Agamemnon In The Iliad

More a warrior than a king Imagine the biggest bully you know. He 's big and strong, but not so smart. He picks on those smaller or weaker than himself, throws his weight around, and basically acts like a huge jerk just because he can. Now give that bully a kingdom and soldiers at his command, and you 're pretty close to the character of Agamemnon in The Iliad. Though he is a great warrior, he is not much of a king. He hurts his own family, makes dumb mistakes, ignores his commanders, and almost loses the Trojan War over his stubbornness. This lesson will focus on the role and character analysis of Agamemnon in Homer 's The Iliad. Agamemnon as a family man Agamemnon is the brother of Menelaus of Sparta, who married the most beautiful woman in the

Unfortunately for Agamemnon, this plan backfires and the men all run for the ships. Agamemnon has to get divine help from Athena to get them to come back. Agamemnon is always happy to blame someone else for his shortcomings. He whines, in Book 19, ' I am not responsible/ but Zeus is, and Destiny '. Lesson Summary Agamemnon is a king of the Achaeans, but that does not make him worthy of the title. Through his actions and words in The Iliad, we can see that Agamemnon is not a great king at all. He 's a strong warrior, and his physical prowess is not contested. In fact, during the funeral games for his friend Patrokles, the great hero Achilles offers Agamemnon the prize without even holding the contest. He tells everyone that he knows Agamemnon is the best. That 's actually pretty magnanimous coming from Achilles, who has a lot of reasons to be upset with Agamemnon 's lack of leadership. Achilles lost Briseis, whom he loved, just because Agamemnon whined about it not being fair. Achilles ' subsequent withdrawal from fighting caused the Achaeans to lose a major battle. In short, Agamemnon is a jerk and bully, who blames others for his failings and sacrificed his own daughter so he could go to war. He is not