Studying the Iliad shows the reader that war, even in the long past, was not always viewed as glorious. The Greeks viewed it as an evil necessity. That is why when Thresities suggests that the Greeks leave and go home, he is condemned by Odysseus. But the war is never a joyous pursuit, and many of the warriors, such as Odysseus, regret ever being forced to participate in the war at all, no matter how many titles and spoils they might win. The Iliad teaches the reader that hatred of violence is not something new to our modern society, but has existed since the beginning of time.

Paradise Lost teaches a similar lesson, showing the evils of war dramatized in the persona of Satan, who, even after being defeated by God is still determined to inflict his evil upon the world:

What though the field be lost?

All is not...
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