Skip to main content

Like Marionettes~ Logan Turner

Well, it's been an interesting year hasn't it? Honestly, I'm glad we're back in school so that I can have some normalcy in my life, but you're not here for this pointless discussion, you're here for discussion on The Iliad. So let's get on that, shall we?

The Iliad plays out, almost like a children's play in my mind. I get it, it was a dramatic story told to entertain people, but whenever I read it, I imagine the gods controlling the warriors like marionettes. All I can think of is the gods sitting there saying "Yes, fight for my enjoyment!" while they watch people get slaughtered. When things don't go their way, though, that's when the gods and goddesses get involved. I mean, why else would deities like Athena and Zeus even get involved in a war among humans? They treat humans like puppets so they can create a story that is to their liking. If the story isn't up to the gods' standards, they get involved to make the story more interesting. Honestly, it's a horrific thought that so many people in the story are getting killed simply because some god got bored and wanted the conflict to continue for a while longer.

Edit: Commented on Abbie Hedden's and Clabo's posts

Comments

  1. Your take on the the Iliad is very accurate. I had similar thoughts as I was reading. Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that every god or goddess had a different agenda for the war. There are gods and goddesses on both sides, prolonging the conflict. It was not purely for enjoyment, but also for spite.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your definitely right about how the gods are puppet masters. It was obvious when Aphrodite pulled Paris out of the battle with Menelaus because she did not like that Paris was losing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...

Honor and Gain; Which Do You Seek?

 Pericles.... thanks? I can only imagine that's what the family and friends were thinking after they heard his historic funeral speech honoring the departed. What do I mean? Well, Pericles briefly mentions the men who have fallen at the beginning of his speech, but then goes on to discuss how great Athens is, and how the contributions the city has made to the world are unmatched.. why? I understand that he is also commending the citizens of Athens and empowering them to continue to make their city greater, but I thought this was supposed to be a funeral speech about dead war heroes, not about Athens. Another thing I found interesting is what Pericles said on page five about honor: "For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness" (Thucydides, page 5). Have you ever watched a show or movie, or read a book, about a duel between two men? There is always an unspoken agre...

Aristotle Might Not Like Me...Or Jesus//Haylee Lynd

      Aristotle says that the man who does not get angry at the things he should be angry at "is thought unlikely to defend himself; and to endure being insulted and put up with insult to one's friends is slavish" (Aristotle 41). While he states that passivity is preferred to excessive anger, he still gives great criticism to it.  In contrast to Aristotle, the man who Christians believe to be the most just is Jesus who states in Matthew 5:39-40, "...do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Essentially, arguing that one is not to respond in anger when insulted or hurt, to not defend one's self. Most individual's are unable to achieve this. Our natural instinct is to defend ourselves, especially in physical cases. However, Christians strive to be like Jesus in this way. I would also argue that it is a very admirable wa...