Homer vs. The Old Testament: The Telephone Game In the beginning there were three great stories, the stories of Homer and the stories of then what would become the Old Testament. Homer is famous for his epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey. The Iliad is about a man named Achilles and his feud with Agamemnon. This epic poem recounts what events took place in this feud. Homer’s next great piece of work is The Odyssey, a story about Odysseus and a war against the Trojans, and his twenty-year excursion to return home. The Old Testament much like Homer’s tales is an epic poem. The Old Testament is a story about the beginning of creation, and how one figure created the world, a story about right and wrong, and the trials and tribulations of the people of faith. By comparing the characters and the themes of Homer’s epics and the works of The Old Testament one can see the similarities between the two and how word of mouth from one story could have possibly flowed into the …show more content…
Achilles was the greatest Greek warrior of all time; Achilles was valiant, fearless, and a little outlandish at times. Achilles was a bred to fight the Trojans in the Trojan War. Achilles killed thousands of Trojans, and captured dozens of towns in the Trojan territory. Achilles was an extraordinary warrior and deemed undefeatable, but Achilles did have one weakness, and that was his heel. The Old Testament holds a similar story to that of Achilles, in the book of Judges a man of great strength named Samson is introduced. Samson was an Israelite, and his enemy was the Philistines. Samson like Achilles was a great warrior, and was given supernatural strength by God at birth, and his purpose in life was to free the Israelite’s from the Philistines. Samson killed thousands of the Philistines, but like Achilles, Samson had his a weakness as well. Samson’s weakness was his hair, and without it Samson possessed the strength of a normal