THESIS STATEMENT
In Homer’s The Iliad Achilles individuality and his lust for future glory is what makes him so tragic.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
Through textual references based on The Iliad, it is apparent that Achilles legacy and death in Troy show he is a prototype for the tragic hero.
INTRODUCTION
Achilles, the sound of his name would send shivers down the enemies back, looking him in the eye could almost turn you to stone, he was THE warrior of the ancient world. In his article Strauss says, “He is the first warrior of the Western world. Swift-footed, lionhearted, terrible in his war cry, a sacker of cities, a charismatic leader, a stunning physical specimen, unconquerable…Achilles was the best of the Greeks at Troy”(Strauss 1). Achilles was the most feared warrior of his time and it made him famous beyond belief. This is why his death in Troy was so tragic to all of Greece. Achilles consuming rage is his tragic flaw, this stems from his sense of pride or Hubris. Achilles demonstrates his rage in his killing of Hector and by defiling his body. By doing this he has sealed his own fate of death. Also, Achilles individuality and his supreme skill in warfare are what make him the most beloved and feared warrior of his time. Everyone loves a hero and that’s what Achilles was, he was as close to a celebrity they had in Greece at that time. This was because he was the most ferocious warrior of his time. Lastly, by his attempt to avoid his fated death Achilles will show he is the prototype for the tragic hero. Achilles chooses his young death when he decides to fight in Troy. Fate must be accepted and by trying to change it Achilles is locked into a tragedy.
CONSUMING RAGE: THE REAL ACHILLES HEAL
Achilles consuming rage is his tragic...
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... Achilles in the heel, his one weak point, and the greatest warrior of all met his inevitable fate of death (Homer). Achilles was killed at the hands of the young prince that started the war, fate finally caught up with him, the tragic hero falls.
CONCLUSION
In The Iliad Achilles is the example for the tragic hero because of his individuality and rage. Achilles came face to face with his fate in Troy. By going to war he was signing his own death certificate, but because of his hubris he went and fought. He believed he could cheat fate but because of his lust for future glory and his imminent rage he faced death. As Strauss describes Achilles, “Renown—preeminence—honor—glory…He wanted to be immortal. And he is” (Strauss). Achilles is immortal because he is known throughout the world as the greatest, most ferocious, brave and skilled warrior the world has ever known.
The subject of Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad, is very clearly stated--it is “the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles.” The reader remains continually aware of the extent of Achilles’ rage, yet is never told the reason why Achilles remains angry and unreconciled. There is no definitive answer to this question. Achilles is not a static character. He is constantly changing; thus the question of why he remains angry solicits different answers at various stages throughout the poem. To find an answer, the reader must carefully examine Achilles’ ever-changing dilemma involving the concepts of mortality and honor. At its simplest, Achilles’ dilemma is that if he goes to war, he will die. But he will die with glory.
The Ancient Greeks admired their heroes and tried to learn from both their achievements and their mistakes. They believed that most great leaders and warriors followed a predictable behavior cycle, which often ended tragically. In Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, Achilles is a great warrior who traces the stages of the behavior cycle twice, from arete to hubris to ate and then to nemesis. Achilles is a highly skilled warrior and a great leader who becomes a narcissist and an arrogant person, which leads to selfish and childish behavior resulting in the death of his best friend. Following Patroclus’ death, Achilles repeats the behavior cycle by regaining his courage and motivation, and goes back to battle against Hector. The pride he feels in killing Hector and his overpowering hatred for him, leads Achilles to another bad decision: disrespecting the body of his enemy. This foolish choice leads directly to Achilles death. Although The Iliad is mainly known as a story about the Trojan War, it is understood as a story about Achilles and his struggle to be a hero.
- Achilles, was also brought to ruin by his pride. For example, he was too
Homer's two central heroes, Odysseus and Achilles, are in many ways differing manifestations of the same themes. While Achilles' character is almost utterly consistent in his rage, pride, and near divinity, Odysseus' character is difficult to pin down to a single moral; though perhaps more human than Achilles, he remains more difficult to understand. Nevertheless, both heroes are defined not by their appearances, nor by the impressions they leave upon the minds of those around them, nor even so much by the words they speak, but almost entirely by their actions. Action is what drives the plot of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and action is what holds the characters together. In this respect, the theme of humanity is revealed in both Odysseus and Achilles: man is a combination of his will, his actions, and his relationship to the divine. This blend allows Homer to divulge all that is human in his characters, and all that is a vehicle for the idyllic aspects of ancient Greek society. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistencies in the characterization of Odysseus can be accounted for by his spiritual distance from the god-like Achilles; Achilles is more coherent because he is the son of a god. This is not to say that Achilles is not at times petty or unimaginative, but that his standards of action are merely more continuous through time. Nevertheless, both of Homer's heroes embody important and admirable facets of ancient Greek culture, though they fracture in the ways they are represented.
Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, is portrayed as a hero in some ways but, on the other hand, performs some controversial acts in the Iliad. Throughout the entire Trojan war, Achilles spent most of his time pouting in his tent after Agamemnon kidnapped his prized maiden, Chryseis.
The Greeks also had their share of icons and heroes. They admired Jason and his quest for the golden fleece, and Perseus, the killer of Medusa, but their finest heroes come from Homer’s Iliad: Hector and Achilles. Hector was the best warrior in Troy and the son of Priam, the king of Troy. Achilles was the great warrior of the Greek army and killed Hector. The Greek citizens, siding with their own nationality, declared the Greek warrior Achilles the hero of the Trojan War, but since ancient Greece no longer exists an unbiased view of the Ilia...
Achilles, the legendary Greek warrior, and his story of rise and fall by Homer. At the start of this story, it is noticeable that it is one of very few where the adventures of the hero leads him to have a feeling of invulnerable power, which instead of creating an unbeatable skill for himself instead leads to his own demise. The start of Achilles' power struggle begins with the irresistible desire of his mother, Thetis a deity of nature known as a Nymph or a Sprite to grant Achilles with Immortality. The child Achilles is given this power on one of two obsessive attempts by Thetis. The first attempt, Thetis committed a sacrificial ceremony to burn Achilles' mortal flesh off in return for Achilles to keep an immortal body that would be left
In the Iliad, Achilles is the main protagonist. He is a demi-god and is the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus who was the King of the Myrmidons. He was a Greek hero of the Trojan War. He falls in love with a battle prize called Briseis. He is to portray, “as a brave, loyal, cocky, intelligent and even superhuman soldier. In Achilles ' case, the word "superhuman" is literal; he is the result of a union between a god and a mortal.”(Harvard 1)
In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles is often referred to as a very courageous Greek hero but a further look into the epic will reveal a man that is more arrogant than courageous. It was truly his arrogance that made his name famous and not his courage. Achilles was a narcissistic, self-serving man who was not concerned with his fellow country man. His actions of courage can easily be revealed as selfishness instead of what most people believe.
In The Iliad, cultural surroundings such as love of honor and glory, influence of gods and goddesses, and predestination shape the psychological and moral traits of Achilles and the overall piece. The piece itself focuses more on the growth and development of an individual character, that being Achilles, than on the Trojan war itself. The immortals affect his fate and the outcomes of different events. Throughout the story, his glory and rage also influences the fates of many.
Overall, it has been seen that Achilles meets the major requirements of a tragic hero. He is more admirable than the average person. He also has a fatal flaw that leads to his own undoing. However, unlike the normal tragic hero, Achilles is able to address his own flaw and prevent his downfall from spiralling to the point where his life ends tragically. Ultimately, Achilles is an almost-tragic hero who saves himself from tragedy. Ultimately, The Iliad is an almost-tragedy with hope, where the audience can see the tragic ending that had been narrowly avoided.
The Iliad, the Greek epic documented by Homer that describes the battles and events of the ten year siege on Troy by the Greek army. Both Trojans and Greeks had their fair share of heroes and warriors, but none could match the skill and strength of the swift runner, Achilles. Achilles had the attributes of a perfect warrior with his god-like speed and combat abilities. However, even though he was Greek’s greatest warrior, he still possessed several flaws that made him fit the role of the Tragic Hero impeccably. Defined by Aristotle, a Tragic Hero is someone who possesses a high status of nobility and greatness, but must have imperfections so that mere mortals cannot relate to the hero. Lastly, the Tragic Hero’s downfall must be partially their own fault through personal choice rather than by an evil act, while also appearing to be not entirely deserved of their unfortunate fate. Achilles is a true Tragic Hero because he withholds all of these traits. Achilles proves to be a good man that puts his loved ones first, reveals his tragic flaws of pride and anger, shows dynamic qualities as a character when his flaws are challenged, and has a moment of clarity at the end of his rage. Achilles truly exemplifies the qualities of a Tragic Hero.
Because he embodied Greek ideals, was ‘immortalized’ through his actions and glorious death, and was courageous, Achilles was an epic hero. Honor was of the utmost importance to both him and the entire Greek society, he chose to die a hero in battle, and he avenged the death of Patroclus even through mourning; Achilles is the true hero of the Iliad.
In Homer’s The Iliad he tells of the battles and events during the time of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. This was just a small portion of the Trojan War that had lasted ten years. The Iliad shares the ideas of the glory of war, military values over family life, and the impermanence of human life and its creation. One thing that Homer does is characterize the two different warriors Achilles and Hector. These two great warriors both show different kinds of traits that shape the character they become throughout the The Iliad. Achilles is the main hero in The Iliad, but Homer subliminally tries to persuade the reader that Hector is the true hero in this story.
In Homer’s epic, the Iliad, the legendary, has no two characters that are so similar yet so different as Greek warrior, Achilles, and the Prince of Troy, Hector. Achilles is the strongest fighter in the Greek side, and Hector is the strongest Trojan. They are both put into the mold of a hero that their respective societies have put them into; however; it is evident that they are both extremely complex characters with different roles within their society and with their families, and with the gods.