The idea of ​​glory is an inseparable cloud that surrounds every epic story. All characters and actions aim to achieve endless honor and glory. For Homer and his works, the one action that best captures eternal glory is a heroic death. Although ideas of wisdom (the god Athena, for example) and love (Aphrodite) permeate their culture and religion, the life of a great man is summed up by his heroic death. Heroism in death is obsessively desired because heroes attempt to achieve the one thing humanity will never achieve: immortality. Their religion is based on the worship of immortal human beings with power, not forces or a perfect God (and certainly not our modern Jehovah). In a sense, through a heroic death and a lasting legacy, the heroes of Homer's writings strive to become the immortal gods they worship. And in the oral tradition of Homeric culture, this can only be done through commemoration and tales passed down through time. Death, for a hero, is the beginning of his immortality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay To capture the immortality heroes desire, they must have a just purpose for their death. This goal is best achieved in combat. In a sincere discussion with his wife, who begs him not to fight and not to die, the mighty Hektor of the Trojans proclaims: “One day, seeing you shedding tears, a man will say of you: “Here is the woman of Hektor, who was ever the most valiant fighter of the Trojans, horse trainers,/ in the days when they fought around Ilion. (6:458-462) The fact that his wife is a widow does not bother him as long as his inheritance lasts long. His heroic death in battle will live on and grant him immortality, which is far more important than simply living his life with his wife and son. Another hero who meets a heroic death is Patroklos, Achilles' life companion. When Achilles refuses to join the battle against the Trojans, Patroklos takes action and joins the battle. After brutally slaughtering numerous Trojans, he is put to death with the help of a god. Having fallen into his mortal fate.../that killed me (16:849), Patroklos is immediately granted endless glory for his bravery in battle by the words of Homer. An entire book of The Iliad is devoted to describing a battle for his body, and the mere fact that Homer speaks of him in this sense is to his eternal praise. Achilles best illustrates the hero's feelings of death. This is a special case, because he knows that he is doomed to die and that he will die soon. When his best friend and companion is destroyed in battle, he is faced with the ultimate choice: avenge the death of a friend and die, or let the killer go and live. This isn't even a question for the true epic hero, and Achilles, of course, chooses to die. He declares: “So I must die soon; since I was not supposed to stand beside my companion/when he was killed.../so I too, if this is the fate that has been reserved for me,/I remain motionless.../But now I must gain excellent glory..." (18:98-121) The glory of revenge and battle is far more important than life itself (however, this feeling will be modified later in Homer's work) Achilles' death, although never depicted in Homer's work, undoubtedly embodies a heroic and immortal death. In Homer's epics, the real death of a hero and. the goal behind it must be honorable in order to obtain the desired immortality. The immortality obtained by the heroes is underlined by the presence of.the closest thing Homer has to an afterlife: Hades. Mortal beings are said to enter the underworld of Hades after death. It is not a place like the Heaven/Hell dichotomy that modern religions emphasize, but a place where all beings go after death. Homer uses Hades as a metaphor for the continued existence of the heroes of his epics, despite their death. Even after Patrokle's death, we see him reappear to ask Achilles to bury him. Achilles says: "Oh, marvel! Even in the house of Hades there remains something,/a soul and an image..." (23:103-104) Achilles leaves us with the idea that the actions of the heroes can resonate throughout long after they are gone. The theme of the hero living despite death is quite evident here. The goal of immortality is most certainly achieved through commemoration, and Homer commemorates heroes through their speeches from the dead. This is best seen in The Odyssey, in which Homer allows the audience to visit Hades through the eyes of Odysseus. The fallen heroes of his epics return to speak of their lives and deaths. Agamemnon speaks of his premature murder by his wife, which stands in stark contrast to the valiant deaths of the other heroes. Heracles returns to speak of his arduous but glorious life. More importantly, Achilles returns to talk about being dead. He says: “I would rather follow the plow like another man's slave, with no land allotted to him and little means of living, than be the king of all the dead who have perished. (11:489-491) This is a modification of his previous idea of ​​death, and in fact a complete contrast to Homer's earlier views on death. He suggests that there is no point in living life only to die gloriously. However, this posthumous epiphany only suggests Homer's commemoration of the great Achilles and how he served a better purpose alive than in legend form. From the first page of The Iliad, Achilles represented the incarnation of the hero. Today, after his disappearance, he is an enlightened being who continues to learn and teach the living about heroism and death. Homer also gives his audience an alternative view of Hades through his Hymn to Demeter. In this poem we see a much more effeminate view of death, as the story revolves around the loss of a daughter by a mother. The personification of Hades in the story reveals a more sympathetic view of the afterlife, while drawing strong parallels between death and sex. The stories in the epics do not address the idea of ​​sexuality as forcefully as the hymn, so this is an illuminating insight from Homer. Persephone's descent into Hades and eventual return, after eating Hades' pomegranate (an obvious metaphor for sex), suggests that the mystery surrounding death may be linked to our ideas about sex, birth and the beginning of life. This can be paralleled with the ideas of a hero being born after his death, as his legacy begins its course in history. As we can see, the hero continues to live through Hades and Homer uses it as a place to bring back the dead and continually commemorate them. The most important act of commemoration are the funeral rites performed after the death of the hero. Homer often devotes pages to delving into the explicit details of these rites. These rites represent the glory and valor of heroes and prepare the ground for their future immortality. The first and most important step of the ritual is the burial of the body. Contrary to our idea of ​​modern warfare, both sides of the Battle of Troy agree to suspend the war while they attend to the funeral rites of the fallen soldiers. Idaios of the Trojans asks the Achains to stop the painful fighting until.