大學英語讀書筆記 The legend of Troy
I have never been to Troy, but David Maule made me feel as if I were standing on the high wall of Troy, watching the fierce war. Thanks to this British author, who adapted the famous Homer’s poem into a lively story, I found it easier to understand this story. Though the story happened over 3000 years ago in a remote place, I was deeply fascinated by it.
The mysterious plot is one of the reasons why I loved The Story of Troy so much, yet I am more interested in the human heroes of the war.
Hector was the eldest son of king of Troy, Priam. He was not only a real hero of Trojan, but was regarded the highest moral hero in Greek classic by later historians. The war started because of the mischief of his brother, Paris, whom he didn’t appreciate. However, since Hector was the commander of the Trojan army, he was obliged to fight with all force. It was really a tragedy that such a valiant man died in the duel with another great warrior, Achilles.
It is natural to see death in a war. As a famous Chinese parable says, “A life can be as slight as a piece of feather, or as weighty as Mount Tai.” Sometimes, one’s glory walks hand in hand with one’s doom. Achilles was such a typical person. His personal charm made The Story of Troy more attractive. He was so crucial because his every appearance in a war encouraged his fellow soldiers and terrified the enemies. Actually, Achilles was half-god who was almost invincible in people’s mind. That’s why his name was memorized long after his death.
Besides the two great men, the wisdom of Odysseus also proved him to be a great hero. He didn’t want to attend the war because he was happily married and had a lovely son. However, since his country was allied to Mycenae, he had to take the command given by the king of Mycenae. I’m quite sure that the story of the wooden horse is widely known, however, few people know who thought of the brilliant idea, that’s why I admired Odysseus so much because he was the person who got the idea. Thanks to the horse, the ten-year war came to an end at last. If you want to know how the wooden horse worked, just read the book.
The ancient Greeks believed that the gods and goddesses also played important roles in the origin, process and ending of the whole story.
The story of the golden apple was such an example. When Eris, the goddess of argument and disagreement, threw out the golden apple to a wedding ceremony on Mount Olympus, a dispute happened. Hera, the queen of gods, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, were all involved in the argument for the apple. None of them was willing to give way, so they turned to Paris for a final judgment. Tempted by Aphrodite’s beauty and promise, Paris handed the apple to her. To keep her word, Aphrodite helped him to get Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as his wife. That was the cause of the war.
Paris’s choice obviously annoyed the other two goddesses. So during the war, they helped the Greek alliance army while some other gods, such as Apollo and Aphrodite, guarded Troy. When Paris dueled with Helen’s former husband Menelaus, Aphrodite saved Paris when he was about to be finished off.
After the duel between those two people, there was a truce between the Greek alliance and Troy. However, both Hera and Athena were not happy to see it. Hera pursued her husband ZEUS:“ Now, will you send Athena to make the Troyjans break the peace?”(Page 22) Then with Zeus’s permission, Athena went down to start the war again and finally she brought the Greeks to success.
From the whole story, we can see that in ancient Greeks’ view, gods sometimes played a much more important role in their life. However, with the rapid development of science, we have learned that the Greek gods never existed. This is why a recent movie of Troy has not mentioned a single god. Everything happened due to men’s ambition, love, loyalty or jealousy. With those emotion and people’s effort, we human beings can accomplish wonders and be master of the world.
God are of less importance than they used to be. Nonetheless, the gods and goddesses made The Story of Troy more mysterious and marvelous.
I have learnt from the book more than the wonderful story of history, love and war. I believe that human can determine their destiny by their own. I highly recommend this book to my friends.
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