Throughout history, violence has been a matter of public fascination. Humans were determined to discover when the use of violence is appropriate by looking at the nature of the violence and the context in which it occurs. In the epic poem, Iliad, Homer uses the Achaean warrior, Achilles, to show the destructiveness of injured pride that, led by the self-centered need for glory, produces unimaginable rage. Euripides, in his tragedy, Medea, presents suppressed rage of a submissive woman motivated by revenge and selfish need to alleviate her pain through violence. However, the Hindu epic, The Bhagavad-Gita, introduces Arjuna, the warrior and the king, that refuses to fight a civil war because of his religious believes, but is forced into the pursuit of violence as the only way to preserve social order and fulfill his secret duty. While Achilles and Medea choose to use the violence because their ego obliged them to take actions that promote their self-interest, Arjuna is forced to use the violence for the benefit of his society and religion. Therefore, from these examples the violence emerges as a dangerous tool that should be used free from selfishness to be classified as acceptable by the society.
             The mightiest Achaean hero, Achilles, refuses to continue to fight the Trojan War and causes the countless death of Achaean soldiers, all because the Achaean commander-in-chief, Agamemnon, humiliated him. Exasperated and insulted, he becomes blinded by rage and decides to sacrifice his pursuit for glory just to heal his injured pride through revenge. How consumed he is by his self-importance his words testify in the scene where Achilles says, "the same honor waits for the coward and the brave.Both go down to Death." (Iliad IX. 386-387). As a warrior, Achilles is praised as worthy not only on the degree of competence and bravery in the battle, but also on the degree of self-restraint, no...