Him, Himself and Achilles

Sam Sheets
April 12th, 2007

Him, Himself, and Achilles

Aristotle once said that a man who is incapable of working in common, or who in his self-sufficiency has no need of others, is no part of the community, like a beast or a god. This statement fits Achilles perfectly. Throughout what I have read of The Iliad, Achilles doesn’t seem to fit in or even want to be a part of the Achaean army or community.
In book I of The Iliad, we are introduced to Achilles when he is in a disagreement with Agamemnon. Achilles says that a plague has struck the army because Agamemnon has taken a priestess for a slave. Agamemnon thinks it is unfair. To attack Agamemnon for being self and that he takes enough of their plunder, Achilles says:
My honors never equal yours,
whenever we sack some wealthy Trojan stronghold-
my arms bear the brunt of the raw, savage fighting,
true, but when it comes to dividing up the plunder
the lion’s share is yours, and back I go to my ships,
clutching some scrap, some pittance that I love,
when I have fought to exhaustion.
(Lines 192-198)

The one thing that stuck in my mind is that he says his arms bear the burnt of fighting. He never says anything about his men or the other Achaeans. He too is self in that sense. He seems to only care about what he and Agamemnon bring home at the end of the day, not the rest of the men.
After this whole fight/argument goes down, Agamemnon sends men to claim Achilles’ slave for himself, since his had to be returned to stop the plagues. Achilles gets really upset, and refuses to fight, and doesn’t let his men fight either. He is upset for selfish reason. He doesn’t care if they Achaeans lose battles because he’s not there. He doesn’t care that his men don’t get to fight and that they must sit on the beach during a time of war and watch their comrades die. He decides to mope, and cry to his mother to get Zeus’ attention so something can be done. He doesn’t care that because he is just sitting there, he or any of his men don’t receive any of the plunder which the army my find.
He refuses to participate only because he feels cheated. He doesn’t care about what may happen to everyone else because of this decision. And quite frankly, I don’t think he even cares. Obviously he isn’t a productive member of the Achaean community or army when he is acting this way. He decides to be alone and cry, and be very counter productive by being selfish and self contained.
The thing that strikes me about Aristotle’s quote is the ending comparing the man to a beast or god. In a way, Achilles is a god amongst the other troops. He is held as being above everyone else. Does that make him self-sufficient, and seen as if he doesn’t need the army? He can also be seen as a beast, for he is best known for his rage, which is an uncivilized human quality. And it’s an obvious fact that things which are uncivilized aren’t usually found in civilizations.