Character: Achilles Flashcards
(12 cards)
How does Achilles show himself to have qualities of a leader ?
Book 1 he calls an assembly to resolve the plague bearing down on the Greek camp
- summons Calchas the prophet in order to find the most accurate resolution
- heroic quality of leadership and steps up to fill the role we would expect for perhaps Agamemnon or Nestor
How does Achilles have a close relationship with the gods ?
His mother Thetis
- she console him in book 1 and his influence over her convinced her to ask Zeus to change the fate of the battle to lead the Trojan to push the Greeks back to their ships
Book 1
- Athene appears before him undisguised and restrains him from lashing out at Agamemnon
How is Achilles a skilled warrior ?
Book 22
- Achilles kills Hector
How to we see Achilles be a typical for a hero concerned with a damage to his timē?
Book 1
- his timé is damaged infront of the entire Greek assembly as his war prize Briesies is taken from him by Agamemnon
However in book 9
- he is offered infinite amounts of material goods including Briseus, a choice of Agamemnons daughters amongst 7 towns and other such offerings
- We might expect a hero to accept this but he declines the offering showing a depth to his stubborn pride which would not be present in other characters
How is Achilles described as being a good warrior ?
Book 1
- Agamemnon commends Achilles saying ‘you are a great warrior’
Homer himself subtly contrast Patroclus and Achilles to show his unmatched status as a warrior
- book 16 ‘the only weapon of matchless achilles’ he does not take is his spear
- reminds the reader of the disparity in their ability as warrior and despite Patroclus later recidivist an aresteia and defeating Sarpedon Achilles is still presented to be a powerful hero
How is Achilles justified in his fundamental withdrawal from the fighting ?
- Book 1 Achilles calls an assembly to resolve the plague and its consequences ‘day and night, packed infernal pyres burnt’ which results in Chrysies being forced to return to please Apollo.
- Before this return, Agamemnon and Achilles fued over how Agamemnon will be compensated for the loss of his war prize Chrysies
- Agamemnon suggests he shall ‘come in person to your hut and take away fair cheeks Briseis’
- Insulting to Achilles is it undermines his personal reputation: war prizes were physical embodiments of a hero’s timé according to E Hauser
- exacerbated by the public element of this exchange in front of an ‘assembly’
- all the Greeks witness his reputation undermined with Achilles expressing an awanress of the damage to his reputation ‘pathetic little nonentity’
- layer of pathos with which we sympathise as Agamemnon not only caused the devastating consequences for the army (poignant image at the start) but directly undermined a well intentioned hero
How is Achilles unjustified in his refusal of the offering ?
Book 9
- Achilles is offered compensation that goes beyond returning Briseus. He if promised to be honoured like Agamemnons son, one of Agamemnons daughters, he will be given 7 towns including ‘Hire’ and ‘Pherae’, and he will be honored ‘like a god’
- This taken further by three emotive speeches from Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax.
- The stake of the Greek army is also brought to his attention by Odysseus ‘we are staring disaster in the face’
- This is more than enough too entirely compensate Achilles and restore his damaged timé.
- However, Achilles remains stubborn refusing to return and attempts to coerce the embassy to ‘sail home too’
- anti heroic not only could Achilles restore his timé but he could become the ‘great warrior’ which is argued to be the heroic ideal
- Both a contemporary audience and a modern reader would understand this ridiculous and childish refusal
Is Achilles entirely justified in how he deals with Agamemnon in book 1?
No
- Achilles exacerbates the existing tensions throughout the argument
- At the start of Book 1, before Agg even begins his quarrel Achilles feels the need to disrespect him saying ‘claims to be far the best of all’
- lack of respect is continued throughout as Achilles becomes irrational descending into insults
- ‘ dog face’ and ‘shameless swine’
- Given Agamemnon position as a Greek leader he is expected to not back down to his juniors+ his timé has been damaged by the taking of his war prize and Achilles’ insults infront of the assembly
- Agamamenon is therefore unable to back down due to the cultural expectations
Is Achilles withdrawal from the battle heroic ?
- comes as a reponse to his dmamaged timé/public humiliation ‘a pathetic nonentity’
- we would expect a hero to withdraw
- it appeals to the heroic code as a fair response to having your honour undermined and exacerbated by the audiance of the Greek assembly- incredibly public
- ancient audiance would understand this and appreciate that war prizes are physical embodiment of timé and both audiences understand that Achilles can no longer win back this lost timé which allows other hero’s to take the spotlight
- includes in book 5 Diomedes with an aresteia and Helenus in Book 6 ‘never so terrified even of Achilles’
- As a hero you chase the warrior image and Achilles subverts this expectation making himself a dichotomy of heroic action and unheroic lack of action
Why is Achilles lack of returning to the battlefield evidence against him following the heroic code ?
- Book 9: copious amounts of rewards offers to him including the returning of Briseus, promised to be honoured like Agamemnons son, one of Agamemnons daughters, he will be given 7 towns including ‘Hire’ and ‘Pherae’, and he will be honored ‘like a god’
- Speeches from three hero’s, including a poignant speech from Phoenix appealing to his paternal relationship
- As readers we know this would be the pinnacle moment to return as Agamemnon only moments earlier suggested to sail ‘home to the land of our fathers’
- Yet Achilles refuses- stubborn revenge goes beyond the boundaries of heroic acceptance to anti heroic, more concerned with allowing Agamemnon to suffer as he is confident when the trojans and Hector will be ‘halted when he reaches my hits’
Book 16
- remains stubbornly uninvolved allowing Patroclus his dearest friend to risk his own safety which later leads to his death despite his anger having subsided
- ‘wrong to suppose a man could nurse his anger forever’
- difficult t for ancient audiance to defend
Is Achilles return to the battlefield heroic ?
Book 18
- Prelude to this return where Achilles goes to the ditch and three times ‘sent his voice ringing out’ which caused ‘twelve of their best men’ to die in ensuing stampede of fear that Achilles might return
Book 21 and 22
- Achilles kills many Trojans and bests the Trojan hero Aeneas before duelling and killing Hector
- Throughout this duel Homer places emphasis on the power dynamic between the pair
- In one simile Homer likens Achilles to the ‘hawk.. effortlessly swoops after a timid dove’
- through this imagery: Achilles all powerful and the hopeless Hector
- Leaves us no doubt Achilles will win adds to his kleos as this unmatched warrior
Book 18
- his motivation strays away from the boundaries of the heroic code as it’s not entirely out of a desire for kleos and to push the Trojans back from the ships but instead revenge
- Achilles desires to kill Hector the ‘killer of a dear life’ which in book 16 killed Patroclus however this is interwoven with his want to for Kleos as he shouts ‘may I win heroic glory!’
- ambiguous but ulimtlaue like Hauser argues a hero’s motivation is not according to a specific dogma that must be adhered to but instead a deeply personal element
How is Achilles unheroic in his lack of self restraint ?
Book 1
- After the fued in book 1 where Achilles was angered by Agamemnons selfish decisions which resulted in the deaths Greeks at the hands of Apollo where ‘day and night, packed funeral pyres burnt’
- Achilles then displays an undeniably similar action that is even more extreme in its consequences
- Achilles asks his divine mother Thetis to ‘fling the Greeks back into their ships’ and ‘massacre them’
- horrified a modern audiance ancient audiance might understand this extreme display of anger at having timé undermined but they too would know it is too far
book22
- body of Hector is ‘foully maltreated’ by Achilles as he attaches it to his chariot and drags it around and goes so far as to tell the dying Hector he wishes to ‘eat you raw’
- Later in book 23 he carries out a ‘murderous plan’ and kills 12 Trojans and dumps them on the pyre
- extreme violence and anger that makes Achilles a uniquely violent character
