Comparison of Homer and Virgil’s Tragic Hero - 1908 Words

Comparison of Homer and Virgil’s Tragic Hero Homer, an ancient Greek epic poet, influenced many writers in the ancient Greek and Roman culture, particularly Virgil. Virgil, most famous for his epic poem The Aeneid demonstrates Homer’s influence through similar characters, mythology, and ideals. Homer in both his most famous works the Iliad and The Odyssey weaves poetry based on centuries worth of oral stories handed down and uses a sophisticated style of writing that is still recognized today. Although the tragic hero is defined slightly differently in modern text than ancient Greek and Roman works, Aristotle defined a tragic hero in his work Poetics as â€Å"the character between these two extremes,-that of a man who is not eminently good†¦show more content†¦Homer used pride as the tragic flaw that Achilles learned to overcome, whereas Virgil used a sense of duty as Aeneas’s tragic flaw. Homer portrayed Achilles as arrogant because he allowed his men to fight a battle he knew they could not win wi thout him. Achilles asked his mother for Zeus to favor the Trojans so that he could regain the honor that he felt Agamemnon stripped away. Aeneas’s tragic flaw unlike Achilles was his sense of duty, which in turn he encountered pitfalls during his escape from Troy. Achilles battled for personal glory and his own honor as a warrior whereas Aeneas spent his time attempting to fulfill his mission, which forced him to invade and conquer, a duty given to him by the gods. â€Å"Virgil unites and conjoins all the virtues in the formation of his hero: He gives him religion towards the gods, piety towards his country, tenderness and friendship towards his relations, and equity and justice towards all† (Rapin). On the contrary, Homer magnified the tragic flaw in Achilles, which cost him his sanity because he became obsessive with revenge. Although Aeneas’s flaw appears minor in comparison to Achilles, it led him to be an instrument of gods, which in turn destroyed i nnocent lives. Mercury appeared to Aeneas to remind him of his mission and told him, â€Å"Oblivious of your own world, your own kingdom†¦He [Zeus] and no other sent me to you†¦Think of theShow MoreRelatedThe Divine Comedy1705 Words   |  7 PagesAlighieri’s life of heartbreak with the influences of other famous poets like Homer and Virgil has affected his writing style, and through reviews by literary experts and their interpretation of Alighieri’s unique use of motifs, The Divine Comedy can be broken down to a epic that expresses a global message of human life. I. To understand The Divine Comedy and its impact, an understanding of Dante Alighieri’s life of tragic love and civil war can assist in unraveling the truth on Dante’s philosophicalRead More Is Virgils Aenied an anti-war poem? Essay2377 Words   |  10 Pages Is Virgil’s Aeneid an Anti-War Poem? nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Virgil opens the ‘Aeneid’ with the words ARMA virumque cano ( I sing of arms and of men). The central role that war plays in this Roman epic is made apparent from the very first word of the ‘Aeneid’ by the emphatic placing of the word arma at the very beginning of the poem. A fair chunk of Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ is set on the battle field but its violent and gory descriptions of death and its frequent battles alone cannot make thisRead MoreIs Virgils Aenied an Anti-War Poem?2421 Words   |  10 PagesIs Virgils Aeneid an Anti-War Poem? Virgil opens the ‘Aeneid with the words ARMA virumque cano ( I sing of arms and of men). The central role that war plays in this Roman epic is made apparent from the very first word of the ‘Aeneid by the emphatic placing of the word arma at the very beginning of the poem. A fair chunk of Virgils ‘Aeneid is set on the battle field but its violent and gory descriptions of death and its frequent battles alone cannot make this poem an anti-war poem. VirgilRead MoreThe Sonnet Form: William Shakespeare6305 Words   |  26 PagesChapman’s Homer,† the octave describes past events—the speaker’s previous, unsatisfying examinations of the â€Å"realms of gold,† Homer’s poems—while the sestet describes the present—the speaker’s sense of discovery upon finding Chapman’s translations: Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,   Ã‚  Ã‚  And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse have I been told   Ã‚  Ã‚  That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as