Iliad Influence on Western Civilization Essay Example

deaths in violent, anatomic detail.Most of these deaths are not important to the plot of the story, but they serve the important purpose of showing the reader that no death is insignificant or easy.

These descriptions give The Iliad a "Saving Private Ryan" type of realism. The Iliad focuses much on Achilles and his internal struggle with his personal will versus the will of Zeus. However, in the middle of the book, he is almost entirely absent. This gives Homer the opportunity to show other sides of the conflict, and dirty deeds done by the Greeks and Trojans.In the time of the Trojan war, there was an unwritten code of heroic conduct that the bravest warriors followed. Defeated warriors were not always killed.

They were sometimes taken prisoner and returned for ransoms of money or gifts. However, in the Iliad, Homer shows that leniency rarely survives in war. Diomedes and Odysseus, two respected Greek warriors, sneak into a sleeping Trojan camp and kill many unarmed, dreaming Trojans. Paris ignores the conduct of a fair fight, and runs away every chance he gets. And Achilles, after losing Patroclus by Hector's sword, tortures Hector before killing him and treats his body very poorly.

Desecration of a dead body was sacrilege to Greek and Trojan society, and it was a great insult. Homer's last comments on the futility of war come at the end of the Iliad, and in a peaceful manner. Homer shows a little redemption for the horrible effects of war when Priam begs Achilles for Hector's body. Achilles and Priam share a moment of realization of what has been lost to the long Trojan war. The

final scene is a quiet, mournful funeral, in which the Trojans bury Hector, who was a good man destroyed by the horror of war and the will of Zeus.