During the Trojan war, Achilles is the central character of the Iliad and is known as the greatest warrior and fighter among the Achaeans. His humanity stems from his great passion which considers him as an hero. However, Achilles has high self-esteem and that causes the death of his best friend, Patroclus. With such grief and rage, Achilles determines to get revenge on Hector, who has slain Patroclus. Do you think Achilles is a sympathetic character based on what he has done for Patroclus and Hector?
The story starts with Agamemnon and Achilles capturing Chryseis and Briseis during a battle. In that case, Chryseis’s father, Chryses, prays to Apollo to help him gets back his daughter from Agamemnon’s hand. The aid from god Apollo helps Chryses wins over Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon
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Furious from this insult, Achilles refuses to fight in the war any longer. “You overlook this dogface, or don’t care, and now in the end you threaten to take my girl, a prize I sweated for and soldiers gave me!” Higgins, Iliad, Book 1, line 187. Achilles believes that he deserves Briseis because he put a lot of effort in the battle. It’s unjust since Agamemnon always gets the better when it comes to sharing between them. “I have seen more action hand to hand in those assaults than you have, but when the time for sharing comes, the greater share is always yours.” Higgins, Iliad, Book 1, line 192. Achilles decides to withdraw from the battle and that leads the Achaeans suffer with great loses. His withdrawal causes a big trouble and even though he concerns for
While fighting the Trojans, Achilles and Agamemnon came to blows in a show of superiority. Agamemnon, the Greek warlord, put Achilles in his place by reminding him that he controlled what actually went on and took Briseis, Achilles’ war prize, for himself. This angered Achilles and from that point he no longer would fight alongside his fellow countrymen against the Trojans and even to pout as a child would (Puchner, , and et al 238-239). During this act Achilles showed that if he could have his toys then he would no longer play with his friends. His refusal to participate in the war hurt the Greeks horribly and many men were lost. Achilles could have cared less about the loss of his p...
The facts of this conflict are all pretty straight forward and by recounting the facts I hope to bring to light the truths that justify Achilles' anger. First off Agamemnon had distributed the booty fairly and all the more powerful Achaeans had gotten a concubine, Agamemnon just happened to choose the daughter of one of Apollo's priest. When Apollo sends a plague to the Achaean camp Achilles' concern for his comrades leads him to call an assembly with the purpose of interpreting the plague and taking necessary action. Agamemnon reluctantly agrees to return his concubine to her father if he is repaid another concubine by one of the other powerful Achaeans. At this Achilles stands up for himself and the other Achaeans, he insults Agamemnon by saying that Agamemnon claims his greatness. When Agamemnon takes Achilles' concubine, Achilles probably expected the other Achaeans to stand up for him as he had done for them earlier. But he is left alone. His honor insulted by a man that he had served loyally. Humiliated, by a group of people to whom he owed nothing. A great sense of betrayal overcame Achilles.
The Greek commander Agamemnon betrays Achilles by insulting him and taking his war prize, the girl Briseis. The Greek army as a whole, betrays him by acting inactively to Agamemnon’s insults and failing to defend him. As seen in Richard Blucher’s article book discussion, “In the Iliad, Achilles has his war prize, the captive woman Briseis, stolen from him by his Commander-in-Chief, King Agamemnon. Shay explains: We must understand the cultural context to see that this episode is more than a personal squabble between two soldiers over a woman [...] The prize of honor was voted by the troops for Achilles’ valor in combat. A modern equivalent might be a commander telling a soldier, ‘I’ll take that Congressional Medal of Honor of yours, because I don’t have one” (Blucher). These betrayals are so traumatic and insulting for Achilles that he withdrew entirely from the war. Also, in Book 21 of The Iliad, Achilles shows another belief that is identified with betrayal. In this book Achilles acts with reckless courage and takes on hundreds of enemy troops without showing any fear or resentment, even when the river god rises to drown him. As he acts so reckless he disregards his own life, and kills all who comes in his path. This is seen through Irwin Kutash’s review of Achilles in Vietnam, as he said, “Achilles is found to have been betrayed by his commander, Agamemnon, who usurps his prize of honor. The betrayal is described
Their argument comes to a head when Agamemnon questions, “Are you to keep your own prize [geras], while I sit tamely under my loss and give up the girl at your bidding?”(The Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, 130) He then moves to take Achilles‘ war prize, Briseis from him. This, however, is much more than robbing Achilles of his hard won prize, it is a blow to his honor, something that Achilles will not stand for. He is also quick to remind the king that many victories come from the edge of his sword, saying “You forget this, and threaten to rob me of the prize [geras] for which I have toiled, and which the sons of the Achaeans have given me. Never when the Achaeans destroy any rich city of the Trojans do I receive so good a prize as you do, though it is my hands that do the better part of the fighting.” (The Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, 160-165) Achilles, with some guidance from Athena, quells his anger, but refuses to swallow his pride. He accepts that Briseis is no longer his, but explains to the king that he and his myrmidons will withdraw from the war and set a course for home as soon as possible. In a situation where his honor has been damaged and no retaliation can be executed, Achilles‘ only option is to remove himself from the situation with as much pride and dignity as possible. Similarly, Achilles urging Agamemnon to return Chryseis is taken as challenge of authority to
At the beginning of The Iliad, Achilles realizes how unfairly Agamemnon treats him. When he realizes this, Achilles says to Agamemnon, “My honor never equals yours , whenever we sack some wealthy Trojan stronghold my arms bear the brunt of the raw, savage fighting, true, but when it comes to dividing up the plunder the lion’s share is yours, and back I go to my ships, clutching some scrap, some pittance that I love, when I have fought to exhaustion”(Homer 83). Agamemnon is greedy and wants a lot of timé for himself, so he holds most of it back from Achilles. Achilles wants timé because it is a physical show of how much honor he has and how much glory he thinks he deserves. Achilles becomes bitter because Agamemnon is holding back a large portion of the geroi, and because of this Achilles confronts Agamemnon and threatens to leave the war. Phoenix is talking to Achilles trying to convince him to come to war and as he is doing this he points out that if Achilles goes to war he will receive lots of gifts from Agamemnon. However Pheonix also says, “But enter this man-killing war without the gifts-your fame will flag, no longer the same honor, even though you hurl the Trojans home!”(Homer 272). Phoenix knows that Achilles wants quantifiable honor such as women, money, and other spoils of war. Phoenix caters to this want by telling Achilles that if
The more unpleasant aspects of Achilles' character are brought home to us shortly after we first encounter him in The Iliad, when he quarrels with Agamemnon over the possession of a concubine. Before the assembled Greek leaders, Achilles complains that he never gets his fair share of the prizes, that the Achaians do not give him sufficient honor, and that he is weary of fighting the Trojans, "since to me they have done nothing" (Lattimore, 1967:63). When Agamemnon decides to teach him a lesson and take his concubine Briseis from him, Achilles has a fit of temper and warns all the Greeks that they will be sorry they did not cater to his whims: "And then y...
The prize was the daughter of an Apollon priest, Chrysies. The distressed father prays to Apollo who then sets a curse upon the king and townspeople. When Achilles hears that this was the cause of the horrible curse, he demands that Agamemnon return her. Agamemnon declares to Achilles that he must “fetch [him] another prize, and straight off too…” (line 138) to compensate for his loss. This shows how greedy and selfish the king really is and infuriates Achilles. To fetch someone else is a demeaning circumstance. Agamemnon reiterates his problem by griping that his prize is being taken away. By doing this, he tries to persuade and guilt Achilles into feeling bad for him. He wants Achilles to feel remorseful and hand Briseis to him. This conveys that women have no purpose to Agamemnon and are only thought of as objects. Therefore, he should see that the curse was his fault and nobody else’s. Instead, he should put the people before himself. Achilles is the best warrior who was willing to help the king out with his problem. He gestures that “We Achaeans will pay you back, three, four times over” (line 150) illustrating how forgiving Achilles can be in spite of the problem that has approached them. This depicts that he has pride and does not want the people to suffer anymore. He cares about the wellbeing of others. Furthermore,
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...
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 fighting Achilles even though he knows that he will most probably meet his death in this battle.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The first reason Achilles is an epic hero is because he embodied the characteristics of the ideal Greek citizen at the time Homer wrote; he is in a position of power and regards honor highly. “O my mother! I was born to die young, it is true, but honour I was to have from Zeus, Olympian, thunderer on high! And now he has not given me one little bit! Yes, my lord king Agamemnon has insulted me! He has taken my prize and keeps it, he has robbed me myself” (page 17), Achilles cried to his mother. Agamemnon stole Achilles’ prize, Briseis, so Achilles is begging his mother, the sea nymph Thetis, to help him regain his honor. In Greece, honor was crucial and by taking Achilles’ prize, Agamemnon has stripped him not only of his hard-won prize but of his honor as well. Such a double loss would have been catastrophic for a Greek citizen. Classicist Ian Johnston highlights the significance of his loss, suggesting that “the greatest harm that can occur to a particular warrior is shame, the community’s public recognition that he has let the group down or failed to live up to its shared rules.”Being shamed, in this case, by Agamemnon, would cause the Achaeans to lose respect for Achilles, and as one of their leaders, this would be a tragedy for him. Achilles’ desire to regain his honor sho...
Achilles, the mightiest Greek warrior, is enraged when he finds out why Apollo has sent a plague on the Greeks. Achilles confronts Agamemnon and asks him to give back Chryseis. Agamemnon doesn't want to give her back. He only agrees to comply if Achilles gives him his war prize, Briseis.
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 shows his moral inferiority in book one of The Iliad when Agamemnon supposedly deprives Achilles of his honor by taking his “prize.” Achilles responds to Agamemnon’s action by deciding to not fight in the war and he also prays against the Greeks by asking his mother, Thetis, to go to Zeus. When Thetis goes to Zeus she says “Zeus, out father, if ever I have helped you among the immortals either in word or in something I did, fulfill me this desire. Give honor to my son who, more than others, is born to a quick death. But as it is, now the king of men Agamemnon has not given him honor. He has taken away his prize. He holds it! But give him honor, O Olympian, counselor Zeus. Give power to the Trojans until the Achaeans honor my son and increase his honor” (I. Lines 491-99). When Achilles does this he is showing that he is selfish and only caring about himself. He is showing he does not care for his troops by praying having his mother ask Zeus to give the Trojans power until Achilles gets the honor he believes he deserves. Another reason in which demonstrates that Achilles is a selfish man is later in book seven-teen. Throughout most of the epic poem Achilles chooses not to fight just because Agamemnon didn’t give him the honor he thought he deserved. But finally, in book seven-teen, Achilles decides to join the battle again. But he doesn’t choose to fight because he knows it is the best things to do for his people or country. He fights because he wants his name to be remembered. But that isn’t the main reason. The real reason that Achilles made his decision to fight is because Hector killed his friend, Patroklos. This is proven to be the main reason Achilles decides to fight in book twenty-two when Achilles is telling Hector what he is going to do to him because Hector killed Patroklos. Achilles says “Don’t beg me, you dog, by my knees
The men of the Iliad are very emotional and prideful. Achilles and Agamemnon jealously feud over Briseis, a war prize that neither man particularly values. Even though Briseis is seen as a possession she plays a key part in the battle for Troy. Perhaps the war would have ended much sooner if Achilles and Agamemnon could have settled their differences instead of fighting. Not only is Briseis viewed as a prize of war, but the real issue dividing Agamemnon and Achilles is petty jealousy and pride. Achilles is willing to risk the lives of his compatriots and eventually f...
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.