Achillies essay - Grade: 88 PDF

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essay about the philosophy of Achilles and his war....

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Achilles and the Shield Rehina Raines There are few characters from the past that we remember and glorify as much as the warrior Achilles, the hero of heroes in Ancient Greece. His name permeates our society as both metaphor and symbol, conjuring up images of strength, invincibility, and, to those who know their Homer, pain and death. Our modern heroes and idols receive allusions to his glory when they are at their greatest, and their downfall becomes associated with the image of his heel; their ego and fame pierced with shame and sin as Achilles’ flesh was pierced by the arrow of Paris. For this is the legacy that most people forget when they praise someone with Achilles’ name: that he was destined to die, and that he knew it during his lifetime. Thetis, who bore him, also bathed him in the river Styx, and told him that he would have a choice that would decide his fate. After the death of Patroclus and the stripping of Achilles’ armor from his prone, lifeless form, Thetis has the god Hephaestus, master of metallurgy and the forge, create a new set of armor for her son, including a glorious shield in beautiful detail, wrought with care. This shield represents the two choices that confront Achilles, and what he stands to gain and to lose as a result of his choice, or rather, what he will gain and what he will lose from his choice to die in Troy, as his life was never intended to be long. Represented on the shield are two scenes that Achilles will never experience if he dies on the plains of Troy. The first is marriage, for Achilles is young, and without a wife or family. “With weddings and wedding feasts… they brought forth the brides from the women’s chambers, marching through the streets while choir on choir the wedding song rose high and the young men came dancing… and among them flutes and harps kept up their stirring call --” (18: 573-78). He

will never be king, never experience ruling over the Myrmidons, for Achilles would lead them upon their return to Achaea. “And he [Hephaestus] forged a king’s estate where harvesters labored … And there in the midst the king, scepter in hand at the head of the reaping-rows, stood in tall silence, rejoicing in his heart.” (18: 639-640, 646-648). It is possible that Achilles does not want any of these things, and that he is a man of action, not leisure. He may receive no pleasure from harvests, but he is very fond of Briseis, and was so hurt when Agamemnon took her from him that he sulked while the Trojans massacred the Achaeans, and would not be swayed until the death of his companion, Patroclus, was told to him. Homer puts such an emphasis on the lineage of each man and woman in his tragedy that it would be inconceivable for Achilles to not consider his own lineage, and there is no mention of Achilles having a son in The Iliad (though there is in Euripides’ Trojan Women). On the other hand, if Achilles chooses to fight and die in Troy, he is told his name will live on forever, and perhaps he reasons that if this is true, he has no need for heirs. Furthermore, the sooner Achilles dies, the sooner he can be reunited with Patroclus. “Thetis answered, warning through her tears, ‘You’re doomed to a short life, my son, from all you say! For hard on the heels of Hector’s death your death must come at once-’ ‘Then let me die at once’ – Achilles burst out, despairing – ‘since it was not my fate to save my dearest comrade from death! Look, a world away from his fatherland he’s perished, lacking me, my fighting strength, to defend him. But now, since I shall not return to my fatherland… For my own death, I’ll meet it freely—whenever Zeus and the other deathless gods would like to bring it on!’” (18: 110-18, 137-38).

Achilles chooses to stay and fight, ultimately dying but not before changing the luck of the Achaeans and driving the Trojans back to their walls. Achilles no longer fights for Achaea, or for its people, or even for Agamemnon, his commander; the warrior seeks only vengeance, and to massacre as many Trojans as possible to avenge Patroclus’ death. “‘Patroclus, since I will follow you beneath the ground, I shall not bury you, not till I drag back here the gear and head of Hector, who slaughtered you… Here in front of your flaming pyre I’ll cut the throats of a dozen sons of Troy in all their shining glory, venting my rage on them for your destruction!’” (18: 386-90, 392-94). Achilles by nature was more likely to enter battle sooner or later to meet his death, but the death of Patroclus made the choice that much easier. Achilles’ story would not be remembered today if he had returned home and mourned his fallen compatriot peacefully. The shield also represents the values of honor and humanity, between violence and restraint, and Homer rarely allows Achilles to possess both at the same time. On the shield Hector presents a scene of potential humanity: “But circling the other city camped a divided army gleaming in battle-gear, and two plans split their ranks: to plunder the city or share the riches with its people…” (18: (593-95), but human nature prevails, and the two sides come into conflict “… both armies battled it out along the river banks – they raked each other with hurtling bronzetipped spears. And Strife and Havoc plunged into the fight, and violent Death – …” (18: 621623). Achilles, fighting after the death of Patroclus, literally clogs the river Scamander with bodies: “Stop, Achilles! Greater than any man on earth… All my lovely rapids are crammed with corpses now, no channel in sight to sweep my currents out to sacred sea – I’m choked with corpses and still you slaughter more, you blot out more!” (21: 240, 246-49). Scamander tries to

drown Achilles after he refuses to stop killing the sons of Ilium, and the river almost succeeds. Before he entered the fight, Achilles was entirely mortal; offended by another man’s slight against him and the loss of Briseis, he sulked and pouted and would not be consoled, selfishly languishing while his fellow Achaeans were slaughtered by the Trojans. After he enters battle, he becomes nearly immortal, shaking off wounds, killing countless Trojans, and becoming possessed by a singular will to kill and destroy that we now would consider debasing and depraved. Achilles does have a moment shared with Priam at the end of The Iliad when Priam and Achilles negotiate Hector’s ransom: “‘… I deserve more pity… I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before – I put to my lips the hand of the man who killed my son.’ These words stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his own father. … Priam wept freely for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles’ feet as Achilles wept himself” (24: 589-93, 59597), but Achilles becomes violent towards Priam soon after when the king of Troy demands his son back: “‘Give him back to me, now, no more delay – I must see my son with my own eyes. Accept the ransom I bring you, a king’s ransom! ...’ ‘No more, old man, don’t tempt my wrath, not now! … Don’s stir my raging heart still more. Or under my own roof I may not spare your life, old man – …’” (24: 650-52, 656, 667-668). Achilles lets Priam go with Hector’s corpse, but he almost sacrifices his humanity in this moment, choosing instead to let his view of honor and his campaign for reprisal affect his judgment. These same choices, or at least the illusion of choice presented on the shield, were the eventual downfall of Achilles, as prescribed by the Fates. Achilles, who slew many Trojans outside the walls of Ilium including the city’s hero, Hector, was never meant to have a long life. His shield displayed two different representations of Greek life, one associated with longevity, peace, and relative stasis, a lifestyle free of strife and

evil but also of fighting and action. The other choice, which became present in his actions at Troy, held a short, violent life for Achilles, one in which he would cause much pain and suffering before dying as a young man, still in his prime. The allure in this is the promise of renown, honor, and glory, not just to the Achaeans and eventually to the Greeks, but to those millennia later who would hear his story. It is no secret, or surprise, he chose the latter....