Comparing Book 9 And Book 24 Of Homer 's Iliad

Agamemnon’s rage, cowardliness and bad leadership also plays some parts of his refusal. Just like Helen, Bresies also had an effect on Achilles to judgement to refusing Agamemnon’s ransom. He was in love with her and Agamemnon dishonors him and takes her away and that makes Achilles angry. In the Iliad, beautiful women are the main reason to war and rage. Achilles has nothing to lose because “son of Atreus” (9.369) already took his honor, reputation and his Bresies. Even if Achilles “let[s] [his] heart-devouring anger go!” (9.316) for his companions that would never restore what he already lost. “Obviously, all religions fall far short of their own ideals.” (Ernest Becker, The Denial of

A description of Achilles’s rage in Homer’s The Iliad is shown when Odysseus says to Agamemnon,

Provide textual evidence, specific lines and incidents from The Iliad that proves your thesis. You may also draw from The Odyssey.

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.

The Iliad begins with the clash between Achilles and Agamemnon. Agamemnon has little, if any, respect for the gods. This is displayed by his irreverent

The Iliad, by Homer, is an epic poem set in the era of the Trojan War, accounting the battle logs during the time of conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, the text’s tragic protagonist. The heroic outlook on life, in Iliadic terms, is exemplified through the construction of one’s honor through hard work. Being an aspect of the heroic outlook of life, this value is demonstrated through his contribution and dedication to the Trojan War, his experience with neglect from the deities, Achilles’ overall disdain towards Agamemnon, and, lastly, his longingness towards Briseis, his dear lover.

In book one of the Iliad, a plague is placed on the Achaian army because Agamemnon wouldn’t release Chryseis, a maiden he’d taken as a prize for sacking a Trojan-allied town. Agamemnon refuses to give up Chryseis until Achilleus surrenders Briseis, another maiden, to him as consultation. This insults Achilleus’ pride and is the first event in the epic to fuel his burning rage (1.8-1.611). Due to his leader, Agamemnon, wounding his pride, he refuses to fight for the Achaians for the first 15 books. However, the tide turns in book 16 when Patroklos, Achilleus’ friend, is killed (16.816-16.821). His rage causes him to join the Achaians once more and develope aristeia, where a hero in battle has his finest moments. He nearly single-handedly slaughters the Trojan army by splitting their ranks and pursuing half of them into the river, where he recognizes Lykaon (21.1-21.35).

Regardless of the time frame, Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s epic the Iliad share both a copious amount of similarities and differences. For example, many common themes such as heroism, fate, and destiny are apparent in both works. Within the Aeneid and the Iliad, it is seen that the wars going on during that time were glorious that is why the role of gods were significant in leading both Aeneas and Achilles and influencing fate. In both texts, it is clear from the beginning that the role of the gods is to make Aeneas and Achilles fulfill their journey The Iliad focuses on the end of the Trojan War and the damaging power, while the Aeneid is focused during the aftermath of the war and underlies the foundation for the new civilization. This paper will address and argue the comparison of the role of gods and how each of the authors representation of the gods have influence on the lives of mortals.

The Iliad presents its subject clearly from the beginning of the text. The book focuses mostly on the rage of Achilles but other factors as well. The text states that “the rage of Peleus’ son

Achilleus was a Greek hero, who fought in the Trojan War. Achilleus' most famous defeat during the Trojan War was the killing of the extraordinary hero Hektor, outside the city of Troy. In The Iliad of Homer, Achilleus’ character is inexorably altered by the nature of the experiences to which he is subjected. These consist of his fall out with Agamemnon, his emotional removal from battle, the death of Patroklos, and the killing of Hektor. Achilleus' actions had over sized impact on the outcome of battles and the lives of many warriors on both sides. Achilleus struggled with anger, respect, satisfaction, loyalty and love. At first Achilleus’ character is unlikable and self-centered. By the end of the Iliad, we see an Achilleus

“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.

In The Iliad, the first of many quarrels between Agamemnon and Achilles is ignited by Briseis and Chryseis. Because Agamemnon is forced to relinquish his prize,

The Iliad opens in the predicament of the Greeks who have somehow incurred the wrath of the gods. It is here that Agamemnon, supreme commander of the Grecian army, demand that Achilles give up his “prize” (Briseis) to replace his own “prize” (Chrysies) which he has to give up to appease the gods. Agamemnon has to

This short essay will identify five traditional epic characteristics that are evident in both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

“Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard / We are held in a single honor, the brave with the weaklings” 19.318-19. Achilleus realizes that despite his desires, mortality binds him. He recognizes the broken system of the Greek heroism and struggles with the concept of mortality. In Greek legend, Zeus, knowing that an immortal son of a powerful goddess like Thetis would overthrow him, married off Thetis unwillingly to a mortal, thereby dooming all of her children to mortality. Thus, robbed of his divinity, Achilleus constantly reaches for it, knowing it is rightfully his. He recognizes an almost divine power within himself, but realizes that his capability is chained by his mortality. Where most Homeric characters are enabled by the gods, Achilleus is restrained by them; he possesses a heroic consciousness of the cosmos, divinity, and mortality. However, for the love of Patroklos, Achilleus stops grasping at the divinity which is rightfully his and chooses a diminishment in mortality. Though Achillleus chooses a seemingly lower role and submits to his mortality, this choice is ultimately what makes him the hero of the Iliad. Rather than seeking personal glory, he embraces mortality and sacrifices himself for the redemption of a friend. Thus by embracing his mortality, Achilleus becomes something more than a mortal, achieving a level of heroism not even the gods can posses.