The Iliad: Homer's Views of Life and Death through Achilles and Hector

Essay by brooksb11College, UndergraduateA+, March 2004

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The Iliad: Homer's Views of Life and Death through Achilles and Hector

The Iliad takes place in 1200 B.C. on the North West coast of present day Turkey. Homer of Greece put the epic on paper for the first time in the ninth century. From that moment on the Iliad and Achilles would be known around the ancient and present day world as the epic of the warrior. People referred to Achilles for centuries as a great hero, who lived for the warrior code. Alexander the Great, one of the world's most successful generals, lived by the epic and kept it at his side at all times. Sophocles wrote 123 plays and many of which were from books in the Iliad. The epic taught the ancient and modern world about life and death, glory and revenge. Homer's epic poem was the definition of the warrior's life in it's time and to the preset day.

Troy was a great city on the coast of the Aegean Sea. Troy was said to have had the greatest walls of it's time. Homer described the city as a great city perched on top of a hill with a view of Mount Ida in the distance and completely surrounded by fields of grain and wheat. It was the Bronze Age therefore warriors were still fighting with spears and man size shields in battle. Greece was ruled by independent tribes at the time. Homer wrote the world as he knew it to exist. His view is very accurate and depicts the time well. It was circa 1200 B.C. and the Achaeans were fighting the Trojans over Paris' abduction of Helen, Menelaus' wife. To retrieve his beautiful wife, Menelaus called together many captains, heros and men from all over the Greek world. This was when men...