In the Iliad, Who is Angrier and Who Has More Power, Agamemnon or Achilles, and in What Ways Is This Shown in the Text? (Essay Sample)

Iliad
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In the Iliad, Who is Angrier and Who Has More Power, Agamemnon or Achilles, and in What Ways Is This Shown in the Text?
Anger is a human emotion that throughout Iliad disturbs the normal distance between humans and gods and among humans. Book 1 of the Iliad provides several instances involving anger and majority of them involves Agamemnon and Achilles. Character analysis of the two characters indicates that Achilles was angrier than Agamemnon, but the later had more powers than Achilles. The plot of the poem unfolds based on the direction Achilles anger points.
The character of Achilles and Agamemnon characters start to shape in Book 1. In the book, Agamemnon is seen as proud, authoritative, unreasonable, uncaring and uncompromising. Agamemnon has anger against Chrlyses, Calchas, and Achilles, and people who proclaimed to have a close relationship with the gods. For instance, when Chryes went for his daughter, Agamemnon fails to listen despite most Achaians shouting in agreement. Agamemnon and Achilles had to be awarded Chyrseis and Briseis, respectively, as prize of war or war pride. Agamemnon is arrogant and rude toward the priest of Apollo, who was the father of his war bride. When Calchas, the seer, advised Agamemnon that his behavior toward the priest was the main cause of the plague that had devastated the society and his army, Agamemnon agreed to return Chryseis, but on condition that he takes possession of Achilles’ wife, Briseis. On the other hand, Achilles is depicted as practical, powerful, and dangerously passionate. Agamemnon was a king and as such, no one could stop him from taking Briseis, which enraged Achilles beyond measure. The act caused Achilles to withdraw angrily from battle. The Greek suffers immensely from Agamemnon’s and Achilles’ stubbornness. However, the overriding theme of the poem is the wrath of the Achilles which, with all its forms, and transformations, and influences define the main themes of the Iliad. Homer uses the Achilles’ wrath to develop and present the cultural framework of the heroic honor, ideas of war, conflicts, and reconciliation. His sense of honor provokes the anger as a result of a code of honor in the military, which eventually lead to his alienation from his warriors and the human society. Achilles’ anger sets him in conflict with Hector, a famous Trojan warrior. His honor for the Greeks, particularly war heroes and warriors is evident in various spheres including the pursuit of excellence, nobility, and accomplishment from the war. Additionally, war heroes were accorded fame and treated as immortal or semi-gods.
The initial source of Achilles’ anger is seen as Agamemnon’s decision to take his wife (war price), Briseis. Achilles viewed this as an attack on his honor as an individual, and also as a soldier. Immediately, Achilles withdrew from the war, leading to a devastating defeat. After murdering Hektor, Achilles allows his anger beyond death to desecration as he mutilates Hector's body. Achilles drag the mutilated body on the street, which was a major insult to the Hector’s family. Achilles anger or wrath is not abated until Hector’s father, King Priam, sneaks into Achaean camp to beg Achilles the body of his son to go and bury him. The fact that Achilles dragged Hector’s body for several days on his chariot in Troy indicates his strong anger. He did not feel killing Hector as revenge enough to avenge for his friend, Patroclus. Although Achilles relented his anger and gave king Priam Hector’s body and announced a ten day trounce, his anger throughout the poem is lethal.
Although the initial conflict between the two was about the war pride, Achilles’ response structures the conflict as emanating from a wider question of Agamemnon’s authority. Achilles inquires of Agamemnon, “with your mind forever on profit,/how shall any one of the Achaians readily obey you” (Book 1. 149-50). Achilles agrees that Agamemnon has the “might” or authority. He warns that if Agamemnon continues with sending warriors into battle and taking the best war spoil, he will not be able to solidify the support of military leadership. However, Agamemnon power of authority is seen by his ability to use force to compel obedience from his support. Agamemnon seeks to demonstrate the power of his authority by showing Achilles his might. By taking Briseis, he attempts to make clear “that you may learn well/how much greater I am than you, and another many may shrink back/from likening himself to me and contending against me” (Book 1. 185-87).
Agamemnon’s pride and his believe that he is selected by the gods make him arrogant than Achilles. Although Achilles’ pride is evident when he is injured, Agamemnon takes every opportunity to show off his arrogance and pride. During wars and conquests, Agamemnon always claims the largest portions of the spoil, despite him taking a back seat during the battles.
Agamemnon is also different from Achilles in his relationship with those he loves or close to him. Achilles is fiercely devoted to those he love but similarly hateful of those who intend to harm him. However, Agamemnon is fundamentally self-fish and often manipulates people and situations for his benefit. Due to his paranoid trait, he rarely trusts his army blindly, and he often tests their loyalty (Book 2). In Book 19, Agamemnon reconciles with Achilles, but he denies personal responsibility by blaming fate, ruin, and the gods. Whereas Achilles is wholly consumed by his emotions, Agamemnon demonstrates a deft ability to keep himself—and others—under control. When he commits wrongs, he does so not out of blind rage and frustration like Achilles, but out of amoral, self-serving cunning. For this reason, Homer’s portrait of Agamemnon ultimately proves unkind, and the reader never feels the same sympathy for him as for Achilles.
Regarding courage, Achilles is more courageous than Agamemnon. His cowardice is evident when the tide of the battle turns in favor of Trojans, it is noted that “Agamemnon dare no stand his ground” (Book 8-91). Shortly after fleeing, Agamemnon addresses his military, ordering them:
“Cut and run! Sail home to the fatherland we love!
We’ll never take the broad street of Troy” (Book 9:30-31).
Agamemnon cowardice is also evident from Achilles’ description of his character as having a “fawn’s heart. However, Agamemnon subtlety in battle is seen when he decides to lead the battle to return despite having a younger and highly trained brother, Menelaus. He does not hesitate to remind the Achaeans of his kingly status.
Do You Think the Iliad Glorifies War in Its Extensive Focus on Men Killing and Men Being Killed in War? in What Ways does This Epic Make You Feel for the Human Losses Involved as Something to Grieve Over? What Functions do You See Homeric Similes Playing in the Iliad on War and Human Loss?
The central motif in the Iliad is war and all the characters, their actions, personalities and events can only be understood and interpreted during the war. It depicts the glory of war, horrors of wars and battles, and the conflicting emotions shown in the soldiers fighting and their loved one. From the vivid way Homer describes battle scenes, the core importance of the heroic code, the imagery in his similes, and the effects of the war, Homer glorifies war.
In Book 4, when the two warring armies meet, Homers describes the fighting vividly and repetitively. The fighting is persistent and continuous, and devices and clichés used to duels that assist a narrator in reciting the story is evident. As the fighting evolve, the horror in Homer’s description of the war become intense. For instance, the term “and his armor clattered around him” is seen repetitively. More details of the gothic killings are seen in Diomedes’ killing-spree. Petraeus’ death is described grimly as he dies at Meges’ spear: “came through between his teeth and cut out the root of his tongue.” In Book 11, the scary image Oileus’ death is described vividly with Homer paying attention on how the brain “spattered all over inside the helmet.”
War is depicted as a noble thing throughout the poem and those who do not participate, particularly men, are seen as cowards and are scorned in the society. For instance, Paris scorns fighting which makes the society to disrespect him, his family and spouse. On the other hand, warriors such as Achilles and Hector win eternal admiration and glory. Homer views war as a justifiable way to settle disputes and soldiers who die in the battle field are immortalized and celebrated. For instance, when Patroclus dies in the battle by the sword of Hector, Achilles spend time morning him and promise to avenge him:
“But now I’ll go and meet the murder head-on,
That Hector who destroyed the dearest life I know.” (e XVII 135-136).
War is depicted as an inevitable part of life which is evident in the description of the Shield of Achilles, which is an epic simile. Achilles’ mother besieged the gods to create a magnificent shield for h...