Iliad American Hero

There is a considerable difference between the ideas of the ancient Greeks and Americans now. The author of The Iliad, Homer, tells the readers a great story about two very different, yet very alike, types of heroes. The type of Heroism that is portrayed in The Iliad is extremely different from what the general American public would consider heroic today. The modernized version of The Iliad is the movie Troy, which talks about the same two main characters as The Iliad and gives them many of the same traits as the epic does, but slightly changes some of the circumstances in which they face and how they handle the situations they are put into. In the epic novel The Iliad, Greek heroism is based on how great of a warrior someone is. A man basically
The idea that most American people have of heroism is that of a superhero, someone without any flaws that has the well-being of the general public in mind. Another heroic figure in American society is a solider. A similarity between an American hero and Greek hero is that soldiers fight for their country and their people, much like the Greek heroes portrayed in The Iliad did. The main character focus in The Iliad is Achilles. Achilles is the son of Thetis, an immortal sea-nymph, and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Because he was the son of Thetis, he was a demigod, which meant that he had one parent who was a God and another parent who was human. Demigods were much stronger than regular humans but did not have as much power as a God. Achilles was the greatest warrior in the Greek army, but that did not make him a hero. Achilles had many character flaws. He was a cry-baby. Whenever something did not go his way, he would cry to his mother about it like she could fix all of his problems. Sometimes she
Achilles cares about nothing other than himself and making sure that his name lives on forever, while Hector cares about winning the battle for his family and country. In one battle, Hector kills Patroclus thinking it was Achilles, which really sets Achilles off and is the reason that Achilles rejoins the war. When the two warriors finally meet near the end of the Epic, Hector is confronted with the fact that he is indeed going to die. Hector tries to think of ways to get out of the battle with Achilles, like bribery. This shows that Hector is not the perfect hero like many people may have thought when they first read about him. One cannot forget that Hector is only human, and that he does have the same characteristics as us humans do now. Everyone has to face a fear that they do not necessarily want to from time to time, and courage is the trait that brings the true heroes to the forefront. After being chased by Achilles for a while, Hector finally realizes that he has to fight Achilles. The fact that Hector stands up for himself and his country proves that he is courageous and that he is indeed a