When reading Homer’s the Iliad, two distinct characters emerge as the center of the action, Achilles, and Hector. Their battle represents a crucial part of the human condition - Achilles is hot-tempered and easily forms grudges, while Hector is reasoning and thoughtful. Their parts opposing one another in the Trojan War represents an adage as old as time, “head or heart”?
To compare the differences between the characters, one must first look at their similarities. They are both fighting for a war that isn’t personal to them, but they are the champion warriors of each group. Achilles says that he doesn’t, “have any quarrel with the Trojans. They didn’t to anything to me,” (Homer 1.162-167). He goes on to insult Agamemnon saying that it is his childish attitudes that are keeping the war going as long as it has. In comparison, Hector comes home from the battlefield to speak with family and confronts Paris, in the same way, saying, “We’re dying out there defending the walls. It’s because of you the city is in this hellish war,” (Homer 6.142-145). He then insults Paris almost exactly in the same way that Achilles insulted Agamemnon.
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Achilles is driven by his emotions and the most prevalent of these emotions is his undeniable rage: not simple anger, but consuming rage. The first line of the epic can be quoted saying, “Rage: Sing; Goddess, Achilles’ rage, black and murderous,” (Homer 1.1-2). This rage occurs often throughout the piece showing up even after Briseis is given back just due to the offense, when his friends are siding against him with Agamemnon, and most prevalently when Patroclus dies. He also loves his friends and family immensely as well. He loves his mate (Homer 9.348-352), his friends (Homer 9.630-632), and his father (Homer 24.581-584). Achilles is ruled by his