Not only is it, in the rivalry between its main protagonists, Achilles and Hector, an evocation of the spirit of the Heroic Age, but also confirmation of the collective tragedy which results from Man's primary sin : hubris.
Ancient historical civilization of Greece will use this legendary conflict as subject matter to define its culture; the legends of Medea, Clytemnestra, Electra, Andromache, Iphigenia, Helen and Cassandra, iconic references of a male dominated civilization; where woman remains the ultimate prize as daughter of Aphrodite.
The limits of the Heroic age are highlighted in the Iliad, as both protagonists die defending irreconcilable hubris. Mutual destruction is their inexorable Nemesis; of human pride and its emblematic civilization.
Only Ulysses comes out unscathed from this collective demise to live the sequel which is the route to follow for future man : Go West young man! Discover the world, be the passer of knowledge. By doing this, Ulysses incarnates the spiritual son of Prometheus and Hercules as searcher of new frontiers.
The resulting decline of Mycenaean Greece of the Bronze Age effaced by the Dorian invasions, once resuscitated by Homer's evocative poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey, will inspire the new city state culture of Greece in Athens and Sparta, as elsewhere in Corinth and Thebes; in memory of those past icons celebrated at the Olympic games, as its ancient Gods at Temple of Delphi.
The link to the modern age will appear through the voyage of Ulysses, mythical father of the Mediterranean civilization as he charters its waters from Tyre to Lisbon. His example will inspire both the descendants of Troy in founding Rome as those of Tyre in founding Carthage. The Hellenes having affirmed their local implantation in the Aegean region will look on towards the East where resides the cultural reference of that age, the Persian empire of the Achaemenids, successors to Babylon, Nineveh and the Medes. Birthplace of all Eurasian culture.
The ancient historical age of West will begin in the context of conflict between these two civilizations around 500 BC, moment when the age of Democracy and Republic are born in Athens.
Western civilization will never look back, as by their victory over the Persians, the subsequent flowering of culture and political science in Athens will irrigate each succeeding civilization on a continuous basis.
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