Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey asboth epic poems were revealed in tragic heroism, what we may see in a strong sense of abandoning homes in warrior’s life. A very strong anti-war vision, highly unnatural promotion and ironic romance narrations were enforced in war stories. There is an appropriate act of revenge of the crime in the Trojan War by Aeschylus. The traditional conception of justice shows its problematic nature based on a simple revenge ethic (Johnston, 1995). All Homer’s works depicted war as a horrible and at the same time magnificent company, which was reflected as a fundamental part of ancient Greek society.
In Aeschylus’s Oresteia,war experience in the main constitutes a negative experience upon society, contributing “a democratic politics of disturbance”. Author presented the transformation of Greek society from groups of people to the more ordered system of the city-state and justice, based on system of rules and careful consideration. Aeschylus, a drama innovator, stated that the impact of war led to the conflicts, tensions and ambiguities, reintroducing into the rules of masculine hierarchy (Rocco, 1997).
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Justice as revenge became an integral part of the western culture, what we can see in Odysseus's extremely violent treatment of the admirers to his family. Odyssey is not only a story about war; it is where relations of family members play an important role in society. Odyssey presents its divine heroes as a huge interconnected family. Emotions of Gods influenced greatly the social environment. Moreover, storms, thunder, lighting and other nature disasters were the signs of their quarrels and arguments. However, family preserves moral principles of hospitality, love, sensibility among the aggressive warrior qualities.
Odysseus, the “prototype of the bourgeois individual”, had a great desire to survive in a battle and come home as hero, achieved a great fame and asserted himself as a center of the domestic community.
The Iliad suppressed the truth about the Trojan War, whose hero was force and center subject of this story. Contemporary philosophers compared Homer’s poem with a "method of facing" the Second World War. The Iliad recited by translator and poet, Robert Fagles as “a terrorism study” presenting now military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, echoing on well-known Homer poem (Higgins, 2010).
All Homer heroes are endowed with aggressive and violent traits, were enjoying of the fighting. Homer wasn’t a member of a pacifist movement, praising war in his poems, because it’s people’s destiny, when they are making war, cursing it, and then admiring it in songs and verses. Description of the battle shows no mercy for children and women, soldiers are losing their companions, fathers are losing their sons. However, the reason for the war to start is pointless and stupid.
The Trojan War supplies the most obvious focus for the fragility of civilian life. Feature of the Trojans aren’t deprived of positive human qualities into "ragheads" or "gooks". A true Americanization is shown in warrior’s battle to save own home and household values.
According to Moseley (2002), question of warfare is rather a philosophical problem, dealing with life and death, peace and war. War is mainly a cultural phenomenon, maintaining its cultural and political organization. War presents a lot of tasks, holding numerous meanings and cannot be presented in one explanation within western culture.
Examining above-mentioned poems, we may see that war constitutes a negative experience in western culture leaving after itself cruel and horrific acts for human life.
From my point of view, in life-and-death struggles war destroyed family relations in society.
I totally agree with a song “War, good God, what is it good for?” of a popular singer, Edwin Starr, who pointed out that “War is an enemy to all mankind; it is good for absolutely nothing, took millions of innocent lives, and broke dreams of many people” (Starr).