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The Power of One Man // Jessef Leslie

  Throughout the Iliad the battle is focused down to fights between leaders and great fighters. Homer writes about how one important figure kills another over and over again to show how the war unfolds. Something he continues to highlight are warriors who shift the tides' of battle single-handedly: fighters like Hector, Diomedes, Achilles, etc. Who if they die the war will shift completely. Every time Hector was knocked down in earlier books we see the Trojans rush to save him, because if he falls the war is lost. In book 20 we see this huge change in the book as the Acheaens flip the tables' of war. "But all the while the rest of the Trojans fled en masse, thrilled to reach the ramparts, crowding, swarming in, no daring left remain outside the city walls and wait for each other, learn who made it through, who died in battle- [...]"(Homer 540) The death of Patroclus and appearance of Achilles swings the fight drastically,  as Achilles the swift-footed charges through Trojans like a dolphin herding a school of fish; Even the war cry of the son of Peleus causes Trojans to die before he enters the battle. "Three times the Trojans and famous allied whirled in panic- and twelve of their finest fighters died then and there, crushed by chariots, impaled on their own spears." (Homer 475) 

  In conclusion, when we think of war we often associate the larger army as the winner. The Acheaens had the Trojans out numbered 10:1 so we'd expect them to trample through them. But they instead are losing the fight and pushed back to their ships because they are down one warrior, though he be god-like, the fact still remains that Homer is putting a lot emphasis on the power of an individual to cause destruction and bring about order and glory through Achilles/ Patroclus and Paris/ Hector... With the help of a few gods of course.



Comments: Logan Turner and Jackson Riddle

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