In Homer’s The Iliad, epic hero Achilles serves as an example of how rage, when unchecked, leads to disastrous repercussions. Achilles, though nearly superhuman in his physical abilities, struggles repeatedly to contain his anger. Throughout The Iliad, as Achilles’ fury compounds, the consequences of his actions become catastrophic, eventually leading to the death of his best friend, Patroclus. Although Achilles ultimately chooses to avenge Patroclus’ death and achieve his own kleos, or honor, his rage-driven actions lead to the death of many Achaean soldiers, and change the course of his fate. Agamemnon’s taking of Briseis enrages Achilles and spurs him to remove himself from the war, leading to a massive death toll in the Achaean forces. In stealing Briseis from Achilles, he is not only robbing of him of a material prize, but also a symbol of honor, his geras, in Greek culture. In retaliation, Achilles removes himself from the war and prays to his mother, Thetis, that she will ask Zeus to damage the Achaean forces. Achilles’ only goal is that “even mighty Atrides can see how mad he was to disgrace Achilles” (1.488-490). Despite having no true grievance against the Achaean army as a whole, Achilles’ rage blinds him from the potential harm that may befall his troops. Achilles only wishes to get revenge on Agamemnon, no matter the consequences for his …show more content…
[This goes to show that you should not be silly and get angry over trivial things because the gods are not going to happy and bad things will happen. I’m going to edit in here, this is just a filler sentence.] The portrayal of even the most powerful epic hero as flawed, sometimes to the point of altering fate for the worse, serves as a warning and a cautionary tale of exactly how influential rage can
With this you could also say Achilles fights for himself alone but since Agamemnon took Briseis from him. Achilles also hates Agamemnon because of where he was when the fighting was happening.
Achilleus, who considers himself a greater fighter than Agamemnon, does not believe that he should be taking orders from Agamemnon, and becomes angered when Agamemnon takes his prize, Brisies when he has to give up his prize, Criseis. Achilleus asks Agamemnon how “Anyone of the Achaians readily obey you” (79) and looses his temper. Achilleus becomes so enraged that he turns on his
Achilles and Hector in The Iliad and Medea and Jason Medea all have characteristics that eventually led to their downfall. Achilles is a furious man, and it leads him to do unspeakable things. Hector is very prideful, and it clouds his judgement. In Medea, Medea is revengeful, and all she thinks about his getting revenge. Jason is insensitive, and it cost him his family.
In Book Nine of The Iliad, the focus is of the story is on the character of Achilles, the desperation the Achaeans suffer in their need for this great warrior as well as his refusal to return into the fighting to assist his comrades, due to his rage with Agamemnon. In particular, one of the most important scenes of Book Nine is from approximately line 443 through line 473, in which Achilles bluntly refuses the gifts offered to him by Agamemnon in recompense for stealing away Achilles’ war-prize Briseis. This passage demonstrates the depth of the rage of Achilles as well as his sense of pride, as he chooses to remain absent from the fighting, even in the Achaeans’ moment of sheer desperation, due to his deep hatred for Agamemnon. As
Achilles is maddened and appeals to his goddess mother saying, “If I am to die soon, shouldn’t I have what I want?” Feeling only sorrow for her son, Thetis requests Zeus to cause to Greeks to lose until Achilles fights again. Slowly the Greeks are pushed back farther and Agamemnon pleads with Achilles, offering Briseis back. Achilles declines due to his pride and the Trojans come close to burn the Greek ships. Even when a ship was burning, Achilles refused to fight and instead sends out Patroclus.
Achilles anger increase with the death of patrocles by him wanting to kill all of the Trojans. Achilles started to throw their bodies in the river which displayed that he showed no remorse or compassion for them. Achilles treated Hector’s body as if he wasn’t a person. He dragged him and kept torturing him for twelve days even thought he was already dead. The burial of hector is a symbol of how Achilles anger is calming down.
Although the word “hero” has transcended time, the definition has not. When modern-day humans go into reading about Greek heroes, expecting them to resemble our current ones, they are unpleasantly surprised to find selfish people who sometimes indiscriminately murder in the name of honor. In comparison, we value the firefighter that puts their life on the line to save others, the person standing up to the bully with pacifism rather than fists, and those that learn to forgive and forget instead of spending their entire lives seeking revenge on those that have wronged them. Thus, Achilles would not be considered a modern-day hero like he was in ancient Greece, because whilst they valued glory, brutal strength, and revenge, today we value selflessness,
In the Iliad, Achilles is responding to Odysseus’s speech attempting to convince him to return to the war. Achilles’ main argument against returning is his incalculable rage against Agamemnon for “the prize of honor / The warlord Agamemnon gave me / And in his insulting arrogance took back” which is not only an insult to Achilles’ status, but also to his honor as a warrior (Il. 9.378-379). In addition to focusing on the main argument of Achilles’ speech, it is worth noting the contradictions present within his speech as well.
Homer’s The Iliad proves that Hector and Achilles have vast differences but, their few similarities are some of what we see a lot throughout the epic poem. Both Achilles and Hector have their certain strengths and weaknesses, which are noticeable countless times throughout the conflicts that come up in the Iliad. These two characters have distinct differences in their approaches to fitting the noble form to which they both attempt to achieve. Nevertheless, regardless of their differences and the fact that their armies are rivals and are brought to each other with execration in battle, they also have numerous identical traits which reasonably show the comparison between the two men, Hector and Achilles.
“Wolves and lambs don’t share a common heart—they always sense a mutual hatred for each other” (Homer, Iliad 22. 327-329), this epic simile shows, Achilles’ actions brought on by justice for Patroclus’ death scream for blood. Achilles’ actions after killing Hector hurt Priam and his family, leaving them emotionally distraught and furious furthering the raging battle into Troy for fair Helen. Mortals have been shown to fight a war of vengeance and justice but the Gods also had a part in this
Achilles’ anger has lead to him committing cruel behavior; a large majority of the horrific violence within Homer’s story, comes from Achilles’ relentless rage. But is his rage truly without proper cause and justification? King Agamemnon forced Achilles’ to hand over his beloved Briseis to him, which caused Achilles to withdraw his men from the Achaean army. Achilles’ closest
(R 23-35). The Greeks hearing Achilles return, gain strength, will and perseverance to carry on the war. The responsibility that Achilles takes plays massive role, affecting the men 's actions throughout the
Achilles is seen to be full of wrath in the beginning of the book. This wrath is not caused only because Agamemnon takes his prize of war. He is angry at the system which allows Agamemnon to play around with other people’s honors and the system which allows him to decide who gets how much honor. In other words, Achilles does not like the idea that someone else can decide what happens to his honor, despite him deserving most of the honor in relation to how much he contributes in war. As the story proceeds, Achilles seems to contradict himself a lot, and the concept of honor helps us understand this better.
If I stay here and fight before the city of Troy, there will be no home- coming for me but my fame shall never die; if I go home to my native land, there will be no great fame for me, but I shall live long and not die an early death.” (Homer 110) This shows that he is selfishness and fearful at the same time of losing and dying in the war. In the very beginning of the Iliad, King Agamemnon and Achilles have an argument for a couple of different reasons. After, the Achians won a battle against a city that was allied with the Trojans each of them received a prize consisted of a young woman from the war.
Homer underlines that this behavior is foul, for Achilles allows his soldiers to wound the body and then bounds Hector’s feet to his chariot in order to harm the body. Although Hector asked him to give his body to his family, Achilles ignores the last will of the dying Trojan hero because he is still obsessed with his revenge. One should remember that the Greeks believed it was the issue of primary importance to bury a person’s body in a decent way so that their spirit would find the sanctuary. In other words, Achilles takes revenge in the most horrible way