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Why Did Achilles Offer To Fight?

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Beaten down with the feeling of imminent defeat the Greek leader Agamemnon gave an unheard of order to his men and that was the order to retreat and live to fight another day. However, since this was not the Greek way Diomedes’ felt insulted and started a movement that lead others to join and gave Agamennone no choice but to stay and fight. After Agamemnon they had decided to stay had to stay and fight, he knew he needed Achilles if the Greeks were to win the war. Agamenon set three men Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix to get Achilles to fight beside them and he promised to give Achilles anything he wanted as long as he fought with his men. Achilles says no because he wants to go home and live a long peaceful life. The Greeks then drink the night away because they know the will soon be slaughtered. …show more content…

Achilles talks about how all men die no matter what so what is the point of rushing things (Iliad IX, 340-360). Achilles does not understand why the Greeks and Trojans must fight. He does not know why thousands of men are dying for Agamemnon's wife Helen. Achilles says other people have wives why are they dying for another man’s wife and not their own? This is like Hector’s struggle because why should Hector die defending his brother’s wife/girlfriend (Iliad VI, 427-460). More importantly, why should other Trojan men die for such a small insignificant cause? All of the thousands of men that have died fighting this war have died in vain because this in Achilles eyes was not a just cause for

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