The Thing Is... If You Think The Pursuit Of Glory Is Stupid And Immature And Kind Of Worthless, This

The thing is... if you think the pursuit of glory is stupid and immature and kind of worthless, this should probably make Achilles a more compelling Greek hero to you because his entire character arc is coming to the same fucking conclusion.

At the Embassy, Achilles spells it out--he has come to realize he values his life more than he values glory, more than he values the riches Agamemnon has promised him. He had a few days to think about it, and it turns out dying in a war that has nothing to do with him for men who don't respect him just doesn't seem that great a deal to him anymore. He wants to go home. There is the complication that all the other Greeks will die without Achilles' participation in the war, and so it is Phoenix, his mentor, and Ajax, his friend, who convince him not to leave then and there. He decides to stay and see what happens.

When Patroclus dies, Achilles realizes there was something he valued more than his own life--his friend. Without him, his life has lost that value he only just found, so he might as well pursue revenge or the empty glory and riches he no longer cares about. That's his tragedy.

By the end of the Iliad, Achilles is very much of the opinion that glory and riches weren't worth it, and when we see him again in the Odyssey, he says he would have rather been a long-lived humble shepherd or something rather than briefly a king of men.

So I guess my point is if your beef with Achilles is that glory is stupid, well, he agrees with you. Congrats on having the greatest of the greeks on your side. I've heard he's great in a fight.