Genealogy Of Achilles's Power In The Iliad

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Nietzsche not only establishes the genealogy of morality but also comes up with the statement that, “ In losing our fear of man we have also lost our love from him, our respect for him, and even our will to be man. The sight of man now makes us tired...we are tired of man” (OGM Nietzsche). He believes that in modern civilization since there are no real problems or anything to fear, there are no people striving for something, thus, there is no modern day hero. Furthermore, the greek gods in The Iliad mirrored Achilles and Achilles mirrored the greek gods. Particularly, there are many times the gods try to show their power over Achilles who is very god like. Nonetheless, this can be seen as a mirror as to how Achilles tries to show his power…show more content…
The dominance the river, Xanthus, has over Achilles clearly shows the distinction of gods and mortals. On the other hand, it can serve a mirror of the gods to Achilles. Achilles is known as the most powerful man by both the Trojans and Achaeans, he shows his power by sending Zeus to attack the Achaeans. Achilles knew that when he wanted to, he could bring Achaeans to victory against the Trojans. Likewise, not only did the greek gods mirror Achilles but they also had many human qualities. Such as, the arguments and fight between Hera and Zeus would not be seen as godly, they would even be seen as childish. In general the gods possessed much power but were still very irrational and would take action on impulse, much like Achilles had done throughout the story. Both Achilles and the greek gods had nothing to fear, although Achilles takes action on impulse he is never truly afraid of anything not even of dying. Similarly, the gods only have trivial concerns to worry about, such as, their ranking and so on but they never truly have anything to

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