Sehun Bolaji
Rhetorical Analysis
Lliad: Poem by Hormer
The poem Lliad by the Greek author Hormer was a poem written in 762 B.C that tells the tale which takes place nine years after the start of the Trojan War was a battle between the Achaeans and Trojans that had involved many known demigods and Greek gods in Greek mythology such as Achilles, Zues, Apollo, Athena, and so on. Although the poem has many themes such as love, friendship, fate, free will, and the glory of war, I feel the main theme of this poem is the costs of pride as Achilles pride being the main reason so many people in his army got slaughtered by the Trojans. He didn’t want to battle in the Trojan War regardless of his human strength and invulnerability due to his war prize (Briseis) being taken from him by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, for his own. The target audience of this story is for anyone who is getting drafted for war, forcing them to leave their family behind . As a matter of fact, in Book 6 of the Iliad, “Woman, I too take thought of all this…
Nor doth mine own heart suffer it, seeing I have learnt to
be valiant always and to fight amid the foremost
Trojans, striving to win my father’s great glory and
mine own.” This clearly states that Hectors wife begged him to stay home instead of going to war and leaving his child to become an orphan, but hectors feels like finding true glory for his family is of utmost importance, that him bringing glory to them is better than him actually being there for them, regardless of his endless love for them. The tone of this poem is a serious and unpleasant ones as shown by the many horrifying events that take place in the poem, such as the Greek Camp being devastated by a horrifying plague, due to Chryses( a priest of the god Apollo) prayer to Apollo. The rhetorical appeal used in this poem is pathos as shown by the constant grief, longing, and anger shown in the story due to the effects of warfare. This gives the reader an insight on why war is such a serious thing and how it can change a person as they live on through their lives, no matter how strong or invulnerable they may appear to be.
Work Cited
https://www.planetebook.com/free-ebooks/the-iliad.pdf
