Theme: Potrayal Of War Flashcards
How do we get an emphasis on the beauty of the cosmetic elements of war ?
Book 3
- Parises arming sequence ‘magnificent armour’ and a ‘helmets with a horsehair crest’
- beautiful synthesis of the armour itself and how splendid it is coming together to equip the warrior
How is death aestheticised ?
Book 8
- Gorgythions semi decapitated head is compared to a head of a Poppy
- ‘drooping his head to one side, as a garden poppy bends’
- death is compared to the pastoral and reduces its goriness however it emphasizes the pathos of war as it contrast to the beauty of nature
- Dr E Hauser argues this is nuanced in its depiction where war is both aestheticised whilst subtly reminding the reader of the loss of life
How is death symbolic ?
Book 18
- As Dr E Hauser argues Achilles has a symbolic death where he sneers himself with black ashes and tears at himself and is then reborn into his former great warrior
Book 22
- the death of Hector itself is key moment Ilium itself was ‘smouldering from top to bottom’
- Hectors life is symbolic of the life to Troy
- death is elevated to become symbolic of wider themes and issues of the poem
How is the result of war depicted in the Iliad ?
book 11
- Diomedes describes that upon killing a hero he knows that hero’s wife will go with ‘ cheeks torn in lamentation and his children are fatherless’
- creates a tragic background to the conflict which is played out through Hector
Book 22
- we see the effects that his death has on Priam and Hecabe who lament and weep violently and Andromache his wife faints after seeing him dead
- emphasises the family that is left behind
How do we see the potential result/ effect particularly on the women (in a hero’s death) permeating the epic ?
Book 6
- Hector goes back to Troy meets with the three most improtant women in his life
- Hecabe his mother Helen his sister in law and Andromache his wife with his son
- view into the life that could have been which highlights the pathos of a hero’s death
How is the simile of Achilles compared to Patroclus particularly striking ?
Achilles mourns Patroclus like a father would mourn the death of his son
- book 23: ‘as a father weeps when he is burning the bones of his son’
- relationship between the pair is compared to a father son bond of a son dying before his time
- incredibly important for a Greek father as his son was his future and adds another level of depth to the tragedy in loss
How do we see the contrast of war and peace in the imagery in book 22?
- As Achilles chases Hector they pass the old washing troths ‘where the wives of Troy and their lovely daughters washed the clothes’
- just before the pinnacle moment of Hectors death Homer gives us one final glimpse back into a Troy untouched by war
- makes Hectors death all the tragic and the fall of Troy
What is the biggest example of the contrast between war and peace ?
The depictions on Achilles shield
- A shield itself made for war and forged by Hephaestus for a great warrior
- most of the scenes are of farming, dancing, acrobats and a ‘grave harvest’ and a young boy singing
- However there are also depictions of scenes of war including a a siege and an ambush
- the juxtaposition of the war to peace time endows with a complexity which, according to Prof E Hauser displays both the beauty of peace and the cost of war
- the shield acts as a microcosm which allows the reader to reflect on key themes on the interlinking of peace and wartime
