The Bacchi essays

The Bacchi essays Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle Would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal, So neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost Nor would I urge you into fighting where men win glory. But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us In their thousands, no man an turn aside nor escape them, Let us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield to others Sarpedon speaks this passage to Glaukos, why Sarpedon was chosen to speak these words might be because he was the result of one of Zeus many affairs. Sarpedons courage is also mentioned in line 104 of book twelve, which helps to support his words in this passage. The passage itself deals with the build up of the Trojans breaking through the defense that the Achians had constructed to defend their ships and men. It is at the end of book twelve that Hektor with the aide of Zeus breaks through the Achian wall by throwing a massive rock, which appears to be Herculean in nature. What makes this even more remarkable is that the Trojan forces had bombarded the wall with all their might and had been unable to break through. Then, when it appeared that they would not be able to do it, Hektor stepped up and in true Heroic fashion solved the problem. A common question which comes up, is why in many Greek stories do you see people fighting a battle in which they now they are going to loose. The attack on the Trojans was of very little consequence to many of the men who were at this battle. If they one or lost would not overly affect their cities, except for the fact that either way there would be far fewer men when they returned. So why then did the fight these battles? The answer is really quite simple. In ancient Greek civilization, there existed a Heroic code that had to be followed. The Consequences for not following this code was disgrace, which was worse then death. No man would want his name disgraced, for not only...