Achilles Acting Like A God Analysis
Achilles: “Acting like a god” In book one of the Iliad, Homer illustrates the rage of Achilles as god like. Achilles’ wrath is invoked immediately upon Agamemnon’s request for Achilles’ war prize, Briseis. After Achilles surrenders Briseis, he prays to his mother in Anguish. Pleading for her to persuade Zeus, “somehow, to help the Trojan cause, to pin the Achaeans back against their ships… so even mighty Atrides can see how mad he was to disgrace Achilles, the best of the Achaeans!” (1.85,86,89). Achilles is jeopardizing his whole Achaean army and city all because he has been disgraced. This is an action so unconscionable, it seems to be something only a god would do. In the introduction to the Iliad, Bernard Knox state that “[t]o be a god