Achilles Essay

Tuesday October 2nd, 2012 Achilles is the main character, and, without doubt, the most complex character in Homer’s famous poem, The Iliad. Son of the goddess nymph Thetis and the king of the Myrmidons, Peleus, Achilles is a semi-god, known throughout and beyond Greece for his strength and fighting abilities. Stories on the epic hero Achilles are numerous, like the legend of Prometheus’, the fore thinker, prophecy regarding the birth of Thetis’ son, or the legend of Achilles bathing in the Styx River

Peleus’ son Achilles” (77) and so central is this theme of rage that the story could be renamed ‘The Rage of Achilles’, not just the first book. Truly, the poem follows Achilles’ anger as it shifts and morphs in response to the war around him. The death of his best friend Patroclus changes Achilles’ rage from an external fury to an internal one because Achilles knows he is the reason for Patroclus’ death. In other words, Achilles feels guilt. This guilt is first shown the moment Achilles hears of his

The Iliad, the author portrays Achilles as a childish, immature, and selfish character who undergoes a tremendous amount of change in his life, yet does not seem to grow as an individual. To begin, Achilles is described as a valiant, indestructible Achaean warrior. However, Achilles has an undeniably tough problem controlling his internal rage, especially towards Achaean King Agamemnon. Achilles and Agamemnon are involved in a battle of power. On one side, Achilles

Beowulf and Achilles have both showcased deeds of being a hero in each of their epic poems. In the epic poem Beowulf, a monster named Grendel comes to the town of Herot to eat the Thanes because he thrived on taking away their happiness. Hrothgar asks Beowulf to help slay the monster that has been wreaking havoc to their city for twelve years. Beowulf accepts Hrothgar’s request, but only if it is done his own way. Beowulf is a brave warrior and wanted Grendel out of the picture, so the people of

In the last chapters of the poem, Achilles’ rage becomes all-consuming and takes him over. Rage dictates all of his actions, and whether it is his god-like or animal-like characteristics being attributed to his rage, Homer and the soldiers no longer speak about him as a mortal. Achilles may go on breathing after the death of Patroclus, but he is not truly alive again until he can quell his rage, because his rage comes at the price of his humanity. Who Achilles is before Patroclus is killed very

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller focuses on the humanity of famous Greek warriors. She queues up the Iliad from a human perspective, not that of a distant and unrelated orator or that of an angry hero. By focusing on the humanity, Miller is able to capture moments of joy, anger, love, lust, and more importantly moments of flaw from a believable and relatable perspective. Achilles and Agamemnon are guilty of hubris, the word for “arrogance that scrapes the stars, for violence and towering rage

The tale of Achilles is one that is full of bravery and heroics. He is a hero who fights for and is ruled over by no one but himself. All he knows of is war and this is his normal world. Achilles fights so that his name will be remembered and last throughout all the ages. A realization is made that he will eventually die, but his name does not have to. This is Achilles’ call to go and fight against the Trojans, so that his name shall carry on and be remembered. This great war that Achilles fights in

The story of Achilles is a fascinating story that shows how talented a soldier he really was. He is the son of King Peleus of Phthia and the sea goddess, Thetis. She desired her son to be immortal. So, she dipped him in the River Styx by his heel, but where she held him, remained mortal. Achilles goes from unknown to a great hero of the Trojan War and will always be remembered. The great hero Achilles didn't start his quest well known. In his normal world he was a regular soldier, but one

Greeks, especially their hero’s. The two main heroes of the Greeks were Achilles and Odysseus, from the two great Epic poems. Although, the heroes Odysseus and Achilles from Homer’s epics the Iliad and Odyssey display several differences and similarities. The Great Heros from Homer’s epics can be easily separated in their ways of emotional responses. Looking solely at emotional responses, one can see that the Iliad’s hero Achilles displays his’ emotions far stronger than Odyssey’s hero Odysseus.

The Epic of Meleagros? Achilles and Meleagros go through incredibly similar experiences with Achilles mirroring Meleagros to some extent. Why then does Achilles’ story survive as the enormous epic that it is, The Iliad, while Meleagros has only a small fraction of that? This is an incredibly valid question because of the major parallels between Achilles and Meleagros. Both men are affected immensely by the one most “near and dear” to them (Kleopatra and Patroklos), both are offered incentives to