The Illiad

A detailed Summary of The Illiad

In the epic poem, The Iliad, Homer describes a social occasion in which character's values, the values of that character's culture and the themes those values develop can be derived. The funeral games, held by Achilles in honor of his late friend Patroclus, is a perfect example of such an occasion. Achilles is the model for the Achaeans throughout the funeral games, and throughout the text. The way Achilles acts has an effect on the Trojan War and the survival of the Greek Culture. Achilles' goal in holding the games was not only to honor his friend, but also to bring his army together so they could fight together and win. Thus, the Greek Culture that is determined by Achilles will live on. This displays that Achilles withholds the value of teamwork at first, then grants it to his benefit knowing that teamwork is necessary to win the war. Since Achilles knows he will die, his mother told him his fate, he is creating a way he can live on through the remembrance of others and achieve immortality by the survival of the Greek culture. Also, Achilles is holding the funeral games so that when he dies a glorious death, the Achaeans will remember him better by having funeral games in honor of him. The values and themes the reader can s

The most important part of the funeral games is how it forces the reader to really look at the text. When the reader first "reads" the text, it is hard to understand any true meaning behind it. The reader compensates for this by using his initial instinct to follow human nature and say that Achilles is just a stubborn man, or taking the less heavy and complex explanation. The funeral games forces the reader to change their mind because of the significant difference in personalities of Achilles from the beginning of the text to the games. In the beginning, Achilles is against Agamemnon and the war, he is stubborn and will not fight. During the funeral games, Achilles wants to go to battle and connect with the people of his culture. The reader realizes this and is forced to find out why Achilles has changed his mind. Going deeper and deeper into the text we see that Achilles is using others for the benefit of himself. Achilles used Agamemnon as an excuse to get out of the war. He called a meeting so that he could make Agamemnon look like a bad king when the seer told why Apollo was inflicting them with a plague. The seer told all the Greek men that it was Agamemnon's fault and he had to give his war prize of Chryses back, taking the prize of Achilles in return. Achilles leaves the war, saying he will never fight for Agamemnon again, but really he just wanted to wait for the right time to enter the war and win fast glory. Then, he used the Achaean fighters to make the Greeks need him back in the war. He prayed to Zeus to be on the Trojan's side, killing an abundant number of Greeks, making them need Achilles to fight again in the war. Achilles needed a better reason then just gifts from Agamemnon to return to war because that would make him seem selfish. Consequently, he sent Patroclus into war, knowing he would be killed. Achilles has created a way so he could go into war, saying he was avenging Patroclus' death. He is using the funeral games to help the Greeks win the war. He is finally changing his whole adittude toward the idea of fighting for Agamemnon and the war. Everything Achilles has done has repeatedly displayed the desire to establish his power amongst the Greeks so he could be the master. The Achaean men Achilles is killing secondhand is all going toward his final goal, immortality. Now that the reader knows the Greek men are just pawns on a chessboard to him and he can move them whenever, and wherever he may choose in order to win himself glory the reader finds out another reason why Achilles wants power. Throughout the text, the reader also sees the gods moving the warriors around the battlefield according to what side they are on in order to benefit themselves. The side Achilles is on is himself and is moving people around to benefit him. Also, he is already half god and wants to fulfil his godlike lineage. He is showing a trait of the gods by continually using the Greek men to establish his pride and work for

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1987
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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