Pure Writerly Moments 2 (Short Stories, Essays, Book Reviews, and More)

Between Excellence and Honor: Achilles as a Problematic Character

It has been many years since I have read the Iliad. I read it as a university senior. Perhaps it was the reading of this classical work that made me think I could survive a semester of club rugby. (I survived four games only to hurt my knee!)

I am reading the paper I wrote as a senior on the Iliad where I examine Achilles as a problematic character. For a 22 year old, I did a pretty good job...indeed, I'm not sure I could do any better today.

Who is Achilles? He is the prototypal hero, but he is also something else. It's entirely possible that he is the first example of an anti-hero...perhaps even a social reformer?

He is the prototypical hero: strong, handsome, the best at battle. And yet, he decides to stay out of the fight because his honor is offended by King Agamemnon (the king confiscates his female slave Briseis). Thus, he is both the classical hero and the classical anti-hero. He is both Captain America and Holden Caulfield...perhaps...

Here is what I wrote in my original paper: "The negative deeds of Achilleus—his decision to stay out of the fighting--would not be so problematic if they were not in some way presented as justified. Achilleus' choice to stay out of the fighting is not merely presented simplistically as a fault, but rather is composed as a complex decision encompassing aspects of human emotion, alternative rationales, and Achaian cultural values—perhaps, also, as some have read in the Iliad, Homer is also placing the seeds, through Achilleus, for popular discontent with nobility."

I love the new Marvel Captain America movies. However, perhaps my favorite Captain America moment is when we see him in "Avengers: Infinity War" sans shield and star on his chest. The mantra of Captain America perhaps is just too much, the burden of the ideal too heavy – too many things have gone wrong and the world around him has been too corrupted – and so he grows his beard and fights for what is right from the outside in. At moments in our lives it helps to just grow the beard.

I think that is what Achilles is doing in his tent. He is growing his discontent beard...or taking the knee if that is your preferred metaphor.

To truly be an Achilles or a Captain America you must both be excellent at what you do (what you bring to the fight) but also must search in your heart to answer whether the fight is just. Many may see Achilles's decision to stay out of the fight for so long as selfish – motivated by slights to his honor alone. Others may see it as a larger protest against a rotten king (a social order based on the wrong idea of kingliness...an interpretation that can be strengthened when Achilles meets Priam, a model for the right kind of kingliness). It's hard to compare Achilles to modern freedom fighters, rights activists, or democracy advocates – but it is not a stretch to call him a reformer for better kingliness. Perhaps in his own social context that was the best Achilles could hope for.

So, Achilles remains a role model for us in two respects: he shows us how to be excellent at what we do, to embrace customs and traditional morality when they are on the side of right, to embrace physical courage when need be; but, he also shows us that it is okay to grow the beard and fight for what's right from the outside.

I think that is what my 22-year-old self was trying to tell me...

Thus, I grow the beard...