Achilles

Patroclus’ death drives Achilles to seek revenge and Achilles rejoins the battle, vowing to kill everyone related to Hector. The Greek Army, led by Achilles fight their way to Troy, where ultimately Achilles and Hector find themselves alone. Hector, backed into a corner, vows to fight, but loses his nerve as he faces the greatest

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

From the first pages of Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles is portrayed as vengeful, proud, and petty. As the book progresses, the image of Achilles as a spiteful child is sharpened dramatically. Towards the end of the epic; however, Achilles begins to exhibit qualities that are considered heroic even in today’s society. Once his loyal and trusted friend Patroclus dies, Achilles undergoes a drastic change in character. When he confronts the true horror of death, Achilles puts aside his immature

Hector’s pride caused him to be clouded with negative thoughts in his quest for revenge as he brutally slaughtered the Trojans and excessively tortured Hector. Nevertheless, Priam’s sorrow causes Achilles to empathize since he could imagine what it would be like if his father had to go through a similar situation like Priam. This change of heart causes Achilles to forgo hatred in exchange for compassion. Although Achilles shows flaws in his character, his heroism even in the brink of death along with this transformative change as a person demonstrates the cultural expectations of strong leadership in terms of taking physical and emotional qualities into strong consideration.

Achilles’ pride is the usual trigger and fuel for his rage. In Book 1 of the Iliad, during the strategy meeting on how to deal with Apollo’s curse on the Greek camp, Achilles’ honor is threatened by Agamemnon. This insult to the prideful warrior almost leads to Achilles physically lashing out against his commander. It takes a god coming down from Mt. Olympus to quell his fury and to put his mind right. Not long after, Agamemnon follows through with his boast to take Achilles’ prize and delivers on the dishonor he had threaten Achilles with. This assault on Achilles’ pride causes him to withdraw from the war effort, to spite Agamemnon and his arrogance. His rage against Agamemnon is fueled by his wounded pride, keeping Achilles out of combat until after Book 18, where a new event ignites a terrifying fury within Achilles’ heart.

This portrayal of Achilles is one which shows two distinct different parts of his life. He transforms from a ruthless, merciless warrior who cares only that his name be remembered to someone who lives for a greater purpose, for love. A warrior now able to yield and show great amounts of compassion. Achilles truly found himself during his final days and moments. He finally found

One of the main contrasting characteristics of Achilles is his anger. It is apparent from the first sentence of the book, “Rage–Goddess, sing the rage of

Achilles is the son of Peleus, who is the king of Myrmidon. He was the fearless, striking, and a substantial warrior of the army of Agamemnon in the Trojan war. In Greek mythology, Achilles is notorious for having a preference between a long and peaceful life, or a quick life that will guide him to eternal glory. He states that, “There are no covenants between sheep and wolves, nor between you and me” (Achilles). Achilles had a desire for glory, when it came to the battlefield, but he was fierce and short tempered when it came to Agamemnon. He had superhuman strength, that brought out a sign of worry for the individuals that were on his team. He possessed resistance to injury due to his semi saintly birth.

Achilles is a tragic hero because he exhibits the qualities of a hero but, in the end is fated to death. Achilles’ fatal flaw could be his lack of emotional stability. This can be argued and shown throughout the Iliad. Achilles is courageous, full of strength, and god-like but he is also full of pride and rage, and not in control of his emotions. He doesn’t think of the consequences that come with just acting upon his emotions, he just impulsively does what he feels in the heat of the moment. This can be shown as his fatal flaw because emotions can be the cause of certain actions that might lead to difficulties in the future or in this case Achilles’ death.

“Remind him of that, now, go and sit beside hime, grasp his knees... see how mad he was to disgrace Achilles, the best of the Achaean” (1, 484-490). This pacifies Achilles’ rage briefly while he goes back to the ships and refuses to help the struggling Achaeans on the battlefield because Agamemnon hurt his pride. Another instance that highlights Achilles flaw of anger is when the great Trojan warrior, Hector, kills Achilles close comrade Patroclus. Achilles bursts from his sulking attitude out of the Achaean ships in a rage of passionate fury that even his pride cannot overcome. “My dear comrade’s dead... Hector’s battered down by my spear and gasps away his life, the blood-price for Patroclus, Menotius’ gallant son he’s killed and stripped” (18, 94-109). This signifies Achilles’ zenith of anger and represents the turning point in the epic, along with the transition into his dramatic reversal as a character.

Achilles believed that he was not receiving his share of recognition for the work he was doing in the war effort. Achilles states, “You can take it that neither my Lord Agamemnon nor the rest of the Danaans are going to win me over, since it appears that a man gets no thanks for struggling with the enemy day in and day out” (Homer 7). Odysseus argued that Agamemnon would give him many rewards for his return to battle, but in Achilles’ reply he says that he doesn’t want anything from Agamemnon. He begins to come to the realization that he wants a long life rather than personal glory and wealth so he declines the offer.

Although Turnus, from Aeneid, is considered a “second Achilles”, he is unlike Achilles, from the Iliad, because he is ignorant of his fate, and his furor, or fury, is invoked by the Gods (Aen. 6.113). Aeneas is also different from Achilles because Aeneas shows pietas, devotion to the community, and he generally shows compassion, whereas Achilles puts his self-interests first and never shows compassion. However, Achilles and Aeneas are quite similar because their fury stems from feeling at fault for the deaths of their comrades, and this rage makes them lack sympathy while killing many opponents.

The first set of major steps that Achilles undergoes is the call to adventure, the refusal to the call to action, and the meeting with the mentor. In Book 1 of the Iliad, Achilles is called to fight against the Trojan’s to reclaim Helen, Menelaus wife. Later in the war, Chryseis and Briseis are taken as prizes from a battle. They are the daughters of a priest of Apollo named Chryses. After Chryses begs for his daughters back, the Greeks decide to give Briseis to him and have Chryseis stay. Chryseis belonged to Achilles as his prize from the battle and Briseis belonged to Agamemnon, a political leader of the Greeks. Agamemnon then humiliate Achilles by taking Chryseis Achilles’s prize, for himself. This angered Achilles greatly and caused him to leave the Greek army, albeit temporary. This serves as Achilles refusal to the call of battle. Achilles’s anger is shown in Book 1 lines 188 to 192, these lines show how much Achilles’s pride affects his actions and how he responds to conflict. In this situation, his pride is hurt greatly, to the point where he almost kill Agamemnon, however Athena stops him. Achilles says

His actions directly cause even more difficulties on his journey home. In Achilles’ case, his pride indirectly influenced the fate of countless Greeks willing to fight against Troy, while he remained pouting. In an article about the Trojan War, Kevin Osborn states, “His tremendous pride caused him at one point to abandon his Greek comrades and quit the war because he felt insulted,” (Osborn). Had Achilles fought sooner, the war would have ended faster, and less lives would have been lost. Yet, as any great hero should be, both these men are terrific fighters. These men do not shy away from any form of combat and have no fear of getting blood on their hands. The real differences between these heroes appears in their methods of enacting violence.

Achilles starts fighting for revenge, while Hector fights to defend Trojan. After Patroclus was killed by Hector, Antilochus told Achilles. “A black cloud of sorrow came upon Achilles as he heard”, and tells his mother that Hector must die from his spear, he “must pay for Patroclus’ death”(149-151). Achilles loses all his humanity and has no mercy after his friend had been killed; however Hector holds on to his humanity while fighting. Achilles began killing Trojans mercilessly until he got what he wanted, because the vengeance for his friend mattered more than his humanity. Achilles also did not feel remorse when he slaughtered Hector in front of his entire