Trojan War: Truth Vs. Myth

The Iliad is a famous epic that tells the story of the Trojan War. When it was originally discovered it was probably hard to discredit any of it's contents. However as time has gone by and science and other things have improved some discrepancies have surfaced. The main one that comes to mind is the Trojan Horse. The one thing that sticks out to me personally about the Iliad is that it states that the Trojan Horse was silent and motionless while other accounts say otherwise and it would be pretty much impossible. It's hard to believe that while this thing is in motion the soldiers inside were silent. With the movement  they would be thrown around and that would make noise. That doesn't even account for the added sounds of breathing, coughing, and other natural sounds. Also odd to me is that when a man is discovered inside he tells a false story and is believed almost immediately. This just seems extremely unrealistic no matter how you think of it. This wouldn't make sense in any time period or situation for that matter... In the end the Iliad is a fantastic source of information for the Trojan War but like almost all great writings some information should be taken with a grain of salt. We can only hope to find more information as time goes by.

Achievements and Setbacks in a Great Leader's Life.

In what ways do the lives of great leaders show a mixture of achievements and setbacks?  Do you think less of leaders who show weakness or encounter failure?  Think of one or two great leaders, either living or dead, and freewrite about triumph and tragedy in their lives. 


The lives of great leaders show many examples of setbacks and achievements alike. This can be seen in all stages of history and present time. I myself do not think less of leaders who encounter failure or show weakness. They are only human after all and everyone fails or shows weakness sometimes... Also I believe that if a leader has the ability to fail and bring themselves out of that, it shows a lot about their ability as a leader. In the end I think it is important to both fail and succeed. Without failure we wouldn't have consequence or a reason to try to succeed...