REACTION TO THE STORY ILIAD BY HOMER

1. Gods and goddesses possess human like attitude.

The gods and the goddesses in the story of Iliad are too different from the God that we, in this
generation, believe in. Our God, the God of the Christians, is a God that dwells in love and
peace, whereas the gods in the story are those gods that join and even promote wars. While
our God is a God of truth and justice, the gods in this story promotes deceit and injustices.
These gods are not really godly in nature for they behave like that of a human.

2. War do not yearn positive results.

What you sow is what you reap. If you sow anger you will also reap anger. If you promote war,
then you get war in return. The Iliad tells us of a story of a cycle of anger-war-revenge. At the
end of this cycle no one benefits. Taking this concept to the current generation and to our
society today, nothing is different. Races fight against other races, and nations fight against
other nations. This is somehow tiring to know that no one among us knows when these wars
would end. Sadly, too, we have not heard of any person and any nation who benefited from it—
all who participate in war are sure losers.

May we become instruments of love and peace. May this generation be the last generation to
be witnesses of wars, and that the great leaders in our midst may make extra efforts to put
wars to end.

3. The love of a father is immeasurable.

Hectors death was tragic and was agonizing on the part of his father, King Priam. In other
versions of the story, it was said that King Priam begged to their enemies for him to be able to
get the body of his son. This part of the story is emotion filled for it is here where a person, a
father, a king, and a ruler, would take in his pride and willingly accept humiliation for his
beloved son.

4. Friendship to death is a rare find.

Achilles love to his friend is a unique and a rare find. Achilles was very much willing to do the
most extreme—to fight and kill and get even just for a friend. Perhaps, the most valid question
for us today is “What are our friends willing to take for our sake?”

5. We all have Achilles’ heel.

We all are born with special skills. Like Achilles, he made the most out of his gifts. He was
strong and brilliant in battle so he bravely went to war. Similarly, we too, have those special
skills and talents given to us by God and that we need to make use of these. All we need to do
is to discover and be aware of these given talents. Surely, we all have our strengths, however,
let us not forget that although we are given special skills and talents that we also ought to fail
in some occasions in our lives. Achilles has his most vulnerable part which is his heel, we too
have our weak spots in us and we have to discover it, protect it, develop it and turn these as
our strengths and not mere vulnerabilities.
REACTION TO THE STORY ODYSSEY BY HOMER

1. Odysseus is an ancient version of Cardo Dalisay.

The concept of heroism that we see today in the modern media is an old concept of
heroism. Both ABS-CBN’s “Ang Probinsyano” and Homer’s Odyssey seem to fall into a
cliché that a hero in a story must be confronted of countless and impossible conflicts and
challenges yet end up a winner and person of admiration. Cliché as it may seem, but the
reality is that people of ancient as well as the modern generation enjoy this type of
characterization and conflict development in literature.

2. True love waits and true love endures and hopes for forever.
In the story, Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, is portrayed as woman and an epitome of sacrifice,
hope, loyalty, and great love. Despite the uncertainty whether her husband is still alive,
Penelope did not lose hope and waited for her husband to return home though it already
took her a decade of waiting. Penelope is worthy of emulation to men and women.

Authentic love is tested in the absence of a partner. True love waits and endures the test
of time.

3. Love is not possessive; it is rather liberating.

The beautiful nymph Calypso fell in love with Odysseus and imprisoned him in Ogygia. This
prevented Odysseus from going home to his wife.

There are a lot of us today who think and act like Calypso. We think we love the person and
so we imprison the person to our own worlds. Often, we design, we decide, and we shape
the kind of life for the person we love, without knowing that they become imprisoned and
enslaved of the selfish love that we have. But, true love doesn’t work this way and it is
never selfish. We set the person free. We let them decide, shape, and live their own lives
and it doesn’t matter whether we are part of their lives or not.

4. Gender inequality is an ancient issue.

Women in both stories of Iliad and Odyssey are viewed unfairly. In Iliad, women were the
cause of war such that the goddesses argued for a golden apple and that two men went
into war because of Helen. Women is framed as a sin. Similarly, the nymph Calypso, in the
story Odyssey was also a center of ridicule for taking other woman’s husband. Penelope
too, was given lots of men as suitors, gladly she declined them all. Women in these stories
are framed with subtle sexual participations.

5. Life is a marvelous journey.

We are Odysseus of our own seas. The seas we sail on are rough. It requires us of better
sails to endure uncertain winds. It requires us of better skills and strong attitudes for us to
be able to hurdle and conquer great waves and great tides in these ever disturbed seas of
ours. Great sailors are well built in rough seas!