Honor And Glory In Book Twenty-Four Of Homer's The Odyssey

Book Twenty-Four of The Odyssey opens with an interesting scene between the ghosts of Achilles and Agamemnon, in which Agamemnon describes the death and the funeral of Achilles. In this encounter, in which Agamemnon relates the death as well as the funeral of Achilles, Agamemnon demonstrates the Achaeans’ value of honor and glory in death. Homer reveals this value through Agamemnon’s praise of Achilles death in battle as well as through the character’s disdain with his own murder at the hands of Aegisthus, which did not bring any glory to Agamemnon. Furthermore, this scene also demonstrates the importance of a proper funeral, as Agamemnon dwells on the games that Thetis held in honor of her son, Achilles, a privilege that Agamemnon did

Agamemnon addresses the ghost of Achilles, saying “happy man, you died on the fields of Troy, a world away from home, and the best of the Trojan and Argive champions died around you, fighting for your corpse” (24.38-40). This line demonstrates Agamemnon’s value of glory in death, as he refers to Achilles as a “happy man” because of his fate in death. Also, Agamemnon discusses the funeral of Achilles, stating that “for seventeen days unbroken, days and nights, we mourned you—immortal gods and mortal men. At the eighteenth dawn we gave you to the flames” (24. 68-70). This scene depicting the death and funeral of Achilles demonstrates the Achaeans’ value of glory and honor in death, as well as the importance of a proper funeral, through Agamemnon’s praise of this memory. Furthermore, after Agamemnon recalls this glorious death, he mourns his own pitiful end at the hands of Aegisthus. Overall, this opening scene of Book Twenty-Four of The Odyssey demonstrates the importance of an honorable that results in glory, both for the character as his name will live on as well as for his