The second thing is the appearance Achilles makes in The Odyssey, where his shade appears and tells Odysseus, point blank, “I’d rather be the slave of a poor farmer, and be alive on the Earth, than be the most honored warrior amongst the dead.” Or words to that effect. When Achilles has his emotions under control he is actually the wisest character in Homer’s works.

Now, he doesn’t become a total pacifist by any stretch of the imagination. He takes pride in the news that his son has made a name for himself as a warrior, and wishes he could get back up to the Earth to help his father fight off his enemies. But, he has at least matured some, considering he starts off in love with war for it’s own sake.

There is simply no way to jibe these statements, made by the hero of these stories, with the modern stereotypes of Homer’s audience. If they were truly in love with war and all things martial, not only would they not pay poets to recite Homer’s works, with these pro-peace themes, they certainly wouldn’t sit through the dozens and dozens of hours it takes to recite these works. In fact, if the situation had been like that, it’s unlikely the poems would survive in their current form, as these themes would have been edited out by poets, as it would probably be very dangerous to point out to a ‘death before dishonor’ type that his honor is worthless and that he would be better off as another man’s slave.