Please write a five-page paper in response to ONE of the following prompts. You must use at least three direct quotations from the Iliad in your essay. You must also reference at least three academic, secondary sources in your paper.
Explore the nature of justice in one work of ancient literature (either the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Hebrew Bible) and in the Iliad. How are the gods involved with justice in each one? What is the role of humankind?
Compare the sadness that Gilgamesh feels for Enkidu to the grief of Achilles for Patroclus.
Explore the nature of Achilles’ rage, but don’t re-tell what happens in the poem; assume I know that already! Instead, analyze how and why Achilles’ rage is related to his character, to his status, to the Greek heroic code, or to his understanding of his relationships with others. Analyze the purpose of his rage and what ultimately resolves his anger.
Explore the nature of death and its relationship to immortality in the Iliad. One approach to this question is to interrogate how Achilles’ understanding of death changes throughout the poem. Another might be to examine a character like Hector or Patroclus and to compare each character’s approach to death, fame, and immortality.
Read the excerpt on “moral injury” from Dr. Shay’s work with veterans, available as optional reading in Week 3 and attached here as well. Analyze Achilles with reference to this framework of thinking; you might, for example, think about Achilles’ rage as a response to moral injury.
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