Because of a disagreement with Agamemnon, Achilles refuses to participate in the early battles of the Trojan War. The struggles of the Greeks are only exacerbated by troubles within their own ranks, particularly those generated by Achilles - a Greek prince of Peleus, who is unmatched on the battlefield. Please check your inbox to activate your subscription Thank you! Homer’s evocation of the mythic Trojan War, however, remains as important today as it was to Alexander 2,300 years ago. It was at this time that entire empires, like the Hittites in Anatolia and the Mycenaeans in Greece, collapsed due to hostile incursions by the so-called Sea Peoples.ĭespite this, we may never know for certain the reality of exactly how or why Troy VII fell, historically speaking.
Today, some historians believe that the city of Troy in The Iliad could be what archaeologists call Troy VI and VII-the context layer of that ancient city destroyed during the upheaval of the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Its fame survived solely through the epic of Homer. Even at the time of Alexander’s Persian campaign, little was known about the historic Trojan War that had taken place over 800 years prior. When the Macedonian conqueror crossed the Dardanelles into Asia, he built an altar to pay tribute to him. The warrior prince Achilles had been his idol since boyhood. As Aristocrats, their value of mutual reciprocity of hospitality and respect with one another (xenia), prevented them from battling one another.The Abduction of Helen by Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, Venetian, 1578 – 1579, Oil on canvas, via Museo del Prado with The Body of Patroclos Borne from the Battlefield by Diana Scultori, 16th c., via The Harvard Art MuseumsĪccording to legend, Alexander the Great kept two things under his pillow: a dagger and a copy of Homer’s Iliad.
The men must know our claim: we are sworn friends from our fathers’ days till now!’ (6. For example, during an exchange between two enemies, they come to peace with one another since they they shared a common ancestor: ‘Let’s trade armor. Aristocrats are presented in this way through the entire story. Thus, the role of Kings (basileis) and council of elders (boule geronton) were both intertwined and interchangeable in terms of power both throughout the Iliad and actual historical evidence of ancient Greece although the former (Iliad) appears to only show implicit indications of doing …show more content… In the Iliad, a homeric battle included a duel between two noble (agathos) and respected members of their particular societies. Kings appeared to have had the power to overrule the Nestors of society, however, according to Sealey, customs and conventional wisdom probably restrained Kings from doing so. In his book, Raphael Sealey commented that in Homer’s Iliad, “Decisions are taken by the king, but the poems avoid the question whether the king could override determined opposition from his advisers” (24). In the scene between Achilles, Agamemnon, and Nestor Homer does not portray Agamemnon as somebody who would directly be in opposition to Nestor’s words of wisdom. In the Homeric world of the Iliad, …show more content… In the Iliad, King Agamemnon played the role of commander of the Greeks, and King Nestor played the role of an elder council (an advisor). I will also show how the Homeric view of Greek leadership and government in general was in some aspects related with actual historical evidence, as provided by the late classical scholar and ancient historian, Raphael Sealey. In this essay, I will begin by explaining some of the forms of leadership presented in Homer’s Iliad.
For example, the central monarch or king would be viewed as a sort of intermediary or messenger between gods and men. In between these two extremes, many varieties of leadership positions were presented. Show More In Homer’s Iliad, Greek leadership and government was portrayed as a hierarchical structure that ranked from ordinary humans (at the bottom) to the mythical Olympian Gods (at the top).