Iliad Group

Question:

auntiem911
auntiem911
Student
Community / Jr. College

What are four reasons in the Iliad why Achilles should remain in the ship on shore rather than help his fellow Greek fight in the battle of Troy?

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Posted by auntiem911 on Thursday November 5, 2009 at 7:07 PM and tagged with achilles, battle of troy, iliad.

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  1. pohnpei397 Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    This is a hard one... I'm not sure that I see four reasons.  Has your teacher said that there are four?  Anyway...

    The most obvious reason for Achilles to refuse to fight is that Agamemnon took Briseis away from him.  There was no real reason that Agamemnon had to take Achilles' prize rather than someone else's prize.

    The second one I can see is that Agamemnon insults Achilles beyond just taking Briseis.  He tells him to go home, the Achaeans can do without him because they've got other men better than him.

    If you take Achilles seriously, there's no reason for him to fight because the Trojans never did anything to him.  He says the Achaeans are just fighting for Aagamemnon's sake.

    Again if you take Achilles seriously, Agamemnon is a coward and so he doesn't want to follow him in battle.

    I feel like some of this is reaching though.  What do you think?

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    Posted by pohnpei397 on Friday November 6, 2009 at 10:02 AM