A War Worth Fighting For

 

After nine years of war, Achilles asks the question that perhaps many soldiers are wondering: why are we fighting? From Greeks to Trojans, warriors to fathers, their motives and goals vary from glory to family. The plot is driven by Achilles’ mênis and his need to regain his glory and honor after Agamemnon publicly humiliates him. In Achilles’ case, it seems a sole drive for kleos, honor, and the short-lived glory of a warrior. On the other hand, Hector is portrayed as the ultimate protector and prince of Troy, he fights for his family and his city. And in between these two characters is Agamemnon, who seems to fight for both family and for glory. But despite these surface appearances, it can be seen that the drive behind Achilles’, Hector’s, and Agamemnon’s fighting wills are not so different after all. Achilles fights for love and not just glory, in the same way that Hector wars for glory and not only love, in the same way that Agamemnon battles for both glory and love.

 

Achilles first begins to question his grounds for fighting after Agamemnon takes back Briseis as compensation for losing Chryseis. He sees it as a dishonor that he was begrudged his gift and feels humiliated, swearing he won’t fight until his glory is returned to him. He asks Thetis to implore Zeus to, “Come, grant the Trojans victory after victory till the Achaean armies pay my dear son back, building higher the honor he deserves!” (1.607-609). Achilles calls out to the gods to solve a problem that he deems so dire that he, as a mortal, can’t handle it himself. He feels he deserves the honor that has been taken from him and calls for divine intervention to return to him all that he lost. But he drives a hard bargain and won’t settle until Agamemnon sees “how mad he was to disgrace Achilles, the best of the Achaeans!” (1.489-490). He calls himself the best and refuses to fight until his kleos is returned to him. At this point in the poem, Achilles seems overwhelmed with his need for glory. He is obsessed with his own kleos and reputation, his immortality through his deeds, to the point where he can see his fellow comrades dying around him and still not take action.

 

Nonetheless, Achilles later shows his vulnerability to the bond of loved ones when he is compelled into war after the death of Patroclus. He must fight to carry out “the blood-price for Patroclus” (18.108) to preserve his own honor by protecting that of Patroclus’. If he sits out even after one of his closest comrades is killed, not only would it demean the dead, it would also blemish his own reputation. But he fights not just for his own honor but also for Patroclus’ honor. He hopes to preserve the glory of Patroclus in life by obtaining a fitting vengeance for his death.

It is not just concern for glory, however, that drives Achilles to fulfill the blood price. He needs to appease his grief and anger for losing a loved one. By killing Hector, Achilles hopes to obtain retribution for the death of Patroclus. Achilles suffers heart-wrenching sorrow after Patroclus’ death and in this case, he enters the battle in the memory of his friend. No more is he looking to gain further glory for himself, his primary priority has now shifted from obtaining kleos to obtaining vengeance. His mênis is no longer caused by a loss of glory, it is caused by a terrible sadness from losing Patroclus. He fights to cope with his anguish at losing a close friend.

 

Hector, likewise, fights to protect his city and his people “No, no, let the earth come piling over my dead body before I hear your cries, I hear you dragged away!” (6.554-556). He is willing to die to save his family. For Hector, fighting is more a matter of preserving loved ones than avenging them, fighting for what he loves than for gaining material wealth. He knows Troy will fall but is willing to do anything to make that day come later rather than sooner. Hector’s reasons for fighting are much less self-centered than those of Achilles and are based on the bigger picture of his entire city. But even here we see that Achilles fights for Patroclus much in the same manner that Hector fights for Troy. They are similar in their concern for who and what they care for and in their willingness to go to war to protect those they love. Both characters have something to lose and fight in the hopes of putting off the day when they lose it.

 

Despite Hector’s primary motive to ensure the well being of his polis “My heart races to help our Trojans” (6. 430) he, too, feels the pull of glory and honor during the war. It plays an important factor in his death and his respect for honor contributes to his final fate. “I would die of shame…if I should shrink from battle now, a coward” (6. 523-526). He feels for his family and fights for them but he has social customs to adhere to. He is afraid of the shame that would come from refusing to fight and will not suffer the abuse of being called a coward. However much Hector may wish to stay at home with his wife and child, he must make his appearance and uphold his reputation as prince and warrior.

 

Even in his final moments, glory weighs heavily on his mind as he decides what to do when Achilles bears down on him “better by far for me to stand up to Achilles…or die at his hands in glory” (22.129-131).  In the few minutes before Hector’s death he realizes that he must not look a coward in front of his people, must not lose his glory so that future generations will scorn him, and must remain strong so that his name may travel into the future, immortal forever. He is willing to die in glory rather than live a longer life as a coward. At the critical moment between life and death, Hector is strongly influenced by the need for glory and honor, to the point where he sacrifices his life for it. Even noble Prince Hector is shackled in the web of glory and honor, and at the end of the day, it becomes apparent that he is not so different from Achilles. They fight for family and out of love, but also for kleos. Ultimately, this need for glory is the cause of both their deaths. They have the choice to live a long life without glory or a short life with it. Both choose to die young honorably.

 

Likewise, glory stands high in the list of priorities for Agamemnon and when he is deprived of a piece of his glory he becomes very offended “I alone of the Argives go without my honor. That would be a disgrace.” (1. 139-140) Similar to Achilles losing Briseis, he cannot take losing Chryseis, and sees it as an enormous blow to his individual honor. He feels that the disgrace of losing his honor would be so monstrous an idea that he demands compensation for it. Like Achilles, when he is deprived of a piece of his honor, he becomes obsessed with seeking amends for it, often at the cost of others.

 

In connection with an eye for the material, Agamemnon shows a savage greed when he claims “we could topple Priam’s citadel in a day, throttle it in our hands and gut Troy to nothing” (2. 443-444). Aside from immaterial wealth, such as glory, Agamemnon fights for material wealth as well, the spoil from the wars. He longs to haul treasure back to Argos, to show his people his power through his wealth.

 

Nonetheless, Agamemnon can be argued to fight for relatives as well; he joins originally to preserve the lost honor of his brother, Menelaus. But even this seemingly unselfish motive is clouded by concern for himself “if you die now…I go back to parching Argos in disgrace” (4. 206-209). Once again the idea of disgrace is prevalent in his mind. If Menelaus had died on the battlefield, Agamemnon would not have had an excuse to continue the war and he would have returned home empty handed, devoid of treasure and of glory. With his brother wounded, Agamemnon’s first thought is not of the well being of Menelaus, but rather of his own humiliation if his brother should die. In this respect, he is similar to Achilles whose concern for his own glory initially causes him to sit out and watch his fellow comrades perish. Both characters have made decisions with the importance of glory being at the top, and the welfare of others being far below.

 

These three warriors, each with seemingly different reasons for entering the war, turn out to have not so different reasons after all. In some way, shape, or form, glory finds its way into the hearts of the three fighters. The story starts with Achilles begging the gods to restore his glory, ends with Hector refusing the safety of his walls to preserve his own honor, and is speckled with Agamemnon striving to enhance his own sense of glory throughout. Similarly, fighting for love resonates with each. Achilles fights in grief for Patroclus, Hector fights to save his people, and even Agamemnon originally fights to avenge his brother. They are bonded by common goals derived from glory, family, and the honor code. Brought together in the heat of battle, these mortals find themselves pitched against enemies that are fighting for the very things they themselves deem worth fighting for.