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Shield Of Achilles

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You will lie and steal and kill and all that would be pardoned, reciprocated or paid for. The shield of Achilles warms the reader with luxurious detail and painstaking rhetoric of the land of Greece? Where women are seen dancing and waiting for the men on the threshold of the houses and where the heavens are blessed by the cosmos and the sun and the moon with no quarrel or envy between them. The city is described as full of bustling citizens alive and bursting with emotion. One of those emotions being anger in the lower levels of the shield; there is a man discussing payment with another. Payment for something that nowadays no one can place a value upon.

The shield of Achilles contains many subplots and plot holes and gives the public …show more content…
Having a specific group that decides hold power within society. At least in this story, there seems to be no King or Queen to listen to the community and be the judge. Who decides who the elders get to be? is it a rigorous training, is it who you know, is it how many games of dominos that you win. Is it who has more hair, or a bigger beard, or who can recite Homer better? They have the ability and the duty to listen to appeals and to determine who in the right. Through tricks and incentives, they hope to reach the most honest and truthful answer of the parties. Even then the Greeks saw the true nature of humanity and its flaws. Far easier is it to lie and try to convince the other person to pity you than it is, to tell the truth, and stand by the consequences. The story gives vague statements in the sense of details. It remarks to the elders as a group, but at the time of the decision, it reverses itself and the elder becomes singular. The inglot's have no real owner there is no clear decision on whether it belongs to the two countrymen or the elder. The elders are described as lunging into a discussion which gives the impression of an unorganized system where everyone speaks at the same time and whoever speaks the loudest is the one …show more content…
Before this problems were solved by brute force and duels whoever threw the best punch got the prize. It was so ingrained into society that there was a word to describe the struggle between parties and the contest on who winst in a conflict. Agon was seen as the basis of not only Greek but many cultures Homer was not the first to come up with the idea of an eye for an eye, it was the default way to solve any discourse occurring within a group. After this people began to evolve and become more hierarchical and structured. Soon kings and emperors were being seen as not only as a divine person chosen by gods but by a person with real power within a society and its daily lives. The basileus as described in McDowell takes the role of the firm but loving father who seeks to persuade the subjects to reconcile. It is also during this time when the introduction of a third party began to become the norm during disputes that the idea of istor began. Before since the problem was contained to only those involved there wasn't any need for investigation. With the introduction of the third party, the idea of skepticism and fact checking began to be the normal routine

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