The Iliad (selections), and The Poem of my Cid - Essay Example

To begin with, the Iliad is full of heroes. Indeed even as Homer tells the story of both the Greeks and the Trojans, it is clear this story is more a tableaux about heroism than a morality play involving good guys and bad guys. Both sides of the conflict have their villains and heroes and indeed some heroes are more heroic than others. The two most immediate heroic figures that leap from the pages are Achilles, on the Greek side, and Hector, on the Trojan side. In the entire epic, most people would agree that Hector is the more heroic and honorable, even though he is killed by Achilles.

Part of these lies in the fact of what Achilles does to Hector after killing him—tying him behind his chariot and dishonoring his body. Even many Greeks believe this is an unpleasant and unbefitting thing to do, although there is no reasoning with Achilles. We see in Homer’s depiction a very complex figure. Achilles is the strongest and best fighter for the Greeks, but he is also impatient, childish, and brutish. No one can beat him and everyone is afraid of him, but he is not necessarily a great person.

He does however sometimes have a sense of honor as when he is forced back into battle by the death of Patroclus. When he finally decides to reengage with the Trojans he does it not out of his own self-interest but to avenge his best friend. So we see that sometimes Achilles acts selflessly—a quality of heroism—and sometimes he acts selfishly as when he stops fighting and allows Greeks to be killed in battle (including Patroclus) because he is angry at Agamemnon and just decides to sit in his tent and to sulk.

We can contrast this behavior to that of the honorable Hector who is defending his home and his family. He is defending his father, Priam, the king of Troy, but he is also deeply concerned about his family. When his wife Andromache tells him not to fight, he answers: "Wife, I too have thought upon all this, but