The Metamorphosis of Achilles in Homer’s The Iliad Essay

In the modern world, people, as a society, have always given themselves a goal or goals that they would like to attain at some point during their lifetime. Many people seek to attain riches, love, happiness or high stature within society. When we people set that goal, we tend to mold our lifestyles around it. As people work throughout their lives to achieve this ultimate goal, it becomes apparent to others what it is we are working so hard for. Just as this pattern is evident in modern society, it can also be seen in the times of Homer, particularly in the great Greek epic, the Iliad. This distinct pattern can be seen in Achilles, one of the most vital characters in the story. Achilles, being the ultimate most powerful warrior of all

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.

Achilles views as demonstrated before, clearly shows the change that has taken place in him, where once he would leaped at an opportunity to battle for glory and honor, now he shows reservation. Achilles is reluctant to risk his life on a fool's errand, for glory and honor. He is disenchanted about honor and all life effort to gain honor no matter how great it might be. He felt they were nothing but the personal honor and glory of others. But, of course, Achilles never actually leaves, although he threatens

The great talents that Achilles’ possesses cause him to become much admired and well known by both the Greeks and the Trojans. He begins to believe all the good things people are say and becomes an arrogant, child-like, selfish person which all mark Achilles’ hubris part of his behavior cycle. Achilles shows his arrogance when he gets angry with Agamemnon for him wanting take his prize of honor, which Achilles worked very hard to get. Because of this, Achilles begins to lose his capability to think straight and weigh all the factors in situations, and withdraws himself from the battle. Later on after Achilles overcomes the death of his best friend and regains back his courage and pride, Achilles kills Hector and thinks he is invincible for doing the great deed he did. Achilles fought Hector for honor over all else and performed the death of Hector almost as a duty and feels proud of himself for doing so. Before he kills Hector, Achilles declares, “I will go forth to slay Hector, who killed the man the I loved… Until then, may I win great fame and glory, and may every Trojan realize that the greatest of the Greeks no longer remains apart from battle”(145).

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

In the Greek society, Achilles has the role of the aggressive soldier. From the very first lines of the epic, we are introduced to Achilles’ murderous rage:

Achilles retaliates with even harsher words to Agamemnon once Athena disappears, calling him a coward who sits behind the scenes whilst his men fight and die for him and vows to not take any part in the war from this point forth, for he has been scorned by the wordings of Agamemnon.

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.

Although this quote is very gory, it shows his taste for fighting and how badly he wants to be great. When Achilles was young he was given the choice from his Mother, Thetis Goddess of the Sea, he could either be a great warrior, have a ton of glory, be remembered for ever but would have to die young, or Achilles could live a normal life, not be a great warrior, or be remembered, but he would live to a ripe old age. This is

Warriors of ancient Greece were considered heroes by following the Heroic Code of excellence. They achieved this by acquiring a kleos; establishing fame, glory and a positive reputation. It was not an easy task to become a Grecian hero. Building and maintaining kleos meant that a warrior must be brave and strong, be “a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.” The solider had to protect his friends and harm his enemies, respect the gods and his elders, and most of all value his honor over his life. To die in battle, and be spoken of after death was the most important act of honor for a hero. The Greek tragedy, Iliad, attributed to Homer, portrays Achilles as the most gallant hero of the Athenian army. The story tells of Achilles, who develops into the greatest hero of the Trojan War. While the end of the end of the poem does portray Achilles as the solider that the story foretells throughout the poem he does not act like that. Many times in the story Achilles actions are perceived as unheroic but ultimately they shape the course of the few weeks of the Trojan Wars described in the Iliad, the Achaean’s final victory at Troy and his emergence as a hero.

King Agamemnon said that “Now I give [Achilles] fair warning: since Apollo robs me of Chryseis,I will send her home with my own ship and crew; but I will take [Achilles’] beautiful Briseis, and I will come for her myself to [Achilles’] quarters-for [Achilles’] prize”(Homer 7). Achilles was deeply offended by King Agamemnon taking Briseis, for she was his prize. This severely hurt Achilles ego, and he would hold a grudge toward Agamemnon throughout the entire story. With Achilles self-centeredness also came much wrath and hatred for others. Achilles said, “No man living shall keep the dogs from your head-not if they bring ransom ten times and twenty times innumerable, and weigh it out, and promise me more, not if Priamos Dardanides pay your weight in gold- not for that ransom shall your mother lay you out on the bier and mourn for the son of her womb, but carrion dogs and carrion birds shall devour you up” (Homer 320). After slaying Hector in front of the walls of Troy, Achilles then begins to mutilate his body. He feels no remorse for Hector because Hector brought down one of Achilles best friends, and Achilles felt that he needed his revenge on Hector. All of the hatred that Achilles has built up

Achilles was arrogant, stubborn and he held an overly high view of himself. In his wrath, he alienated himself from not only his allies but also from humanity. “But Achilles weeping went and sat in sorrow apart from his companions” (69; bk.1, ln.348-349). Ignoring the consequences, he still withdrew himself from the war.

“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.

τελέω does not simply mean ‘to do’, but ‘to fulfill, to bring to completion, to act in full accord with some plan, command, prayer, promise, or prophecy. ’1 The word represents the full completion of a concept into reality and in the future tense, shows the confidence of the speaker in realizing that task. Although the epic has been characterized as a poem of action and war, often speech and dialogue advances the plot and provides reflections of its theme and characters. As the only character who knows that he will die soon and that he will able to die by his own choice, Achilles has a unique perspective on the nature of being a hero and glory.

When the argument shifted, Agamemnon followed through with his threat to remove Achilles’ lover. (Homer 192) Meanwhile, Achilles can be observed to be the most vulnerable as Homer’s chronicle unravels after the intense scene: “Then Achilles, in tears, [w]ithdrew from his friends and sat down far away; [o]n the foaming white seashore, staring out; [a]t the endless see. Stretching out his hands, [h]e prayed over and over to his beloved mother:” (Homer 198) Achilles here is observed to be more child-like; crying out to his mother for answers to his unfortunate circumstance. This scene demonstrates an important message: despite how well a man can fight or argue; he is still vulnerable to his own emotions, but he does not reach out to any mortal. Not only does Achilles get too involved in his emotions in this scene, he later contradicts himself as he refuses to participate in the war any further by stripping himself of his beloved armor and provided it to one of his dearest friends, Patroclus, who later seized the battlefield and was killed by Hector. (Homer 242) After the news of his Patroclus’ death, Achilles has a significant shift of character: he had become careless of his omen. Here, Homer offers another interesting plot as he writes Achilles to avenge Patroclus’ death by fighting first for his friend’s body, then to the death at the end of the chronicle; however, Achilles still remained independent of the help of his Greek “war-brothers” help. (Homer