Zippora Shealor
Achilles and Agememnon
Book 1 of The Iliad by Homer begins with a man, Chryses, who comes to ask Agememnon to return his daughter to him, as this girl has been given to him as a prize for his triumphs. To this, Agememnon turns the man away coldly and exclaims that he will never give up the girl; “I will not free her. She shall grow old in my house in Argos far from her own home,” (The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer). This statement sets the scene for how the audience is to view Agememnon, he shows little pity, or empathy, both for Chryses and for the daughter of Chryses, his captive. He is hardheaded and prideful, and this is only the first of many statements that exemplify this.
The rebuking of Chryses’ offerings has caused a severe backlash from the god Apollo in the form of a mighty plague. This spurred Achilles to try to figure out what is going on; this evidently leads to the realization that it was Agememnon’s doing that caused the death of all these people. Instead of taking this new realization to heart and pitying all the lives that has been lost for the sake of his own sexual appetite, he begins to grow angry and extremely defensive. When Achilles suggests that Agememnon simply return the girl in order to restore peace and safety among the gods and the people, Agememnon then turns his anger on him. Achilles simply suggests that he return the girl so that they are in the god’s favor and then Agememnon can be rewarded fourfold when they sack Troy, to which Agememnon responds with “Are you to keep our own prize, while I sit tamely under my loss and give up the girl at your bidding?” (The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer). First of all, this is not Achilles’ bidding, it is Apollo’s, yet now that Achilles has said anything at all it is now all his fault. Furthermore, this shows how prideful and greedy Agememnon is because now it is a conflict among men and about who has the better prize among them. Even worse, even among the raging disrespect towards women throughout all of the Iliad and much of the literature of this time, Agememnon is showing deep disrespect for the autonomy and emotional capacity of the girl. He thinks that he has won ownership of her rightfully, and therefore no one can say anything about it.
This, of course, spurs anger in Achilles who now points out that all the fighting he does is not for himself, but it is for Agememnon’s greedy wishes. He also states that he does all of the fighting and never gets rewarded from it, nor does he complain about the lack of this reward. “We have followed you- Sir Insolence! For your pleasure, not ours, to gain satisfaction from the Trojans for your shameless self… When sharing comes, our share is by far the largest, and I, forsooth, must go back to my ships, take what I can and be thankful, when my labor of fighting is done,” (The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer). To this Agememnon responds by saying “Since Phoebus Apollo is taking Chryseis from me, I shall send her with my ship and my followers, but I shall come to your tent and take your own prize Briseis, that you may learn how much stronger I am than you are, and that another may fear to set himself up as equal or comparable with me,” (The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer). Now, Agememnon has basically said that this quarrel is simply between he and Achilles, so he now must make Achilles look weak and shameful, even when this was about Apollo’s wishes in the first place.
This is the epitome of the argument, right before Achilles is about to try to kill Agememnon for his insults and threats. The way that this argument initially spiraled out of control was by Agememnon, in his pride and greed, who turned his anger on Achilles and began to compare himself to him when Achilles had nothing to do with the situation in the first place. To be stripped of a trophy hurt Agememnon’s pride too much, so he had to compensate by hurting Achilles and taking a different prize. He could have taken anything or anyone, but he wanted what Achilles had. To want what another has is an ultimate sin, and it ultimately shows how jealous and weak Agememnon is. Achilles definitely had the more valid argument, mostly because he was simply responding to Agememnon rather than provoking the situation. He had initially approached this by trying to help the situation, but he ended up getting insulted, threatened, and ultimately was the one that lost his beloved prize. All Achilles wanted to do was appease the gods, and all Agememnon wanted to do was appease himself.
Works Cited
The Internet Classics Archive | The Iliad by Homer. http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.1.i.html. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.
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