The Iliad The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, which lasted 10 years. The Grecians eventually won the war, but the outcome could have very easily shifted due to a quarrel between King Agamemnon and Achilles. Pride and anger is what the two men were fighting about. This story is a very good example of how those two simple emotions can lead to tragedy. Agamemnon was King of Argos. He was also the chief king among the Grecians. He was angry because his brother, King Menelaus of Sparta, had his wife, Helen, stolen by Paris of Troy. He called all the Kings of Greece and Isles of Greece to come together and make war upon the Trojans and bring Helen back. Among the many was Achilles. Achilles was the son of Thetis, a sea nymph. He was the man who Troy feared the most because he was called the world's greatest warrior. It was said that his only weakness was his heel. If he were to be hurt there, he would surely die. The quarrel began when the Grecian warriors returned from sacking Thebes. Each warrior was dealt out shares of the loot and a woman. The woman King Agamemnon was awarded was the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. Chryses came to the tents of the Grecians bringing a great ransom and asked for his daughter, Chrysies, back. Agamemnon ignored his pleas and sent him away. Chryses left and went down to the ocean and prayed to Apollo to avenge his tears. Apollo heard his prayer and, furious, came down from Mt. Olympus. He sat upon a hill and started to attack the Grecians with his arrows. This went on for nine days straight. On the tenth day Achilles called all the Kings and Princes into assembly. He asked if any of them had done anything to offend the god Apollo. The only one that spoke was Calchas, a man who... ... middle of paper ... ...hought themselves the better man and considered themselves dishonored by each other. For this, they each sought vengeance. Agamemnon uses his power to take Achilles' prize from him. Achilles decides to not only stop fighting, but also to turn against the Grecians. He would rather them lose the war than be dishonored. This is a classic example of how the human being can be so consumed with pride and anger he becomes dangerous. This is demonstrated all the time when we hear of the pointless deaths of many people due to shootings in schools and churches, kidnappings, and murders. By asking his mother to let the Trojans win the war, Achilles was sentencing thousands of soldiers to death. If there is any lesson learned from this story, it is not to let pride and anger cloud your judgment or make you crazy. Many people have made grave mistakes by letting it control them.
to all of the characters in the poem. In book two, after the argument between Achilles and
For starters, The Iliad is a Greek epic poem by the author Homer. The Iliad details a ten day long span, which takes place ten years into the Trojan War. The Trojan War was between two groups, the Greeks and the Trojans. The conflict begins with Chryseis being held captive, and leader Agamemnon refusing to return Chryseis. As a result, a plague is sent to the Greek camps, which isolates the famous warrior Achilles. Achilles then prays to Zeus, who he has connections with, and asks for divine help for the Trojans. This plea is successful and makes Agamemnon want Achilles back. A great
...s killed Atreus and Thyestes seized the throne of Mycenae and eventually, Aegisthus killed Agamemnon.
At its core, the epic poem, The Iliad of Homer, is a story about a hero’s rage and how it affects the war that is taking place around him. This hero is Achilles and he shapes the epic through both his actions and inactions during the Trojan War. Achilles is the most powerful warrior among the Achaians and this is shown during his battles. In fact, his power becomes so great at times that he abuses it and wreaks havoc unjustly. This is the case with Achilles’s murder and subsequent treatment of the likewise powerful warrior Hector.
Achilles was given a gift, the gift of being the best warrior there was, and being the son of a goddess didn?t hurt his confidence either. Achilles had more than confidence he was cocky and thought that the world revolved around him. In his mind nobody, including the Achaean army could survive without him. When an argument occurs between him and Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and leader of the Achaean army, Achilles leaves the army and goes crying to his mother, ...
The Greek commander Agamemnon betrays Achilles by insulting him and taking his war prize, the girl Briseis. The Greek army as a whole, betrays him by acting inactively to Agamemnon’s insults and failing to defend him. As seen in Richard Blucher’s article book discussion, “In the Iliad, Achilles has his war prize, the captive woman Briseis, stolen from him by his Commander-in-Chief, King Agamemnon. Shay explains: We must understand the cultural context to see that this episode is more than a personal squabble between two soldiers over a woman [...] The prize of honor was voted by the troops for Achilles’ valor in combat. A modern equivalent might be a commander telling a soldier, ‘I’ll take that Congressional Medal of Honor of yours, because I don’t have one” (Blucher). These betrayals are so traumatic and insulting for Achilles that he withdrew entirely from the war. Also, in Book 21 of The Iliad, Achilles shows another belief that is identified with betrayal. In this book Achilles acts with reckless courage and takes on hundreds of enemy troops without showing any fear or resentment, even when the river god rises to drown him. As he acts so reckless he disregards his own life, and kills all who comes in his path. This is seen through Irwin Kutash’s review of Achilles in Vietnam, as he said, “Achilles is found to have been betrayed by his commander, Agamemnon, who usurps his prize of honor. The betrayal is described
Revenge in The Iliad it the main theme and drives men to do things that they would not normally do. The main example of this is Achilles wanting revenge on Agamemnon. The first book of the Iliad explains that Achilles wants revenge because Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis, his war bride, to her father, and he decides to take Achilles war bride from him. According to “Some Thoughts about the Origins of ‘Greek Ethics’”, by Nicholas D. Smith, “Agamemnon’s unjust affront to Achilles leads to and extraordinarily deadly retaliation, the ultimate outcome of which is that multitudes of these men’s innocent allies are killed unnecessarily”(smith 10). This is out of character for Achilles, who would normally be the first man into battle, not sitting one out. By “rejecting even the most earnest and impressive entreaties Agamemnon offers, and increasingly making decisions which are rationally indefensible”, he shows how much his wanting of revenge has turned him into a madman (smith 10). His only desire is to get revenge for his loss. It takes the death of Patroclus, his dear friend, to bring him back to the war, which he has left.
Agamemnon refused to return the captive Chryseis back to her father, and Apollo's priest, Chryses, who out revenge and anger, asked the god to punish the Achaeans. Apollo responded and send a terrible plague to the Achaean camp. Agamemnon was then forced to return Chryseis and demanded that Achilles' prize, Briseis, be her replacement. Achilles considered this claim to be disrespectful to himself and the heroism he had shown. The lack of honor on the part of the leader in his face who states that he "doesn’t care" whether or not Achilles will leave has provoked the explosion of his wrath. As a result, he quarreled with Agamemnon and finally decided to leave the fight and go to his mother, goddess Thetis, for comfort and guidance.
Even though Achilles has superhuman strength and close connection to gods, he portrays himself as less than a hero. He possesses all traits of a great warrior and proves to be the greatest soldier in the Achaean army. Nevertheless, he has innate character flows that constantly obstruct his ability to act with integrity and nobility. Achilles was not able to control his anger when someone injured his pride. This trait acts as an obsession to an extent that he abandons his fellow soldiers and wished that the Trojan army slaughtered all of them. He did all these because he was insulted in front of his commander, Agamemnon. Achilles was controlled by his crave for power and glory. Although part of him wanted to live a long and easy life, Achilles knew that his fate forced him to choose between the two
Therefore, he should see that the curse was his fault and nobody else’s. Instead, he should put the people before himself. Achilles is the best warrior who was willing to help the king out with his problem. He gestures that “We Achaeans will pay you back, three, four times over” (line 150) illustrating how forgiving Achilles can be in spite of the problem that has approached them. This depicts that he has pride and does not want the people to suffer anymore.
Achilles is introduced into The Iliad getting into a debacle with the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles starts a quarrel with Agamemnon because he has demanded possession of Achilles’ woman, Briseis, in consolation for having to give up his woman, Chryseis, so that the gods will end their plague upon the Greek soldiers. Achilles does all he can to get his loved one back, but he knows that nothing will waver Agamemnon’s decision. This is when Achil...
The first reason Achilles is an epic hero is because he embodied the characteristics of the ideal Greek citizen at the time Homer wrote; he is in a position of power and regards honor highly. “O my mother! I was born to die young, it is true, but honour I was to have from Zeus, Olympian, thunderer on high! And now he has not given me one little bit! Yes, my lord king Agamemnon has insulted me! He has taken my prize and keeps it, he has robbed me myself” (page 17), Achilles cried to his mother. Agamemnon stole Achilles’ prize, Briseis, so Achilles is begging his mother, the sea nymph Thetis, to help him regain his honor. In Greece, honor was crucial and by taking Achilles’ prize, Agamemnon has stripped him not only of his hard-won prize but of his honor as well. Such a double loss would have been catastrophic for a Greek citizen. Classicist Ian Johnston highlights the significance of his loss, suggesting that “the greatest harm that can occur to a particular warrior is shame, the community’s public recognition that he has let the group down or failed to live up to its shared rules.”Being shamed, in this case, by Agamemnon, would cause the Achaeans to lose respect for Achilles, and as one of their leaders, this would be a tragedy for him. Achilles’ desire to regain his honor sho...
Achilles is still refusing to fight, so some of his best friends go and try to convince him that he should. Ajax, Telemon’s son goes in and explains to Achilles what the Gods have done to him and why he should fight with them. Ajax says the following, “But you, / The Gods have replaced your heart / With flint and malice, because of one girl, / One single girl, while we are offering you / Seven of the finest women to be found / and many other gifts” (Homer 9.657-62). Ajax explains to Achilles that the Gods have changed him as a person, he is now cold hearted and does not care about the people around him due to the fact that he lost his girl. Ajax thinks the Gods have made Achilles a cold-hearted person because he is not willing to go out and
Homer makes it clear that Achilles is a man mainly driven by his hunger for glory. Achilles has all the traits of a superhuman from his strength to his incredible ability to fight on the battlefield. Even with these great abilities, it is hard for many readers to perceive him as a hero because of the way he acts. Homer takes this brief time period out of this whole ten-year war just to demonstrate how Achilles cannot control himself when he goes into a rage. In todays world Achilles would not last long as a soldier in any army because he would be court marshaled for insubordination. Achilles ye...
Throughout the Iliad, a conflict develops through the process of each chapter which rests on the surface over a Maiden. The disagreement is caused due to one person or the other feeling far more powerful or superior than the other and is left to sense as if they should receive what is rightfully theirs even if it is not a fair exchange. This conflict is seen between two leaders who view each other with different status: Agamemnon the Argive leader of the expedition to Troy, who had inherited the role of king through his father, and Achilles the leader of Myrmidons. As the dispute develops, it is apparent that the discord between Agamemnon and Achilles is more than something about women; it seems to be their mindset distracting them from having a dispute between their views on power, honour, glory and pride amongst themselves.