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Family Relationship in Iliad

Iliad is not a mare tale of battles such as Trojan War, but gives literary insights into the characteristics of human interactions. One of the most conspicuous interactions exhibited in Iliad is the parent-child relationship where the epic narrative shows the existence of the world beyond the battle field where parents and children engage in intimate and intense interaction that is characterised by a feeling of interdependency, mutual concern and affection and the feeling of love while other cases depict tension in their relationship that result in negative consequences such as curse and Hatred. The robust relationship between Priam and hector offers a basis of analysing other parent-children relationships and most importantly between Archilles and his mother, Thetis and Phoenix and his father, Amyntor.

The father-Son relationship between Priam and Hector

Priam’s household is superbly presented as a patriarchal family. The Trojan King resides in his Palace with his wife Hacuba, twelve daughters and fifty sons together with their families and children. As such, he is considered as Happy and fortunate. However, at the end of iliad, most of the Priam’s sons had been killed, reducing his status to a miserable man. However, what is most important in this analysis is his relationship with his son, Hector, because he is a hero and conspicuously, the best Trojan worrier.

The bond between Hector and Priam is strong and the fatherly love and care is exhibited in several instances that include Priam’s efforts to bar Hector from fighting with Archilles, his courageous initiative to visit Archille’s tent so as to beseech him to return Hector’s body and the efforts made by Hector to look for his own ways to make his father proud and accomplish his filial duty.

The attitude that Priam holds towards his son shows immense love and concern. While Hector was waiting for his enemy outside the Scaean gates, his parents make attempts to bar him from fighting with Archilles in order to protect him. Priam begs his son not to fight highlighting two varied sets of tensions that include heroic dictates versus parternal desire and king versus father. Basing on the lines of priority, it is evident that his parternal role as a father outweighs his role as a King in the effort of retraining his son from fighting.

Priam’s grief towards loss of his son was absolutely expected,but the way he expressed it was peculiar, portraying his tight and close tie between the father and the son. He immerses himself in mud, groans painfully, and expresses his desire to intrude Archae and camp to get the body of his dead son back. His eagerness is so intense that his people are unable to restrain him and in his grief, he speaks to his people as a morning father rather than a King.

The decision by Priam to visit Archille’s tent and his subsequent accomplishment further reveal the father –son relationship that he had with his son ,Hector. The decision gets supports from the gods, where Zeus judges his as the most appropriate individual to request for Hector’s corpse. This bold initiative to visit Archile’s tent incontestably shows the deep affection and fatherly love towards his son.

Analysis of the relationship between Archilles and Thetis

The relationship between Thetis and Archilles can be considered as the most important mother-son relationship in Iliad. Thetis, a Nereid, fears mortality and is highly overprotective of her son. She is bitter of raising him to hava a short life span.The overprotective is depicted by Priam where he was bitter about his son Hector going to fight Archille and just like Thetis did not have the power over Archiles choice of leading a short life as a mortal, he could not have prevented his fate of dying in the hands of Archilles.

Just like the one between Priam and Hector, the relationship between Thetis and Archilles is characterized by love and concern. She aspire to see her son succeed in his efforts and she gives him knowledge that other mothers of heros cannot do. She informs him of his destiny and goes ahead to commission the famour Archille’s shield from Hephaestus to assists him in his role as a worrier. Archille acknowledges that she loves him and goes ahead to request her not to prevent him from the fight despite the fact that she loves him.

The strong emotional connection between Archilles and Thetis is depicted where Thetis laments her son’s fate ,but she has no ability to save him. She feels sad that he was born mortal, which is accompanies by her sense of guilt. The strong emotional expression resembles that of Priam after the death of Hector where he was struck with grief and could not control his mourning as a father.

From the analysis ,it is evident that the relationship between Thetis and Archille is strong ,loving and caring.However,the connection between the two is cut short by Fate where Archilles was to lead a short life just like any other Mortal,a fact that was beyond his mother’s control despite the fact that she was a godess.

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