The Pursuit Of Happiness In The Iliad

Perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of Christianity comes from Christians’ view of life as a journey. Jesus’s life, the standard for Christian living, ended up as a journey to the cross. Full of pain, these journeys offer solace in the hope of a happy ending, although uncertainty and pain lie between the believer and the end of the journey. Journeying home often becomes the main purpose of Christian journeys, while journeying from pain serves as an escape from unhealthy life experiences for Christians. However, the thirst for earthly desires and knowledge sometimes becomes a stumbling block for Christians.

The major theme of Nelson Mandela’s “Walk to Freedom” is explaining his rationale for joining the African National Congress and why it was necessary for him to become a

Examining one’s life can bring many joys. There are many things that give people the idea that their lives are meaningful. These ideas could be the pursuit of pleasure and happiness, entertainment, sports, power and money, possessions and security, being famous and success, meeting other people, knowledge and every other thing that can give the smallest amount of happiness to the person. In the apology Plato describes Socrates’ venture to question people would were wise and content with their wisdom, but when they asked a series of questions to test their wisdom they were revealed not to be wise and were now upset. The flaw in that was that these people did not examine what had happened to them and did not learn from it.

In Greek culture honor and shame is everything to them. With honor brings great joy, but with shame disgrace us brought upon the person and their family. The Iliad opens up with this line, “Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians” (75). This summarizes the whole story of the Iliad, that Achilleus will becomes greatly angered which will bring horrible atrocities upon the Achaians.

Mandela said, “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”(document 4).

Have you ever felt tempted to cheat on your homework or on a test? Have you been prideful of what your status or accomplishments? In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the brave hero Odysseus encountered these obstacles of temptations and pride that people today still face. Therefore, temptation and pride were Odysseus’ greatest enemy throughout his journey back to Ithaca, as they distracted him on his voyage, prevented him from getting home, and displeased the gods.

Eventually Patroclus gets killed. Achilles is humiliated and regrets his actions. He vows to avenge Patroclus’ death. His humility causes him to fight to redeem himself, he returns back to the path of being a hero. These examples are only a few of the many that are in the Iliad, but they explain exactly what hubris

Written by Homer, The Iliad, portrays the life of Achilles, and how the Greek Hero allowed anger to overwhelm his decision making. Complications arise when anger leads to hate, pride, or suffering, and Achilles life illustrates the results of anger. Throughout the book anger slowly consumes Achilles and significantly changes results of the Trojan War. Causing him to act foolishly, Achilles’ anger brought harm upon many Greek people. Also, The Iliad teaches that anger caused a downfall to Achilles’ life.

Since the beginning of time man has waged war with catastrophic outcomes for many reasons. The Trojan war was the brutal fight for Helen, the fairest woman of the known world. Was it the revenge seeked by Gods and mortals? Or was it the justice seeked by Gods and mortals? Gods and mortals fought a brutal war for what they thought was right and to get back at past evils.

Honor is one of the major themes in The Iliad. However the concept of honor in The Iliad is not the same as our current understanding of honor. Honor plays a key role in how the characters in the Iliad act, why they make certain decisions, and why the events in the Iliad occur the way they do. Nowadays, we refer to honor as an idea or concept which is closely related to fame, respect, reputation etc.

The Iliad is a riveting tale of violence and rage amongst heartbreak and tragedy, where a range of emotions are evoked through various events and decisions made by the characters throughout. Some of these characters act on impulse, while others think over with others and themselves to find the best course of action and do what they feel would be the best, be it for their families or their people, or for themselves alone. Through such feelings, certain events play out that either work out to the favor of the characters, or the exact opposite. Characters like Achilles and Agamemnon act on their anger, often going beyond what would be deemed reasonable and even affecting the events following. Achilles’ anger was triggered by Agamemnon’s arrogance

The Iliad also spotlights the individual qualities of a Greek hero or non-hero. Numerous characters in the Iliad demonstrated exceptional qualities of a Greek person that was valued, such as bravery and helpfulness and that was disproved of like selfishness. One trait that is highly appreciated by the greeks in the Iliad is bravery. In battle Hector killed Achilles´s best friend Pactorlos in battle.

If I stay here and fight before the city of Troy, there will be no home- coming for me but my fame shall never die; if I go home to my native land, there will be no great fame for me, but I shall live long and not die an early death.” (Homer 110) This shows that he is selfishness and fearful at the same time of losing and dying in the war. In the very beginning of the Iliad, King Agamemnon and Achilles have an argument for a couple of different reasons. After, the Achians won a battle against a city that was allied with the Trojans each of them received a prize consisted of a young woman from the war.

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the concept of happiness is introduced as the ultimate good one can achieve in life as well as the ultimate goal of human existence. As Aristotle goes on to further define happiness, one can see that his concept is much different from the 21st-century view. Aristotelian happiness can be achieved through choosing to live the contemplative life, which would naturally encompass moralistic virtue. This differs significantly from the modern view of happiness, which is heavily reliant on material goods. To a person in the 21st-century, happiness is simply an emotional byproduct one experiences as a result of acquiring material goods.

The question posed in the title, “Who am I?” is very simple but the answers are never so. What defines me as who I am as a person today are relatively my attitude, my personal values and beliefs to life that developed throughout my life. “Values are constructs that we hold as important and beliefs are constructs that we hold to be true (Collins & Chippendale, 1995)”. Meanwhile, attitudes are relatively lasting clusters of emotions, beliefs, and behavior tendencies directed towards specific ideas, people or objects (Baron & Byrne, 1984). Generally, my family members, friends and the experiences I had contribute to my sense of who I am and how I view the world.