Achilles: a Hero No More

ACHILLES: A HERO NO MORE

In the introduction of the Essential Illiad given by Sheila Murnaghan, Achilles is labeled as "the greatest of the Greek heroes". In classic mythology a hero is a person of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits and is often the offspring of a mortal and a god. Achilles was the greatest fighter among the Greeks or Trojans and feared no man in battle. He was also the offspring of a mortal and a god so by classic mythology definition, Achilles was indeed a hero. A hero is defined by the present day Websters Dictionary as: "one who inspires through manners and actions; an individual who leads through personal example and accomplishments requiring bravery, skill, determination, and other admirable qualities." Achilles, in no manner, fits this definition. By contemporary standards, he is instead a pathetic villain. Aside from being a kidnapper, rapist and murderer, Achilles proves to be emotionally weak, selfish, and malicious. Many times throughout the Illiad, Achilles is also referred to as "godlike". The gods of Greek mythology were subject to the same emotions and character flaws as humans, and though privileged to some foresight, the gods had similar mental capacities as humans. What really set the gods apart were their powers (controlling the elements, changing their appearance, etc.), great strength, and immortality. Because of his great strength and apparent invincibility, it is easy to see why Achilles would be called "godlike". In the context, such a reference applies to physical stature and not character. In the Judeo-Christian world, God is all knowing, all powerful, and nothing short of perfect. To a Christian, "godlike" would imply perfection of character and would have nothing to do with ones physical stature, and therefore would not apply to Achilles.

Achilles was beyond emotionally weak. He was a whiner, he had a famous temper, he was spiteful, ungrateful, greedy, unreasonable, selfish, arrogant, and disrespectful. During the initial confrontation with Agamemnon, Achilles slams the sacred golden scepter to the ground and just before doing so, refers to himself as the "best Greek of all". At many other times in the story, Achilles calls himself the "greatest" or the "best" and he never takes advice from the elders or his dearest friends. This shows just how arrogant and disrespectful he really was. At the beginning of the story, Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles and not until book 18 does he finally stop crying about it. During that entire time, Achilles' justification for wallowing in self-pity is that he has been "dishonored". This argument becomes null and void when Agamemnon offers lavish compensation for the affront. In addition to returning Briseis, Agamemnon offers Achilles seven unfired tripods, ten gold bars, twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen horses, seven beautiful women from Lesbos, twenty Trojan women, his daughters' hand in marriage along with a rich dowry, and the ownership of seven populous cities. Any reasonable person would have taken the offer but not prideful, bitter Achilles. Instead he continues on with the same old rhetoric and refuses to fight. As if standing idly by while his countrymen were being killed was not enough, Achilles has his mother call in a favor to Zeus asking him to help the Trojans so that even more Greeks would die during his absence. Not only did he abandon his comrades, he actually prayed for them to die because his pride had been hurt.

In addition to the previously mentioned character flaws, one could argue that Achilles was also a kidnapper, rapist and murderer. Briseis herself was a love-slave. She was taken as a spoil of war from one of the Greeks previous successful military campaigns. Even if she went willingly and made love to Achilles willingly, it would be absolutely ludicrous to think that all of his other love-slaves (he had many) had such a "good" time. No one likes to be forcibly removed from his or her homeland and turned into a love-slave. Even though it was the social norm, it does not make it right. The Illiad itself supports this idea. When Hector (the real hero of the story) dies, Andromache mourns for herself and her son because she knows that the Greeks will most likely take them to be slaves. Homer forces the reader to identify with her sorrow. In doing so, he dismisses the notion that such victims were not bothered by their circumstances. As a member of an invading force, Achilles would have been view by the Trojans as a blood-thirsty warmonger. Achilles did not fight because he had to; he instead fought because he liked to kill. Though such an assessment of his actions on the battlefield is open for debate, his behavior at Petroclus' funeral is undeniably damning. In his own words, Achilles says, "I am fulfilling all that I promised before, to drag Hector here and feed him raw to the dogs, and to cut the throats of twelve fine Trojan boys before your pyre, in my rage at your murder". No one, with any sense at all, can deny that sacrificing children is as wrong as wrong gets.

Though Achilles is referred to as a "hero" and "godlike" in the Illiad, it is important to note that these labels do not mean the same thing to a present day Christian reader (i.e. most college students in the U.S.A.) as they meant when the story was written. Perfect translations can never be achieved and the meanings of words change over time. By modern day standards, Achilles is a criminal of the worst sort. The only person he cared about was himself and he actually gained pleasure from seeing others suffer. The purpose of the Illiad is not to inspire the reader to be like Achilles but rather to show just how horrible a person can be even when they are revered as a "hero" or "godlike". In the philosophical grand scheme of things, it does not matter what others think of you or what you think of yourself, all that matters is what you do.