Maurice Patterson March 11,2009 CH 201.024 Professor Fileva Gilgamesh and Odysseus: True Epic Heroes Epic poems have been around for centuries now and are considered a lengthy narrative that concerns serious subjects pertaining to events significant to a nation or culture and heroic deeds. Common characteristics of epic poems include: tremendous adventures, superhuman deeds, dignified language and a range of literary techniques from dramatic to romantic. The first epic poems, such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, were established through oral tradition and later written down to keep better track of the poems themselves. One key concept of an epic poem is the presence of a hero. A hero in an epic poem is typically an important figure in a legend or history that holds some type of royalty and embarks on a cyclical adventure or quest.
The epic has strong religious and mythical influence. The book is extremely religious and the Greek and Trojan heroes included in the Iliad, sourced strength from favoured gods, giving them divine power. The Iliad covers only the final and tenth year of the Trojan War and is according to the Iliad, started after spark of conflict caused from the abduction of Queen Helen of Sparta by the Trojan prince, Paris. There remains no certain evidence that Homer's Troy ever existed, still less that any of the events of the Trojan War cycle ever took place. Many historians believe that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various stories of sieges and expeditions by the Greeks of the Bronze Age or Mycenaean period, and do not describe actual events.
The use of tone helps the author express himself or herself in a way similar to those of other literary element, thought unlike other literary elements, the tone is like the voice of the author. Through further literary devices used, the poem uses allusions to further inquire upon the Greek perspective. Allusion helps the author reference to something else, that is important and can represent something. Allusion is a literary element that can relate a morale to a book, event, or person. The relation to the morale helps accentuate it by manifesting it into many forms to view it, depending on how the reader views the thing that is alluded.
There had been a 10 year conflict from 457BC to 447BC between Athens and Sparta. This period has been given title of The First Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War is seen as a continuation of this earlier war. Thucydides, seen as the most important source from the time and other sources such as Aristophanes and Plutarch, do not refer to this period as part of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides refers to the Peloponnesian War as the “Twenty-Seven Year War” and refers to the First Peloponnesian War (as we call it) as the “Ten-Year War” meaning he sees them as separate wars.
Archaeological evidence claims that it has found Troy in one of 9 different layers at one hillside site first discovered by Heinrich Schliemann. Many archaeologists such as Korfmann, Blegen and Dorpfeld have devoted time and effort into discovering the ancient site that once was Troy. Myth or legend, Homer’s Iliad has provided a story of great tragedy, triumph and love that gave the 10 year war a truly memorable fame. Homer was one of the greatest epic poets who wrote of the Trojan War and the glorified story that accompanied it. Though it was written 500 years after the war supposedly occurred, historians still use the Iliad as a source to which they base their findings on due to it being the one of the only and most substantial record of the war found.
What is it about the heroes of ancient Greece that continues to fascinate readers thousands of years after their origination? Perhaps it is the tales of glory and the impossible feats of the heroes or the certain death that awaits them. Whatever the reason, the life of the Greek hero is one of intrigue and intoxication. The life cycle of the Greek hero is divided into events spanning his extraordinary birth to his untimely death and accentuated by his accomplishments throughout his life. This essay will analyze the recurring events, patterns, and traits in the typical hero in conjuction with the lives of Achilles, Heracles, and Odysseus.
One of the main messages he is trying to deliver to us is to always weigh what you achieve to what the consequences will be. This especially holds true for Macbeth, as when first contemplating if he should kill Duncan, not once did he think of how he could be punished. Also, when Macbeth first hears the witch’s prophecy of him being a king, he jumps directly to the idea of murder. This kind of thinking is exhibited in Macbeth’s monologue in scene 5 act 5, where he discus’s the uselessness of living, and this attitude towards life made him go mad. This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was.
Macbeth is seeing the hallucination of a dagger in front of him. He addresses the fact that he was already going to kill with that weapon, thus meaning that he was going to kill Duncan. This was to gain Duncan’s power. Furthermore, this overconfidence in others will lead to trusting dangerous people, who will result in their overall downfall. This is the similar to someone is over assured in their powers over others.
Even some stories that begin happily have unexpected, sad endings for their characters. Human failings, prophecies, and unexpected coincidences all can lead to tragedy. Although all three authors were from different time periods, they incorporated similar concepts of tradition into their work. Homer birth and death was a major figure of ancient Greek oral composition and the author of the earliest and finest epic poem, the Iliad, which was based on the Trojan War. Sophocles who was born around 496 B.C.E - 406 B.C.E was credited with skillfully developing irony as a literary technique.
The revelation is in itself a dramatic effect as the audience becomes more intrigued and excited on how Hamlet has managed to get them killed. The language used by Hamlet when explaining how he had managed to get them killed depict his anger towards treachery ‘Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes/between the pass and fell incensed points/of mighty opposites’ (5.2.61-63). This could also depict the notion of Hamlet’s attitude towards the lower rank; it is most likely that Hamlet and Claudius that belong to the upper rank regard Guildenstern and Rosencrantz as inferior breeding. On the other hand ‘mighty opposites’ could also suggest Hamlet referring to the two forces of evil and good. Moreover the dramatic effect that Shakespeare outlines when Hamlet narrates to Horatio his plan to save himself that he has realised that ‘There's a divinity that shapes our ends, /Rough-hew them how we