Theme of Revenge in 2 Ancient Texts
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Brutality and kindness offer an interesting mixture of responses in many ancient texts such as The Epic of Gilgamesh or The Iliad by Homer. Revenge is a strong motivating force in a wide variety of ancient texts from widely separated sources. Indeed, revenge is one of the prime motivations for heroes and villains alike, and many of the heroic figures in the ancient texts pursue vengeance with an obsessive fervor that amounts to the act of revenge being a form of religious devotion, an act of patriotism, and a proof of virtue. There is little agonizing over the righteousness of revenge, which usually stands as a given, and accomplishing the act of revenge is often seen as a matter of fate--the hero is destined to accomplish this deed in service of the higher powers and for the glory and security of his people. The primary difference between the revenge sought by the villain and the revenge sought by the hero is that the hero represents good and therefore has an excuse or a righteous reason for his revenge. Yet, revenge motivates both good and evil in these stories. The role of revenge often occurs in a worldview that mixes brutality and kindness, and the revenge itself can sometimes be seen as a kindness to the person being revenged and brutality toward the person on whom this revenge is taken. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a cycle of poems preserved on 12 incomplete Akkadian-language tablets found at Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, with the tabl
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oclus. Achilles is indeed a seething cauldron of anger from the first and expresses his anger in brutality toward his enemies, whichever side of the battle they may be on.
The war itself is an exercise in brutality and is seen as such by the participants and by Homer even as heroes are celebrated. Homer recognizes the barbarity of his characters and expresses some shame at how they carry out their duties as warriors, and he shows that kindness can come from the gods as well as from men, as when Argeiphontes tells Priam of the death of his son:
Aged sir, neither have the dogs eaten him, nor have
the birds, but he lies yet beside the ship of Achilles
at the shelters, and as he was; now here is the twelfth dawn
he has lain there, nor does his flesh decay, nor do worms feed
on him, they who devour men who have fallen in battle (XXIV, 411-415).
The kindness of the gods is also experienced in the way they reward and punish individuals. The central character in Homer's Iliad is Achilles, one of the leaders of the Greek armies at the siege of Troy. Odysseus, or Ulysses, is another of the leaders who appears in this epic story, and he is the central character in Homer's Odyssey, which recounts how Odysseus struggled over a thirty-ye
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2002
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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