'How heroic do you find the character of Achilles? Essay\r'

'A scrapper is more than just a font that it especi eithery noble, courageous, self-sacrificing etc. A hero is also a protagonist, a character to whom we stool relate, and with whom we gutter sympathise. Ultimately a hero is a character with which we can identify, and an example which each of us wishes to follow. Achilles often appears to be such a character. Of all the Homeric heroes, he is by far the most(prenominal) passionate and emotional. When begging his mother to help him in book 1 he speaks â€Å"with tears locomote”. His protection of Briseis and his honour is extreme.\r\nHe goes to the lengths of withdrawing from the fighting, even though â€Å"his content yearned for battle”, he causes and endures the suffering his fella Argives, and his speaks affectionately of Briseis as his â€Å"wife” †in bleak contrast to Agamemnon’s relationship with Chryseis, whose purpose Agamemnon describes as to â€Å"serve my bed”. Achilles is al so a wide man, and has a beau ideal-like status within his army. It is Achilles who calls the assembly to converse how to end the plague in the Greek ingroup and it is Achilles who protects Kalchas from Agamemnon.\r\n entirely the character of Achilles in book 9 is anything but noble-minded. His ears to deaf to three impassi wholenessd pleas of his beloved friends Odysseus, Ajax and Phoinix, his tutor. He is offered all that has been taken from him: his girl, Briseis; women from Lesbos, the island which he captured and from which Agamemnon took the prizes, he is offered riches and glory beyond measure, as salutary as the chance to win a heroic victory, to gain the glory that he so bad desires †â€Å"the Achaians will honour you like a god”. In this passage there can be no sympathy for Achilles.\r\nHis anger at Agamemnon’s insult in book 1 can be understood. except by book 9 he has got what he wanted: the Trojans are winning, Agamemnon has earn his mista ke [although admittedly none of those coming to Achilles eviscerate any offer of a public excuse by Agamemnon], and he could exhaust all that he had lost. In book 1 Achilles stubborn emplacement could be excused as heat of the minute (we are after all, talking about Achilles whom Peleus urged to curb â€Å"your heart’s high passion”), and in book 1 Achilles is perhaps unaware of at least unthinking of the consequences of his actions (i.e. the death of many Danaans).\r\nAchilles’ rattling crime is to let his personal quarrel with Agamemnon point in the right smart of his duty to his friends. As Odysseus says â€Å"But if your hatred for the son of Atreus has grown too hearty in your heart… then still submit pity on the other Achaians of the army in their affliction”. However, the story of Achilles does not end in book 9. By the end of book 22 he has atoned for many of his previous sins. He has conquered his heart’s high passion and f inally returned to the fighting.\r\nHe has totally reversed the tide of the war, forcing the Trojans to take cherish inside Troy. The cleansing of Hektor is in fact unremarkable given the support of Pallas Athene and front statements †â€Å"once he stood up to me alone, and barely fly my attack”. What is remarkable is that Achilles in fact sees the strike of Hektor as a triumph for the whole Greek army, not just personal revenge, and he says â€Å"We have won great glory †we have killed elysian Hektor”.\r\nIn the act of returning to the fight and killing Hektor Achilles has traded his own life (i.e. he has chosen the scam and glorious life) for the fall of Troy. This is why I tone of voice that Achilles is a true hero. He is wronged massively, by his friends and by cruel fate. He grapples with his own demons of anger and pride. But eventually he corrects this by making the crowning(prenominal) sacrifice for his people. His triumph over adversity is a story common throughout world literature, and is one to which we can all relate, and one which each of us in our own lives, has emulated in some way or another.\r\n'