Motivations In The Iliad

Feeling and showing pity is a quintessential part of being a human being. Seeing someone in distress triggers an innate feeling of protectiveness - that is, unless someone has gone through trauma that causes them to lose all ability to feeling pity. Both Homer and Thucydides explore pity and its causes in Iliad and History of the Peloponnesian War. Between Achilles and the citizens and leaders of Athens, there is a wide range of motivations that inspire them to be pitiless. In Homer’s Iliad and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, pitilessness is shown as coming from many different motivations; in Iliad, these motivations are intrinsic, and in History of the Peloponnesian War, they are extrinsic.
In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles shows no

He has been a warrior his whole life - many characters remember him as the man who tore their life apart. Andromache, the wife of Hector, recalls that “Achilles killed [her] father when he destroyed [the] city…[and she] had seven brothers once...all seven went down to Hades on a single day, cut down by Achilles” (Il. 6.436-445). Achilles' reputation and history drive him to continue his warrior lifestyle and kill or enslave everyone who opposes him. When Hector, prince of Troy and general of the army, kills Patroclus, it triggers an irreversible change in Achilles. He becomes driven by vengeance rather than glory and prizes. During his aristeia, his finest hour in battle, he comes across a boy named Lycaon, who he has fought before and shown pity to. The boy is terrified and drops to his knees, saying “I am at your knees, Achilles. Pity me” (Il. 21.79-80). Achilles has a son of Priam, a half-brother of Hector, begging for mercy. He listens to the young man speak, letting him ramble, trying to buy himself time before an inevitable fate. Once Lycaon finishes supplicating him, Achilles replies, “Before Patroclus met his destiny it was more to my taste to spare Trojan lives, capture them, and sell them overseas. But now