Abstract

Homer's 'The Iliad' candidly portrays how patriachy socialises men into believing that an ideal man was the one who expressed his aggression through all forms of violence including war and gender based violence. Any form of masculinity which deviates from this script of hegemonic masculinity was denounced as effeminate and cowardly as all male characters in 'The Iliad' associated kindness and tenderness with that group in society that was constantly disparaged as being the 'weaker' sex, women. In any patriarchal society like the Homeric world, male homosociality encourages men to adhere to the code of hegemonic masculinity. In 'The Iliad', becoming a distinguished warrior and sacrificing one's life in the battlefield is depicted as one of the most honourable vocations that a man could engage in. Through the framework of masculinity studies, the paper examines how the dominant men of the patriarchal society of 'The Iliad' employed violence as an instrument of asserting their hegemony over subordinate men and women and affirming the ideology of male supremacy.