Horrors of War

            The Iliad illustrates man’s desire for kleos, for war spoils, and for honor. All of these come from battle. Homer gives many heroes an aristeia, eternalizing their glory in war in his poem. Cowards are depicted within the poem as those who run from battle, or do not fight bravely (example: Paris at the beginning of the epic). It is easy to take all of these angles into account and believe that the Iliad is propaganda for war, and the violence and carnage that comes with it is just part of the process. 

            But then we have the so called “battle books”. These books in the Iliad are doused in brutality and gore. We receive detailed and disturbing accounts of death. It is possible to assume that these books are describing the horrors of war, not the glories.          

            "And all their blind desire was the shred flesh with stropped bronze, eyes squinting against the glare of helmets and corselets-just polished that morning-and the confusion of shields, like so many suns shining through a bristling forest of spears. It was glorious to see-if your heart were iron, and you could keep from grieving at all the pain" (13.350-6).

            In this quote from Book 13, the audience, those who originally saw these horrors as glorified, is called out as having iron hearts. This quote emphasizes that the horrors of war are not beautiful, but horrible. The grief that war causes cannot be easily justified by pretty words and bloody spoils. The pain that war brings is real.

            Homer may emphasize man’s desire for kleos, but he also greatly emphasizes the brutality of war. Therefore should we read the Iliad as propaganda for war, or for propaganda of the horrors that come with it?

Pledge: Michaela Knipp