Nothing Is Fair In Homer's Agamemnon

King Agamemnon has demanded Achilles give up his maiden to him after Apollo has forced him to give up his own prize (Homer 5). Achilles feels shamed that Agamemnon would demand such a thing but eventually does give up his prize (Homer 6). It makes him seem inferior. Because of this, he refuses to participate in battle because he is returning home (Homer 172). Refusing to fight is a shameful thing that brings honor to nobody. He can fight and seem inferior to Agamemnon or he can sit out and let his comrades die. There is no honor in this.

From the discussion about book nine of the Iliad, the reasoning behind Achilles’ actions was discussed and the theme of freedom vs. fate was discovered. Book nine is considered to be the climax of the Iliad because it is a turning point in the war and the Greeks realize that they need Achilles. Agamemnon offers a multitude of gifts and gives a rather lame apology in the hopes of Achilles returning, however Achilles refuses the gifts. The Greeks all questioned Achilles’ mindset for they did not understand why he would refuse the gifts and glory offered to him. Considering how in these times, the Greeks associate honor with material objects, Achilles has just denied himself an opportunity to receive honor and a legacy. He became an outsider among

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

Throughout The Iliad, Homer displays the influence of a women’s beauty on the affairs of men during war. For instance, Agamemnon, the king of the Achaean’s, is forced to return the women he has conquered, Chryseis, in order to save his army from the plague of Apollo. However, he refuses to be deprived of a prize and says, “But fetch me another prize, and straight off too, / else I alone of the Argives go without my honor” (Homer 81). Agamemnon’s command demonstrates his reliance on a prize for nobility and glory. Without a physical representation of his strength and war victories, Agamemnon is left with nothing to uphold his jurisdiction.

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

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.

Achilles claims that a King who fights no battles should get no prize, but as explained before no king should should be expected to fight on the front lines of every war. The fight between the two grows after Achilles throws an offside insult to Agamemnon when telling him the rest of the war spoils have been given out. “Just how, Agamemnon, great field marshal . . . most grasping man alive…” After this insult Agamemnon need to fire back, because he can’t be torn down in front all of the nobles and warriors present. The insults escalate until Agamemnon and Achilles are ready to kill each other. In this situation they were both being childish and petty but Agamemnon is still the “least wrong.” Achilles fired the first shot in this case and Agamemnon needed to protect his reputation. He could have stepped away and showed he couldn’t be brought down by insults but in the heat of the moment, he wouldn’t have been thinking the clearest. Now addressing the obvious, Briseis was rightfully Achilles’ prize and Agamemnon stole her from him to replace Chryseis. As a King, Agamemnon would be expected to have the best prizes after the

The Iliad: Book I, is about the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon in the beginning of the Trojan War. It shows how vigorous Achilles’ rage was and that he is no one to mess with. The book states “Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed”. This shows his fury in just a few words. Achilles was a Greek hero who was the son of a Goddess named Thetis. He was an incredible solder; brave, violent and godlike. However, Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaean Army. He was greedy, aggressive and selfish. He was described as “the most grasping man alive”. He absolutely hated Achilles. I feel that he was jealous of how respected Achilles was among the ranks in the army because of his superior skills in the field of battle. Agamemnon claimed Chryseis as his prize, after sacking a Trojan town. Chryseis was a daughter of a Priest of Apollo, Chryses. He offered an enormous ransom to get his daughter back. At first Agamemnon didn’t want it but the people round him persuaded him that it would be best to let her go so they could be released from the plague that Apollo put on them. Agamemnon then poised to Achilles that he is going to steal Achilles prize, Briseis. This is when Achilles’ rage shows at its best. He nearly draws his sword to kill Agamemnon but he is stopped by the goddess, Athena.

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 idea of kleos otherwise known as glory in Greek, and honor is one of the most essential motifs of the Iliad. For many warriors depicted in the Iliad, honor was vital and personal. For many, Glory earned in battle was more important than one’s life. Glory or the lack of, was remembered long after one’s life. Possibly the greatest fundamental part of honor to the fighters of the Iliad was courage in battle as shown throughout multiple books. Throughout the course of this book we can see how different characters display these traits and how they influence the course of the war. Even though the Achaeans and Trojans are enemies they display a similar view, the acquisition of glory is more significant than life

During that entire time, Achilles’ justification for wallowing in self-pity is that he has been “dishonored”. This argument becomes null and void when Agamemnon offers lavish compensation for the affront. In addition to returning Briseis, Agamemnon offers Achilles seven unfired tripods, ten gold bars, twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen horses, seven beautiful women from Lesbos, twenty Trojan women, his daughters’ hand in marriage along with a rich dowry, and the ownership of seven populous cities. Any reasonable person would have taken the offer but not prideful, bitter Achilles. Instead he continues on with the same old rhetoric and refuses to fight. As if standing idly by while his countrymen were being killed was not enough, Achilles has his mother call in a favor to Zeus asking him to help the Trojans so that even more Greeks would die during his absence. Not only did he abandon his comrades, he actually prayed for them to die because his pride had been hurt.

In exchange for Achilles’ tremendous skill in battle, Agamemnon tells the embassy to offer Achilles an enormous amount of treasure, including tripods, cauldrons, stallions, slave women, and even one of his daughters. Achilles declares in response, “His gifts, I loathe his gifts… I wouldn’t give you a splinter for that man! Not if he gave me ten times as much… not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand and dust in the earth.” (page 264) Achilles is unwilling to consider forgiving Agamemnon and protect the fate of the Achaeans, even in exchange for this massive amount of timé. Instead, he holds onto the primal rage for Agamemnon. In addition, Achilles cites his desire to avoid dying in battle as a reason he continues to refuse to help. At this moment in the epic, Achilles’ desire to live out his live trumps any desire to gain material

In book three of Iliad, “illustrious king” (9.126) and his Achaean armies fight the Trojans to stop wife stealing but despites that he still dishonors and takes Achilles prize, Breseis. Agamemnon in the Iliad can be seen as the mortal Aphrodite. In book three of Iliad, Helen disobeyed Aphrodite and she responds with rage and so does “lord of men” (9.112) in book one. Agamemnon feels that Achilles disobeyed him, so he answers with wrath just to show “how much greater [he] [is] than [him]…. for hoping to rival [him] strength for strength” (1.219-221). His statement makes Achilles furious with rage. “Why, why in the world if not for Helen with her loose and lustrous hair? Are they the only men alive who love their wives, those sons of Atreus? Never!” (9.411-414). Achilles expresses his feeling on how contradicting the whole Trojan war is and that is he going to involve himself, it will be for Bresies only. Bresies is who he loves not

Angry and calling Agamemnon a hypocrite, he states, “I hate it like I hate hell / the man who says one thing and think another” (168). Strategically beginning his soliloquy with a hostile accusation sets the tone for the rest of the speech. This tone and structure is harsh, hyperbolic, and jumps between the two arguments from which he bases his response: “He cheated me, wronged me. Never again” (170), Achilles declares, focusing on the loss of honor and placing blame on Agamemnon. Just 29 lines after, however, Achilles switches his focus to the other reason for leaving. “Nothing is worth my life, not all the riches / they say Troy held before the Greeks came…” (171). This quick shift of focus is similar to a rant going back and forth between arguments. His mind is not balancing on one thought, but rather driven by emotions and rhetorical questions. For example, he brings up, “why do the Greeks have to fight the Trojans?” “Why did Agamemnon lead the army to Troy if not for the sake of fair-haired Helen?” “And now he thinks he’s going to win me back?” (169). This tone and these rhetorical questions serve to exaggerate and humanize the argument. Achilles can only deal with so much—he is only human, after all, and must be treated like one. He is not Agamemnon’s war puppet. The meaning and purpose for Achilles’ rant is not muddled in the harsh and edgy speech; it is simply shown in various ways. He will not fight for Agamemnon and is making it

This decision of prideful betrayal brings many casualties to the Achaean army. Once Agamemnon apologetically offers Achilles many valuable gifts along with the return of his war prize, Achilles refuses. In this rejection, Achilles is putting his own animosity toward Agamemnon above the needs of his fellow Achaeans. His friend Phoenix tells him to think of his diminishing honor, but Achilles answers, “…what do I need with honor such as that ?/ … It degrades you to curry favor with [Agamemnon],/ and I will hate you for it, I who love you./ It does you proud to stand by me, my friend,/ to attack the man who attacks me…”(p 147). Not only does Achilles reject honor, but he egotistically asks his father figure, Phoenix, to give up his in order to take his side.