Introduction:
Achilleus is the main character of the book Iliad. There is the argument that if Achilleus is a hero. Some people believe he is not a hero because he refuses to go back the war which is caused by Agamemnon. Due to this action, he lost his best friend and his arbor. To some extent, he is too selfish. While others support that Achilleus is a hero and he makes the great contribution for the nation. He has the strong emotion and he has his own reasons for his action. Thus it can be seen there is the conflict in the evaluations about Achilleus. The topic of this paper is that if Achilleus is a hero. My opinion is that he is a real hero. This paper aims to analyze that the hero image of Achilleus in the book Iliad.
The background of Achilleus
Achilleus is the main character of the book Iliad. In fact, he is the son of the sea goddess Thetis and king Peleus. Achilleus is one of the greatest heroes of all and invincible people at that time. The book Iliad spends a lot of time describing him and his behaviors. He has always been noted for his courage, appearance and physical strength (Evzonas, 2017). He has great respect for Athena and Hera. His mother was immortal, so she wanted her children to be immortal. Every time Tertis gave birth, without exception, she put the child in the fire to exam if the child is immortal, but all of them ended in failure. After the birth of Achilles, Titus still held his ankles and soaked him in the river. It makes him invulnerable except for his ankles, which were also the source of the western proverb “Achilles’ heel”.
His mother knew that her son would die in Troy, so she send him abroad. Later, prophet Calchas told Agamemnon that only Achilles could take part in the crusade to take Troy, so Odysseus approached him as a businessman and took him to the war Troy. The book Iliad is just noted the history in the period of time of Troy. In the first half of the book Iliad, due to the angry of Achilleus, he has the conflict with Agamemnon but he refuses to comprise. There is little description of his actions in war. When he refused to come back to the war, his best friend had to take place him and fight in the war. Later, his friend was killed by Hector. Second part of this book, it has described the sense that he returned to the battlefield. He was so strong and powerful that they enemies were afraid of him.
The characteristics of Achilleus
Achilleus is a hero. This can be seen from his characteristics. Achilles is strong and vigorous, which is a common feature of heroes in Homer’s epic. In addition, there are also distinct and complex personality characteristics of him, such as fierce and cruel, but also honor and loyalty. He is open and aboveboard, but is also brutal, narrow-minded and selfish (Finlay, 1980). In his personality characteristics, it mainly embodied all the individual-centered and personal values. Achilleus thus becomes the typical representative of the individual heroism and the individual value which is embodied in Homer’s epic.
He withdrew from the battlefield because of his own petulance, which had led to the defeat of the Greek army. Agamemnon took away his female prisoners, and openly despised and insulted himself at the rally. Achilles was so angry that he refused to go to war. He only pays great attention to his personal felling and ignores to look at the defeat of the Greek army on the battlefield. The personal honor, which fully reflected his personal gain and loss, leads him regardless of others’ dead and living individualism.
The root of Achilleus’ petulance is that his honor and personal dignity have been seriously violated. The losing of a female captive is part of the spoils of war. The capture of a female captive means that one’s honor is tarnished and not allowed to occur in the hearts of heroes who live by honor. “Let the others fight on…,” he told Patrolcross “Let all the Trojans die, and none of the Achevins survive, but you and I can be from the field of slaughter. Just you and me, we can smash their sacred towers in the tower of Troy.” (Stein, 2016). Therefore, it can be seen that Achilles’ returning to the battlefield is not for the collective interests, but for the recapture of his lost honor and personal dignity, which is of course the embodiment of personal friendship and loyalty. Achilleus has the paradox in himself.
He has both reason and instinct when he hand the things around him. First of all, Achilles angrily refused to enter the war because of his own spoils. However, hr also shows a bright side of love and hate in his personality, as well as the other side of his self-willed, narrow-minded, selfish and cruel (Carthy & Weil, 1965). Secondly, from Achilleus’ sadness and angry of the death of his best friend, he returned to the battlefield and turned the situation around at one stroke. Thus he has shown his great feeling about his best friend by avenging his friendship and the heroic spirit of loyalty. Once again, after killing Hector, Achilleus dragged his body behind the chariot to rush out of anger and killed twelve young noble captives to be buried with his friends, which vividly demonstrated the characteristics of Achilles’ violent and cruel.
However, when the old Trojan emperor knelt to Achilles and asked for his son’s body, Achilleus showed his sympathy for him. However, when the Trojans old king was kneeling at the feet of Achilleus and crying for the return of his son’s body, Achilleus was deeply moved by the pain of the losing of his son. He showed sympathy for the old king and finally returned Hector’s body. In this way, Achilleus’ complex personality of ferocity, cruelty and compassion is fully demonstrated in this book. And this plot also fully reflects the hero is able to face the fate and embrace the death of people. Through these three points, the reflection of Achilleus’ individualism and personal value as