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What was Aeschylus’s view of the Trojan war? Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, Greece, in the late sixteenth century BC. He died in Gela, Italy, in the mid fifth century BC. He was known in ancient Greek history as “the father of tragedy”. He has earned this title because he wrote many Greek tragic plays. It was said that he wrote many plays, however, not very many of the plays still survive to this day. A very small amount. Probably his most famous tragedy ever was a play called “Agamemnon”. In this play he includes some of his account on the Trojan War. He only provides brief accounts of his view of this devastating and famous war, however. This is a dramatic tragedy and one who wants to read it and understand it needs to do more than just read it.

The Trojan war was a very famous war. However, nobody knows if the Trojan War even existed.  However, some people spend their entire life searching for Troy, trying to prove that Troy really existed, and then trying to figure out if the Trojan war really happened. There is very little proof, however, some people believe that they are extremely close to uncovering the truth about Troy and the Trojan War. The war was said to have lasted ten years. And in the end of the war, Troy was eventually destroyed forever. It was said that the Greeks were the ones fighting the Trojans. They too, suffered a great loss of Greek warriors and men.

In the play, the main character was Agamemnon. The play showed him offering up a human sacrifice, his own daughter, Iphigenia. This sacrifice was to settle issues that are war related. In this tragedy, the play itself was not wicked, but the attitude of Agamemnon was wicked. It was wicked of him to kill his daughter and show no mercy to her. He did not even struggle to command the act of killing her. He was very wicked. Aeschylus, I think, was trying to say how the Trojan war effected the minds of people. If that is what he was trying to say, then they were wicked people during the war. This was just one of the wicked things that took place during the war. Imagine what other things were going on during the war! I think that what Aeschylus was trying to say, is that the Trojan War poisoned and destroyed the minds of people.

There was not even justice during the war! If someone killed a family member of yours, than you and your family had the right to get revenge by killing the person who killed your family member. Bloodshed was justified by even more bloodshed. In the play, men had no morals, and without morals, mankind are no more than animals. The ability to apply reason. That is the thing that sets man aside from animals. Take away reason from man, and they become animals, having no mind of their own. Do not become like those men (yes, I am talking to you). Those are some of the reasons of Aeschylus’ view of the Trojan war. 

Hesiod was a Greek poet. He was regularly thought He wrote many poems including The Theogony, in which he tells us he tells of the genealogy of the Greek gods.  Another great poem he wrote was Works and Days, in which he try’s to persuade his brother Perses to share the land which their father had given him after he died. In this poem it has two parts. The first part gives him advice on ethical instruction on the way humans should live their lives. The second part gives him advice on how humans should practically live. In this poem by Hesiod, the purpose of it was to persuade Perses into sharing the land with him. However, Hesiod included his view of “mankind’s past and future” in this poem.

Hesiod tells us through his poem that there were five ages of humankind. First, there was the golden age. It was a perfect world, man stayed young and did not grow up, and man lived like gods. Second, there was the silver age. Man had to work. However, man did not grow up until they were one hundred years old. Third, there was the bronze age. In this age, everything was made of bronze. The animals, the food, the plants, even the people! Fourth, there were the demigods. The demigods were a race of hero men. Not quite gods, yet, not quite man. Fifth, was the iron age. Hesiod tells us that the iron age is the era that we humans live in now. As we can see, the iron age is the lowest out of all the ages. He also tells us that the iron age is doomed. He says that in the future Zeus, the king of the gods, will ultimately destroy us forever.

Despite this tragic event that Hesiod thought would take place, he still said that man should still pray to and rely on Zeus to help them (weird). Hesiod is telling us that, being man, we should live our lives in justice and hard work. However, at death, it is over. The future for mankind has death written all over it.

According to Hesiod, in order to live a good life until death comes, you need to pray and listen to Zeus and live our lives according to how he wants us to live our lives. If a person does not do this, and worse, does not even ask Zeus for how his life shall be lived or something that Zeus really does not like at all, Zeus shall inflict on him terrible sanctions. However, if a person asks Zeus for help, and lives his life accordingly, he shall attain rewards from Zeus. If a man is able to please Zeus and make him happy by doing what he said, then you can attain short term rewards from him on earth. But in the future of mankind, there is only death and darkness for everyone on this earth, and Zeus is basically that darkness and death.

The Theogony was written by Hesiod. It is a poem focused on the dumb, Greek gods. It tells of their origin, birth, genealogies, etc. Hesiod was a Greek poet and is called the “father of Greek didactic poetry” very often. Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, is all true, talking about God, how the world came into order, and how man was created. It was written by God, the true god. In this essay, I will be saying the differences between the two books.

In the Theogony, it mentions gods being formed somehow and then them making more gods and it keeps going on and on and on. So, the Theogony has a lot of gods mentioned in it. Where as in Genesis, God was there in the beginning. He was not supernaturally created. He was no created by another. He is also the only god. There is only one god in the Bible. That is a huge difference between the two books.

Another one, is that in the Theogony, there were only human, immortal men to begin with. The gods created them and were done. However, man did something that the gods did not like and as punishment, the gods gave them human, immortal women as a curse. However, in Genesis, God created man, and then as man started to get lonely God created woman as a gift, a blessing. I do not know why the Theogony says that woman is a curse given by the gods to mankind, but who agrees with me that that is just weird? I am going to guess everyone who reads this essay will agree with me.

These two books are both origins of the universe, however, they are from completely different world views. The  Theogony was accepted by the Greeks, and the Bible was accepted by the Hebrews. The Bible, specifically the book of Genesis, tells how the world came into order. On day one God created the heavens and earth. On day two God created the firmament. On day three God created the dry land and vegetation. On day four God created the sun, moon, stars, pretty much everything other than the earth and heavens. On day five God created the birds of the sky and sea creatures. On day six God created land creatures and man. On day seven God rested. In the Theogony Hesiod does not know how the world came into order, but he claims that he got his words from the Muses, which he says are the daughters of the god Zeus. That is so, so not right.

The Theogony and Genesis are both very different, like different gods, different world views, etc. There are too many differences to even fit in this entire paper! However, I gave you some of the main differences between these two books. Basically, the entire books themselves and everything they have in them are different. I am so glad that I believe in the Bible and not Hesiod’s Theogony.