Changes in Achilles of The Iliad
There are times in my own life in which I realize that a goal that I have been pursuing rigorously is really not worth my time and effort, or that the way I have been pursuing that particular goal is not the most effective way. After I come to these realizations I find it helpful, if not necessary, to step back and analyze the situation. This is what happened to Achilles throughout the first sixteen books of the epic.
At first Achilles had a set of clearly defined goals, he was to fight side by side with the Achaeans, sack Troy, and, by doing these things, gain honor and wealth. As the war progressed a series of events took place that forced Achilles to step out of the fight. While he was inactive and had time to contemplate, he came to the realization that he had been fighting for nine years for the sake of a man whose woman has been stolen; now that his woman had been stolen no one fights for his sake. He also realizes that there are other, less risky ways of obtaining wealth and honor, including sending Patroklus out in his armor. Another thing he ponders on, but doesn't seem to take seriously, is whether or not honor is really worth the struggle.
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By the time the embassy arrived at his hut Achilles had been toying with the idea of returning to his homeland and abandoning the struggle for wealth and honor. Because of the embassy Achilles' mind was changed, probably due to a sense of camaraderie, and he decides to stay but fight only if the struggle reaches his own
... in Achilles’ armor once the battle started getting direr, particularly for some of Achilles’ greatest friends. Finally, after Patroclus is killed, Achilles returns to battle, distraught over Patroclus’ death. Through the virtues and heroism of the Achaean heroes: Diomedes’ courage and oratory skill in reinvigorating the troops; Agamemnon’s honesty in admitting himself as the cause for Achilles’ rage and providing enormous wealth and honor to Achilles in an attempt to atone for his mistake; Nestor’s wisdom in selecting the three most likely to be successful; Phoenix’s favor with Zeus preventing Zeus from interfering against them while they attempted to bring Achilles back to the battle; Odysseus’ skill as an eloquent orator in his attempt to convince Achilles; all of this together eventually led to the mission of returning Achilles to the battle being successful.
Achilles, never receiving a proper apology from Agamemnon, has no incentive to accept the gifts proffered to him. He makes it plain that he holds his honor and life above anything that Agamemnon could offer, claiming that “Nothing is worth my life, not all the riches They say Troy held before the Greeks came” (Homer’s Iliad 9.415-416). Additionally, he knows that honor can be stolen and replaced, “But a man’s life cannot be won back” (Homer’s Iliad 9.421). Phoenix doesn 't acknowledge these concerns, thinking that Achilles cares only about the prizes he has lost in addition to a more visceral honor than Achilles holds. Achilles believes that his “ honor comes from Zeus, and I will have it among these beaked ships as long as my breath still remains and my knees still move” (Homer’s Iliad 9.624-627) whereas Phoenix thinks of his honor as something tangible and bestowed to him by the Achaeans (Homer’s Iliad 9.619). This discrepancy proves irreparable in convincing Achilles, and highlights yet more flaws in the execution of Phoenix’s plan. For instance, Phoenix relies heavily on the aspects of Meleager’s story pertaining to the Aetolians to show the consequences the Greeks may face if Achilles did not fight (Homer’s Iliad 9. 609-622). Phoenix overestimates the value of this sentiment in his argument. Seeing as Achilles did not have any particular qualms about the Greeks’ faith beforehand, it can be
Achilles has a hunger for glory that is unquenchable. Achilles knowingly marches to his death for his mother told him that “if [he] hold out here and [he] lay siege to Troy, [his] journey home is gone, but [his] glory never dies” (Book IX line 498-501). He is willing to go to his death for the slightest hope of glory. However, take away his glory and he no longer has a reason to fight. Because Agamemnon takes Achilles’ prize, Briseis, Achilles withdraws from the battle. If glory and prizes can be taken so easily, Achilles finds no sense in the war or to continue the battle. However, no amount of physical treasures can satiate Achilles’ hunger for glory. Agamemnon attempts to tempt Achilles to return to the battlefield with great tre...
The question "was Achilles' anger justified" brings up issues that seem to have little or no relevance to the war. In time of war I would expect the leaders to prioritize the groups interest for the sake of unity and cooperation rather than being entrenched in achieving their own personal goals. But my expectations are those of a modern day literature student, I'm inclined to think that the Greeks who first read this epic valued different things than myself. Another relevant question might be "were Achilles' actions justified". Anger can be easily justified, but the actions that anger might lead you to take are not as easily justified. Again I am not an ancient Greek and my opinions are irrelevant unless I open my mind to different viewpoints. Therefore I am striving to look into this issue through ancient Greek eyes where the principle of sacrificing ones own interests was apparently not valued, but maintaining ones honor, on the other hand, was greatly valued. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to answer these two aforementioned questions.
Achilles’ behavior starts out with arete, or someone’s great qualities. Achilles is a highly gifted warrior who is a combination of strength, skill, courage, and determination. Achilles earned his prize of honor, Briseis, for being a great warrior and leader. Achilles explains, “my prize of honor, which I earned and which the Greeks gave to me”(129). Many people know Achilles for these qualities and look up to him for that reason. Later after Patroclus’ death, Achilles goes through the behavior cycle for the second time, starting with arete, summoning his anger and courage, and gets back on the battlefield. Achilles explains his reason for going back to war by saying, “I now ...
...ictory. If Achilles had chosen to leave, not only would he have been a good son, but the Trojans might have won the war, meaning both he and Priam would have had something to which they could look forward, and three-fourths of the shield’s story would not have been left unfulfilled. In staying, he contributes not only to his own demise, but also to that of the Trojans. This knowledge causes "the anger to come harder upon him" (19.16), and yet "he was glad" (19.18). The great dilemma of Achilles is forever immortalized on his shield, so that some lesser man in the future would be able to read the narrative upon it and say: "This armor was Achilles’, a man who forfeited the rest of his life for grim combat. The gods do not force most men to choose like that."
What Achilles does know, and what he must deal with, is the fact that his life will be short if he chooses to have honor and glory. Thus, the choices he makes concerning his honor are crucial. At this point his life is riding on the decision he makes. It is inevitable that Achilles will choose door #2--to go to war, live a short life, and have much glory.
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...
At the beginning of The Iliad, Achilles realizes how unfairly Agamemnon treats him. When he realizes this, Achilles says to Agamemnon, “My honor never equals yours , whenever we sack some wealthy Trojan stronghold my arms bear the brunt of the raw, savage fighting, true, but when it comes to dividing up the plunder the lion’s share is yours, and back I go to my ships, clutching some scrap, some pittance that I love, when I have fought to exhaustion”(Homer 83). Agamemnon is greedy and wants a lot of timé for himself, so he holds most of it back from Achilles. Achilles wants timé because it is a physical show of how much honor he has and how much glory he thinks he deserves. Achilles becomes bitter because Agamemnon is holding back a large portion of the geroi, and because of this Achilles confronts Agamemnon and threatens to leave the war. Phoenix is talking to Achilles trying to convince him to come to war and as he is doing this he points out that if Achilles goes to war he will receive lots of gifts from Agamemnon. However Pheonix also says, “But enter this man-killing war without the gifts-your fame will flag, no longer the same honor, even though you hurl the Trojans home!”(Homer 272). Phoenix knows that Achilles wants quantifiable honor such as women, money, and other spoils of war. Phoenix caters to this want by telling Achilles that if
In the beginning of Achilles’ life, the Greek goddess, Themis, prophesized that he would either die young and famous in battle or live a long nonexistent life without battle. His mother, Thetis, took this as a death omen and placed Achilles in the magical waters of the Styx River. She did this to help him be immortal but did not account for the area that she held, his ankle, to be left vulnerable (Claybourne). This beginning to his life leads him to believe that he was better than anyone else because the gods protected him. It is him believing that he is superior that leads to his fatal flaw of being egotistical.
... was when the Greek armies were trying to seize the city of Troy without the help of Achilles , the fight was relentless. With the unfortunate death of Achilles beloved companion and friend Patrolcus, Achilles entered the war with the city of Troy only to wind up killing his enemy, Hector. In all of the fates predicted, Achilles knew ahead of time what the outcome could possibly be, with this in mind, Achilles has the freewill of whether to engage in the war and lose his life. However, fate had been reveal prior to the killing of Hector, Achilles engaged in war with revenge on his mind and fulfilled the prophecies.
The first requirement of Aristotle's tragic hero is that they are more admirable than the average character. Achilles meets this requirement because of his ability on the battlefield. In The Iliad, the background to the story is the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. This background is not only the basis for the story overall, but is also the basis for Achilles' own story. This begins when Achilles refuses to join the battle because he is insulted by Agamemnon. This decision results in the action that drives the remainder of the story. Later in the story when Achilles becomes angered and goes to the other extreme, launching into battle and killing ferociously. The significance of this is that it places battle as central to both Achilles' story and to what is important in the setting of the story. Importantly, the aspect that makes Achilles greater than most is his ability o...
Achilles anger was a predominant theme in the Iliad. It led to Patrokolos, death, Hektor’s death and a great many other Trojan deaths. Achilles was a very powerful Greek warrior, he had many faults but one of his most prominent was his uncontrollable anger. Multiple times throughout the Iliad his anger had for reaching effects on the war and people around him. These effects were not usually favorable to anyone. There are three main occurrences that led Achilles’ anger down devastating paths. The first was when Agamemnon took Achilles’ girlfriend. When this happened, Achilles felt robbed because Brisies, his girlfriend, represented his might and the glory of his conquests. In the Greek culture, glory and honor were highly esteemed. This is why
A large source of Achilles anger started with his fight with Agamemnon. Apollo put a plague on the Achaean soldiers that was killing them off. The only way to stop this from killing them all was to give back a priest’s daughter who had been captured. This girl “belonged” to Agamemnon and he didn’t want to give her up unless he got Achilles girl in return. This would disgrace Achilles honor but he could not let any more soldiers be killed so, he reluctantly let her go. But in return for giving up his girl he withdrew from the battle. Much of Achilles anger is a result of this occasion but the death of Patroklos later overrode his previous anger to Agamemnon.
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...