Agamemnon

conceited ways led to their tragic endings. Achilles became filled with anger when he was forced to give up his prize of war Briseis to Agamemnon (Homer lines 185-200). Leading him to ask his mother Thetis to go to Zeus and ask him to help the Trojans beat the Greeks (Homer lines 425-450). Zeus granted her his help and the Greeks begin to lose the war. Agamemnon tried to make amends with Achilles by offering him several gifts. Achilles was filled with too much anger and refused to help…

This is not the first time I have read the Iliad. I took a course back in my sophomore year called Love and War in the Ancient World. After reading the Iliad for a second time, I realized something that I did not see when I read it the first time. I realized that the Greeks were not all that much different than myself. While reading the Iliad, I got a sense that there was a theme of God, Family, and Country. This reminds me of a lot of important in my own life. Let me explain the Greeks are more…

beautiful goddess in a competition with Athena and Hera at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis” (Cartwright). Everyone in the kingdom of Sparta was appalled that this tragic event took place upon them. “Helen’s jilted husband Menelaus convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of…

specific instances occur when Achilles refuses to fight in the war, and when he mistreats Hector’s body. Achilles’ selfish and immoral rage begins after Agamemnon demands that Achilles’ gives him Briseis. Briseis was a war prize for Achilles’, and Achilles feels that he is being dishonored by Agamemnon. Achilles relates his battle with Agamemnon to Paris' kidnapping of Helen, and relates himself to Menelaos. Achilles feels that…

husband when he returns. Before Agamemnon returned, Zeus sent a messenger to warn Aegisthus about his plan to kill Agamemnon. Agamemnon eventually comes home from the war. When he arrives, he is unsuspecting of what is awaiting him at home. He also finds out that his loving wife has changed so much since he left for the war. Hermes’ first warning told Aegisthus to not “murder the man [or] court his wife” (1.47). Clytemnestra and Aegisthus succeed in killing Agamemnon, only to pay the ultimate…

In the Iliad, written by Homer comes a great Epic written back in Ancient Greek time, no specific time period, around 750 B.C. The story starts about nine years after the Trojan War has started. We see many great characters in this story that express themselves throughout the story. Satterfield states, “Were our Iliad like the more traditional story apparently proposed in the poem, however, it would be a fundamentally different story. It would end before Achilles reenters the battle to kill 0;…

legend. I said yes you might die but you would be remembered and honored for what you have done. He will still have the remembrance of a war hero. I also told him he should make peace with Agamemnon and just rejoin the war. Agamemnon tried to make peace with Achilles with the offer of gifts and riches. Agamemnon even offered one of the seven daughters as a gift. But Achilles refused all of this and still would not go back. I also told him he would stop listening to his mother who is trying to…

Aeschylus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, presents one reason for Clytemnestra murdering Agamemnon: as revenge for the sacrificial murder of her daughter, Iphigenia. While this is not the only reason for Clytemnestra’s action, it is the most ambiguous; for example, Clytemnestra presents herself as a devoted mother, but she constantly contradicts her actions with her words. For instance, Clytemnestra, acting as a loving mother, vowed to avenge her daughter’s death, but later on goes to curse her own son…

Achilles, one of the quintessential Greek heroes, embodies the moral dilemma of what constitutes as good. He is a highly celebrated man, but his exaltation could strictly be attributed to just his prowess at warfare. Throughout the Iliad, Homer has consistently stressed the veneration that just the mere presence of Achilles demands from those around him by giving him the major moments of the battle. Additionally, his strength is highlighted at a myriad of instances in the epic by comparing…

Sophocles’ Electra for it tells a story about Electra and her brother Orestes wanting to get revenge on their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, for killing their father Agamemnon. The events that led to the actions in this play was Clytemnestra killing her husband, to avenge her daughter Iphigenia, Agamemnon and his concubine Cassandra after they returned from the Trojan War. The play’s setting unlike Sophocles’ does not take place entirely in their palace in Argos but on a farm.…