Prince Paris of Troy was warmly entertained in the palace of Menelaeus, king of Sparta, Greece, but he fell in love with Menelaus's beautiful wife, Helen, at first sight, and took her out of the palace. So an enraged Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon rebelled against Troy.
The city of Troy was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the Greeks finally came up with a Trojan horse plan, they created the illusion of withdrawing troops, and deliberately left a huge Trojan horse in front of the city. The Trojans happily carried the Trojan horse into the city as a trophy. That night, just as the Trojans were indulging in wine and singing and dancing, twenty Greek soldiers hidden in the belly of the wooden horse came out, opened the gates of the city, and the inside and outside were combined, and Troy was attacked, and this also opened a sad song about revenge, about love, and even more about love...
The Homeric epics, composed of the Iliad and the Odysseus, are the oldest surviving works of Greek literature, marking the beginning of the splendor of Greek literature, which faithfully reflected certain forms of the development of the ancient Greek society, and the artistic reproduction of the culture of the time.
Among them, "Iliad" mainly tells the story of the Greek siege of the city of Troy, and successfully created many vivid and distinctive heroic characters, including Achaeles, Odysseus, Hector, Aeas, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Philotes, etc., of which the most impressive characters are the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector (Prince of Troy).
<h1>Achilles: The First Warrior</h1>
The appearance of the image of Achilles is a shining signpost on the long road of human self-knowledge.
Hegel once wrote passionately: Of Achilles, we can say: "This is a man! The multifaceted nature of the noble personality reveals in this man its full richness. ”
Indeed, Achilles' character and character image cannot be said only one side, and the multi-faceted and complex nature of his personality is worth thinking about.
1 Strong in martial arts
Achilles is one of the central characters of the Iliad, the greatest hero of the Greek coalition. He was a brave and good warrior, he was almost victorious on the battlefield, and his bravery and good fighting can be seen from the different reactions of the Trojans when there was no Greek army in which he participated and the Greek army with him, for example, when Patlorose, dressed in the golden armor of Achilles, attacked, the Trojans looked from a distance, thinking that Achilles were coming, and immediately frightened, and the foot was in chaos, and there were countless people who trampled on each other and died.
During the Achilles strike, the Trojans gained the upper hand in several of their attacks, and even attacked the Greek warships, if it were not for the heroic resistance of Greek heroes such as Aeas, the Greek warships might have been burned by Hector, until later, Achilles returned to the battlefield, and the Greeks once again gained the upper hand, and finally captured Troy.
2 Heavy love and righteousness
From some details, it is not difficult to find that the burly and warlike Achilles was actually a kind and compassionate person. When Hector's father Priamus knelt before him, tearfully kissed the hand that had killed his son, and begged for permission to redeem his son's body, Achilles suddenly thought of how much his elderly father cherished himself and pushed himself and others, and he cried with excitement, and he agreed to the other party's request, not only returning Hector's body to Priamos, but also promising a twelve-day truce so that he could calmly hold a funeral for Hector.
The Ilyon Chronicle also vividly depicts the brotherhood between Achilles and Patroclus. Achilles was loyal to his friend, and when Patlockros was killed by Hector, he deplored Patroclus's sacrifice and was determined to avenge him, so he rearmed himself to the battlefield in anger, killed Hector, and tied his body to a chariot and drove in a parade, although somewhat ferocious, but it was also the embodiment of his cherishing of friendship and great affection for his friends.
3 Ferocious and brutal
After his close friend Patro crosses was killed by the Trojan prince Hector, he was filled with grief and grief, and his overwhelming anger turned him into a murderous demon, eventually causing the Trojan corpse to block the course of the Csantos River. The river god intervened to stop it, and he actually fought with the river god.
In the decisive battle with Hector, Hector once said earnestly: "When one of the decisive parties dies, do not insult his body."
The enraged Achilles, on the other hand, ignored it, brutally tied Hector's body to the back of his horse and dragged it upside down, running three times around his best friend's coffin, and having twelve captured Trojan youths bury Patroclus.
4 Domineering and stubborn
Achilles' character also had weaknesses in his character, such as when the grand commander Agamemnon violated Achilles' spoils of war, Achilles openly rebuked him for his self-interest and refused to fight, he rebuked Agamemnon for being right in his selfishness, but passively responding to the battle caused great losses to the Greek army.
In addition, when he attacked Troy City again, despite the persuasion of the sun god Apollo, he stained Troy City with anger and blood, and was eventually killed by Paris's dark arrow.
Achilles was fierce and warlike but ruthless, vengeful, somewhat narrow-minded and selfish, personally centered, fierce and willful and friendly, cruel and tyrannical without losing compassion. It is such a heroic image that combines contradictions, vivid and unforgettable.
<h1>Hector: "Anthropomorphic" hero</h1>
It was as if a fierce star suddenly appeared from the thick clouds,
The light flickered, and suddenly faded into the dim clouds;
Hector also appeared at the front of the line for a while,
In a moment there was a recluse in the back of the line, giving them orders.
He was dressed in bronze, like the lightning of his father Azero, who lifted the great shield...
This is the image of Hector in the Iliad, and posterity always laments the fate of Achilles' tragic hero. In fact, Troy's great warrior Hector was more tragic and heroic than Achilles.
Because he knows that he is fighting a war that must be lost, he is embarking on a road that cannot be turned back, but he knows what is called "the big husband does not do something, and he must do something."
1. Be brave
Hector was a brave and tall hero. At present, even if he knew that it was a war that was doomed to failure, for the sake of the tribe, the people, and his relatives, he resolutely took the step of advancing, and in the face of the vicious war, he did not return to it, calmly and calmly. His younger brother Paris could crawl back and cry on his feet after losing the battle, and he could hide in the dark and shoot cold arrows at Achilles, but he couldn't, because he regarded the death of a rival who was stronger than himself as his final destination.
Such boldness is indeed beyond the ability of ordinary warriors or people who only know how to kill.
2. Affection
When his wife, Andromack, wept and begged him to withdraw from the battlefield, his first reaction was to say, "I'm thinking about these things too, madame." But if I dodge the battle like a coward, I will be landless in front of Troy's father and brother, in front of the Trojan woman in a long skirt. My heart would not agree to do so. I know the deeds of the brave men, the brave tenacity, always fighting with the bravery of Troy in the front row, for myself, and for my father, to win great glory..."
In the face of the precarious situation, looking at his worried wife and young children, Hector was sure to be reluctant in his heart. But, as he himself said, it must be killed, and if he escapes, he will have no place for himself in front of women, and his heart does not agree with him doing so.
He loves his tribe, parents, people and children, and he has a deep affection for his wife. On the occasion of saying goodbye to his wife, he said: The most uncomfortable thing for him is the loss of Troy.
3. Meticulous
In a critical moment, Hector was still able to make considerable considerations, analyze the situation and consequences very deeply, and soberly realize the strength of the other side, the disadvantages of his own side, that Troy might soon perish, that the people would fall into a catastrophe, that his wife might be taken captive, and then suffer all kinds of hardships in the enemy country, and suffer physically and mentally.
It can be seen that he is a thoughtful, calm-headed and clear person.
Despite the unfortunate situation, he calmly did two very important things before the expedition: first, he took off his helmet, warmly picked up the young child, bowed his head and kissed, expressed his last fatherly love, and then let go of his voice and prayed to the gods, hoping to bless the child's healthy growth and be more outstanding and outstanding than himself in the future; second, he entrusted the child to his wife, touched her and told her to "take care of the work, the loom and the yarn rod, and urge the maid in the family" in the future, to persuade her not to be sad. And encourage her to face it bravely in later life and educate her children well. At the most urgent moment, he can still be methodical and calmly make meticulous and careful arrangements and instructions.
Unlike Achilles, Hector was both a mortal man perfected by fate and tragedy, love and blood, and a tragic hero forged by fierce battles and limited lives.
He was honed in the war of life and death. After he knew that he would undoubtedly die, he showed his unusual heroic nature in the face of the powerful Achilles and Athena's joint efforts, and in the face of death, he substantially surpassed the human ordinary with his tragic and outstanding performance, becoming the most "god-like" hero in the "Iliad".
The misery of the death of man accumulates before Hector's death, and also calls for the emergence of a most magnificent node, so Hector's death can be said to be the end of the heroic death in "Iliad", the final climax of the battle.
If the world loves Achilles more than him, it is probably because "god-like" is not a god after all, because his eyes, like mortals, contain a thousand words, revealing the burden and helplessness of being a son, a father, and a prince.
<h1>Tragedy is the destruction of good things for people to see</h1>
The war between Greece and Troy lasted for ten years and ended with the fall of the city of Troy. The Greeks washed Troy in blood, and the old king was killed in the temple.
However, the greeks, the winners of the war, did not profit from it. Not to mention how many soldiers' lives were exhausted in ten years, even these heroes could not escape the fate of death, among which another great hero of Greece, Odysseus, although he came up with a clever plan to slaughter the city of Trojans, thus conquering the impregnable city of Troy, and luckily did not die on the battlefield, but he could not escape the shadow of the tragedy of the war.
After the Trojan War, he drifted at sea for ten years and struggled to return home (Odysseus' experience is included in another Odyssey in Homer's Epic).
Both Achilles and Hector achieved their personal greatness while they could not escape their tragic fate.
Tragedy is the destruction of beautiful things for people to see, and perhaps it is true, but in addition to regret, it is more of a shock.