Characterize the relationship between ONE mortal and ONE immortal in the Iliad - Essay Example

These elements are characterization and theme. Characterization generally refers to the use of characters to play key roles to conceptualize the themes that the stories carry. In The Iliad, characterization is used in a very peculiar way to give an ideological identity to the story. This is because the writer presents two major forms of characters that are mortals and immortal. In this essay, the relationship that existed between one mortal and one immortal in The Iliad is characterized. The Iliad is written with some level of religious background to idealize two kinds of worlds, which are the world of the physical and the world of the spirits.

In so doing, dwellers of the world of the physical are classified as mortals, while the dwellers of the spirit world are classified as immortals. What this means is that those who lived in the physical world had their own life expectancy that made them die after some time of staying in the physical world. Those who are immortal on the other hand lived in the spirit world and never tasted death. This means that life in the spirit world existed forever without an end. . Relationship between Aphrodite and Paris The relationship between Aphrodite as a god and Paris as a Trojan, can be used as an example to validate the point made above.

Between Aphrodite and Paris, there is a type of relationship that can be said to be based on mutual interest and benefit. This is because throughout the poem, the gods have exhibited that the struggles and torments that existed among the humans was not a situation that they were ready to help in solving. To this end, it is seen for example that whiles Paris was engaged in war with Menelaus as to who to win Helen, Aphrodite and other gods, particularly Zeus watched from above and made fun of the encounter.

In most other cultures, it would have been seen that the relationship between gods as immortals and humans as mortals would be one that is based on a needy and helper situation, where the immortals were the helpers and the mortals, the needy. The only reason that would make Aphrodite decide to help Paris was however because she wanted to have the apple that he had. Still on the relationship between Aphrodite and Paris, there is a clear similarity between the mortal and the immortal as both having weaknesses and not being superpower to make everything happen according to their wishes.

This is because even though Aphrodite supported Paris and other Trojans throughout the war, her efforts were considered to be highly ineffectual and producing very minimal result on the direction of the war. This is also a unique feature of The Iliad because in other cultures, the gods, and for that matter the immortals are thought of as being the embodiment of superpower and supernatural authority. To this end, if