War and Property

The Iliad is the first great epic to depict War and the gruesome deaths that the warriors inevitably faced. Some historians still question how the war between the Greeks and the Trojans errupted. According to Homer, the ten year war began due to Paris, Prince of Priam, stealing Menelaus’s wife Helen. Menelaus, Achaean and brother of Agamemnon, naturally was angered and demanded for his wife to be “returned”. The war soon broke out and the Gods began to intervene complicating the war and stripping warriors from their agency. The main objective of the war, according to Homer, was to retrieve Helen. Through the very cause and objective of war, women were seen as prizes and property. For example, Agamemnon leader of men stole Briseis from Achilles causing him to flee the war and stop fighting. Achilles was enraged and believed he deserved Briseis since she was his prize. Achilles’s tantrum and desire further demonstrates women being objects/prizes to man. This very idea can be bridged to wars fought for property or territory in the past. Of course nations did not fight for women but they believed in expanding their powers by conquering land and making it their property. They were ruthless if their property was taken from them. According to the article “Mexican-American War” written by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, the Mexican-American War was fought between the United States and Mexico (April 1846-February 1848) and it stemmed from the annexation of Texas in 1845. President James K. Polk sent John Slidell on a secret mission to Mexico City to attempt to negotiate a deal to purchase New Mexico and California for up to thirty million dollars. Mexican President Jose Joaquin Herrera refused the negotiation and Slidell fled back to report to President Polk. On May 9, 1846, Polk began to prepare a war message to congress justifying that their refusal to pay American claims was unacceptable. “Most Whigs viewed Polk’s motives as conscienceless land grabbing. And abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power when additional slave states were created out of the soon-to-be-acquired Mexican lands” (Britannica, paragraph four). The United States felt as if they owned property that already belonged to Mexico just as Agamemnon already claimed Briseis and took her from Achilles. Ultimately, wars can be fought for property and which reflect the Trojan War from The Iliad.

Works Cited

Fagles, Robert, and Bernard Knox. The Iliad. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking, 1990. Print.

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Mexican-American War” Britannica. 19 August. 2014.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/379134/Mexican-American-War>
 
Image Sources
http://www.thejohnsongalleries.com/Achilles_Triumphant.jpg
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/1-mexican-american-war-battle-of-buena-everett.jpg