Foundational Mythological Structures Upholding the Greek System Term Paper

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foundational mythological structures upholding the Greek system of belief in martial valor is the tale of the Trojan War. This tale has continued to hold ideological weight even today. Homer's tale of the sacking of Troy is one of heroism and honor, detailing both the greatness of military prowess as well as the difficulties of war. Although not a pro-war chronicle, it makes the decision of one of its heroes, that of Achilles, to live his life for the momentary glory of battle, rather than remain on earth as long as possible until a ripe old age, a justified one.

Shakespeare's version of the Trojan War in his drama "Troilus and Cressida," however, is one in which the Trojan War is nothing but an ignominious struggle, fought for nothing of importance. War, rather than elevating, in Shakespeare's estimation, is corrupting to the higher virtues of the human temperament.

For much of Homer's epic Iliad, the great warrior Achilles refuses to fight. He is angry that the commander of the Greeks, Agamemnon, has deprived him of the spoils of war, namely the slave girl he loved. Only when Achilles' dear friend Patroklos is killed by Hector does the warrior return to the battlefield to seek revenge.

Akhilleus with wild fury in his heart

Pulled in upon his chest his beautiful shield

His helmet with four burnished metal ridges

Nodding above it, and the golden crest

Hephaistos locked there tossing in the wind.

Conspicuous as the evening star that comes,

Amid the first in heaven, at the fall of night,

And stands most lovely in the west, so shone

In sunlight the fine-pointed spear

Akilleus poised in his right hand, with deadly aim at Hektor, at the skin where most

If lay exposed. But nearly all was covered

By the bronze gear he took from slain Patroklos.

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..(Book 22:263-326)

Achilles (spelled Akhilleus in this translation by Robert Fitzgerald) slays Hector in a blaze of glory. Achilles' divine as well as his mortal parentage is made clear in this excerpt. The gods themselves have, at Achilles' mother Thetis' command, fashioned him armor that protects his person. This helmet is rendered in language that describes heaven and the beauty and purity of the new dawn. The fact that this is a killing of revenge for a dear friend makes it of very high moral value for the Greeks. This eye-for-an-eye quality is further underlined when Achilles sees that Hector is actually wearing the armor that Patroklos wore.

Although the authorship of the Iliad by Homer has been disputed (historians are unsure if it is a collected work from a variety of wandering bards or one man) and Shakespeare's authorship of 'his' plays has also been debated, no one disputes that "Troilus and Cressida" is the product of one man's imagination. Furthermore, it is unlike Homer's formational cultural document, one of Shakespeare's most obscure plays. But recently it has become more popular on the modern stage. This may be because of Shakespeare's consistent deflation of the myth of the great Achilles and the Trojan War. Ostensibly, the Trojan War was undertaken out of a crime of love, because Paris stole Helen from her husband, and all her former suitors had vowed to fight for her, if she were ever spirited away. But Homer's focus throughout the epic poem of the Iliad is on the war and the men who fight in her name. Homer's tale is a masculine-centered one.

In contrast, Shakespeare's 1601 drama focuses on two peripheral lovers in the saga. Unlike Homer's warriors they are young and relatively unspoiled at the drama's beginning. But living in a society that is torn by war….....

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