Status: 55.6 percent of goal.
The Iliad: 180/500
The Odyssey: 176/500
The previous update inspired a Homer-related question. But to me, the real hero of The Iliad has always been entirely obvious.
Which Iliad character would you want to be?
Hector.
Man. You are a weird one. As a Greek I ask this question of northwestern brothers. Almost all answer Achilles. Only The Golden One answered a very Greek answer “Achilles who then turns into Odysseas”. So Hector huh? You sympathise with the Trojans?
Achilles was a whiny little Special Boy bitch who got his best friend killed for nothing, required divine treachery to win his famous duel, and failed to respect even the most valorous. Hector was a man and a true hero, who gave his life for his family and his nation.
“Assuredly to me also are all these things a subject of anxiety, dear wife, but I am exceedingly ashamed of the Trojans and the long-robed Trojan dames, if I, like a dastard, aloof, should avoid the battle: nor does my mind incline me thus, for I have learned to be always brave, and to fight in the foremost among the Trojans, seeking to gain both my father’s great glory and mine own…. Jove, and ye other gods, grant that this my son also may become, even as I am, distinguished amongst the Trojans, so powerful in might, and bravely to rule over Ilium. And may some one hereafter say, returning from the fight, ‘He indeed is much braver than his sire.’ And let him bear away the bloody spoils, having slain the foe, and let his mother rejoice in her soul.”
Homer provides us with an object socio-sexual lesson in The Iliad, as he beautifully demonstrates the difference between the situational Alpha, (who in this case is at heart a supercharged Gamma) and the genuine Alpha. He also shows us the sort of problems that inevitably arise when Gammas achieve power.