Achilles Pointless

Homer’s epic poem the Iliad, Homer condemns a pointless war that only benefits the rich and powerful.. Throughout the epic, the war only benefits the kings or the gods and goddesses, Paris who is a prince of Troy starts the whole thing off by stealing Helen the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. So they whole war only benefits those two men. Even the gods are in the war for purely selfish reasons, they orchestrate many things throughout the course of the war because of a petty squabble over beauty. Homer condemns the pointless militarism through Achilles most of all because of Achilles’ rage, vengeance, and petty withdrawal from the battlefield, which lead to the death of many on his own side. Homer’s condemnation of the reasons they fight is evident through the very first book of the Iliad when Agamemnon and Achilles start to fight over the loot and treasure that has amassed from the Greek’s previous conquers on their way to the city of Troy. “Achilles’ chest was a rough knot of pain Twisting around his heart: should he draw the sharp sword that hung by his thigh,..” (Homer, 198-200) this is an example of how just overly violent the protagonist of the epic is. He is …show more content…
The reasons for the war which Homer spelt out were entirely self serving just like the character Achilles. Time and time again Achilles fights for no one other than himself and the people closest to him. His reason for showing up to the war at all was entirely for personal gain. This characteristics of Achilles are applicable to aspects of the entire Trojan war and almost every character who is in it as well. Homer’s characters in the Iliad are shown to be selfish, and undeserving of praise are meant to be that way. The characters themselves are reflections of Homer’s thoughts on the Trojan war and war in