Who is agamemnon in the iliad

First, truth is used as a justification because of the bias one feels about the matter based on their emotions. More a warrior than a king Imagine the biggest bully you know. He 's big and strong, but not so smart. He picks on those smaller or weaker than himself, throws his weight around, and basically acts like a huge jerk just because he can. Now give that bully a kingdom and soldiers at his command, and you 're pretty close to the character of Agamemnon in The Iliad.

Though he is a great warrior, he is not much of a king. He hurts his own family, makes dumb mistakes, ignores his commanders, and almost loses the Trojan War over his stubbornness. This lesson will focus on the role and character analysis of Agamemnon in Homer 's The Iliad. Agamemnon as a family man Agamemnon is the brother of Menelaus of Sparta, who married the most beautiful woman in the …show more content… Unfortunately for Agamemnon, this plan backfires and the men all run for the ships.

Agamemnon has to get divine help from Athena to get them to come back. Agamemnon is always happy to blame someone else for his shortcomings. Lesson Summary Agamemnon is a king of the Achaeans, but that does not make him worthy of the title. Through his actions and words in The Iliad, we can see that Agamemnon is not a great king at all. He 's a strong warrior, and his physical prowess is not contested. In fact, during the funeral games for his friend Patrokles, the great hero Achilles offers Agamemnon the prize without even holding the contest.

Almost immediately, the reader sees that Agamemnon often allows his over-wrought emotions to govern major, critical decisions. Nestor advises Agamemnon against taking Briseis from Achilles, but Agamemnon doesn't listen, thereby setting up a chain of events that results in the deaths of hundreds of Achaian soldiers.

Unfortunately, Agamemnon was born to a role greater than his ability, and Achilles, another hot-tempered Greek, was born to a role less than his ability. Both men are great men, but both are quick to anger, and both are conscious of the roles that they must play within the heroic code.

Neither man is willing to compromise or to accept a seemingly lower status within the heroic code, and so their quarrel over Briseis results in a tragic breach between the two — one that creates a central conflict in the Iliad.

Note, however, that Agamemnon shows devotion to and concern for his brother, Menelaos. Agamemnon realizes that order in the Achaian society depends upon Helen's return to Menelaos.

He is aware of the importance of family order if all of society is to remain cohesive. It is a line that includes the same verb used earlier to characterize the sorrowful Achaians. The description of Agamemnon in such a high state of fearful grief finds resonance with a synonymous expression in book 10 of the Odyssey.

The expression registers the intense grief of Eurylochos who in tears could not speak after witnessing his companions being suddenly changed into swine by Kirke. He is crying in sorrow described by words connected with lamentation. Yet, unlike Agamemnon with his troops, Odysseus will provide a resolute and proactive leadership response for his distraught second-in-command, Eurylochos Odyssey It introduces the lamentation of Achilles over the loss of Patroklos His emotion is not feigned; he is in deep distress.

Agamemnon says virtually the same thing for the first nine lines here in book 9 that he did in book 2 9. He excludes, however, the emphasis on shame seen in 2. The silence formula with which the troops respond to Agamemnon indicates their present state of discomfort. First, however, it is necessary to note that the lower ranks cannot normally express their grievances openly. At this early moment in the assembly Iliad 9. Any attentive audience member would not have soon forgotten the sort of contrasting bedlam that engulfed book 2.

The larger story doubtless makes the current narrative moment more poignant, [ ] in part through the recurrence of traditional language. In his speech, Diomedes begins by revisiting the earlier rebuke from Agamemnon that remains a sore point.

But to you, two divergent gifts were bestowed by the son of Kronos of the crooked counsels; The scepter to you he gave to be honored above all, but the capacity to help, to you he did not give, which is the greatest possession.

The silence of the troops, which awaited the representative reply from higher up, turns to shouting. Meanwhile, the troops have not begun to move. Nestor uses the same diplomatic tone as Diomedes does with Agamemnon cf. Hainsworth Nestor is more diplomatic, but he is also, like Diomedes, reacting against a past grievance.

In his remarks to Agamemnon, Nestor himself revisits earlier events those of Iliad 1. Nestor suggests that they try to persuade Achilles to return 9. In suggesting this course of action, Nestor reprimands Agamemnon for not following his earlier authoritative muthos. For having seized his war prize, you presently possess it.

Nestor, I suggest, makes the third claimant after Diomedes and the Achaians of a grievance against Agamemnon. Agamemnon has shown himself more verbally abusive and reactive than thoughtful and responsive in many of the scenes we have considered so far. Achilles, however, is possessed by his grievance against Agamemnon — This grievance, already alluded to by Nestor as we have seen, is emphatically brought forth by Achilles as the cause of his resolute intransigence in response to the embassy.

Agamemnon emerges from book 9 as a less than sympathetic character. His leadership skills cannot meet the crisis and he is overwhelmed. No one will go with him, but instead Agamemnon is reproached for his past leadership debacles. Themes from this scene resonate with past and chronologically future difficulties. Various ranks criticize their imperious leader for his lack of wisdom and suggest rapprochement with Achilles.

Ingrained habits are difficult to change. It is imprudent, then, to excise it. We meet Agamemnon first in book 10 when, as the poet tells us, he cannot sleep while most others can 1—3. The poet is perhaps creating suspense, preparing his audience for the approaching night foray. Rather, it was part of extemporaneous musicmaking for Trojan victories during the day just passed. After all, the Achaians are quiet by contrast 14 , and the only ones stirring are Agamemnon and his worried basileis.

Agamemnon is struck as he lies there by the contrast in what he sees. His reaction is sorrowful lamentation. Agamemnon even pulls out his hair in helpless distress, an intensely emotional response. It is paralleled, among other places in Homer, by Priam in his desperation to keep Hector from facing Achilles but also death Iliad The cutting of the hair for the dead, after all, was something practiced for animals e. Iliad 3. Agamemnon fears utter destruction.

Agamemnon seems at a loss, yet he is not alone for long. When Menelaos arrives, Agamemnon orders him to run quickly along the ships and call on Ajax and Idomeneus He will go to Nestor. Agamemnon even advises his inquisitive sibling to give due honor when calling upon each man, and to avoid haughtiness. Agamemnon heads off to Nestor, in whose presence he describes himself as sleepless and weighed down by war and the cares of the Achaians.

Agamemnon urges Nestor, who is equally sleepless He urges that other Achaian leaders be called on as well. Yet, Agamemnon is not heard from for the rest of the book, even after the return of Odysseus and Diomedes who have perpetrated a stunning night raid on the Trojan lines and have returned to celebrate.

It seems as though his leadership is not really needed for the night raid. It is little wonder, considering the picture of fearful and distraught incapacity we have received of him at a critical moment in the war.

The entire ensuing scene is itself highly traditional. The effect is to focus our attention on Agamemnon fully armed 44—46 : … but far off his bronze armor from the very spot into heaven flashed; But in response thundered Athena and Hera to honor the king of rich-in-gold Mycenae.

Our attention is drawn in this poetic description to the warrior fully armed and ready for battle. Zeus is keeping the promise he made to Thetis to bring honor to her son Iliad 1. The formulaic simile highlights his heroic posture and actions cf. This same sort of referential emphasis is given to other heroes or heroic groups, such as Achilles and the Trojans. Agamemnon, who is said to cause the Trojans to flee in terror , takes his place in the fighting. Further, Agamemnon has been characterized as especially brutal in what he says when advising his brother Menelaos, in Iliad 6.

There Agamemnon offers caring words to his brother, who is ready to make up for the lack of spirit in the other Achaians by personally facing Hector in battle. Of particular note is its use in Odyssey 2.

It would be strange if Agamemnon as hegemon of the Greek forces at Troy was not at times brutal, since war is by nature gruesome. What else does a warrior enter battle to do? This reading does not deny that Agamemnon can be brutal in his leadership role, a character trait we discussed earlier in this chapter but not because of hands sullied by war.

And what can be taken from that scene to help us understand the sort of person he was for Homer? Achilles urges Priam to sleep in a secluded spot lest his visit be discovered. He enlarges upon the reason Priam could be delayed in setting out. Yet, the only brutality threatened in the whole scene is a moment when Achilles himself seems on the verge of losing self-control and letting his own grief for Patroklos cause him to harm his suppliant-guest — The rare word has caused problems of interpretation for some, but the form is strongly connected with the heroic taunt, including adversarial tones in and off the battlefield.

Here, he may, further, steal away Priam who came with apoina , to increase his own apoina 24 , jeering as he does so. He takes what he wants from his basileis. To summarize, the brutality of book 11 is not really odd within the context of the Trojan War, [ ] but book 24 does assume an Agamemnon who is selfishly despotic. Yet he fights on, hurling the traditional large stones that so amazed the poet as he described events of the epic past.

He shouts an order to his commanders to carry on the fight and returns in his chariot to the ships. Zeus makes this narrative direction plain in his speech to Iris, aimed at spurring on Trojan Hector — : Yet when he [Agamemnon] either having been struck with a spear or hit with an arrow towards [his] horses springs, then for him [Hector], strength I will grant to kill until that point when he should arrive on the well-benched ships and the sun set and divine dusk descend.

It seems ironic that the longest of the four full-scale arming scenes in the Iliad should be accompanied by so little else, other than a basileus fervently rushing into battle ahead of his forces. What are the implications of all this?

The syncopation may just be meant to accentuate the urgent nature of the situation, which it certainly does. Many short references in the Iliad , besides the episodes we have looked at in detail already, support this conclusion. In the catalogue of ships, Agamemnon is described as leading the largest contingent to Troy.

A small ring composition 2. Rather, its traditional use for Achilles, Agamemnon, Ajax, and Diomedes 5. This section of the Iliad includes a third call for a nostos by a dejected Agamemnon. Many of the same themes in his call for a nostos in book 9 recur here.

When book 14 opens, many of the Achaian basileis are injured and out of action, while the Trojans press the battle to the very ships The poet now brings Nestor back into view. All the while he hears the clamor that reaches the aether He decides upon the latter course of action and discovers Agamemnon among the wounded leaders gathered in a safer location by the ships. He and other Achaians have had many opportunities to hear Hector, including his exhortations for his troops to engage the Achaians in battle or his direct threats to the Achaians themselves.

Odysseus, however, is not yet finished. He continues his confrontational assault by sarcastically asking Agamemnon if he really intends to leave 88— This is the sort of order, Odysseus berates, that neither man nor king should utter. Athena brings Agamemnon and Menelaos into contention about the departure voyage. Proclus Chrestomathy — In Iliad 14, by contrast, it is Agamemnon who wants to leave, despite his plea and assurance that he did not in fact issue an authoritative command Agamemnon is backtracking.

He wishes to revise the past with a new interpretation. If the reactions of others are relevant in our evaluation of Agamemnon, they imply that Agamemnon has acted impetuously and miscalculated the response of his fellow warriors. I suggest that he now feels regret for what he has proposed. Agamemnon emerges from Iliad 14 as an inept leader once again. Nestor came to him for advice and got none, but instead was treated to yet another call for a nostos.

Odysseus and the troops expected superior things from their leader, yet all anyone seemed to get was a peevish attempt to revise the past or retract patently thoughtless plans. An assembly has been called apparently by Achilles, His rejoinder 78— follows an ambiguous, uneasy, if not self-deprecating, introduction. He will offer restitution to Achilles; yet, by sitting rather than standing, fashions himself overtly as a victim.

But among men in a great uproar, how would any man listen or speak? But he is affected even though being a clear speaker. The poet elucidates overtly this ineluctable history, not only by what Agamemnon says, but also by how he has him say it Zeus had announced This would not change, no matter what Agamemnon claimed. Who, after all, can hold Zeus accountable? It is a rhetorical conclusio a maiore ad minus , as he seeks to hide behind the harmful delusion of Zeus to shelter his own faltering ego.

But what about responsibility? The need for Agamemnon to recognize that he is accountable, I would further suggest, includes the presumption that he is also responsible. This is something Odysseus makes clear to a rather thick-skulled Agamemnon in Iliad Agamemnon, after all, in accordance with oral style, followed his conclusion by the evidence of his assertions.

Further, Agamemnon is called to change by Odysseus. But would Agamemnon act differently on a future occasion? His character, as we have seen it unfold from this and earlier chapters, seems consistent enough for his audience to doubt that possibility. For instance, in Iliad 3, we are given a picture of Priam and other senior Trojan leaders with Helen on the citadel walls overlooking the battlefield and troops.

Why else would he be given articulate speech? They could hear past the surface influence of gender Helen and Priam , narrative silence Odysseus and Ajax , and questions of narrative perspective and power Xanthos and Zeus , when listening to the characters speak. They remembered the sort of traits that made characters who they were from their words and actions at other times. Euripides Troades — , is always just under the surface. Priam is not exempt from her influence. He was known to the audience in any case, since he was apparently famous enough to be sought out by Dolon Iliad It is not like him to come to this realization himself.

For the core audience who had heard the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey in some form before, and for the singer who works within a deep performance tradition, Agamemnon is not a suddenly invented character. Rather, he is traditionally recognizable to the poet and to the external audience and, in a more limited way, to the internal audience also.

What they know of him moreover, is that he is, in short, a pathetic despot, with few redeeming qualities. We might instance Helen. She affirms her own agency in the actions that led to the Trojan War despite the gendered silence of males around her. Yet, there is no quibbling when Achilles realizes where his aloofness from battle has led, and no plea that he is not to blame for the death of his friend or the losses of his fellow warriors.

Rather, just the opposite. There is a personal realization of the consequences of his prolonged anger and a resolute plan of action to honor his fallen companion.

The poet and audience knew the sort of character Agamemnon was. The narrative perspective of a divinity, after all, is certainly a step up from the more limited human vista.

Poseidon addresses the Achaian troops Iliad As we have seen throughout this chapter, Agamemnon appears to be impetuous—he acts first and thinks afterwards—but he is also given to unusually insulting and even irreverent comments.

His actions are often chastised by his inferiors and end up in apology and retraction; he blames divinity, yet is still responsible and suffers the consequences. As we noted in the preceding chapter, the Odyssey is one with the Iliad in presenting us with an Agamemnon who is impetuous, thoughtless, rash, and foolish.

As we saw for the Odyssey in Chapter 3, Agamemnon is on the bottom of an ascending scale of outcomes among leading Greek heroes, a scale woven into the very fabric of the Odyssean tradition. We are presented with an Agamemnon who is also inept and unconvincing as a leader, plagued with a personality displaying problems of arrogance, imperiousness, irreverence, and insult.

Why is Agamemnon such a pathetic leader? Is there an impinging influence within the underlying oral tradition that has affected his characterization? A chronological consideration of Agamemnon in the Iliad will necessarily focus on his most significant appearances: 1. We will, nevertheless, through discussion and notes, refer to most every instance where Agamemnon is mentioned, even when Agamemnon is not himself present. Alden disagrees, but I think Griffin is correct. For a view that such action was condemned, see Gould — Fenik speaks of battle supplication, but Wilson perhaps too restrictively.

See also Naiden on the difference between what Homer places in the foreground and background in cases of supplication. The parallel between the supplication of Chryses and Priam has been noted by Rabel — and Goldhill b— One reader suggested that the figure of Leiodes Odyssey His death is placed before Phemios just to show that it is merited. Latacz a notes that the temporal conjunction functions to emphasize the irreversibility of the moment. Why does Zeus support the Trojans? Why does Hera defend the Achaeans?

Why does Achilles finally rejoin the battle? Important Quotes Explained. Characters Agamemnon. Previous section Achilles Next section Hector.