Depictions of War: Iliad, War and Peace, Fifth Business, Maid of Orleans?

Question

I am studying "Depictions of war" in literature for an English project. If anyone has read any of these books, ESPECIALLY the Iliad, please comment on your opinion on how war is depicted, because I'm pretty clueless for most of these (especially the Iliad, again, since I haven't read it).

I am specifically looking for the attitude the author has towards war (glorious, waste of life, gory, etc.), and anything about the heroes' attitudes regarding war in these novels. If any specific quotations come to mind, please share them!!

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

The Illiad is a very long poem but you find that the translations are in prose. It´s about Helen of Troy, the most beautiful girl at the time, the face that launched a thousand ships as one poet said, was kidnaped by Paris, when she was the wife of king Menelao, and that started the War of Troy. That is the story in poetic explanation, but the truth is that there were many other reasons: power, economical, jealousy between different greek nations. They were camped outside the walls of Troy for many years, in a war that seemed to have no end, so Odiseo Lartieades, know most as Ulyses, whose journey home took many years and gave his name to the second part of the book: The Oddisey, devised a very clever way to enter Troy. He built a very large wooden horse and filled it with soldiers, and the greeks left camp. Seeing it the Troyans brought the horse inside the walls and at night they got out of the wooden horse, opened the gates and greeks went in and defeated the Troyans. There is a saying today: Beware of Greeks wearing gifts, and also a troyan is something to get into your computer.There are many other incidents in the book, too many to recount here, so I recommend you to read it if you get a modern translation. By the way, Homer was the author, blind, and maybe he didn`t exist and all is a recopilation in a poetic way. But Troy existed although many doubted it, and in excavations made by Schliemann was found under nine cities.

As for War and Peace by Leon Tolstoi, is one of the greatest books in Literature, and is about the Russian Society in 1812 at the time of the French invasion by French forces led by Napoleon, with very good descriptions of battles, principally that of Borodino.



I`m sorry but I don`t know what you mean by Fifth business, and Maid of Orleans. If you explain it to me by mail, may I will find something in my own library.

[e-mail]

Answer 2

Their are a lot of things that go on in the Iliad but beware a lot of events about Troy did not happen in the Iliad. The Trojan Horse, the city's destruction, the Greek victory are never mentioned, they are in other books of the Trojan Cycle.



The Iliad's main focus is the wrath of Achilles. Helen/Paris only play major roles as they cause the war, but the poem isn't about them. Hector is the opposite of what Achilles is.



Homer describes the deaths of those in a horrific way (As he had a deep knowledge of the anatomy of the human body) and that war was a gruesome thing. Not a waste of life, but a necessary evil, so to speak.



He does well to emphasize the points of view of both sides, the personal relationships people have (There are many instances when a Greek and Trojan in the middle of the battle field will stop and talk to each other: Glaucus and Diomedes specifically, the story of Bellophontes emphasizes xenia of the two and of that time)



Achilles loves war. He loves the glory it brings (Ultimately, thats why he goes to Troy: He could have had a long life and been forgotten or die early and be remembered forever). Nothing quenches his anger. He leaves because of Agamemnon's disrespect, and he never stops after Patroclus' death. Even after avenging Patroclus (by killing Hector, sacrificing 12 Trojan princes) he still keeps Hectors body, and finally gives it back. The last scene of the Iliad is the burial of Hector which symbolizes the burying of Achilles wrath.

Answer 3

Zionists say they opt for peace yet in actual life they're residing on wars. modern Zionist leaders opt for to maintain occupying land that grow to be under no circumstances area of Israel. This place on my own lead the worldwide to have self assurance that Israeli leaders are no longer working for actual and intensely final peace contract with Arab worldwide. Zionist are fooling the two the Arabs and the Jews while they are asserting they opt for peace. Peace is the lacking hyperlink interior the Zionist state.