The Most Manly of Men, a Look at Heroes in The Iliad
By beginning the regular weeks of class with reading The Iliad, I believe that I found a decent motif to begin the class with: a look at heroes in mythology. While I could take a more specific look at different elements, I will begin this year fairly broad and try to narrow down to something a bit more specific while looking at heroes. Before I look at The Iliad, I will try to wrangle down what I believe to be a hero. I believe that a hero, in the context of this class, is a character who strives for more than an average life and attempts feats that would break a lesser man. A hero also adheres to a higher purpose or a greater morality, but of course they still possess human qualities and do make mistakes.
Achilles Slays Hector by Peter Paul Rubens. Source: Artble
The Iliad is what easily defines what a hero should look like. Homer gives us numerous heroes to look at, Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, etc., and sets forth standards which these heroes and other heroes can be measured with. Achilles is a prime example in my opinion of what a hero should look like. He is physically superior, caring of others, and sticks very closely to his purpose and what he believes to be right and wrong. Achilles does possess his flaws, but I believe they are not enough to discredit him from being considered a hero. The prime example of him being a hero, at least in my context, is him doing superhuman feats, such as defeating large amounts of soldiers or chasing down a man aided by a God. This characteristic to me separates a hero from a protagonist. Another hero I would consider would be Hector. While Hector opposes Achilles in battle as a Trojan, I don't believe that he is portrayed as an antagonist in the epic and is instead just another hero who is pitted against Achilles. Hector would give his life for his comrades, serves his country dutifully, and is no pushover in battle.
While my decision may change over the course of this class, I will try to look at heroes as a standard guideline for my future projects.
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