The shielf of Achilles

Name

Professor

Subject

September 24 , 2007

The Shelf of Achilles

The epic Iliad is a story of different gods and goddesses as they go through their journey of life in land , ocean , and air . The Iliad has twenty-three (23 ) parts /chapters /books that distinguished the different kinds of gods and goddesses as it shows their miseries , joys , angers and pains . The main themes of this epic are war and death but some other themes emerge within the succeeding chapters of the whole story . Along with all other parts /books

/chapters of Iliad , book eighteen (18 ) gave different kinds of themes such as fear , anger , happiness , sadness , and hope as it shows the life of the main character /s through their journey in land and ocean . However , my theme focus is love as it emerged in line four hundred-ninety (490 ) up to the end of the book /chapter . To discuss the theme of love in this chapter , passages will be shown and elaborated to understand fully the images that show love as one of the themes of Iliad

One of the passages is from book 1 that shows different kind of love towards a friend or neighbor . Achilles obeyed her goddess because he trusted her . In the passage , we can see how humble Achilles was after what had Athene have told her about the war that Achilles would lead "The in answer the goddess grey-eyed Athene spoke to him "I have came down to stay your anger-but will you obey me ?- from the sky and the goddess of the white arms Hera sent me , who loves both of you equally in her heart and cares for you . Come then , do not take your sword in your hand , keep clear of fighting , though indeed , with words , you may abuse him , and it will be that way . And this also will I tell you and it will be a thing accomplished . Some day three times over such shining gifts shall be given you by reason of his outrage . Hold your hand then , and obey us " Then in answer again spoke Achilleus of the swift feet Goddess , it is necessary that I obey the word of you two , angry though I am in my heart . So it will be better (Book 1 .206

Respect and obedience emerged in this passage where Achilles obeyed Athens no matter how hard it is but as accordance to her will , Achilles respect her decision . This situation is a form of love , not an intimate form of love but love with respect and obedience . When you love someone you should respect her decision despite all the circumstances and failure that it may cause

In the book eighteen (18 ) of Iliad , aside from all the themes , the theme love also emerged in different levels such as love for neighbor love for friend , love for mother , and love for son . One of the examples of love for friend is the lame god 's love for Thetis because he helped Thetis...