The Burdens of a King

Just as the Odyssey reflects the change in Greek political structure from a system of kings and tyrants to a democracy, Mosiah 29 describes a similar change in political structure, detailing the role of a king and the weaknesses of that system of government. The principles described by King Mosiah are evident throughout the texts we have read, particularly in the cases of Agamemnon and Oedipus.
King Mosiah eloquently summarizes why having a king is not good for his people when he declared, “How much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!” (Book of Mormon 205) Agamemnon is a prime example of this from the very first page of the Iliad. Homer states, “Apollo… offended by the warlord. Agamemnon had dishonored Chryses, Apollo’s priest, so the god struck the Greek camp with plague, and the soldiers were dying of it.” (Homer 1)  In addition, before the beginning of the Iliad, Agamemnon had offended the goddess Artemis, who then held the Greek fleet wind-bound until he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis. (Oxford Classical Dictionary) In both of these cases, Agamemnon brought the wrath of the gods upon his whole army by his actions, leading to the unnecessary deaths of many of his soldiers.
King Mosiah refers to a similar situation, saying, “Thus an unrighteous king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.” (Book of Mormon 205) Just as Agamemnon offended the gods, unrighteous kings in the Book of Mormon taught the people to be wicked to justify their own wickedness, thus offending God and bringing His wrath upon the people. King Mosiah used the example of King Noah, whose wickedness brought the people into captivity and servitude to the Lamanites, which God used to remind the people of Him and help them change their ways. Both peoples felt the wrath of the gods due to wicked leaders, justifying King Mosiah’s words.
After King Mosiah describes the costs of having a wicked king, “many more things did king Mosiah write unto them, unfolding unto them all the trials and troubles of a righteous king, yea, all the travails of soul for their people, and also all the murmurings of the people to their king; and he explained it all unto them. And he told them that these things ought not to be;but that the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part.” (Book of Mormon 206). Oedipus illustrates this point well. Beginning in line 50 of Oedipus Rex, suppliants come to Oedipus during a plague, pleading, “Come, o best of mortals, and save our city… Since, if indeed you would rule this land, just as you do now, it is far better to rule over men than a wasteland…” (Sophocles 12). As he is their king, they expect him to find the cause of this plague and right it, thus ending the plague. This seems quite a large expectation to put solely on the shoulders of one man, especially the king, who has other concerns to address as well. However, he shoulders this responsibility and has already sent his brother-in-law to the oracle at Delphi to learn “what I should do or say to save this city.”  (Sophocles 13) Note that when Oedipus talks about remedying the situation, he refers to himself doing or saying something to save the city, not the people as a whole. This path leads to the discovery of horrifying truths and the death of Jocasta and the loss of Oedipus’ eyes and his exile.
The burdens of the king as described by King Mosiah are not just regarding their physical lives, but also the welfare of their souls. He states that “the sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings.” This is in addition to “all the murmurings of the people to their king.” It must have been a tremendous burden on the king to know that if he did not instruct his people well in the ways of righteousness, he would be responsible for their iniquities, not just affecting the welfare of their souls, but his own as well. King Mosiah declares instead that “the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part.” Thus, the responsibility for the welfare of the people should not be given solely to one man, but instead should be shared by all the people, thus lightening the unfair load that thus far had been carried by the king alone.
        The government that replaced the system of kings, both in Greece and in Zarahemla, was a system of judges elected by the people to rule over them. As described by the Oxford Classical Dictionary, “At a higher level Athens had a number of citizen secretaries and under-secretaries, and with the passage of time there was a tendency for secretarial posts to become less like magistracies, in which any public-spirited citizen might take his turn, and more like specialist posts which would be held by men with appropriate interests and skills.” The people took a more active role in the government, which was the defining characteristic of Athenian democracy. The new system proposed by King Mosiah was a system of higher and lower judges, which he presented by saying, “Choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.” (Book of Mormon 205) Thus judges were appointed to oversee the government of the people, with the judges being appointed by the people and held accountable if they failed to judge righteously. Just as Athenian secretaries were appointed by the people as one deemed worthy and able to lead them, the judges in Zarahemla were chosen by the voice of the people as one who was both capable and righteous enough to oversee them. In response to the weaknesses of the system of kings, both the Greeks and those of Zarahemla established similar systems of government to replace the kingship and put the power back in the hands of the people.
        As a whole, societies like to have a leader to rely on and to turn to in times of trouble, but King Mosiah warns of the problems of having a single person in this position of power. Though King Mosiah probably never knew about the Greeks, his words describe their society under a system of kings perfectly, detailing the problems and the solution.

The Immortalization of Great Leaders

While the concept of magical, god-crafted armor isn’t new in the Greco-Roman society, Aeneas’ shield and the images on it represent the past and future of Rome to inspire pride in the citizens who would read Virgil’s writings. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the four nations would have similar shields, but each would celebrate their individual culture and past.

Aeneas’ shield, magically wrought by the god Vulcan at the request of his mother, Thetis, was “prophetically wrought” (Virgil 131) to show the future of Italy and Aeneas’ descendents. In an epic Augustus commissioned to boost Roman unity and further establish his place in Roman history, this retelling of their history, beginning with its founding and ending at Caesar, establishes him as one of the divinely appointed rulers of Rome. To begin this narrative, the first scene Virgil depicts is the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, along with their adopted mother, Lupa. Each of the scenes that follow illustrates one of the wars that the Romans would fight in the time between the founding of Rome and the time that Virgil wrote in. “Close by he put Rome, and the Sabine women,” and the war fought between their peoples and the truce reached. Virgil continues telling the tales of the glories of Rome, as proven in battle, until he reaches Caesar Augustus and the sign given to show his right to rule- the same flames licking his temples as Aeneas’ son back in Troy, as well as the falling star at his father’s funeral. Julius Caesar, described as standing with “all the great gods,” (Virgil 132), is the final, and most thoroughly depicted, great leader of Rome. In this fierce battle against Antony and his Egyptian wife, Julius Caesar clearly has the favor of the gods, namely Neptune, Minerva, Venus, Mars, Bellona, Apollo, Vulcan, Apulia- nearly the entire pantheon. If Julius Caesar had the right to rule given to him by the gods, then Augustus’ rightful ascension to the throne is cemented.

While the four nations in Avatar: The Last Airbender are not united, there is one figure that combines all four into one- the Avatar. Born to a different nation with each reincarnation, in a fixed cycle, the Avatar is the only person alive who can bend all four elements- water, earth, fire, and air. As such, each Avatar is highly respected and brings unity to the four nations that cannot be maintained without the Avatar. As such, each nation would have their nation’s most recent incarnation of the Avatar on their shields, with depictions of their deeds celebrating their glory.


Before the Avatar the show centers on, Aang of the Air Nomads, the Avatar was Avatar Roku of the Fire Nation. The first thing on the Fire Nation’s shields would be his dragon, Fang, a representation of firebending, as the first firebenders learned from the dragons. The second would be the headpiece worn by the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. Given as a parting gift from his best friend before leaving to begin his training, Roku wore the headpiece his whole life as a symbol of where he began his journey. As part of his training, he used the winter solstice sun to increase his powers, but because he was still young, he accidentally caused a volcano to erupt. His death was caused by twin volcano eruptions, but this time he did not cause the eruptions, but instead used his abilities to protect the people from the destruction, saving many lives but losing his own. Thus the last main image on shields in the Fire Nation would be him saving others from the volcanos, a symbol of his journey to master all four elements. 


Before Avatar Roku was Avatar Kyoshi of the Earth Kingdom. The symbols she became known for were her twin fans, left to her by her mother. One of her main achievements, defeating the uprising known as the Yellow Necks or Autumn Blooms, would also be depicted on Earth Kingdom shields. The final image would be the formation of Kyoshi Island, separated from the rest of the Earth Kingdom mainland to protect them from Chin the Conqueror using a mixture of earth-, air- and fire-bending.



Avatar Kuruk preceded Avatar Kyoshi in the cycle, coming from the Northern Water Tribe. His short life was filled with picking fights, hunting, playing Pai Sho, and losing his fiancee to a spirit entity. Each of these would be depicted on Water Tribe shields, because while his life was short, he was still the Avatar. 





Avatar Yangchen, a peaceful Air Nomad, brought peace to the world as the Avatar before Avatar Kuruk. She convinced the General Old Iron spirit to make a truce with humans to prevent him executing his wrath on the people. Not many details are known about her other than her dedication to peace and her legacy of wise political decisions that brought peace to the world for an entire generation after her death.


Just as Aeneas’ shield represented the leaders of the Roman empire, to honor their memory and their contribution to the history of Rome, the four nations in Avatar: The Last Airbender would represent their greatest leaders, the Avatars on their shields.