The Change of Achilles Essay

Achilles, on the other hand, can almost be fully comprehended from his initial disagreement with Agamemnon. Agamemnon's unreasonable actions seem to justify Achilles' refusal to engage his men in battle, primarily, because his pride will not allow him to act. Achilles believes himself to be the most important man in the army and the injury cannot be forgiven. Even when a diplomatic escape is contrived by Agamemnon, Achilles sees his position as unchanged-doubtlessly, Odysseus would have relented but Achilles is unable to forget past grievances.

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.

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.

This is just one of the many examples of how Achilles is ruled by his emotions, of how him being the son of Zeus and Thetis aids him in his goals and gives him an upper hand. He is favored not only by Athena, but also by Hera, and indirectly by Zeus, who tries to maintain neutrality throughout the course of the Iliad. There are various occasions on which the God’s interfere, each trying to help either the Trojans or the Achaeans. On more than one occasion, Thetis interferes on behalf of her son, trying to gain him some ground by calling in the favors that she

Achilles questions himself, "Should he draw the long sharp sword slung at his hip, thrust through the ranks and kill Agamemnon now?--or check his rage and beat his fury down?" (108). Here, Hera has Athena intervene to keep Achilles from killing Agamemnon, which shows how the gods control Achilles' destiny. The argument between Achilles and Agamemnon clearly shows that the two men have different opinions about the power of the gods, what is holy or unholy, and what is proper treatment of other men. These differences are one source of Achilles' rage.

Priam invokes a pity in Achilles that insights the end of the gods plan for Achilles, which the gods construct. Apollo states to Priam, “You go in and clasp his knees, and beseech him in the name of his father and mother and his son, to touch his heart” (Homer 358). In this simple action, Achilles connects to Priam on an emotional level. This human connection allows Achilles to realize the blindness of his anger, so Hector was able to go home. As Achilles’ rage passes, Achilles’ fate becomes finalized. The finalization of Achilles; fate solely occurs due to the influential actions of the gods and their creation of an emotional ploy to make Achilles relate to Priam and give up his

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.

Achilles’ path to redemption began when he freed himself of the anger and rage that

Once Achilles decides to go after Hector to seek revenge for his fallen comrades death, he seals his fate of living a short life full of glory, rather than going back home to live a quiet, uneventful life in peace. This shows a dramatic reversal in Achilles character as his desire to defend his loved ones overcomes his pride from defying Agamemnon. In honor of Patroclus, Achilles comes out from the Achaean ships and

There are many reasons why Achilles changes in “The Iliad” by Homer including he was aggressive, brave, and sad in the beginning of the text.­­­­­­­ First and foremost, Achilles, in the beginning, was aggressive. In the text, “Achilles was in an ice cold fury”(Homer 25) is a perfect example of this. This directly shows that Achilles had hostile behavior because he was in such fury. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Secondly, Achilles was not afraid in the beginning of the text. In the text, “Achilles was not afraid” (Homer 28). This directly shows that Achilles was not afraid. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Finally, Achilles was sad in the beginning of the text. In the text, “Achilles sulked by his ships” (Homer 33). Because Achilles is just sulking by the ships, he must be very sad.

Achilles then asks his mother to convince Zeus to honor him at the cost of the Greeks. He wants the Greeks to be defeated in battle so that they realize how important Achilles was to them and so that they will honor and respect him as their greatest warrior and most important leader. Zeus grants the wish of Thetis and the battle begins to change dramatically.

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.

Agamemnon states, “The girl I will not give back; …far from her own land, and being in bed as my companion…” (1.29-31) He is simply the cruelest and abominable character in the Iliad; telling a daughter’s father that he will never see her again and that she will be his partner in bed until death. The lack of compassion needed to say such a thing to a grieving father remains incomprehensible. He also said, “Never let me find you again, old sir, near our hollow ships, neither lingering now, nor coming again after.” (6.106-120) He explains to the father that if he ever sees him again, he will kill him on sight. Agamemnon’s strength and leadership abilities could promote him to be a great leader, but he fights for the wrong