Just like the characters in the Iliad are faced with life changing decisions, people

now and always have been put in similar situations, where the choices they make are

potentially life changing.

How one decides to live their life is shown by the choices they make. In The Iliad

Achilles essentially has to choose to live or die. Achilles says, “Cattle and fat sheep can

all be had for the raiding, tripods all for the trading, and tawny-headed stallions, but a

man’s life breath cannot come back again… Mother tells me, the immortal goddess

Thetis with her glistening feet, that two fates bear me on to the day of death. If I hold out

here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I

voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies…” (book 9). Like Achilles

many people today have the choice of going the safe route and being forgotten or taking

risks and making a name for themselves.

In the end, one is remembered for the difference they make, the lives they

changed, and the risks they took. The people who are easily forgotten are the ones who

took the safe route.