Violence is a means to an end. Violence is not something most humans resort to for entertainment. Violence is, however, the right thing to do in certain situations. With violence comes great power. Power and violence go hand in hand. When violence is displayed, the power of the individual is shown to those around them. In both the Hebrew Bible and The Iliad, violence is described as a means to an end. The reason is that violence allows an individual or deity to display their powers, while simultaneously realizing their personal and communal ambitions. Just as mortals have their own goals, deities also have an agenda. God, in the Hebrew Bible, has only two goals: to make humans blindly obey him and to punish them if they disobey him. In order to carry out both of his plans, God uses violence. In Exodus 32, the Israelites who fled Egypt insulted God by "making themselves a molten calf, bowing down to it and sacrificing to it" (Exodus 32:8), and claiming that the calf was the one who had taken them out of the country. Egypt (Exodus 32:4). By worshiping the idol of the calf, the Israelites had turned away from God. Because the Israelites disobeyed God, he ended up pursuing his other objective: to punish the people who had disobeyed him. Because of the Israelites' foolish act, God chose to inflict pain on them: "Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because of what he had done with the calf that Aaron had made" ( Exodus 32:35). Since God never appeared before humans as a man, the only way the Israelites experienced God's wrath and disappointment, and ultimately the power He yielded, was through His physical punishment: the plague. . Furthermore, vice versa, the plague was the physical representation God needed to... middle of paper ... all Trojan men will fight for their beloved Troy, and also keep it from collapsing. The Trojans had no choice but to fight. They had to resort to violence to achieve the goals of the people. They must use all the power in their power to defend their only home. If they do not do this, they will demonstrate a weakness which the Greeks will then take for granted. Violence, once again, is a necessity to achieve a common goal in a city under attack. Violence, even if it is sometimes morally reprehensible, is sometimes the best way to solve a problem, to achieve a goal. Because violence is a demonstration of a man's powers, violence allows an individual to show off their power and prowess. Therefore, violence and power are attributed to the ability of an individual or society to achieve what they aspire to.