What Makes Achilles: The Hero Of War

In the tenth year Agamemnon, being obliged to surrender his captive Chryseis, made good his loss by depriving Achilles of a favorite slave girl, Briseis. Achilles withdrew from active service to sulk in his quarters, and the Greeks were so hard pressed in consequence that they sent a deputation proposing to restore Briseis with additional rewards. Achilles rejected their offer. At length, however, he agreed to lend his arms and armor to Patroclus, who was killed by Hector in the ensuing fight. Moved to fury by the death of his friend, Achilles made peace with Agamemnon, obtained new armor from Hephaestus, and eventually killed Hector. In the Iliad Achilles is already doomed to die before the Scaean Gate of Troy, and in the Odyssey there is a reference to his funeral. According to subsequent Greek legends Achilles was killed by Paris, who shot a poisoned arrow into Achilles' heel.

     In addition to the previously mentioned character flaws, one could argue that Achilles was also a kidnapper, rapist and murderer. Briseis herself was a love-slave. She was taken as a spoil of war from one of the Greeks previous successful military campaigns. Even if she went willingly and made love to Achilles willingly, it would be absolutely ludicrous to think that all of his other love-slaves (he had many) had such a “good” time. No one likes to be

The main characters were Achilles and Patroclus. The parents of Achilles, King Peleus and Thetis (sea goddess) were notably present for many of the main conflicts in the novel. There were other important characters such as Chiron (Achilles’ trainer) and Briseis (close friend of Patroclus).

As the movie begins we are introduced to Achilles as a fierce and strong warrior, fearing no one. He begins the first step of Harris’ journey, also known as the call, when Odysseus goes to talk to him. Odysseus visits Achilles to ask him to fight in the war in Troy. He describes the war as great and in need of their best warrior, the perfect invitation into his journey. The second step in Harris’ journey is the threshold, where we encounter obstacles and doubts. One of the main examples of threshold in Achilles’ life would be his mother. When Achilles brings up that he has been invited to war his mother gives him two options. Those options are to stay where he is a live a normal long life with a wife children and happiness where not many would remember his legacy, or to go to war and possibly die fighting but be remembered for years to come. At that point Achilles started

When the men of Agamemnon come to take Briseis, Achilles gives her up without a fight, despite how heavy his heart is at the thought of losing her. Once she is gone, Achilles withdraws from his companions and sobs, praying to his mother to understand why he is treated the way he is, why he isn’t treated with respect. His mother, hearing his laments, comes to console him, telling him that she will visit Zeus and try to sway him towards helping the Trojans and destroying the Achaeans, to make them pay for disrespecting the son of Thetis.

She talks Achilles into using his words to fight Agamemnon instead of his sword. To obey the gods Achilles verbally lashes him calling him a drunkard and a coward who stays behind the fight letting other men die while he reaps the glory because he feared death even though he will take the prize of any man that disagrees with him. He will not fight any more and that Agamemnon has brought the destruction of the Greek army on himself for failing to honor the best of the Greek warriors. He would give up Briseis because it was Agamemnon that gave her to him but if he touched anything else of his he would kill him. Achilles gave up Briseis to Agamemnon’s men telling them that one day they would need his help for their leader didn’t know how to see how his actions affected everyone. In the movie of Troy after taking the beach outside of the city of Troy Achilles is given Briseis as his prize of honor the leaders met together giving gifts to Agamemnon. Achilles spoke to the king telling him that he had won a victory that day. Agamemnon told him that he had won the beach of Troy from Prium that morning, that history remembers kings not warriors and even though he was there to fight for the continuation of his name his wouldn’t be the one who was remembered. Achilles tells him to be careful because he needs to win the war first. Agamemnon recounts that Achilles men had taken the temple of Apollo. Achilles tells him that he can take all of the gold for

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.

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

The ease with which he could dispatch his enemy seemed to give Achilles pleasure, not the wealth and power which came with ruling his small kingdom. His war-brides would have undoubtedly given him the pleasurable attention he needed, but unfortunately even this luxury was denied him. The circumstances surrounding Chryseis and Briseis (two war-brides captured in an attack on a town allied with Troy) led to the unsteady relationship between Achilles and Agamemnon. When Agamemnon took Achilles' war-bride Briseis for himself, Achilles withdrew himself from battle. The result of Achilles' withdrawal was that Patroclus went into battle posing as Achilles in order to bolster the spirit of the Achaean army. This unfortunately led the death of Patroclus. This only helped to

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

She is also known as Achilles's mother. In Book XVIII Achilles is devastated over the death of his friend Patroclus. He turns to his mother, who tries to comfort him, but she also mentions how Hector now wears his armor. She decides to do something for Achilles. Before she leaves to see the god Hephaestus, she turns to her "saltwater sisters". "'...I am on my way Up to Olympus to visit Hephaestus, The glorious Smith, to see for my sake He will give my son glorious armor'. As she spoke they dove into the waves, And the silver-footed goddess was gone Off to Olympus to fetch arms for her child" (Homer

One of the major characters who have been altered for the film is Briseis. In the Iliad, readers discover in a passage spoken by Achilles that she was captured by the Achaians when

First most people who read the Iliad think of how great Achilles is while they never stop to think of where he came from or his background and how that makes him want to be strong. “Troubled sea so deep, troubled home no sleep.” This quote means that a troubled background with someone’s family or house. If we look at Achilles past we see that his mother only married his father because he caught her quite literally. Achilles may feel he needs to prove something to his parents and show they had a child worth remembering. Thetis, Achilles mother, loves her son so much that she dressed him up as a girl so he wouldn’t go to war.

Thetis is always motivated by her love and pity for her son, two emotions he seems unable to feel himself. As a loving mother, she is concerned for her son and his future and so ensures that he is aware of his options. Out of respect for him, she allows Achilles to make his own decision and goes as far as to support him fully, although the attentive reader can sense that doing so is immensely painful for her. Therefore, although it superficially seems that Thetis supports war and aggression, her true motives are far more admirable.

The first set of major steps that Achilles undergoes is the call to adventure, the refusal to the call to action, and the meeting with the mentor. In Book 1 of the Iliad, Achilles is called to fight against the Trojan’s to reclaim Helen, Menelaus wife. Later in the war, Chryseis and Briseis are taken as prizes from a battle. They are the daughters of a priest of Apollo named Chryses. After Chryses begs for his daughters back, the Greeks decide to give Briseis to him and have Chryseis stay. Chryseis belonged to Achilles as his prize from the battle and Briseis belonged to Agamemnon, a political leader of the Greeks. Agamemnon then humiliate Achilles by taking Chryseis Achilles’s prize, for himself. This angered Achilles greatly and caused him to leave the Greek army, albeit temporary. This serves as Achilles refusal to the call of battle. Achilles’s anger is shown in Book 1 lines 188 to 192, these lines show how much Achilles’s pride affects his actions and how he responds to conflict. In this situation, his pride is hurt greatly, to the point where he almost kill Agamemnon, however Athena stops him. Achilles says