The Plague Of Agamemnon

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

Through the history of the world, man has always been driven by self gain and each man believes he is self justified. When Agamemnon and Achilles argue over the return of Chryseis and the prize Briseis, they both think they are right. Achilles convinces Agamemnon to return the stolen Chryseis but King Agamemnon takes Achilles’ Briseis as compensation. Agamemnon is most justified in his actions. No, he did not fight on the front lines with Achilles and his men, but as the king he has every right to stay behind his army and lead. A king should be ready to give everything for his kingdom, but that does not mean they should lead every charge. Many people have pointed out that if it were expected of a King to fight in every battle it would be impossible for him to

It is interesting to note then, that the argument between Agamemnon and Achilles finds a parallel right at the end of the same book in the fight between Zeus and his wife Hera. This produces a somewhat suprising effect, the first chapter of an epic that is originally about a foreign military campaign is bookended by scenes of internal conflict: dissent within the ranks of the Greek army and a domestic dispute among the immortals. Even

The Athenian plague was an epidemic that began in the summer of 430 B.C. in Athens—a year after the Peloponnesian war in 431 B.C. It was supposed that the plague was a result of excess number of Athenians within the city walls also known as the long walls—a military strategy by Pericles which consisted of building walls that connected the city to its port . The surplus of Athenians led to a shortage of food, water, an absence of sewage systems, and other important factors were said to have brought about the plague. It first appeared in the south of Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and later on in the Persian Empire, and Rome before arriving in Athens . The disease attacked the population of Piraeus and then travelled to

From 1347 to 1352 a string of the bubonic plague lay waste to western Europe, killing millions. In Italy, nearly a third of the population died; in England, half. The plague was a looming presence, always in the back of people’s minds. The symptoms of the Black Death caused great strife for westerners. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet, described the symptoms he saw during the first outbreak of the plague: “Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli.” Both Italy and England desperately searched for answers, claiming that the Black Death was the cause of a higher force, but realising that the squalor of their countries also played a part in spreading the illness. Although Italy and England both had a common explanation for the cause of the plague and they both implemented better public health standards, they adopted different public health practices after the plague.

Had Agamemnon demonstrated the same sort of compassion towards the supplicant Chryses, the Greeks would have been spared the wrath of Apollo. Hector's compassion and his respect for the gods, engenders the trust and respect of his people, and makes him an ideal leader.

There were three major outbreaks of the Black Death pandemic in the world. In the history the Black Plague is also called as the Black Death or Bubonic Plague. This research paper will mainly cover the European outbreak of the 14th century as it is considered to be the era of the worst time of the Black Death period. Many historians would agree that the events of 1300s led to dramatic changes affecting every European country in all the aspects. Creating economic, social, religious, and medical issues, the Black Death caused renovation of the Europe. New circumstances forced Europe to reconsider its political system, improve the medicine and look at the situation from a different perspective, shifting from the medieval to modern society. Paul Slack, in his book The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England, provides a detailed description of the most affected places and the approximation of the victims, estimating that Europe had lost about one third of its population. Comparing to cholera the number of deaths caused by the Black Plague in England is doubled making The Black Plague the most devastating disease (Slack 174). In the book, The Black Death, Robert Gottfried examines the history of the Black Plague and its political consequences as well as social. He introduces the facts how the European population was affected in both positive and negative ways. From his writing it stood out that the lower class was affected the most as the conditions they lived in were worse

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.

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).

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.

“But upon the tenth day Achilles called them in assembly moved thereto by Hera, who saw the Achaeans in their death-throes and had compassion upon them. Then, when they were got together, he rose and spoke among them” (Iliad 1.50-1.60). Achilles displays in this section of the narrative a strong sense of social order and concern for tor the plague within the Achaian camp. Achilles wants to know why, but His king Agamemnon will not act so Achilles calls an assembly of the entire army. In doing so Achilles upsets the order of protocol, as Agamemnon is the only one with the power to call an assembly as he is the “foremost of the Achaians” (Iliad 1.90). During the assembly Achilles finds out that Agamemnon is responsible for the deadly plague, thus creating disorder within the

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,

In the 9th book Agamemnon is very desperate to save his entire force and possibly the entire Greek army. So, after Nestor proposes that they should try to reconcile with Achilles, Agamemnon sends Phoenix, Odysseus, and Ajax. Agamemnon is prepared to give many gifts and compensation for what he did to Achilles, including, gold, women, cities, land, and even Achilles's prize. “I will give him these and, with them, the woman I took from him, the daughter of Briseous” pg.148 line. 132. Once the three men reach Achilles’s hut they are greeted and welcomed with great food and hospitality. After feasting, Ajax nodded to phoenix to propose the reconciliation with Achilles. Odysseus noticed Ajax’s nod and began to propose the offer. “Their hunger and

Agamemnon returns from Troy, a victorious general, bringing home spoils, riches and fame. He is murdered on the same day as he returns. Clytemnestra, his adulterous wife, has laid in wait for her husband's homecoming and kills him whilst he is being bathed after his long journey. During the Agamemnon, large proportions of the Queen's words are justifications for her action, which is very much concerned with the sacrifice of Iphigenia to the gods, in order for the fleet to set sail for Troy. Aegisthus, the new husband of the Queen Clytemnestra, and partner in the conspiracy to murder the war hero, had reasons, which stemmed from the dispute between the Houses of Atreus and Thyestes. Was the

Homer explores change through divine intervention from the first book of the epic poem through Achilles' behavior towards Agamemnon. Agamemnon sparks Apollo's rage when he disparages Chryses, a priest of Apollo, and Apollo consequentially rains arrows down on the Achaeans as punishment. A concerned Achilles asks around to discover why Apollo is punishing them, and when the seer Calchas explains the reason behind Apollo's anger, Achilles becomes enraged and confronts Agamemnon, and declares he will not return to battle. This verbal declaration signifies a change in character as a result of divine intervention, as it becomes clear that Achilles has felt this way for some time, but never acted