The Path to True Happiness: Choosing Love over Desire Essay -- Homers

Motivation is the campaign why people behave the way they do. It is the driving force stool human behavior and is what compels actions toward a needd goal. There are bounteous amounts of varying motivating forces. In Homers Iliad, it is honor and glory, whereas, know drives Augustines actions in The Confessions. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius holds that the transient nature of life be the incentive behind human action. Despite the differences in reasoning and motivation, both four texts demonstrate the natural tendency of human race to give into desire in pursuit of happiness. However, true happiness only exists in churchman have it off. As follows, focusing on the ego and ones desires results in separation from and rejection of divine love and leads, inevitably, to unhappiness and harm to oneself and others. The desire and last goal of the heroes in The Iliad is the fame that endures even after expiration. Honor and glory pack every action and response they make because honor and glory congeal the hero in their society. The war served as an opportunity for many to stupefy honor and glory, as they could be gained through great, gallant deeds in battle. Achilles and Hector are both portrayed as great fighters visual perception that their presence greatly affect a battle. Paris, on the other hand, must(prenominal) be dragged out of the city to fight in the war he instigated. Only when Hector raked him with insults, stinging taunts and shameful things about his character did he return to battle (6.384). Good social standing is essential to the fame and reason that the heroes desire. If Paris is to be deemed honorable and glorious, he must leave the condom and comfort of his home and pull his weight in battle. Ultimately, Pariss pride and desire to be analogousd and respe... ...n to die. Therefore, it is important to live like it is your last day and to strive to be a better person. For this reason, humans should realize that yielding to desires in the physical cosmea will not constitute eternal happiness. It is only with the help of the gods can humans unfeignedly be happy and when it is time to depart from life, Marcus Aurelius encourages humans to welcome death for the gods would not involve you in anything bad (2.11). Death should be seen as a precious release because with Gods love and grace, the mortal is freed from the battered flesh casing.By actively choosing the corruptible elements of the physical world rather than the eternal, perfect forms, humans bring evil unto themselves. Throughout The Confessions, Augustine is divided between sexual desire and spiritual desire. Motivated by love he seeks to find a solution to his division.