Characteristics of War in the Iliad

Wars are often complex in nature and are fought for diverse reasons. In the Iliad, powerful gods, great nations, and heroic people all fight for different reasons. Each has private motivations to fight the war. These private motivations are of special interest, because they help define the consequences and outcomes of the war. The universal war of the gods, social war of the Greeks and Trojans, and the war for Achilles' honor are private motivations of the Trojan war. These private motivations seem to influence and shape each other to show the nature of war in the book. "What god drove them to fight with such a fury?" Book 1, line 7. This quote shows the connection to the gods and mans war. • The fighting in the Novel seems to occur in sporadically with no real discernable pattern. This shows both confusion and chaos which can be attributed to both the length of the war, which demoralizes soldiers and the lack of compassionate leadership on both sides. At times it seems the soldiers want to call a truce but it is the commanders like Hektor and Diomedes whose pride blinds them to the needs of their own armies. At times the leaders even forget the reason for starting the war, showing the pettiness of the entire situation.

• The fighting in the novel only gets worse a the story progresses and the reason for this is the desperation by the commanders to be victorious in the war. As time goes on and both sides become locked in a stalemate the leaders on both sides raise the stakes to bring about a quick and victorious end to the war regardless of cost. In their opinion it is worth sacrificing 10,000 men at once to possibly bring an end to the war which, if continued would sacrifice 100,000 men.

• The battles in the Novel shown that war and death are both real occurrences and everyone must confront them eventually, this is even true for the leaders such and Menelaus and Paris who had near dealt experiences at times, Menelaus with the arrow grazing his armor and Paris with his duel with Menelaus, both of these occurrences were controlled and planned by the gods but nonetheless they both had profound effects on the warriors.

• The most important contribution that the Battles have in the novel is that show that war is a reality and the events which occur in it represent the most basic of human traits and values like Love, Greed, Pain and Anger. Homer doesn't ignore the realities of War, instead he embraces them makes them a central part of the novel.

• War is connected to the Code of honor because it represents what the war is basically about. Both sides aren't necessarily concerned about land or wealth as their primary reson for fighting, instead both sides fight for bragging rights and Honor, both for their leaders and the gods who support them. This is where Arete, Kudos and Time' comes into affect, to the leaders on both sides it is better to die with honor rather than surrender alive which would be cowardly.

● "All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman.
But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
And the Trojan women trailing their long robes
If I would shrink from battle now, a coward." Book 6, lines 523-525

● "And someday one will say, one of the men to come
Steering his oar-swept ship across the wine-dark sea
'there's the mound of a man who died in the old days, one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed.'
So they will say, someday, and my fame will never die." Book 7, lines 101-105

● "War - I know it well, and the butchery of men
Well I know, shift to the left, shift to the right
My tough tanned shield. That's what the real drill
Defensive fighting means to me. I know it all
How to charge in the rush of plunging horses-
I know how to stand and fight to the finish
Twist and lunge in the War-god's deadly dance." Book 7, lines 275-281