Achilles Parallelism

In The Iliad, by Homer, one of the characters explored in the story is Achilles. Although a descendant from a goddess, Achilles has his faults, other than his achilles heel. Throughout the tale, Achilles’ depth in character grows through the use of parallelism. The use of parallelism helps set up contrasting moments in order to emphasize the difference in characteristics. Achilles’s downfall, and overall revival, was displayed by parallelism. At the beginning of the story, Achilles was seen as a great hero that would do anything for the people of Greece. In order to set up his character, parallelism was used by comparing him to the actions of Agamemnon. In book one, Agamemnon lashes out at a priest for telling the people why Apollo was so angry at the Greek army. After the evidence pointed towards Agamemnon, he threatened the priest for saying such things, even though it is correct. Later on, after abandoning the Greek army, Achilles is phased with the same situation. Agreeing to give Agamemnon his

However, in the end, he was able to redeem himself. By allowing Priam to have his son back, even after it was mangled, showed that he was once again a better person than Agamemnon. In the opening scene of the story, Agamemnon is approached by a priest in search of his daughter who he was holding as a lady of war. In response to the man’s begging, Agamemnon responds by threatening him to “leave (him) in peace and go, while (he) can, in safety.”(38) By turning away the man, Agamemnon’s actions once again showed his ruthlessness. This event was contradicted by that of Achilles in the last book of the tale. When Priam begged for his son’s body in order to have a funeral, Achilles agreed and gave more than asked. He promised the man a break from war in order for the Trojans to have a proper funeral for Hector. Overall, this shows the great change in Achilles’ character after his