Homer's Iliad is laden with messages and ideals that people of ancient Greece once .
valued and to some extent we still value today. There are recurrent themes throughout the epic .
that support Homer's main message which was learning life lessons and growing as an .
individual. The main themes of the Iliad are heroes" code of conduct, honor and rage, .
hospitality/community, greed and power, the definition of a hero, and social systems between .
Greeks and Trojans. Homer gets his message across through the acts of hubris committed by .
characters and the consequences that are ultimately paid by committing this hubris. .
Homer uses Achilles as an example of a character that commits hubris through the entire .
epic quite consistently. The Iliad begins with Achilles" selfish and childish acts of rage. Achilles .
allows for his emotions to overpower him throughout the epic. First when he prays to Thetis for .
his comrades to be killed so that Agamemnon will beg him to return to fight the Trojans. .
Achilles continues to act like a child and less of a hero until Patroclus" death.
Homer has a way of making the reader have a love and hate relationship with the hero .
Achilles. There are times when his acts are so inhuman that he must be hated but towards the end .
you realize that he can be human. In the last few books Achilles really show his aresteia. He's an .
excellent fighter and Homer makes it clear that is what is valued in their society and it's what .
will bring the hero the greatest honor and glory. Achilles at one time pondered the reasons for .
remaining at Troy and fighting the Trojans. It is a human thing to question your own existence. .
He actually considered for a brief moment living a long and dull life rather than a short and .
glorious one. Books 23 and 24 of the Iliad show how Achilles becomes human again by .
participating in the social system of the Greeks. He does this through Patrocolus" funeral games .