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Comparison of Achilles and Hector
Achilles as hero
Achilles as hero
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Recommended: Comparison of Achilles and Hector
The Reason behind Achilles Rage and Anger Achilles is one of the most intriguing fictional characters I have come to appreciate. I find his level of complexities extremely interesting. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is portrayed as a strong, prideful and troubled warrior but to the world Achilles is known to be one of the greatest mythical hero’s of all time. While Achilles is seen as a hero to most, in the Iliad, we see that he does have some characteristics and traits that do not necessarily depict him as a hero. Some of the negative characteristics illustrated in our text are pride and anger. Two occurrences are the reasons behind the rage and anger in Achilles and I will be analyzing both reasons in this essay. In Book I of the Iliad, we see that Agamemnon is the head of the Achaian army. While at one of the Achaian army’s visit to one of the nearby cities to Troy, the army imprison two of the most beautiful women in the city. Agamemnon and Achilles take the women as their trophies for the victory over that city. Agamemnon takes Chryseis and Achilles takes Briseis. Chryses …show more content…
After Achilles decides not to fight for the Achaian army any longer, his friend Patroclus comes to beg on behalf of the army because they were losing the war. Achilles refuses and so Patroclus convinces Achilles to give him his Battle amour and his men. Patroclus knew that if he wore Achilles amour on the battlefield, the Trojans would become fearful and maybe the Achaian army could begin to win wars again. Achilles agrees. It is important to note at this point hat Patroclus was not as good a warrior as Achilles was and so it showed on the battlefield. Patroclus was killed by Prince Hector and Achilles became enraged. He goes to war to avenge his friend and kills Prince Hector in return. During the battle, you can tell from the tone of the Iliad that Achilles was brutally
Phoenix’s paradigm narrative fails to persuade Achilles to rejoin the war because the specifics of that narrative fail to align with Achilles’ specific concerns. In particular, Phoenix neglects the pernicious effects of Agamemnon’s actions on Achilles’ notions of honor and pride. The old man discounts Achilles’ ability to act solely on the account of his dangerously inflated pride, which proves to be detrimental not only to the Greeks but also those whom Achilles cares about, most notably Patroclus. Additionally, Phoenix’s anecdote draws incorrectly upon the role and relationship of Achilles’ parental figures, lessening the efficacy of the speech as a whole. Phoenix’s terminal mistake was confusing the desires of Achilles with that of Meleager, assuming that the warrior values his fellow Greeks over himself (Homer’s Iliad 9.607-611).
hroughout the Iliad Achilles shows how the ego of a Kardashian is being portrayed and the emotional maturity of an eight-year-old because of the certain adult qualities he lacks, for example: he does not work well with others, he lacks the concept of forgiveness, he is selfish, thinks highly of his self without regard to others, being rude and unkind, aggressiveness when talking to others, and having too much pride and not thinking about the consequences of his actions and how it can affect not only him but others as well. Achilles does not like to work with others he prefers to be the one in charge of everybody and he likes for everyone to do as he says. In the Iliad Agamemnon says, "This man wants to be ahead of everyone else he wants to rule everyone and give orders to everyone" (1.302-303). Achilles and Agamemnon are having an argument amongst one another because no one wants to give Achilles the honor he feels that he deserves for being the best fighter in the war and for all the blood sweat and tears he shed while defeating the Trojans "he is a mighty bulwark in this evil war" as Nestor says.
The question "was Achilles' anger justified" brings up issues that seem to have little or no relevance to the war. In time of war I would expect the leaders to prioritize the groups interest for the sake of unity and cooperation rather than being entrenched in achieving their own personal goals. But my expectations are those of a modern day literature student, I'm inclined to think that the Greeks who first read this epic valued different things than myself. Another relevant question might be "were Achilles' actions justified". Anger can be easily justified, but the actions that anger might lead you to take are not as easily justified. Again I am not an ancient Greek and my opinions are irrelevant unless I open my mind to different viewpoints. Therefore I am striving to look into this issue through ancient Greek eyes where the principle of sacrificing ones own interests was apparently not valued, but maintaining ones honor, on the other hand, was greatly valued. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to answer these two aforementioned questions.
When Patroclus asked Achilles for his armor, Achilles finally sided with Patroclus after a great deal of pondering because he wanted revenge over Agamemnon. In the armor of Achilles, Patroclus was killed by Hector. When he learned of the death of Patroclus, he would kill Hector knowing that it would lead to his own death. Achilles went back into war knowing he would go against his mother’s wishes. When the news of Hector’s death reached King Priam, he asked for the body of his Son of Achilles. The body was returned out of understanding the pain of losing a son. But in the end, that was the plan that finally destroyed the City of
Achilles’ behavior starts out with arete, or someone’s great qualities. Achilles is a highly gifted warrior who is a combination of strength, skill, courage, and determination. Achilles earned his prize of honor, Briseis, for being a great warrior and leader. Achilles explains, “my prize of honor, which I earned and which the Greeks gave to me”(129). Many people know Achilles for these qualities and look up to him for that reason. Later after Patroclus’ death, Achilles goes through the behavior cycle for the second time, starting with arete, summoning his anger and courage, and gets back on the battlefield. Achilles explains his reason for going back to war by saying, “I now ...
The first line of the Iliad describes a human emotion that leads to doom and destruction in Homer's poetic tale of the Trojan War. Achilles' rage is a major catalyst in the action in the Iliad. It is his rage that makes him both withdraw from and, later, rejoin the war with a fury. Why is Achilles enraged? Is his rage ignited solely by his human adversaries or do the gods destine him to the experience? Achilles' rage has many facets. His rage is a personal choice and, at times, is created by the gods.
And let me strap on my shoulders that armor of yours. That the zealous Trojans take me for you and quickly Withdraw from the fight." Because Achilles refused to help the Achaeans battle the Trojans, a discontented Patroclus took the matter into his own hands by requesting activation into battle disguised as Achilles in the hope of sending the Trojans. into a full retreat from the sight of him. It is apparent that Patroclus was willing to fight, although the odds were greatly against him.
Achilles anger was a predominant theme in the Iliad. It led to Patrokolos, death, Hektor’s death and a great many other Trojan deaths. Achilles was a very powerful Greek warrior, he had many faults but one of his most prominent was his uncontrollable anger. Multiple times throughout the Iliad his anger had for reaching effects on the war and people around him. These effects were not usually favorable to anyone. There are three main occurrences that led Achilles’ anger down devastating paths. The first was when Agamemnon took Achilles’ girlfriend. When this happened, Achilles felt robbed because Brisies, his girlfriend, represented his might and the glory of his conquests. In the Greek culture, glory and honor were highly esteemed. This is why
Revenge in The Iliad it the main theme and drives men to do things that they would not normally do. The main example of this is Achilles wanting revenge on Agamemnon. The first book of the Iliad explains that Achilles wants revenge because Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis, his war bride, to her father, and he decides to take Achilles war bride from him. According to “Some Thoughts about the Origins of ‘Greek Ethics’”, by Nicholas D. Smith, “Agamemnon’s unjust affront to Achilles leads to and extraordinarily deadly retaliation, the ultimate outcome of which is that multitudes of these men’s innocent allies are killed unnecessarily”(smith 10). This is out of character for Achilles, who would normally be the first man into battle, not sitting one out. By “rejecting even the most earnest and impressive entreaties Agamemnon offers, and increasingly making decisions which are rationally indefensible”, he shows how much his wanting of revenge has turned him into a madman (smith 10). His only desire is to get revenge for his loss. It takes the death of Patroclus, his dear friend, to bring him back to the war, which he has left.
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...
Here, Achilles talks about how much he loved Patroclus almost more than he loved himself. By what he is saying there, you can see that he is very sad, but that he will not just sit there, that something needs to be done.
Early on in the Iliad readers realize that Achilles is primarily a Dionysian man in nature who often acts on his impulses to strive for glory and seek revenge. The three things men want most—power, possession, glory—are the primary motivation for Achilles’ impulsive actions. When describing his anger after the taking of Bryseis, he states that she is “a prize [Achilles] sweated for and soldiers gave [him]” (Homer 1.189). The praxis of Achilles illustrated in this quote shows his inner desire for glory, a trait that is often associated with that of a Dionysian because it deals with inner passions and the impulsive nature of man. “The primary motivation for military aggression is greed- greed for material gains, for power and for fame” (Ng 78) is a fitting allusion to Achilles because he is the great military hero of Greece and while Achilles is destined to lead ...
While book one of the Iliad opens with a description of Achilles’ rage, book twenty-four ends with the result of his reconciliation. While much of the war is affected by Achilles’ rage, it is his resolutions that develop him into a true hero. Achilles ' rage is displayed in two surges. The first instance being his withdrawal from battle due to a conflict with Agamemnon. Achilles ' second surge of rage is caused by the death of Patroclus.
Throughout the Iliad, a conflict develops through the process of each chapter which rests on the surface over a Maiden. The disagreement is caused due to one person or the other feeling far more powerful or superior than the other and is left to sense as if they should receive what is rightfully theirs even if it is not a fair exchange. This conflict is seen between two leaders who view each other with different status: Agamemnon the Argive leader of the expedition to Troy, who had inherited the role of king through his father, and Achilles the leader of Myrmidons. As the dispute develops, it is apparent that the discord between Agamemnon and Achilles is more than something about women; it seems to be their mindset distracting them from having a dispute between their views on power, honour, glory and pride amongst themselves.
A large source of Achilles anger started with his fight with Agamemnon. Apollo put a plague on the Achaean soldiers that was killing them off. The only way to stop this from killing them all was to give back a priest’s daughter who had been captured. This girl “belonged” to Agamemnon and he didn’t want to give her up unless he got Achilles girl in return. This would disgrace Achilles honor but he could not let any more soldiers be killed so, he reluctantly let her go. But in return for giving up his girl he withdrew from the battle. Much of Achilles anger is a result of this occasion but the death of Patroklos later overrode his previous anger to Agamemnon.