Achilles is renowned as the demi-god character who is
beautiful and brave. However, in spite of his god-like status, he seems to spend his
time acting more as a child than a man. He withdraws from battle over a disagreement
with the leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon, and then only is tempted back to fight
when Hector kills his dear friend, Patroclus. The epic fight that he has with Hector is
revealing in lots of ways as it presents us with a complex character who is consumed by
revenge. After killing Hector, Achilles refuses to give up his body for proper burial
and allows the Greek forces to mistreat it, and then, adding insult to injury, he
attaches the corpse to the back of his chariot and drives back to Greek lines, with the
noble head of Hector being dragged in the dust:
So he triumphed
and
now he was bent on outrage, on shaming noble
Hector.
Piercing the tendons ankle to heel behind both
feet,
he knotted straps of rawhide through them
both,
lashed them to his chariot, left the head to
drag
and mounting the car, hoisting the famous arms
aboard,
he whipped his team to a run and breakneck on they
flew,
holding nothing
back.
Thus, when we consider
arete, a chief concept denoting honour, Achilles seems to gain arete through his desire
to revenge Patroclus but at the same time he loses it through his defilement of Hector's
body, making his presentation as a "hero" problematic at best.
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