From wrath to love and camaraderie, many reasons can be given for Achilles’ distinctive behaviour as a Greek hero. Whether he is condemned as selfish and capricious or praised as rebelling against the Greek ideal of stoic heroism, the immediate motives of his actions are touched upon in a very straight-forward way in the poem. However, the primary responsibility for his heroic behaviour – the pattern of behaviour that he breaks more famously than any other Greek character - has its roots in expectations placed by his family. I would like to argue that the main reason for Achilles’ conflict that is the main subject of the poem is the generational and historical significance of his existence, from which all of his emotional responses
