Book I establishes that Agamemnon is a lousy leader who has a tendency to make poor decisions and dishonor nearly everyone he interacts with. As we recall, Agamemnon chose his own desire to keep his prize after rudely turning down a reasonable request from Chryses, the father of Chryseis. This set off a chain reaction of drama starting with a plague. “The corpse fires burned everywhere and did not stop burning. (p76, line 52)” Through all of these horrors, the Archaian forces stood by Agamemnon. Finally, after determining that Chryses' pleas to Apollo were the cause of the plague, Agamemnon was forced to return his prize. However, he demanded compensation for the loss of his prize by taking the prize of one of his great warriors Achillius.
…show more content…
The arguments Thersites express are similar to those that caused conflict with Achillius in Book I. Thersites publicly scolds Agamemnon, “Son of Atreus, what thing further do you want, or fault with now? Your shelters are filled with bronze; there are plenty of the choicest women for you within your shelter, whom we Achaians give to you first of all whenever we capture some strong hold. (page 98, line 225)” This statement is nearly identical to that made by Achillius in Book I. As noted, Achillius was allowed to make such statements – yet Thersites was immediately put down. Achillius was known as a great warrior. He had many great victories under his belt and was respected enough by his forces to almost abandon Agamemnon in book I. Thersites does not command any respect and is immediately put in his place by Odysseus. Odysseus attacks Thersites, “I assert there is no worse man than you are. Therefore you shall not lift up your mouth to argue with princes...(page 99, line 248)” Whether Thersites was indeed the worst man is unclear and irrelevant. Odysseus commanded respect. He was described as “sacker of cities (page 99, line 278)” and the men asserted, “Odysseus has done excellent things by thousands… (page 99, line 273)” The amount of respect commanded by an individual in this society was based on their past accomplishments. Since Thersites was a simple common soldier, even if he was justified in his reasons for wanting to abandon Agamemnon, he was not important enough to express his feelings. Odysseus acted wisely to shut him down and regain his assertive power among the Archaian forces. There are clearly issues among the ranks which are addressed shortly after this scuffle. It was important for the overall moral and function of the army to exemplify the poor behavior of Thersites – even if it meant supporting a terrible
The arguments Thersites express are similar to those that caused conflict with Achillius in Book I. Thersites publicly scolds Agamemnon, “Son of Atreus, what thing further do you want, or fault with now? Your shelters are filled with bronze; there are plenty of the choicest women for you within your shelter, whom we Achaians give to you first of all whenever we capture some strong hold. (page 98, line 225)” This statement is nearly identical to that made by Achillius in Book I. As noted, Achillius was allowed to make such statements – yet Thersites was immediately put down. Achillius was known as a great warrior. He had many great victories under his belt and was respected enough by his forces to almost abandon Agamemnon in book I. Thersites does not command any respect and is immediately put in his place by Odysseus. Odysseus attacks Thersites, “I assert there is no worse man than you are. Therefore you shall not lift up your mouth to argue with princes...(page 99, line 248)” Whether Thersites was indeed the worst man is unclear and irrelevant. Odysseus commanded respect. He was described as “sacker of cities (page 99, line 278)” and the men asserted, “Odysseus has done excellent things by thousands… (page 99, line 273)” The amount of respect commanded by an individual in this society was based on their past accomplishments. Since Thersites was a simple common soldier, even if he was justified in his reasons for wanting to abandon Agamemnon, he was not important enough to express his feelings. Odysseus acted wisely to shut him down and regain his assertive power among the Archaian forces. There are clearly issues among the ranks which are addressed shortly after this scuffle. It was important for the overall moral and function of the army to exemplify the poor behavior of Thersites – even if it meant supporting a terrible