Paper Topics | Fall 2007 | Paper 1
Maximum Length 1500 words
Due Saturday, September 15th 5 p.m., in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox.
The first line of the Iliad suggests that Achilles' anger is the central topic of the epic. His anger plays out, however, in a context that includes the anger of other mortals as well as immortals. Does Achilles' anger differ from that of the gods or other mortals? What does this difference (or similarity) say about Achilles, including the changes he undergoes in the course of the epic? Build your argument based on a close analysis of two passages (each of not more than approximately 200 lines), one concerning the anger of Achilles and the other concerning the anger of a god or another mortal. Examples of possible passages are the anger of Zeus (Book 8), the anger of Hera (Book 4), the rage of Diomedes (Book 5), and the anger of Achilles (Books 1, 9, 16, etc.). Please do not consult outside sources for your paper.