Agamemnon's Leadership In The Iliad

Homer focuses on leadership in his epic, The Iliad. The Iliad includes great leaders such as Achilles, Odysseus, and Diomedes. Agamemnon stands out amongst these leaders. Agamemnon stands out not for his excellence, but rather for his poor leadership qualities. The first eight books prove that Agamemnon is a mediocre leader at best. In book nine, the Achaeans are being pushed back by their enemies, the Greeks. Thus, Agamemnon the opportunity to rally his troops with a motivational speech. The Achaean commander misses his opportunity to inspire his troops because of the poor way in which he presents himself. In the beginning lines of book nine, Homer first focuses on Agamemnon’s tears from losing the fight to the Greeks. The commander has …show more content…
The “streaming tears” illustrating that Agamemnon is sobbing, showing his severe agony caused by the Achaeans’ loss. Agamemnon isn’t just sobbing, he has waterfalls coming from his eyes. The waterworks reveal that Agamemnon has completely lost it. Yet, in this moment of distress he should be the most composed. Agamemnon should be the most composed because he is setting the example. The poet, Homer, characterizes the tears as “dark-water”. Dark water symbolizes that there is no hope. Dark water is ominous. The way the water is described as dark showing that Agamemnon has no hope in his eyes. Therefore, the distinction can be made that the tears are not just tears of sorrow, but are tears of deep despair. According to the text, the stream of tears fall “down sheer rock” (Book 9: Line 15). Sheer rock causes water to run wildly down a stream. Consequently, Agamemnon’s hopeless tears run wildly down his face. In a …show more content…
He fails to ignite his men in the final stretch of his battle. As Agamemnon’s speech ends “all the men were hushed in silence; for a long time the sons of the Achaeans were quiet with sorrow” (Book 9: Lines 29-30). Agamemnon’s speech left his men in silence. Evident in the Iliad, in this era of warfighting a speech by the commander of a unit usually ends in a war cry signifying that they are ready for battle. Instead, the “Achaeans were quiet with sorrow” (Book 9: Lines 29-30) because Agamemnon cannot inspire his troops. He did not ask his soldiers to fight valiantly. Instead, he told his troops to retreat once again and to give up. Homer speaks of Agamemnon critically in this passage of the poem. The couple of lines stated in the poem reveal that Agamemnon does not have the capacity to lead. Instead, he has the opposite effect for the men he leads. Agamemnon preaches the mantra that it is okay to not give it your all, to give up when being pushed back by the enemies is