Agamemnon the Problem With Agamemnon: Term Paper

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He seeks to heal his broken relations with Achilles only when the Greeks are desperate, a transparent ruse Achilles easily sees through. Agamemnon does not go as one of the emissaries to Achilles, but sends Odysseus, laden with gifts. The general refuses to come humbly bearing a personal apology for his foolishness, as a good leader might try to heal the rift in the Greek camp. Achilles only agrees to return to war in Book 19 after his friend Patroclus dies, not because of the gifts Agamemnon gives to in reparation for his earlier insult. Agamemnon should have seen that Achilles was less motivated by material rewards than he was by love for people he cared about, like Brisesis and Patroclus. Agamemnon is too egotistical to understand the psychological motivations of other people. This is part of his self-obsession -- because he is motivated by spoils, he assumes all other people are motivated solely by the need for power and satisfying their pleasures.

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When preparing for war, Achilles shows greater leadership, even his self-interested example, when he refuses to eat until Patroclus has been avenged. This motivates the Greeks to want to fight harder. Finally, in Books 22 and 24, Agamemnon is unable to control Achilles after Achilles refuses to give up Hector's body for a proper burial, as was expected during the rules of war of the age. Only when a real leader shows himself in the narrative, in the example of Priam, does the reader gain instruction as to how a true leader of men should behave. Priam goes to Achilles tent himself and selflessly appeals to Achilles as a human being and a father, rather than attempts to order the Greek warrior to surrender Hector's body. Achilles is moved by Priam's moral example, more than any gifts someone could bestow upon him. Priam, although an enemy, understands Achilles far….....

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