In the following exerpt from the Epic, The Iliad, Achilles is talking to his mother, the sea-goddess Thetis. She had heard him praying and weeping about his friend, Patroclus, whom been killed in battle by Hector and stripped of the armor Patroclus had taken from Achilles. Achilles is overwhelmed, sad, and struggles very hard with his passing because how much Patroclus meant to him. Achilles says “ that he valued his life as much as his own.” Achilles does not want to live unless he avenges his friend and kills Hector in battle. This passage fits into the overall story of The Iliad because this was a turning point for Achilles. His best friend dies and he no longer wants to eat, drink or fight. Achilles needs to decide to fight through this and become a hero or to not fight and go home in defeat. This is an interesting particular part to read because of how much this could have changed this story. If he were to stop fighting he would not have became the legendary Achilles. It would have let Hector live and for Paris to steal Helena without a fight. In total, the end of the war could have changed outcomes.


Then said Achilles in his great grief, "I would die here and now, in that I could not save my comrade. He has fallen far from home, and in his hour of need my hand was not there to help him. What is there for me? Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought no saving neither to Patroclus nor to my other comrades of whom so many have been slain by mighty Hector; I stay here by my ships a bootless burden upon the earth, I, who in fight have no peer among the Achaeans, though in council there are better than I. Therefore, perish strife both from among gods and men, and anger, wherein even a righteous man will harden his heart- which rises up in the soul of a man like smoke, and the taste thereof is sweeter than drops of honey. Even so has Agamemnon angered me. And yet- so be it, for it is over; I will force my soul into subjection as I needs must; I will go; I will pursue Hector who has slain him whom I loved so dearly, and will then abide my doom when it may please Jove and the other gods to send it. Even Hercules, the best beloved of Jove- even he could not escape the hand of death, but fate and Juno's fierce anger laid him low, as I too shall lie when I am dead if a like doom awaits me. Till then I will win fame, and will bid Trojan and Dardanian women wring tears from their tender cheeks with both their hands in the grievousness of their great sorrow; thus shall they know that he who has held aloof so long will hold aloof no longer. Hold me not back, therefore, in the love you bear me, for you shall not move me."