Revenge is a strong motivating force in a wide variety of ancient, and indeed, revenge is one of the prime motivations for heroes and villains alike. The primary difference between the revenge sought by the villain and the revenge sought by the hero is that the hero represents good and therefore has an excuse or a righteous reason for his revenge. Revenge is a central motivation in both The Iliad by Homer and the film The Godfather (Coppola, 1972), and in both, issues of revenge are played out in carefully designed meetings between opposing forces.
The action of Homer's epic The Iliad brings two huge armies together, one inside the walls of Troy and the other outside, as a massive act of revenge for the stealing of Helen. More immediately, though, the poem depends on the desire for revenge on the part of Achilleus. Achilleus is a great warrior, and he is also a proud man who knows his own worth and who is not shy about telling others. At the beginning of The Iliad, Homer indicates through an invocation to the muse that the theme of this work is the anger of Achilleus and its aftermath. This anger is evident from the first as Achilleus argues with Agamemnon, almost coming to blows before the intercession of the goddess Athena. Achilleus is totally dedicated to fighting and to achieving glory on the battlefield, and he does not want to hear any talk of home or family. He wants only to fight the Trojans and succeed. He has been very successful in battle, and it has made him overly proud. He therefore cannot accept the orders of Agamemnon as the poem begins, and he is humiliated at losing the argument to Agamemnon and spends much time after that brooding in his tent.
Achilleus withdraws from the fighting to brood, but he relents sufficiently to send his friend Patroklos in his place. Patroklos is slain by Hector, and Achilleus blames himself and seeks revenge. He feels great dishonor at having failed his friend, thou...