A short description of Homer's Illiad and Odyssey - Research Paper Example

In the Iliad, warfare is perceived as an integral part of human and the wider nature. It is a critical part in the cosmos metaphysical order, the divine arrangements in accordance of how things should be. This book is by Homer who gives a good narration of this event which took place centuries ago. At the beginning of the poem, the story gets its focus on a hero’s anger. This anger is so destructive that it disparages noble men to agony. This is according to Zeus’s will. In this poem, it is clear that the gods either intervene or do not take part in human affairs. No legal or ethical code is even expected, it is clear there is no deliberation or consultation before god’s actions. The odyssey is about a journey that a man makes to his wife. According to Homer, The focus of this story is fidelity, love as well as familial affection. The Iliad narrates the events of the final year of the Trojan War. The War is due to the anger by Greek Achilles and the commander in chief Agamemnon (Homer 45). The Odyssey is about Penelope who sticks by her man’s side in spite of having numerous men who bring her the news that her husband died at sea (Homer 60). Odyssey is a chronicle of Odyssey’s heroic journey. This epic outlines a foundation stone in western literature. In the poem, these gods act as Apollo. The Iliad contains a number of oldest lyric poetry in the world. These gods act based on their own reactions. They remain unpredictable and always invoke exacting principles to use in order to justify or use for explanation of their actions. In the Iliad is where the Odyssey story is narrated. These gods are always so ware of the events of the battlefield. In the Iliad poem, the god that god played a significant though partial role is Zeus. In the Odyssey, Athena assisted Odyssey a lot in his journey back home. The goddess Athena was Zeus’s daughter. While the god Athena played a prominent role in Odyssey’s journey, Zeus was impartial and did not contribute much in the story. He rather let fate; take its place in the story. In the Odyssey, both mortals and gods get involved actively. In the Iliad, there are impartial gods who do not assist the humans in anything. In the Odyssey story, the humans get both helped as well as troubled by the gods. For instance when Odyssey encounters Poseidon’s wrath, the god Athena aids him out. She made available physical and moral aid, disguise, strength as well as beauty and camouflage (Kosta 77). In the Odyssey, Odyssey would not have been successful in his voyage without the assistance of the gods. Athena propped up the Greeks (Kosta 93). To the heroes, the war’s conduct is inconceivable excluding deities. In this poem, the use of gods serves to add twists to a set war plot. They act as a powerful source of for divine intervention and have their actions as divine interventions in the war. These actions have a profound effect on the Trojan War. For the start, let us have an understanding of the gods physical shape relevance in regard to their appearance, feelings, like and dislikes etc and most importantly their relationships with each other. An understanding of this will make it simpler to single out one of the gods and highlight their relevance in the poem. One, their power, as well as immortality bear a similarity to that of human beings. This divine arrangement remains recognizable and demarcated symbolic form. This makes the metaphysical powers to be in command of the world emotionally. In accordance with Kosta (45), the Iliad and Odyssey epics contain a lot of similarities as well as differences in various aspects of their storyline. The gods in the two epics depict different natures in their relationship with humanity and how they handle matters in their powers. The gods play different roles and presence because of their nature. Those that have supreme immortality powers tend to perform a different role from the gods that have less superior powers. The nature of the gods determined how they handled situations that they had to have a hand. Homer intended to depict the gods in ways to emphasize larger points that build the themes of the epics. Homer used the gods to establish their roles in creating twists in the plots. The story would have been difficult and not captivating without god’s intervention. Every part of the poem has been influenced by the gods’ roles in a particular way, structure or outline. One of the greatest lessons that can be learnt from this narration is that people should have moderation in their pursuits. Take for instance Achilles; to him honor was most important such that he did not regard his dearest friend’s life. It can be concluded that wisdom is learnt through suffering. Fear as well drives one to act immoderately. Additionally, this work reveals that humans are limited creatures. People in the story made bad choices for all the wrong reasons. This could be attributed to the fact that they did not take a keen interest of the future and only wanted to satisfy their immediate wants. It is human’s fate to make bad decisions once in a while (Kosta, 93). In the same way, I have learnt to have a clear review of things I want to make decisions of. Most of the heroes in this story sealed their fates by acting hastily and with no much thought. In Whitman’s review of the Iliad, he argues that it is important to learn that circumstances and situations are products of our actions. This can be reflected in individual’s hasty actions that can sometimes affect the people living around them. In Whitman’s opinion the story depicts the fact that the Trojan War was meant to be a fratricidal war, a war of brother against brother, white versus white war. It is a teaching that we whites are too wise and precious to go on killing our brothers and sisters anymore. Agamemnon’s selfishness is a position of the mind that needs to be overcome by the whites. We tend to quit whenever our pride gets injured. A little setback makes us look back regardless of the possible positive effects of our reinforcements. Relating to this story, most people think about themselves too much without thinking about the positive results of their contributions in important issues. The race’s long term welfare should be considered and people should put aside their personal wants for the good of the society. Individuals fail to contribute to the society just like Agamemnon and Achilles. According to a commentary by Brian Hainsworth, the Iliad illustrates a fighting spirit as well as loyalty that dominate the white race. Apart from analyzing the Iliad from different aspects, Hainsworth establishes how the characters in the Iliad could be used to relate with our world today (76). The whites are known for their achievements in many fields. The biggest lessons that can be learnt from the Odyssey and Iliad are leadership and loyalty. In our society today, these are very important aspects. Self respect together with integrity is lessons that can be learnt from the Iliad and Odyssey poems. Some of the heroes in this story acted diligently not allowing selfness cloud their thinking. Control of one’s emotions is also an important lesson learnt from this story. It takes a lot of self control to be a person of integrity and wisdom. Our actions should mostly be fruits of critical thinking and in this way there will be fewer misfortunes brought on ourselves because of careless acts. Work Cited Myrsiades Kosta: Approaches to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Peter Lang, 2010 - Literary Criticism, 2010. Print Homer: the Iliad and Odyssey, Volume 2 (Google eBook), G. and W. Nicol, Pall Mall: J. Murray, Albemarle Street, 2010 Print Hainsworth Bryan: The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, 2003 - Literary Collections , Print Whitman Hubbell Cedric: Homer and the heroic tradition, Harvard University Press, 1958 - Literary Criticism,2010 Print Read More