Conquest Of Achilles

prompted him to leave the battle, rather than keeping him in it as Nestor had hoped it would. Later into the epic, Achilles has acted on his rage, and he has abandoned the Achaeans, leaving them to suffer at the will of Zeus and the Trojan armies. Agamemnon sends three ambassadors to bring Achilles back, offering huge amounts of treasures, but he still refuses. Phoenix, who was the caretaker of Achilles when Achilles was young, asks him to be more flexible, and tells him the story of Meleager. Meleager, like Achilles, was full of rage. He was the best fighter that the Aetolians had in trying to defend their cities against the Curetes. The elders begged him to defend his people, offering him many gifts (Il. 9. 706). His wife’s words were the only things that stirred him to battle, but by the time he saved his people, the gifts he was offered could no longer be given and he left the battle empty handed (Il. 9. 700-729). Phoenix starts his speech with this paradigm in order to warn Achilles that he might see the same fate, stating, “Harder to save the warships once they’re in flames,” (Il. 1. 732). In offering Achilles these gifts, he is beginning to restore the sense of lost kleos that came when Nestor affirmed Agamemnon’s powers as a king, which including taking away Achilles’ prize and stripping him of his honor. Although the offering of these gifts …show more content…
One speech pushed his ego down and the other brought it right back up. The constant urge to maintain and die with honor is a prominent one within many of the characters throughout the Iliad, and one of the epic’s main heroes emphasizes this kleos-seeking way of life through the decisions he made prompted by two different sentiments in similarly paradigmatic