In Homer’s epic, the Iliad, the legendary, has no two characters that are so similar yet so different as Greek warrior, Achilles, and the Prince of Troy, Hector. Achilles is the strongest fighter in the Greek side, and Hector is the strongest Trojan. They are both put into the mold of a hero that their respective societies have put them into; however; it is evident that they are both extremely complex characters with different roles within their society and with their families, and with the gods.
In the Greek society, Achilles has the role of the aggressive soldier. From the very first lines of the epic, we are introduced to Achilles’ murderous rage:
“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds” (Book 1, Line 1-5).
The fact that the opening lines of the epic are about Achilles’ power and the people he has killed as a soldier on the Greek side show the huge importance given to him and his power. In his confrontation with Agamemnon regarding Chryseis, he tells Agamemnon that the Greek people want him to give Chryseis back to her father, the priest. This is an example of his great status among his people – he represents them, the one that lets Agamemnon hear their voice.
Achilles is the son of Peleus and the goddess Thetis. It is evident that he loves his father and holds him dearly in the scene of Priam’s speech. Priam appeals to him as a father, and reminds Achilles of his own father:
“Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles –
As old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age.”
His speech moves the ...
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...or’s body. Achilles drags his body behind his chariot whenever he is overcome by grief. Despite all they do to his body, Apollo protects it from all damages.
Achilles and Hector are both loved by Zeus, who has taken no side in this dispute.
Hector and Achilles, two outstanding warriors on opposing sides in a conflict, show that there is more to people than what meets the eye. Although they are seen as ultimately heroic and powerful, their weaknesses and inner conflicts are unmistakable. Their differences are larger and more significant than their similarities, and to think of them as interchangeable warriors diminishes their significance. Achilles is portrayed as a fierce fighter who is harsh on the battlefield, but cares about the ones he loves very deeply, whereas Achilles is shown as a strong fighter with a more sensitive heart and compassion for all people.
For example, Hector does not like to fight in battle, the only reason why he fights is because he is the only way Troy could ever win the war. However, Achilles loves the war. He even chose being a warrior over having a long life, something that Hector probably would not do. Achilles is drawn to war because of his anger. As I have previously stated, Hector is only fighting in the war because he has to fight for the city of Troy. Achilles on the other hand, does not have to fight for his city. This is because the Greeks are not being attacked. Also, Hector is human. Although his father is a wealthy king, he does not have any god- like powers. Achilles however, is a demi-god he is an exceptional warrior and great runner because of this. Also, because he is a demi-god he is only venerable in his heel. While Hector, being a human, is venerable everywhere. Lastly, Hector is not dictated by rage like Achilles. Even before their battle Hector showed respect towards Achilles. Hector did so by saying “With all the gods as witnesses, I swear: if Zeus gives me the victory over you, I will not dishonor your corps, only strip the armor and give the body back to the Greeks. Promise you’ll do the same.” (22. 281-285). Hector is the perfect foil for Achilles, everything Hector stands for and everything he is, is the polar opposite of
...Achilles enraged? His rage is a personal choice. He decides to confront Agamemnon. He decides to withdraw from the war. He decides to join the war after Patroclus' death. However, the gods do their parts in making sure that his destiny is carried out. Thetis has new armor made for him and encourages him to fight. Apollo taunts him. Athena intervenes, first to make sure he does not kill Agamemnon and then later to make sure that he does kill Hector. Zeus weighs his fate. Rage is the spawn of many emotions. Injustice, jealousy, un-holiness, revenge, and heartbreak are emotions that sparked Achilles' rage. Homer's tale, the Iliad, shows how Achilles' rage is his destiny.
The Ancient Greeks admired their heroes and tried to learn from both their achievements and their mistakes. They believed that most great leaders and warriors followed a predictable behavior cycle, which often ended tragically. In Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Achilles is a great warrior who traces the stages of the behavior cycle twice, from arete to hubris to ate and then to nemesis. Achilles is a highly skilled warrior and a great leader who becomes a narcissist and an arrogant person, which leads to selfish and childish behavior resulting in the death of his best friend. Following Patroclus’ death, Achilles repeats the behavior cycle by regaining his courage and motivation, and goes back to battle against Hector. The pride he feels in killing Hector and his overpowering hatred for him, leads Achilles to another bad decision: disrespecting the body of his enemy. This foolish choice leads directly to Achilles death. Although The Iliad is mainly known as a story about the Trojan War, it is understood as a story about Achilles and his struggle to be a hero.
Homer's two central heroes, Odysseus and Achilles, are in many ways differing manifestations of the same themes. While Achilles' character is almost utterly consistent in his rage, pride, and near divinity, Odysseus' character is difficult to pin down to a single moral; though perhaps more human than Achilles, he remains more difficult to understand. Nevertheless, both heroes are defined not by their appearances, nor by the impressions they leave upon the minds of those around them, nor even so much by the words they speak, but almost entirely by their actions. Action is what drives the plot of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and action is what holds the characters together. In this respect, the theme of humanity is revealed in both Odysseus and Achilles: man is a combination of his will, his actions, and his relationship to the divine. This blend allows Homer to divulge all that is human in his characters, and all that is a vehicle for the idyllic aspects of ancient Greek society. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistencies in the characterization of Odysseus can be accounted for by his spiritual distance from the god-like Achilles; Achilles is more coherent because he is the son of a god. This is not to say that Achilles is not at times petty or unimaginative, but that his standards of action are merely more continuous through time. Nevertheless, both of Homer's heroes embody important and admirable facets of ancient Greek culture, though they fracture in the ways they are represented.
The Greeks also had their share of icons and heroes. They admired Jason and his quest for the golden fleece, and Perseus, the killer of Medusa, but their finest heroes come from Homer’s Iliad: Hector and Achilles. Hector was the best warrior in Troy and the son of Priam, the king of Troy. Achilles was the great warrior of the Greek army and killed Hector. The Greek citizens, siding with their own nationality, declared the Greek warrior Achilles the hero of the Trojan War, but since ancient Greece no longer exists an unbiased view of the Ilia...
“Achilles has over-reached himself, and as he attempts to punish all the Trojans for Patroklos ' death and to deny them burial rites for Hector, so the river god now attempts to drown Achilles, bury him in the mud, and deny him glory and proper burial rites. It is also significant that the river god is the only god to confront Achilles with excessive cruelty and lack of pity. Later, however, the other gods come to view Achilles as the river god
In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles is often referred to as a very courageous Greek hero but a further look into the epic will reveal a man that is more arrogant than courageous. It was truly his arrogance that made his name famous and not his courage. Achilles was a narcissistic, self-serving man who was not concerned with his fellow country man. His actions of courage can easily be revealed as selfishness instead of what most people believe.
The first requirement of Aristotle's tragic hero is that they are more admirable than the average character. Achilles meets this requirement because of his ability on the battlefield. In The Iliad, the background to the story is the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. This background is not only the basis for the story overall, but is also the basis for Achilles' own story. This begins when Achilles refuses to join the battle because he is insulted by Agamemnon. This decision results in the action that drives the remainder of the story. Later in the story when Achilles becomes angered and goes to the other extreme, launching into battle and killing ferociously. The significance of this is that it places battle as central to both Achilles' story and to what is important in the setting of the story. Importantly, the aspect that makes Achilles greater than most is his ability o...
Achilles and Hector are similar in the sense of war and combat ability but not through their personalities. For instance, the way that they are looked at by their peers is very alike. In Homer’s eyes, they are both world-class warriors, heroes, and born leaders. The Trojan soldiers look up to Hector as do the Achaeans to Achilles. Also, Homer describes both Achilles and Hector as “god-like”. This suggests that their standards in the field of battle are very much the same and that they are superior to the other soldiers. Furthermore, Homer shows us that they both possess great pride. In Achilles’ case, Agamemnon dishonors him in the beginning of The Iliad: “But I, I will be there in person at your tents / to take Briseis in all her beauty, your own prize” (1.217- 8). Agamemnon angers Achilles by taking his prize Briseis so he refuses to participate in the Trojan War for a while. This sends a message to Agamemnon, stating that he doesn’t rule Achilles and Achilles will not stand for any disrespectful comments. Moreover, Hector refuses to back down from fighti...
Hector fights for belief and respect while Achilles fights out of rage and rashness. Achilles is not respected by his men, rather he is feared. Nobody wants to receive the blunt of the attack when Achilles randomly flies into a rage, therefore his men are terrified of him and allow him to do as he pleases. Within the first book of the poem, we read that Achilles is considered by many to be "god-like". (King Agamemnon, Book 1, line 154)
Achilles is introduced into The Iliad getting into a debacle with the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles starts a quarrel with Agamemnon because he has demanded possession of Achilles’ woman, Briseis, in consolation for having to give up his woman, Chryseis, so that the gods will end their plague upon the Greek soldiers. Achilles does all he can to get his loved one back, but he knows that nothing will waver Agamemnon’s decision. This is when Achil...
Achilles and Hector had many similarities. Both Achilles and Hector were respected by the people whom they fought for.”Personally to Achilles to control his temper, since he is, For all Greeks, a mighty bulwark in this evil war” (237). This shows that even when Achilles was wrong; his people still respected him, because he was their meal ticket to the war. He was the only chance the Greeks had in defeating the Trojans. Many warriors looked up to him and the Greeks depended on him. The Achaeans supported Achilles while the Trojans rooted on Hector. Each man was respected and viewed as a hero. Although their love is different, it is obvious that each man has love in his heart. Achilles loves Briseis, his mother Thetis, and his
According the Iliad by Homer, Hector and Achilles are the main characters that have many different, but also they have some similarity.They both have the different in personalities and life. Also, they have the different about leadership and relationship with their family. Both are the two strong warriors and heroes. Achilles is in Greek side, Hector is in the Trojans side , and they both want to win the battle . Both characteristics believed that their fate is to die on the battle as the warrior, but approach war differently. However, they all have the advantage and disadvantage. Also, They have the different reasons to fight the battle that hector fight for his homeland and his family's honor and Achilles fight for Helen , also because he is the best warrior that he want people to respected him.
Homer makes it clear that Achilles is a man mainly driven by his hunger for glory. Achilles has all the traits of a superhuman from his strength to his incredible ability to fight on the battlefield. Even with these great abilities, it is hard for many readers to perceive him as a hero because of the way he acts. Homer takes this brief time period out of this whole ten-year war just to demonstrate how Achilles cannot control himself when he goes into a rage. In todays world Achilles would not last long as a soldier in any army because he would be court marshaled for insubordination. Achilles ye...
In the poem, Iliad, Achilles and Hector both show relative heroism in their own different ways. Achilles may have been the more popular hero, but Hector had great heroism as well. Each of these characters possess their own different strengths and weaknesses. These two characters both have pride as being one of their main weaknesses. Hector seems as if he would suit best in the modern world, but there are a few different reasons as to why the ancients may have chose Achilles. Hector and Achilles both lost a lot by letting their pride get in the way of their heroism. Both of these characters were their country’s best warrior. Achilles and Hector have very different personalities, and very different ways of approaching situations.