Achilles In Book 19

Although he reconciles with Achilles in Book 19, he shirks personal responsibility with a forked-tongued indictment of 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.