How Muhammad Ali and Achilles Are Similar Essay

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Mythology and the Historic Person

An historic person whose personality seems to mimic the character of Achilles from Homer’s Iliad in Greek mythology is Muhammad Ali. Ali was the world heavyweight boxing champion when he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Ali refused to go, just as Achilles refused to leave his tent to go fight the Trojans. Achilles was angry that he had been disrespected by Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks. So too was Ali angry that he and his people had been disrespected by Uncle Sam, i.e., the US government. Ali cited the racial injustices in the US and all that the American government had done over the decades and centuries to oppress black people—and now the US government wanted to make black people go kill brown people on the other side of the world for a reason that no one could explain. Ali was incensed by the very thought of it.

Thus, Ali refused to go and fight in the war, even though it meant that he could no longer fight in the ring. He could not box; he lost his title as heavyweight champion as the belt was taken from him, and yet he refused to budge one iota. He was very much like Achilles sitting in his tent, refusing all petitions to go out and fight for the Greeks.

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Ali, like Achilles, was considered the greatest. Ali was a legend in the boxing ring, and now he became beloved by his people for refusing to submit to the leader of the free world, the US government.

Achilles would eventually leave his tent and fight the Trojans—but only after his friend would be killed by Hector. Ali never consented to join the war in Vietnam. He fought his own battle in the US—but at the end of it he emerged victorious and a hero. The draft was ended and the Vietnam War was concluded—which is what most people wanted. The Trojan War might have ended differently, too, if Achilles had stuck to his guns and never left his tent.

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