Wednesday, November 29, 2017
"The Iliad" Educational Video And Heroic Elements?
What significant idea presented within The Iliad Educational Portal Link Video helps you establish a better understanding of the Heroic Elements: Heroic, Hubris, Guest/Host
(Xenia)? Why? Please explain and defend your thinking using
references to the video's content. This blog response is due by
2:30p.m. Thur., Nov. 30th.
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23 comments:
This video explains how greek stories were told and retold until someone actually wrote them down. The two stories were called Odyssey and Iliad. The Iliad is about Xenia, the hospitality to strangers, and The wrath of Achilles. He was angry because he has to die, his mother did everything she could to make him immortal but she couldn't. Achilles sets out to become a great hero since he cannot be immortal.
In this Iliad video, Xenia is presented as the hospitality to stranger, which was a law governed by Zeus himself that makes sure the people coming to your land are well treated even if they're strangers. This is hard to find to this day because of the awful events that have occurred in the past years. When there was true friendship during this time, people wouldn't try to fight each other and begin war, unless a violation of someone elses belief occurred on their home turf. Thetis knows that she will never die and tries to pass on that ability to her son and succeeds, while only leaving off his heel which is interesting because it can relate to our bodies nowadays. The characters here do not seem like as much of a hero as the ones we have discussed recently because they all seem to have been given their powers early on without having to really work for them and for success.
The fact that Paris betrayed the relationship between guest and host doesn't seem like the worst thing to do, but this part signifies how important that relationship was back then, so important people went to war because of this betrayal. This can even tie into Hubris a bit, as Paris was confident enough in his actions to betray people instead of just taking Helen away with no one knowing it's him.
I learned a lot about Xena. The example of parties taking away Helen in the house he was a guest. I did not know that if he had grabbed Helen while she was outside the war would have been avoided. I did not know that the guest traveler law is called Xena. The law of Xena is a big part of many myths such as Jason and the Argonauts, the Illiad, or the Odyssey. Obeying the laws of Xena are a major part of the greek culture and the video did a good job explaining the existence of the law.
This helps explain Xenia as being a heroic thing in the book. People were supposed to bring others in and be a host during their travels. This rule started the Trojan war where many heroic acts took place between the Greeks and the Trojans. In the video it showed that if Paris would have just kidnapped Helen then the Trojan war would have never taken place because Paris would not have been a guest and Menelaus's house.
The significant detail of the world at the time were laws didn't expand farther than the cities and the wilderness was full of animals and was extremely dangerous. this allows light to be shed on why Xenia was important because it was the only thing that was allowing the Greeks to feel comfortable traveling.
I have a better understanding of the relationship between guest and host. Before I thought hosts invited guest over just to be polite but thanks to the video I learned that there was more to it. Hosts were expected to help guest who had been traveling by providing them shelter and food. I also saw this relationship as benefiting one side only, I didn't think about how the guest could be helping the host like giving news on the outside work according to the video.
I learned a lot more about the importance of Xenia with the educational video. The video helps you see the big picture idea behind some of the aspects of the Greek culture. Xenia is the idea that you absolutely have to provide shelter and hospitality to a traveler. This is because with the dangers in that time period, there might not have been anywhere safe for them to go if someone needed shelter. Then no one would travel at all, and this could stop the spread of ideas throughout Greece. Another thing I learned was that there might not have been a Homer. (I thought there was a Homer, who had just puled a Thomas Edison and took credit for someone else's work.) I didn't learn much else as most of it was review for me, given I recently learned some of this from another source.
The video just made it more clear on why the Greeks focused on all these ideas so much. I never realized just how important xenia was to them. I knew they respected it, but the fact that the Trojan War was started due to the violation of xenia puts into perspective the value they put on it. Also the two soldiers that wouldn’t fight because one of their grandfathers hosted the other’s grandfather is crazy. They have a lot of respect for this stuff. I think the video just helps create a deeper understanding of it all.
The significant idea this video told of was that most hero's within ancient times would set out on a journey for personal gain. Most hero's had a goal set out just as Achilles did. He wanted to earn honor just as most other heroes did. This video also helped with understanding Xenia. Xenia was more then just being nice to people in way it brought many together in different ways just as we saw with Glaucus and Diomedes
Ethan H
It was significant to me that one war was avoided by the law of Xenia, and someone even exchanged armor with the person they were going to fight as a sign of friendship, but the Trojan war was started because the law of Xenia and the whole thing could have been prevented if he had just obeyed it.
It gives me a better understanding of Guest/Host because when Paris took Helen away from the King it was a violation of guest rights. By going into Troy and taking the queen it started the Trojan war, and that might have never happened if Paris didn't take Helen. Another thing it helps me understand is the Heroic code because Achilles has to deal with his mortality, when he has a mother that is immortal. He is angry about this, and his mother is sad about it, so she makes every part of him indestructible except for his heel, which will be his end.
One of the main idea that drives the Iliad and Odyssey are Greek Epics. In the video they talked about Xenia, the idea of a guest and a host. Xenia is giving hospitality to travelers and others. Guest and Host both benefit from Xenia. Host gets insight about what is going on in the world and the guest gets someplace to stay. For example, in the video the speaker talked about Diomedes and Glaucus. Diomedes’s grandfather and Glaucus’s grandfather were host and guest to each other. So, Diomedes and Glaucus promised to not fight each other. This shows that the Greeks valued this idea of Xenia. The speaker also talked about Paris and Menelaus, another guest and host. Paris was a guest in Menelaus’s home along with his wife, Helen. Paris had plans to rob Menelaus, rob him of his wife, Helen. Paris ran off with Helen, therefore breaking Xenia. This started the Trojan war.
Xenia is hospitality. Zeus says you have to give the guests a place and be a good host. Guest/host friendships lasted for a long time. Diomedes and Glaucus are a great example of this relationship. Both their grandfathers had that guest/host friendship all those years ago which made Diomedes and Glaucus decide not to fight. Another example of the guest/host relationship is Paris and Helen of Troy. Paris was promised by Aphrodite that if she won the beauty contest he would have the most beautiful women in the world. Since he was a guest in the house of Helen's husband it starts the Trojan War. If he would have just taken her outside the home it wouldn’t have had a Trojan War but since the guest/host relationship is so special and it breaks their vows of marriage it causes the Trojan War. These ideas from the Iliad help me understand the guest/host relationship better.
The video was showing how serious hospitality was in ancient Greek times. Xenia was a city where travelers could stop and take a rest and then continue on with their journey, so they were a very hospitable city. If there hadn't been Xenia there, "No one would travel at all." The video also theorized that the Trojan war was started by the hospitality in Xenia, because Paris stole Helen of Troy from Menelaus. Paris was a guest within Menelaus' house.
Within the video it clearly laid out several definitions and examples of the Heroic Elements: heroic, hubris, guest/host (Xenia)-- for instance, Xenia was a divine law given down by Zeus that explained the concept of hospitality, and required hosts to be generous and courteous to all guests (it was basically like a sacred law), which is shown throughout the entirety of Greek mythology. In the context about the story of Achilles, we see him driven by pride and hubris, thinking constantly about his own mortality. Moving forward, to be honest, the video stopped before we got to the heroic defining aspects, but I think I understand it pretty well, considering there is always a hero in virtually all myths in some way shape or form, and we've gone over the definition extensively.
While watching the Iliad video it is kind of shocking to hear about this term called "Xenia." Xenia is a law that Zeus created to make sure that strangers are treated with respect coming into your land. This helps me to better understand heroic elements because in modern day you don't just let strangers into your house because of lack of trust but back then it was totally okay, even expected to do that. And when that "Xenia" was broken the trojan war began, showing just how important Xenia truly was.
This video The Iliad Educational Portal Link help establish manything about heros. Starting off with the story about Xenia, about how important hospitality is. It bonds people together, they make relationships that could last forever. But if you are disrespectful and can lead to very bad things, like the Trojan war. Next they talked about the story of Achilles. This was about how he was mad that he wasn't immortal and after working hard and not reviving immortality he became mad and set the goal to be the greatest hero ever. This not only shows that many of the people wanted to be like god, would do whatever it takes, want to be honored in a way, and have anger problems. The iliad just re clarifies things told before.
In the video they talked about how travelers would stay in people house that they didn't know throughout their journey. The hosts and guest would create a bond together and not just the guest would benefit, but the host would also benefit because they get new of the outside word and they get to make new friends. The video also talked about Achilles and how he wanted to be immortal (not able to die) like his mom. These epic hero's we hear about in stories like the Iliad we can relate with as humans because they are seen as human and they have human behaviors/ attributes.
The video shows how important it is to be hospitable to all guests who enter your home. And from this idea stems laws that have made this idea of Xenia sacred and those who violate the guest and host relationship are serious offenders if this great bond. This shows how in depth and serious the Greeks were with traditions. Two warriors who were about to fight stopped and suddenly became friends because their ancestors had shared a home with one another making not only a special bond between the ancestors, but between the warriors.
The video talks about how it was important to take travailing strangers into your house so they had a place to stay for a while and the benefits of it. Also how they can make friendships and learn about whats happening in the outside world and they would trade armor with the person as a sign of friendship.
The video was about hospitality and its importance to the Greek.Without the Xenia law from Zeus then there wouldn't have been tourist stop in the middle of their journey.The stop in the city created a host/guest bond which might have been the purpose of the law in the first place.To start bonds and friendships in one busy city.
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