Achilles Not The Heartless Warrior

The Iliad is a work read in many junior highs and high schools to start students off in their readings of classic literature. Not only is it one of the first major pieces written chronologically and therefore a good place to start, but it can also be read many times over and almost become an entirely new work each time you read it. Many a historian as well as literary critic has taken to tearing apart this work of Homer in order to make it fit whatever theory they want to prove. I will use my limited knowledge as a student to show that Achilles in not the heartless warrior that most readers take his as, but a warrior that fights for noble causes with honor and pride, with maybe a few bad calls in the heat of battle.

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Like many a children in these early years of Greek society, Achilles was not brought up in a modern societies normal family as in being raised by his father and mother with siblings and other close relatives close at hand. Achilles mother, Thetis, wants to make Achilles immortal. What mother wouldn’t if they had the chance? But Thetis, being a goddess, has a better chance than most at doing this. Some accounts say that she dipped her son in the river Styx by the heel, thereby unknowingly leaving his heel vulnerable, since it was not actually in the water. But some accounts say that Thetis used the method of placing him in the fire by night and anointing him with ambrosia during the day (Mackie). During this attempt, Achilles’ father, Peleus, walks in to see his son in the fire and screams with anguish. Thetis throws her son down and disappears, not to be seen again. “The immersion of Achilles in fire therefore is a very significant moment in his life in that it signals the end of a `normal ' childhood (i.e. living in a house with his parents), and the beginning of a more remote and unusual existence (in a cave on a mountain with a centaur and his wife)” (Mackie). This raising by a centaur and his wife, along with their values and belief system, may give the young Achilles a
When the battle starts getting bad and the Trojans with help from the gods start beating back the Greeks with ease, we think that Achilles is going to get that apology and return to battle, but he really doesn’t. Agamemnon sends Odysseus and Phoenix to tell Achilles that he will give him back his woman, along with much treasure to rejoin the battle. He even offers Achilles the hand of one of his daughters with 7 cities as dowry. But Achilles knows that Agamemnon is not apologizing and takes what they bring to his as a great insult. He refuses to fight and says that he just may leave altogether. Until his good friend Patroclus takes his armor into battle and is killed by Hector. This gives Achilles the wrath that is needed for him to get back into the fight. When he does go into battle, the Trojans turn and run for the gates; only Hector remains outside. And the two champions come face to face at last. Hector offers a pact to Achilles, the winner to take his opponent 's armor, but give his body to his fellow soldiers for burial. The offer is harshly refused. This is no formal duel and Achilles is no Ajax, he is hardly even human, he is godlike, both greater and lesser than a man while in his rage. The contrast between the raw self-absorbed fury of Achilles and the civilized responsibility and restraint of Hector is maintained to the end. For the rest of this passage,