Emily Bennett Humanities 1 February 3rd 2015 Iliad questions How would you describe the personality of Achilles? I see Achilles as ill-tempered and reactionary because he cannot control his temper and becomes furious when his pride is hurt. He is very prideful and will do basically anything for his name to be remembered. His mother‚ a Goddess and fortune teller‚ tells him his fate‚ if he goes to Troy to fight Hector his name will be forgotten. He still goes because of his strong desire to avenge
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The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in Book 1 demonstrates the core value in Homeric society that personal honor is paramount. After being forced into returning his war prize‚ Chryseis‚ Agamemnon is outraged by the idea that Achilles would be able to keep Briseis‚ and demands another prize as a replacement. In arguing with Achilles‚ Agamemnon states‚ If the army‚ in a generous spirit‚ voted me Some suitable prize of their own choice‚ something fair- But if it doesn’t‚ I’ll just
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Auden’s “The Shield of Achilles” is a nine-stanza poem that uses an episode from Homer’s ancient Greek epic Iliad (c. 800 b.c.e.; Eng. trans.‚ 1616) to meditate on the violence and brutality of the modern world. The poem begins with an unnamed woman looking over the shoulder of an unnamed man; the two are named in the last stanza‚ but those who know the Iliad well will immediately recognize from the poem’s title that the woman is the goddess Thetis‚ the mother of the Greek hero Achilles. The man over whose
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Human Nature: Fate vs. Free Will For centuries‚ it has been human nature to strive for freedom. We struggle to create our own futures‚ regardless of our presumed fate. Songwriters‚ artists and even play writes constantly include stories of free will and destiny. Sophocles‚ a famous Greek playwright‚ beautifully includes fate and free will as themes in his plays Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. This motif is so abundant in Greek literature because oftentimes characters try to avoid an
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of fate and free will appears many times and is a key theme in his play Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex‚ Sophocles weighs in on his opinions on this topic. Sophocles utilizes fate as a key component of his play Oedipus rex to develop Oedipus and influence the reader to sympathize with him. With the cruel and inevitable fate of Oedipus‚ Sophocles can make Oedipus‚ a ruler and king more relatable to the reader. By humanizing Oedipus with sympathy the message of the play changes from an unlucky king who
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Character Analysis of Prince Hamlet in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare and Oedipus in "Oedipus King" by Sophocles In Aristotle’s literary discourse‚ "Poetics‚" he discusses his theory of tragedy‚ wherein he introduces the concepts of tragic flaw or "hamartia‚" which serves as the catalyst for the protagonist’s downfall or the tragedy of the story to happen. He determines a tragedy as a "drama" that brings about a "sorrowful conclusion‚ arousing fear and pity in the audience" (Roberts and Jacobs
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any two tragic fates can be compared and contrasted‚ they are those of Oedipus and Macbeth. King Oedipus‚ a man who receives his kingship from the people of Thebes‚ marries the widowed queen‚ only to find out that the gods tricked him with their prophecies. King Macbeth presents himself with the crown of Scotland‚ as three witches prophesize‚ while he has not yet cleaned his hands of the late king’s blood. While Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Shakespeare’s Macbeth both revolve around kings whose’ egocentricity
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is superior to the average man in some way. In Oedipus ’s case‚ he is superior not only because of social standing‚ but also because he is smart ¬ he is the only person who could solve the Sphinx ’s riddle. At the same time‚ a tragic hero must evoke both pity and fear‚ and Aristotle claims that the best way to do this is if he is imperfect. A character with a mixture of good and evil is more compelling that a character who is merely good. And Oedipus is definitely not perfect; although a clever man
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Oedipus made some bad decisions in his life‚ but it doesn’t matter what decisions he made because his fate was already determined and you can never escape fate. Oedipus was destined to his fate‚ free will allows him to make decisions that make seem as though he could avoid his destiny‚ he was foretold his fate and he tried to avoid it. So Oedipus really had no control over what happened because the path was set and it was all going to happen one way or another. Oedipus is destined to his fate.
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Oedipus the King & Death of a Salesman Comparison In the play “Oedipus the King” (429 BCE) by Sophocles and “Death of a Salesman” (1949 AD) by Arthur Miller it is illustrated that the main protagonists Oedipus and Willy both fail to fulfill their responsibilities as leaders and instead surround themselves with personal conflict affecting their surroundings and families negatively as a result of their arrogance and excessive pride. In “Death of a Salesman”‚ Willy‚ who is envisioned as the
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