Monday, January 14, 2013

What is the climax of the Iliad?

In my opinion, the climax of the
Iliad comes in Book 22.  I think that the climax comes when
Achilles kills Hector. The reason that I say this is because this is the apex of the
rage of Achilles.


I think that much of the point of this
epic is the anger of Achilles.  After all, the poem starts by asking the goddess to sing
of the wrath of Achilles.  We see Achilles' anger cause him to withdraw from the war and
sulk in his tent because his pride has been offended.  Later, we see his anger cause him
to fly into a murderous rage as he takes revenge for the death of Patroclus (which was
caused, you can argue) by Achilles' anger.


So the whole
epic is about the consequences of Achilles' anger.  This anger peaks as Achilles kills
Hector and gets his revenge.  After that, the rest of the epic is really just about
tying up loose ends caused by Achilles' anger.

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