Allison Savage
Professor Timothy Crowley
ENGL 337
27 February 2015
Honorable Mention Rage: Sing; Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades’ dark,
And left their bodies to rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done.
(I.1-7)
One of the central themes in the Iliad arguably focuses on honor, both personal and societal. While most of the Greeks act on societal honor to benefit each other, Achilles, Ithaca’s greatest warrior, selfishly acts primarily based on his personal honor. This is ultimately what leads to what is known as “the rage of Achilles” (I.1-2). When he is directly dishonored, self-righteousness engulfs him, and he carries the holier-than-thou attitude to his grave. Although Achilles displays selfless emotions such as remorse, pity, and grief during the famous interaction with Priam, his character remains static, as every motive has proven to be derived from his overpowering personal honor.
In the final book of the poem, there is what seems to be a transcendent moment in Achilles’ character development. Priam is thought of as the only character to pull selfless emotions and actions out of Achilles. Priam cunningly attempts to hit Achilles’ soft spot by speaking of his father, who is suffering and will die in the war. This enables Priam to approach Achilles with a request while he is vulnerable and has his guard down. He begs Achilles to pity him as he thinks of his own father and requests that Achilles return Hector’s body (XXIV.520-544). Soon after, Achilles sheds, what appears to be, apathetic tears indicated by the following lines:
Priam,
Huddled in grief at Achilles’ feet, cried
And moaned softly for his man-slaying Hector.
And Achilles cried for his father and
For Patroclus… (XXIV.548-551)
However, Priam is fooled in thinking Achilles is not as heartless as he once was. Evidence shows that the derivative for Achilles’ grief is not for pity of Hector’s death nor Priam’s sorrow, rather it is solely for his own pity and his own loved ones. Achilles only cares for his own misfortunes and only acts when tragedy strikes himself.
These selfishly honorable tendencies are implied through the reiteration of Achilles’ two prospected paths, originally presented to him by his immortal mother, Thetis. One recollection of these paths is acknowledged when Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax the Greater were sent by Agamemnon to bribe Achilles with gifts to convince him to return to war. Achilles tells the three great warriors what Thetis told him: he can either die in the blaze of glory, or he can lose his glory and live a long life. In this instance, Achilles remains stagnant and refuses to fight all because Agamemnon has dishonored him (IX.423-429). It is not until Achilles’ most beloved friend Patroclus is killed when Achilles makes the decision to return to war, precisely to seek revenge on Hector, not to defend Ithaca. Thetis assures Achilles once more that if he kills Hector, he, too, will die. Achilles decides to return to war, enabling an honorable and inevitable death (XVIII.130-135). However, Achilles does not return to war for the fact that Greece is losing dramatically and he wishes to avenge his country and people; this is only because he has suffered personal hardships by losing his best friend. In order to replenish his pride and refrain from dishonor, Achilles returns to Troy exclusively to avenge Patroclus. He intends on making such an impact on the Trojans they will “feel how long [he has] been out of the war” (XVIII.130-135). Regardless of the bloodshed of the Greeks, including many of Achilles’ friends, it is only when someone personally close to him is killed does he decide to take action. This is only to defend his own honor and regain his own pride.
Soon after Priam and Achilles give their grieving hearts a rest, Achilles hypocritically tells Priam to “suck it up” and not dwell on
