Achilles Epic Hero

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The epic hero Achilles was the son of Thetis, a goddess and daughter of the sea god Nereus, and thus is descended from the gods. His godly heritage brought him prowess and favor in battle. Thetis directly beseeches Zeus on behalf of Achilles for favor and glory in both his fight with Agamemnon the Trojans (1.505). Achilles receives the favor of the gods and regained his honor. Achilles is again looked favorably upon by his mother and the gods when she intervened for him when he needed new armor to fight Hector because Achilles’ armor was captured from Patroklos. She traveled to Hephaistos and begged him to make a shield and armor for Achilles so that he could defeat Hector in battle (18.457). With the armor secured from the gods, Achilles was able to avenge his dear friend Patrokols. …show more content…

Achilles donned his Olympian armor and accepted his nemesis’ challenge to single combat in order to reclaim the honor that was taken from Patrokols. In front of the walls of Troy, Achilles chased and fought the noble Hector, even dismissing help from his allies in a bout of chivalry (22.205). With the assistance of Athena, he is able to catch Hector before finishing him off with a final thrust of his mighty spear (22.325). Achilles does not resort to trickery or plots, but committed his great deeds with hard work and his skill in battle. He commanded such respect from his men that they obeyed him even when the enemy leader was with in their reaches and the war could be ended were it not for Achilles order to not harm Priam or attack Troy for eleven days (24.659). Lessor men would not have been able to singly control such a large group of war hunger men and Priam would certainly have been murdered despite being commanded to stay their

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