The Iliad Values: Then and Now

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The characters that are featured in The Iliad have many similarities to the way we live in the world today. In this essay I will compare the values that are discussed in The Iliad and the values that we live by today. I will talk about how important those values are and how we as a culture achieve these values. I will also discuss how our focus on achieving these values can affect other people. I will focus on dignity, pride, honor, glory, fame and revenge. Dignity means that you are proud of the decision that you made in your life and you believe that you made the right choices. All of the heroic characters in The Iliad show dignity. The heroic characters make decisions throughout the poem that they feel are good decisions although they affect other people in different ways they feel they have made good decisions and they are proud of the decisions they have made. We see examples of dignity these in today’s world by government officials. They make decisions for the citizens of the United States and they feel that they have made great decisions and for some citizens it may be great decisions but not for every citizen of the United States. Achilles demonstrates pride best in The Iliad. Achilles shows so much pride because he knows that he is the best warrior, therefore, he decides to sit out on this war. He decides not to fight in an effort to show Agamemnon how important and pertinent it is to have him fight the war in order for the Greeks to win. He solicits the help of his mother, who in turns go to a Greek God by the name of Zeus. Zeus agrees to prevent the Greeks from having victory in the war. In today’s society we have a lot of pride. The recent government shutdown serves as a great example of pride. The Republicans did not want to lose. The Republicans were willing to do anything so that they could get their way. They were not considerate

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