Immortality in Cavafy's Poems

 While reading C.P. Cavafy's poems about The Iliad for class I began to notice a particular theme in all of them. That theme was immortality. In some of Cavafy's poems the idea of immortality was more prominent than in others but, nonetheless, it is present. For example, the poem entitled "The Horses of Achilles" directly references the immortality of the horses. Zeus feels sorry for the immortal horses because, in a way, they are forced to experience mortality first-hand in witnessing Patroclus' death. In "Interruption", Cavafy clearly indicates the differences between the immortals and mortals. Peleus and Metaneira both interrupt a goddess while she is in the process of turning their child into an immortal. In this way he makes a point as to how clueless mortals are about immortals and how we, inevitably bring about our own mortality. However, in the poem "The Funeral of Sarpedon" the theme is a little subtler. When preparing Sarpedon's body for his funeral Apollo "pours perfume of ambrosia over it, and dresses it in Olympian robes". In other words, it seems as if Apollo has dressed Sarpedon as an immortal would be. This demonstrates the immortality of heroes after their deaths in the stories that are written and told about them. Finally, the most abstract mention of immortality exists in the poem "Trojans". In this poem Cavafy compares the Trojans to "us" which refers to the audience whether that is the Greeks or simply anyone who reads the poem. Regardless of who the "us" is in the poem the reference to immortality still remains. Cavafy's comparison claims that "our efforts are like those of the Trojans" which suggests that we are the Trojans. In this sense the Trojans are immortal because we are they. Even if we are simply like them, we continue to carry on their legacy. We, in our actions, have immortalized the Trojans.
Originally, I considered all of these poems very separate from each other. After establishing this connection through the theme of immortality, however, I begin to question if this wasn't done on purpose. Perhaps there is a specific reason why each of these poems references immortality.