Speaking Truth To Power In Homer's Odyssey '
Clas 121
Day 3
What does ‘speaking truth to power’ mean to you? (1st paragraph) Where have you seen it in the ancient sources? (2nd paragraph)
To speak the truth to power, for me, implies to speak up and stand up to someone of authority or of higher power and tell him or her that they are clearly doing something wrong or unjust. Furthermore, I also think that it implies to stand up for yourself towards an authority figure when he or she is performing acts of injustice towards you. It means to face the person in power and tell him the truth of what is really going on; it means to get rid of the fear of the power that the person has and to speak what is on your mind. To speak the truth to power takes a lot of courage and hinders you from conforming …show more content…
When Agamemnon is forced to return his own slave back he also makes Achilles give up his own slave, Briseis, just because Agamemnon feels jealous. Achilles stands up to the king and refuses to fight in the war anymore and especially not for king Agamemnon. Achilles also states that he and his men are doing all the work in the war while the king just sits on his throne and reaps the rewards. This is a clear example of speaking the truth to power because the power is represented by King Agamemnon and the injustice is that he is forcing Achilles to give back his slave out of pure jealousy and Achilles decides to speak the truth by standing up to himself and refusing to fight for his army. He also speaks the truth by proclaiming that the King is not actually doing anything, it is Achilles and his troops that are doing all the work and King Agamemnon gets all the credit for their hard …show more content…
Sophocles dramatizes this integration through the events that are played out for Ajax. Ajax is a typical Greek hero and when he losses the armor of Achilles to Odysseus, he becomes less in the eyes of the community, losing honor, which make him less of a warrior and this leads him to go crazy with revenge. Sophocles dramatizes the integration of a warrior into society by displaying an example of what society’s views can do to a warrior through Ajax’s actions. He displays Ajax as going mad and killing livestock, which brought great shame to
Day 3
What does ‘speaking truth to power’ mean to you? (1st paragraph) Where have you seen it in the ancient sources? (2nd paragraph)
To speak the truth to power, for me, implies to speak up and stand up to someone of authority or of higher power and tell him or her that they are clearly doing something wrong or unjust. Furthermore, I also think that it implies to stand up for yourself towards an authority figure when he or she is performing acts of injustice towards you. It means to face the person in power and tell him the truth of what is really going on; it means to get rid of the fear of the power that the person has and to speak what is on your mind. To speak the truth to power takes a lot of courage and hinders you from conforming …show more content…
When Agamemnon is forced to return his own slave back he also makes Achilles give up his own slave, Briseis, just because Agamemnon feels jealous. Achilles stands up to the king and refuses to fight in the war anymore and especially not for king Agamemnon. Achilles also states that he and his men are doing all the work in the war while the king just sits on his throne and reaps the rewards. This is a clear example of speaking the truth to power because the power is represented by King Agamemnon and the injustice is that he is forcing Achilles to give back his slave out of pure jealousy and Achilles decides to speak the truth by standing up to himself and refusing to fight for his army. He also speaks the truth by proclaiming that the King is not actually doing anything, it is Achilles and his troops that are doing all the work and King Agamemnon gets all the credit for their hard …show more content…
Sophocles dramatizes this integration through the events that are played out for Ajax. Ajax is a typical Greek hero and when he losses the armor of Achilles to Odysseus, he becomes less in the eyes of the community, losing honor, which make him less of a warrior and this leads him to go crazy with revenge. Sophocles dramatizes the integration of a warrior into society by displaying an example of what society’s views can do to a warrior through Ajax’s actions. He displays Ajax as going mad and killing livestock, which brought great shame to