Hamilton #3

Examine the epics The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. What similarities do they have in the course of these tales?

The plots of the epics The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid were all driven by certain characters’ need to show superiority over anyone they felt did them wrong. The Greeks laid siege on Troy after the Trojan prince, Paris, ran away with the wife of the King of Sparta, Helen. Due to an oath sworn to Helen’s father, the King of Sparta, Menelaus, had to punish Paris and take his wife back, but he could of been crafty and just punished Paris discretely. Instead, Menelaus called on all of Greece for assistance so he could prove his manliness by totally obliterating Troy, though it did take a decade. During the Trojan War, the great Greek warrior Achilles decided to pack up and leave the battle due to a personal conflict, but in the midst of leaving, Achilles’ lifelong pal, Patroclus, was killed by Hector of Troy. Instead of just continuing to leave, or even just avenging his friend’s death and leaving, he killed Hector, then attached the body to his chariot and rode around the walls of Troy. Achilles showed that he was absolutely interested in proving his dominance over the men of Troy. In the end, a beautiful city was destroyed, and many lives were lost just for Menelaus and the Greeks to prove the childish point of their Superiority.

The Odyssey was about the journey home of one of the surviving Greek warriors, Odysseus. In the beginning of the voyage, Odysseus was accompanied by several fellow warriors on his ship. One of the unfortunate stops on the voyage was on an island inhabited by cyclopes. Odysseus lost several men to the Cyclops Polyphemus during the time spent on the island. During the escape from the island, Poluphemus was blinded by the Greeks. Once Odysseus and his remaining men had set sail in their ship, Odysseus made sure to taunt Polyphemus with the fact that Odysseus was more clever than the cyclops. This angered the cyclops and nearly cause the escaping ship to be destroyed by a giant rock Polyphemus threw through the air. When Odysseus had finally reached his home in the end, instead of just throwing the extremely rude suitors out of his house, he made sure that he killed nearly every last one of them (excluding the singing bard), even going as far as to have all exits blocked off. Odysseus really could have just let the creeps go, instead he showed exactly how tough he was.

Lastly, the Aeneid. The events in this epic were first fueled by Hera(or Juno in this story) making sure Aeneas and his crew were blown off course when they were so close to their destination, mostly because she was still harboring a grudge against the Trojans because Paris didn’t offer her the golden apple. Juno could have gotten over it, but instead showed how big her pull was with the gods by getting the god of storms to help her out. Also, near the end of the epic, Aeneas got help from the Etruscan people, which was a crucial part of being victorious in his battle. The Etruscans helped Aeneas because one of his enemies was the cruel Mezentius, who was a very evil former Etruscan leader. The Etruscans deeply wanted to prove to Mezentius that they were superior in the end, which would be hard to find fault with them for desiring.

Throughout the three epics, there were many examples of characters’ feeling a need to show dominance/superiority or just “get even” with someone. Some cases were unreasonable, while others made absolute sense.

I wasn't sure if you want for us to make posts when responding to prompts, or just answer in the prompts' "comments" field. I decided to just make a new post to better catch your attention, but I'm happy to post in the comments next time if you'd like.