Rites of Passage of Agamemnon

In the first six books of the Iliad Agamemnon goes through the rite of passage, which evolves his character from a strong, centralized, authoritative leader to an incompetent selfish individual due to the crucible of beauty, the empowerment of Chryseis. The rite of passage of Agamemnon does not operate chronologically but starts with the state of liminality, his choice of rejecting ransom from Chryses, the separation, his diminishment as an extraordinary leader, and finally the partial fulfillment, his acquisition of Briseis leading to the rage of Achilleus. In the state of liminality, Agamemnon is given the choice of returning Chryseis back to the priest of Apollo, Chryses, who offered a ransom for his kidnapped daughter. The king of Mycenae is aware of the choices he makes: in one way if he returns Chryseis to her father he will be looked down as a coward who lost empowerment of beauty and in the other hand if he does so, he would become a good leader by not endangering the lives of his soldiers. However due to his character and pride, Agamemnon decides to keep the crucible of beauty as he believes nothing is more powerful than empowerment. His ugly decision showed that he wasn’t making any contributions to the community, which follows to the second phase of the king’s rite of passage. The second step is separation, the diminishment as an extraordinary leader. The king of men had chosen to put himself in a selfish and ugly direction by keeping Chryseis to make him look more powerful and god-like. In revenge, a plague was sent to the Greek troop by Apollo, who followed his priest’s prayer for vengeance. This endangered the lives of hundreds of Greek soldiers and with no power over the plague, Agamemnon’s manifestation of beauty -power- was lessen. He didn’t fulfill his duties and expectations as a good leader. In his crucible of beauty he is tested as a character under extreme circumstances on finding who he really is. After returning Chryseis back to Chryses, the king of men tries to regain his power by taking a lesser woman from the strongest warrior of his troop, Achilleus which became a partial fulfillment for Agamemnon’s transformation of consciousness. In the last part of the rites, a partial fulfillment is shown through the character: Agamemnon tries to gain his power back to show leadership over his troops by taking Briseis, Achilleus woman. Not only does Agamemnon angers Achilleus, but also Zeus, who was plead by the warrior’s mother Tethis for revenge for her son. This ugly decision by the king of men brings consequences to the Greeks furthermore in the Iliad. To conclude, the three stages in the rites of passage of Agamemnon portray how his selfish and ugly decisions turned him from a leader with high authority, power and control to an incompetent, greedy coward who thinks of individuality only to enrich him through the crucible of beauty without caring what happens to the rest of his community.