the Muse; he reveals that
of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to the delicate
feasting of dogs, of all birds (Homer, Iliad 1.1-5). Right away, the
for the loss of his own girl, Achilles becomes enraged; He storms off to
his ships where he sulks for the majority of the book, refusing to fight
and promises the return of Briseis along with countless other gifts,
Achilleus refuses coldly (Iliad 9.374-388). His refusal of the girls return
proves that he has chosen not to fight due to his bruised pride, not, as
strongest fighter, the Achaians lose their advantage and many men die
Achilleus even goes a step further and prays that the Achaians
mother, Thetis, to carry out important tasks for him. After Briseis is
taken from him, he goes tearfully to Thetis and begs her to have Zeus
punish the Achaians on his behalf, which she does (Iliad 1.407-412).
armor, so the goddess commissions and then delivers to his feet a new
19.10-11). After these events, Achilles certainly does not seem heroic
or semi-divine; he acts more like a spoiled child, crying to his mother
his fellow Achaians or out of a sense of duty towards his people but out
of pure rage and lust for revenge over the death of Patroklos (Iliad,
and eat at the urging of wise Odysseus, and even then he only agrees
after Odysseus points out that they will all fight better with food in
Achilleus turns into a brutal killing machine, ending with the slaughter
of Hektor and the desecration of his body. While the Greeks viewed the
too far. He does not kill Hektor fairly, but cheats with the help of
Achilleus obsessive anger. Even the gods agree that his madness is
rewarding even the losers (Iliad, 536-538). He is calm and fair; when
Antilochos rightfully won prize mare, Achilleus does not fly into a rage
as one might expect, but agrees with Antilochos and offers to draw a
the Iliad, Achilleus does treat Priam with courtesy, return Hektors body
day truce so the Trojans can properly bury Hektor, leaving the readers
to hope that his days of ruthless and destructive anger are over.
first, to find anyone worthwhile in the city of Troy; the first real
fight Menelaos, who recoils like a man who has come across a snake
Achaians, especially with Homers pro-Greek bias subtly woven into the
writing. This only adds to the shock value when they find that Hektor,
the strongest warrior and leader of the Trojan troops, is one of the most
nothing wrong and yet dies at the hands of Achilleus and has his body
loyalty to his people; he says multiple times that Paris ought to have
accepted them both into the city, they all are responsible, and must
unfairly targeted by Achilleus for his brutal revenge; Not only was
Patroklos killed fairly in battle, Hektor was the third person to deliver a
severe blow to him which, according to the victim himself, was not the
fatal wound; Yours is the victory given by Kronos son, Zeus, and
the arms from my shouldersNo, deadly destiny, with the son of Leto,
has killed me, and of men it was Euphorbos; you are only my third
aid, divine or mortal, to fall back on. In fact, his brother Paris does
quite the opposite. Paris is not only responsible for the entire war to
begin with, he is also little help on the battlefield; when Hektor makes
him engage in man-to-man combat with Menelaos for Helen, Paris gets
the shivers and withdraws back into the army until Hektor forces him
to step forward (Iliad, 3.33-35). After the gods interrupt the duel, Paris
is taken back to Troy where he relaxes and makes love to Helen while
his people, led by Hektor, fight a war on his behalf, again until Hektor
comes and forces him back into the fighting. Hektors parents also
offer little support; while it is obvious they love him dearly, they are too
Hektors personal life also wins the reader over and convinces
him that Hektor is also a morally upright man. Even though Helen, the
most beautiful woman in the world and the daughter of Zeus, tries to
seduce him at one point Hektor remains staunchly faithful to his wife,
Hektor seems to love his wife very much and she him; he seeks her out
to bid her and his son, Astynax, farewell before going into battle again
(Iliad, 6.365-367) and pities them for the suffering they will most likely
face. Hektor is good not only to his wife but also to Helen, even though
she is the cause of the war: I have never heard a harsh saying from
then you would speak and put them off and restrain them by your own
the wide Troad who was kind to me, and my friend; all others shrank
man who always made the appropriate sacrifices to the gods, actions
which would later convince the gods to return his body to his family
(Iliad, 24.33-35). Both on and off the battlefield, Hektor proves himself
While Hektor may act nobly through most of the Iliad, his final
duel with Achilleus surprises the reader even more than Homers
casting of heros. The climax of the Iliad comes when Achilleus spots
Hektor in the battlefield and the two face each other in mortal combat.
spotting the raging demigod charging at him, he does not fulfill the
the death. Instead he turns and runs away out of fear (Iliad, 22.136-
Homer makes him more human, allowing the reader to sympathize and
draw closer to him, as opposed to Achilles who, as a sort of elevated
of the Achaians proud and immature and by portraying the hero of the
characters, elevating his myth from the purely fantastic to the realm of
the believable.