...And Thetis did not forget her son's appeals./She broke from a cresting wave at first light/and souring up to the broad sky and Mount Olympus,/found the son of Cronus gazing down on the world,/peaks apart from the other gods and seated high/on the topmost crown of rugged ridged Olympus....she prayed to the lord god Zeus, son of Cronus./"Zeus, Father Zeus! If I ever have served you well/among the deathless gods with a word or action/bring this prayer to pass: honor my son Achilles!-/doomed to the shortest life of any man on earth./And now the lord of men Agamemnon has disgraced him,/seizes and keeps his prize, tears her away himself. But you-/exalt him, Olympian Zeus: your urgings rule the world!/Come, grant the Trojans victory after victory/till the Achaean armies pay my dear son back,/building higher the honor he deserves!
Importance
This passage shows the extremely close relationship between the mortals and the gods. Achilles, the song of a mortal and a goddess, has trouble within his army because of an almost immature argument with Agamemnon. To get help, he goes to his mother, Thetis, who promises to bring the matter up with Zeus. The fact that a mortal man can have his mother communicate with Zeus in his favor exemplifies the importance of religion in ancient Greek life.
Analysis
Thetis, a goddess of the sea, is often associated with water or is shown exiting from the water, which is an epithet given to her as it is given to all important characters. Because Homer mentions this often, not only were the immortals important, but the allocation of their domains was important as well. Book 1's theme is that of rage and anger. Achilles is very proud, very headstrong, and currently very enraged, so Thetis relays that when talking with Zeus. She uses phrases like "disgraced" when discussing Achilles' plight in order to show the intensity with which Achilles views Agamemnon's insults.
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1 comment:
Nice work. A-
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