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The Iliad and The Odyssey

This study will examine crucial scenes from Homer's epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, focusing on certain characters' concern with their reputations as a major motivation for their behavior. All Homeric characters, to some degree, care about their reputation, about how others perceive and evaluate them and their worth as, primarily, soldiers. The question is the nature of the reputation about which they are concerned--do they only care about being seen as a hero for their own sake, for egoistic reasons, or do they see heroism and reputation as a factor in some larger concern--for community, family, homeland, and humility before the gods.

Charles Segal writes, "In a shame-culture, like that of the society depicted in Homer, where esteem depends on how one is viewed and talked of by one's peers, kleos [heroic glory] is fundamental as a measure of one's value to others and to oneself" (Segal 127). This focus inevitably includes consideration of the conflicting notions of heroism, such as those explored in the contrast between Achilles and Odysseus in the Iliad. Clearly, in works in which a central subject is war, and performance in war a central measurement of reputation, one's physical bravery and skill in combat are closely connected to one's reputation.

The meeting between Odysseus and Achilles in the latter's tent in Book IX of Homer's The Iliad is a confrontation of very different ideas of reputation and heroism. Odysseus sees heroism in romantic terms, in terms of its contribution to the community, whereas Achilles sees heroism in personal terms. Odysseus is willing to subsume his personal inclinations for a heroic reputation in the drive for the common goal of victory for the Achaeans. Achilles, wounded in his pride by the public affront of Agamemnon, puts himself and his reputation above the consideration of everything else, even if it means the defeat of his people, the Achaeans, at the hands of the Trojans.

The Gr...

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The Iliad and The Odyssey. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:56, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708244.html