respond to the following
Achilles VS Agamemnon
The story begins amid war between the Achaeans and Trojans. The tale’s main character is Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors. I will compare the main character, Achilles, to one of the great warriors, Agamemnon. These are very similar but are they different same time. Well, these two dislike each other they are fighting on the same side.
Agamemnon makes every instance a show of his power and kindness’. Agamemnon’s gall made Achilles very angry, and even contemplated killing the king right that very instant if not for the goddess Athena’s intervention. He feels that his honor has been trampled upon, Achilles decided that he will no longer want to fight. but he has a way to contain his anger when he asks his mother to request Zeus to help the Trojans defeat his former comrades. His prideful nature surfaces, but on the other hand, he was treated unjustly by Agamemnon and felt it would be unbecoming of him to continue to fight for such a man.
Agamemnon’s reaction when it was found out that his refusal to return a war-prize maiden caused the army’s demise illustrates a great deal of his character: cunning and vicious. The king did not like the idea. More so he did not want to return the girl, he wanted to take Achilles’ prize instead. He stated that if Chryseis is taken away, he alone among the army will not have a war prize, and as the highest in command, that would be embarrassing. This shows that he is so self-centered and more concerned of his image or apparent “glory” that he fails to see the broader side of things.
Agamemnon and Achilles both hold the notion of pride and honor dearly so that those virtues largely influence their decisions without considering the consequences. In both cases, their injured pride is the driving force of their decisions: Agamemnon would rather keep his prize despite the death of his soldiers, and Achilles would not flinch at the thought of his comrades’ death in the face of enemies so long as his honor was redeemed. Honor and glory are virtues that the Greeks valued the most at that time.
