In Homer’s book The Iliad, Homer tells the story of the Trojan War with Achilles, the best Greek warrior. However, Achilles does not like Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, because he took Briseis (Briseis was a woman that Achilles had received as a war prize). This is the reason why Achilles was raged at Agamemnon. In a rage, Achilles wants to kill all of the Trojans, especially Hector, the best Trojan warrior. Patroclus, Achilles’ best friend goes out to the battle field as Achilles (wearing his armor), trying to kill Hector but instead Hector kills Patroclus thinking he has killed Achilles.
When Achilles finds out about this, he is very mad and goes out to kill Hector himself. When he kills Hector, he is very arrogant about it. Only after this happens does Achilles get Briseis back from Agamemnon. The way Achilles acts during the Trojan War is a great example of arete. Arete is physical excellence, or when a human/man realizes his total potential. Readers can see examples of this in The Iliad with Achilles, the great Greek warrior.
For example, Arete can be seen with Achilles because he knows that he is the best Greek warrior and he gets very arrogant when he kills the great Trojan warrior Hector. Achilles is the strongest when he uses his power and has motivation. He had motivation when he killed Hector because hector killed his best friend Patroclus. However, Achilles does have a tragic flaw that in the end causes his death. Achilles is very arrogant and thinks he can pretty much do whatever he wants and never get hurt or die.
He is very cocky because he thinks that he is the best and does not listen to what others have to say. In the end, Achilles dies when he is shot in the heel with an arrow, the only part that is not immortal on his body. Essay 2 option 1 The Spartan lifestyle was much different than the one that we live in today. They were forced to live where they did because of the Messenians surrounded them on all sides over the mountains. This forced the Spartans to do everything they could in order to have the strongest military to protect themselves from attack.
The Spartan agoge, or “the military upbringing in the society” was harsh compared to how we live now. First, each baby was considered to “belong to the state”. After birth, the baby was taken and judged to see if it had any imperfections. If the baby was imperfect, it was taken and left on the side of a mountain to die. If the baby passed the test, it was returned to live with the family. The boys were taken away from their families at the age of 7 and rarely saw their families again.
From when they were taken until they went off to battle, the boys were always training, doing tasks, given little food so they had to learn how to fight and steal in order to survive, and many other things that taught them to be the best warriors. The training was very hard. If the boys made mistakes, they would be whipped as their family members and the rest of society watched. It was also acceptable to kill other students during training because if they were training to fight to the death in war. Although the men trained for war, the woman were also training as well.
The woman competed in many track and field events to be strong and fit as well. They did this to be healthy, so they could have healthy and strong babies for the society. Because Spartan women were in such good shape and gave birth to the healthiest babies, it is said that “Only Spartan women give birth to real men”. The women also had to be in good shape to be able to fight off men when they tried to rape them. This was important to the Spartan lifestyle because it is how they became strong military force and allowed them to survive
