Expression of Self-worth in Homer’s Iliad Essay -- Iliad essays

Expression of Self-worth in home runs Iliad The story of the trojan horse War as played out in the Iliad is perhaps close to gripping for the focus on the role of the mortal the soul is enamored by the very concept of a decade-long war and a city-state demolished to the ground for one mans crime and one charwomans beauty. As such, the dynamic amongst Helen, Paris, and the Trojan people they nurse doomed is a fascinating one. For while Prince Paris is hated by all of Troy, his right to keep Helen is challenged by none. This is seen mostly clearly in Book III, after Paris has been spirited a substance to safety by the goddess Aphrodite the book ends with Trojans and Greeks alike fall in in scorn for Paris and his consort. In Book VII, however, at the war council of the Trojans, when a defiant Paris refuses to payoff his prize, no man questions his right to do so. This puzzling contrast, between the rage of the many against the crimes of the one and the rights of the one against the will of the many, presents insight into key themes of Homers epic. The passages in Books III and VII highlight the unique way in which the Iliad focuses on property rights as perhaps the highest expression of individual self-worth, the violation of which demands complete redress. Book III paints Paris at his last-place a posturing coward contemptible in his weakness. When he seems in hazard of losing a duel against his rival Meneleusa duel that promises to end the war without further bloodshedParis is snatched up by his protector Aphrodite and quickly forgets all about the two armies camped at the walls. The reader is thus united with both armies in scorn for the prince when Homer describes Paris and Helen losing themselves in zest while the fragile treaty strai... ... domain of his property that they are unbidden to die to uphold it, even for a prince they despise. In the relationship between Paris and the Trojan people with respect to his ownership of Helen, Homer demonstrates the subtleties of a culture that celebrated the heroism of the individual while simultaneously acknowledging the mogul of the fates in human affairs. To strenuously fight for ones rights in the face of opposition is to court disaster, as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Paris all discover, and soon enough in doing so, one is able to rise above the herd of lesser men and become a truly heroic individual. It is a rummy irony of Homeric Greece that the path to immortality often began with an obsession over the seemingly petty matters of material ownership and property.Works Cited1. Homer, Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (New York Penguin Books, 1990).