The Importance of Iliad

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The importance of the Iliad in relation to both Ancient Greek culture and the history of human idea and practices can be seen when the Achilles and Agamemnon discuss, “You threaten now to confiscate the prize I worked so hard for, gift from Achea’s sons… my prizes never match the ones you get... the major share of war’s fury rests on me [yet] you get much larger trophies” (Iliad, line 160-165). Although this story and this scene is a myth it relates to Ancient Greek Culture and history because the main events in the story are factual. The baseline around the story is true, such as the war. The characters were also actual individuals, actual kings and warriors. This also relates to Ancient Greek culture because during this scene, the Ancient Greeks get together into an assembly. And in Ancient Greece, leaders got together into popular assembly which was a participatory institution, where anyone with a stake in the community could express his ideas and emotions on a subject at hand. This scene also relates to the history of human ideas and practices because; in these times the spoils of war were distributed among the high ranking officials. These spoils were seen as prizes (humans, money, objects, etc) and deemed as a representation of the power of certain force. In this scene in particularly Achilles is enraged at the fact that Agamemnon wants to take his prize, when he satisfactorily worked to this reward. This also relates to human ideas in terms of what is expected as correct behavior. In this specific scene Agamemnon (even if the King) decides to act rashly and incorrectly against one of the highest ranking official in the Greek army. Agamemnon attempts to take what is rightfully Achilles and this is looked down upon by the entire Greeks. So, there is in fact an expectative when it comes to conduct even for the King. As one of the natural philosophers,
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