Analysis of the Iliad by Homer - Essay Example

This essay will analyze and discuss the two tragic flaws that this author believes contributed to the most to Achilles’ downfall were his ego and/or arrogance and his wrath. 

Whereas our own culture and language have adequate terms and words to express the flaws of arrogance and pride, the ancient Greeks utilized the all-encompassing term “hubris” to define these actualities.  As a way of understanding the means by which Homer utilized hubris in order to provide a more definitive and exemplary analysis into the characters in question, their actions, and the cause of the downfall that occurs, this analysis will seek to provide an in-depth discussion into the character flaws that Achilles exhibits as a way of understanding the root linkages and causal factors that led from ego to anger and as a function of the marriage of these two, hubris.  As a function of this level of understanding, this brief analysis will consider three characters and the ways in which their actions and reactions to stimuli affected the development of hubris.

Firstly and most importantly, one cannot read and synthesize the actions that take place within The Iliad without seeing to define and understand the developmental traits and features that Achilles himself sought to portray.  Although these develop slowly as the subsequent books of the Iliad are read, they are nonetheless potent examples of the means whereby pride, arrogance, hubris, and anger are integrally linked in something of an almost formulaic system.  Perhaps one of the best quotes with relation to this level of pride and eventual hubris and anger that Achilles displays are found in the following quote, “'And now my prize you threaten in-person to strip from me, for whom I labored much, the gift of the sons of the Achaians. 

Never, when the Achaians sack some well-founded citadel of the Trojans, do I have a prize that is equal to your prize. […]  Now I am returning to Phthia, since it is much better to go home again with my curved ships, and I am minded no longer  to stay here dishonored and pile up your wealth and your luxury.' (Homer 1.161-164, 169-171).  As one can of course see from a careful reading of the text and the ways in which Achilles's unrestrained passions ultimately worked out, the exemplification of hubris as has been defined ultimately led to his downfall on the very field of battle that he desecrated.  In essence, the above quote exemplifies the sense of arrogance that gives way to anger as it comes to Achilles' attention that Agamemnon is doing none of the work yet receiving all of the credit for it. 

Similarly, the issue of pride, arrogance, wrath, and hubris is presented to the reader in the character of Agamemnon.  Ultimately, it is Agamemnon’s pride and arrogance that opens the first book of the Iliad and helps to set the tone for the way in which one act of hubris and arrogance begets another which in turn influences a third, etc.  Says Agamemnon in book 1, “Still I am willing to give her back if such is the best way.  I myself desire that my people be safe, not perish.  Find me than some prize that shall be my own, lest I only among the Argives go without, since that was unfitting” (Homer 1.116-119).  Not only does Agamemnon have a sense of egoism and arrogance when dealing with the issues that face him, he downright reduces the humanity of entire people groups and places himself above them in the form of a preeminent master; thereby evoking the very picture of hubris.  Moreover, the reader can see the tell-tale markings of arrogance leading to anger which has been noted as the Homeric link discussed at length within the introduction to this brief essay. 

Finally, the character of Odysseus will herein be analyzed as indicative of the hubris and arrogance that the other two characters which have thus far been discussed exhibit.  Ultimately, the rage and wrath that Odysseus displays are not necessarily born out of a sense of vaunted pride; rather it is born out of the attack that Agamemnon places upon him in calling into question his manhood and honor.  Regardless of the motivating factor, the same level of analysis can be placed upon Odysseus as his rage is intrinsically linked to the manifestation of his own self world, pride, and arrogance.  Says Odysseus to Agamemnon shortly after his unsolicited attack upon his character, “What is this word that broke through the fence of your teeth, Atreides?  How can you say that, when we Achaians waken the bitter war god on Trojans, breakers of horses, I hang back from fighting? Only watch, if you care to and if it concerns you, the very father of Telemachos locked with the champion Trojans, breakers of horses. Your talk is wind, and no meaning” (Homer 4.350-355).

Ultimately, the reader can be aware of the fact that the exemplification of pride leads to rage, and this rage embodies the full exemplification of hubris as Homer is attempting to integrate such a definition with the reader.  Interestingly, rather than selecting on character and allowing a single flaw to determine his end, Homer utilizes this pervasive them of hubris to define a litany of characters within the work as a means of helping to integrate within the mind of the reader the primal importance of seeking to guard against hubris and its manifestation within the world.