The Characteristics Of Achilles: The Hero Of Iliad

In the Iliad, the character of Achilles has numerous character flaws that cause him to have blinded judgement towards his actions as well as shutting out everyone around within the epic poem. Achilles’ rage keeps him from being the hero that we were supposed to see him as. Achilles’ anger has lead to him committing cruel behavior; a large majority of the horrific violence within Homer’s story, comes from Achilles’ relentless rage. But is his rage truly without proper cause and justification? King Agamemnon forced Achilles’ to hand over his beloved Briseis to him, which caused Achilles to withdraw his men from the Achaean army. Achilles’ closest

In Book Nine of The Iliad, the focus is of the story is on the character of Achilles, the desperation the Achaeans suffer in their need for this great warrior as well as his refusal to return into the fighting to assist his comrades, due to his rage with Agamemnon. In particular, one of the most important scenes of Book Nine is from approximately line 443 through line 473, in which Achilles bluntly refuses the gifts offered to him by Agamemnon in recompense for stealing away Achilles’ war-prize Briseis. This passage demonstrates the depth of the rage of Achilles as well as his sense of pride, as he chooses to remain absent from the fighting, even in the Achaeans’ moment of sheer desperation, due to his deep hatred for Agamemnon.

In the Iliad, Achilles is responding to Odysseus’s speech attempting to convince him to return to the war. Achilles’ main argument against returning is his incalculable rage against Agamemnon for “the prize of honor / The warlord Agamemnon gave me / And in his insulting arrogance took back” which is not only an insult to Achilles’ status, but also to his honor as a warrior (Il. 9.378-379). In addition to focusing on the main argument of Achilles’ speech, it is worth noting the contradictions present within his speech as well. In the first few lines of Achilles speech, he states, “I hate it like I hate hell / The man who says one thing and thinks another” (Il. 9.317-318). The accuracy of this statement comes into question twice within the confines of a few pages. First, Achilles changes his plans for departing with his ships, not once, but twice. At the end of his first speech, Achilles asserts that “Tomorrow / he [Phoenix] sails with me on our voyage home,” but in his next speech in response to Phoenix, he reassures his old friend by saying “At daybreak / We will decide whether to set sail

In Edith Hamilton Mythology Achilles shows the qualities of epic hero because of his great skills as a warrior, his loyalty to his people and friends. Achilles faces enormous obstacles, a journey/missions and also has superior.

Although in the early period of his life Nietzsche's attitude towards Homer was limited to a pure admiration, it later grew into a sort of a contest (Acampora, 25). For Nietzsche Homer was the first who questioned and reevaluated Greek culture and a human life. Through doing this Homer gave way to further reevaluations, which Nietzsche himself is engaged in. As well as Homer creates new values built upon a pursuit of glory; Nietzsche's system of values is concentrated on the concept of the eternal recurrence and transfiguration (26). Thus Homerian heroes serve as a basis for Nietzsche's characters and "Zarathustra becomes the Nietzschean replacement for the Homeric heroes"(40). Nevertheless, Nietzsche's response to Homer was not in the creation

A lot of things happened in the Iliad in the books we had to read. Like how Achilles wants revenge Hector but let’s start with why. So one day Achilles was sad because of the disagreement that he had with Agamemnon. Meanwhile there was a war going on and the Greeks were suffering because Achilles wouldn’t fight and Achilles was the best warrior that the Greeks had. Since Achilles wouldn’t fight Patroclus went into Achilles armor and pretended to be him.

Many days of theses simple monster attacks occurred. Achilles was getting bored of all of this basic and easy stuff. This is when he made the dumbest decision of his life. He was going to try to hurt a Greek god! Without any form of warning he magically teleported himself to Mount Olympus. Here, he decided which god he would target first. He knew that Zeus was the king of the gods and that hurting him would make all the gods mad. Achilles decided he was going to hurt Zeus.

A hero is a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. In the story Beowulf, a brave, strong-willed man battles an atrocious monster named Grendel. Grendel is born evil, and it physically pains him to experience any type of joy or happiness. Grendel attacks Herot killing eight men every time he pays the Danes a visit. Beowulf battles Grendel, and takes his arm as a trophy. In the story The Iliad, a man named Achilles is heartbroken by the death of his best friend named Patroclus. Patroclus is killed by Hector, the prince of Troy. Achilles seeks to avenge the death of his best friend by mercilessly killing Hector. Achilles battles Hector, and manages to shove his sword through Hector’s throat just barely missing his windpipe so Achilles can have one last conversation. Hector asks Achilles to bring his body back to the Archean’s, and Achilles refuses. Achilles destroys Hector’s body to avenge Patroclus. These two heroes have two different stories, but they both have some

Achilles’ actions on the battlefield or lack thereof portrays the hero’s absence of honor. Selfishly withdrawing himself from battle, Achilles allows his anger towards the king of the Argives to develop: “But Achilles abode at his ships nursed his anger. He went not to the honourable assembly, and sailed not forth to fight, but gnawed at his own heart”(10). Fighting the Trojans and leading the Myrmidons to sack Troy would have been the honorable thing to do, but instead Achilles lets his pride take over his actions and sulks in his ship in spite of Agamemnon. After Agamemnon offers Achilles many gifts as an apology when he sends an embassy to Achilles, Achilles responds,”[Y]ou have spoken much to my liking, but my blood boils when I think it

Being a hero is everybody’s dream. Two epic heroes are Beowulf and Achilles. Beowulf was an Anglo- Saxon from the group of the Geats. Achilles was a Greek and was part mortal, part God. They killed different things for different reasons, but both were considered great. Though both were epic heroes, their cultural backgrounds are what defined them.

Some people think that the only traits that a Hero has to have is that he is strong and looks good. But that is only part of the traits of a good hero or that a hero is supposed to have. Heroes have to be daring and willing to do things that other people may not want to do like in the Odyssey he choses to go to the cyclops house and know body else is willing to do it it. Also, they have to be smart and clever for example at the beginning Odysseus makes the Trojan horse to get into the city and also he puts bee’s wax into his crews ears so they won’t be lured to their death by the singing Sirens. Finally, he has to be strong in the heart because Calypso wanted him to stay with her and be immortal but he declined saying he wanted to go back to his homeland and back to his wife and son he has never seen.

the Trojans best warrior. Hector wanted to kill the legendary Achilles so he could be the best warrior

In the epic poem ‘The Iliad’ the Gods made several appearances and were mentioned countless times throughout. Many would say that the role that the Gods played in the poem was vital to the story line. If not for the Gods, the stories within this poem would have gone a completely different route and, the Iliad would lack purpose. In every story within the poem Gods have meddled and altered the actions of the mortal characters of the story. The several actions of the Gods reflected on to their people. Many, if not all, choices were made for or because of the Gods. Zeus, Apollo, Hera, and countless other Gods interfered with mortal issues throughout the epic poem. These gods changed the course of the story and also serve to create purpose for

Argument: Nietzschean Zarathustra is an advanced copy of Homerian Achilles. Achilles served as a model for creation of Zarathustra and as a result their patterns of behaviour have much in common. Therefore, this paper will employ Nietzchian philosophy to give psychological inside into Homerian characters.

The Iliad begins when the Trojan War had already begun and was in progress. It focuses on the events that took place in the ninth year of the Trojan War. In the first line of the book, one of the most constant and epic themes established is ‘Rage’ which is mainly driven by ‘Pride’. In this first line, the theme of rage established is the rage of Achilles. However, in the book, we can see the rage of different characters at different intervals.