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The Iliad, written by Homer is the western world’s oldest epic composed in 700 BC. It is an oral
narrative that begins “in media res”, in the ninth year of the Trojan War. A peculiar face of the epic is
that the protagonist, Achilles, remains absent for the two-third of the narrative. But, Homer retains
Achilles’s importance by constantly comparing him to other significant heroes including Agamemnon.
The proemium talks about the anger of Achilles not against the Trojans but Agamemnon, Aristos
According to M.I Finley, A hero’s honour in the Homeric Period is measured by two ways-his lineage
and his material possession(The World of Odysseus,1962). Nestor, the oldest Greek hero justifies
Agamemnon’s political authority by giving three arguments in the epic. Firstly, Agamemnon is said to
be the richest and the widest ruling hero among all the Greeks, contributing his 100 ships to the war.
Secondly he possesses a very high heroic lineage as being the son of Atreus and ultimately being the
ruler of Mycenae. His lineage was associated with cannabalism, oath breaking and incest. “The term
Anax Andron seems to denote Agamemnon’s position as the cheif of the Greek alliance although it is
occasionally used of much lesser figures such as the trojan and the Anchisis. The position seems
however more a war time expedient than a well defined governmental role. Agamemnon is the
mightiest Greek Basileus and therefore the commander of the host...(Richard A Posner, The
Economics of Justice,1981). Also, Agamemnon, the lord of men holds the sceptre of power and his
According to the book, Agamemnon and Achilles’s differences doesn’t exist on an individual level.
Instead, ideologically, they are also different in terms of how they see and understand the world in
they live. “Agamemnon believes that political authority resides in who he is. Whereas Achilles thinks it
should come from what he does. Agamemnon also oversteps the bounds of traditional authority”(Joel
P Kristensen,Failure of Speech, Rhetorics and Politics in the Iliad,2007). This is shown in the book
when Agamemnon says that he will give her girl but in return he wants someone else’s prize.On the
other hand, Achilles thinks that a hero’s honour and prize should be proportional to his performed
excellence. This contrast openly shows the public debate over the nature of political authority. “It was
no coincidence that Iliad begins with the wrong done by king Agamemnon to a supplient father and
ends with the right done by Achilles to the helpless Priam”(Robin Schlunk,The theme of the supplient,
of his personality. Unlike Whitman who calls Agamemnon ”the nadir, as Achilles is the zenith, of
Whitman,Homer and the Heroic Tradition,1958), other commentators have called him a frightened,
over bearing, irresolute,insensitive, self centred,concerned cheifly with his own honour and a little
else. Agamemnon in his first appearance, drives away the priest Chryses, in the Iliad. This
immediately characterises him as an authoritative monarch who allows no interference with his will.
Agamemnon is shown as a poor leader who is not able to lead properly. A hero’s Aristea is said to be
seen either in a battlefield or in an Agora. But Agamemnon, the greatest of the Greeks fails at both
places. He’s never shown leading the army on the battlefield in the book. Also, he never addressed
an assembly, instead, Achilles calls an assembly to find a solution for the greif of the army and proves
his leadership qualities. But Agamemnon, despite leading the forces didn’t call the assembly even
after seeing the sufferings and loss faced by his army. This clearly depicts his insensitivity towards his
Be it Hera, Athene, Helen or Clytaemenestra,the role of women both as mortals and immortals is
shown important in the epic by Homer. Agamemnon was both a warrior and a leader but he could not
become a loyal husband to his wife. He compares his wife, Clytaemenestra with his prize Chryseis
openly in the assembly. He announces that he likes fair cheeked Chryseis more than his own wife
Clytaemenestra and appreciates Chryseis’s work both in the kitchen and the bed. When Chryseis was
taken away from him he wanted another girl in return. At this moment he’s shown as a person who
In the Iliad, Agamemnon is referred as Aristos Achaion which means the best of the Greeks. But
Homer continuously gives instances in the Iliad where the title given to Agamemnon- the best of the
Greeks is questioned. From the very beginning of the book he proves his failure. When Calchus, the
soothsayer blames Agamemnon as the reason for the wrath on the Greek army, Agamemnon gets
infuriated and looses his control and insults the priest further. Also, when Zeus sends him a dream,
he misinterprets it because of his delusion and ego which again shows his failure to the audience.
“When the Greek army is on the verge of defeat we see in Agamemnon a desperate concern. In
despair and wakeful, he called for an assembly where he spoke softly and blamed his infuriation with
Achilles on blind folly and delusion. Guided by Nestor, Agamemnon decides to redeem his mistake of
dishonouring Achilles in the traditional way, i.e.,by presenting him with prestigious gifts and returning
Briseis. Apart from this, he also promises his daughter’s hand in marriage keeping the fact that the
Greeks emerge victorious in war. Lastly Agamemnon says “Let him surrender.” This statement shows
that he wants Achilles to accept his superior power. It’s a magnificent offer but there is one thing
missing; Agamemnon offers no apology to Achilles, no admission that he was in the wrong. His
confession that he was mad at the beginning of his speech, is effectively cancelled out by the way he
ends it- ‘let him surrender’. The word translated surrender is a passive form dmetheto of a verb
After the criticism of Agamemnon in terms of his cruel and arbitrary actions and his inability to lead,
his aristea ends in emasculation in the narrative. His pain is compared to woman’s pain while giving
birth to a child and the message given is that one should not become merciless and self centered like
Agamemnon.
Bibliography
-Knox Bernard,1990:129-150
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