Iliad Assignment 2/27

1 Question- I don’t understand what the difference between Diomedes’ speech and Nestor’s speech was.

2 Opinion of Agamemnon- Before reading this I had a very poor outlook on Agamemnon the king. I saw him as a heartless selfish headstrong man, that didn’t care much about the opinions, whether they be good or bad, of others. This was mainly emphasized during his resistance of giving Cryseis back to the Trojans despite his men’s cries to take the offer and return home. Yet, after reading this section my opinion of him altered a lot. I now see him as a man who can admit defeat but acts in a cowardly manner about it. He also showed us that he is very generous himself when he needs help, in the case of his gifts for Achilles. But above all it is clear to me that Agamemnon isn’t clear at all, he is a complicated man and we will have to read more to find out a more complete definition of him.

3 Persuasive Speeches

-Nestor
-Nestor is telling the king how he thinks he should handle the war
-Appeal to emotion and reason
-Because he butters him up in the beginning by telling him all these good things about him then tells him what’s up

-Odysseus
-Odysseus is trying to persuade Achilles to fight for them again
-Appeal to emotion, ethics and reason
- he appeals to emotion and ethics by telling him of how the men need him to fight so that they wont all die

-Diomedes
-Diomedes is trying to tell Agamemnon what he thinks that he should do in their situation
-Appeal to ethics
-He is appealing to reason because he talks about how Zeus gave him honor when he gave him the scepter and that by retreating he is sacrificing honor of all Greeks