Who would you consider to be the central hero of The Iliad ? Justify your answer . [ DU . ( affi ) 2016 ] Ans . Achilles is the protagonist of Homer's Iliad and the wrath of the " blazing Achilles " is the subject of the epic . The structure of the epic is determined by the direction of that wrath ; first towards his who insulted Achilles by commander - in - chief Agamemnon demanding his concubine Briseis and then towards Hector who killed Achilles ' bosom friend Patroclus in the battlefield . The two destructive fits of anger start and end the action of the epic , but they do not entirely define the character of Achilles . Achilles has many features which is common to an epic hero . His father is a king , and his mother is a deity . He is brave , courageous and possesses super human strength . He is the mightiest warrior in the Achaean army . However , he has some flaws in his character . He is proud and he cannot control his anger that surges up when his pride is injured . He mercilessly mauls his opponents , ignobly desecrates the body of Hector and savagely sacrifices twelve captive Trojans at the funeral of Patroclus . His brutality continues until the final book of The Iliad when King Priam meets him with ransom for his son Hector's desecrated corpse . He behaves towards the old king kindly and returns Hector's corpse after cleaning and anointing it . Yet it remains unclear whether an old father's heartrending pleas , really testifies to Achilles ' grief and acquaintance with anguish , which has already been proved in his intense mourning for Patroclus . In one sense Achilles is a tragic figure because he knows that he must have to die in spite of his heroic achievements . Moreover to the ancient Greek poets , tragedy has the deepening ( or awakening ) of understanding of someone that changes one's relationship with the world . Achilles is reconciled to Agamemnon and he is , to his surprise , reconciled in a sense to Hector . When Hector , before his death , asks for an agreement that neither combatant will despoil the other's body but return it for a decent burial , Achilles refuses , saying that the lion makes no pacts . Achilles does return Hector's body until his grief for Patroclus has made him understand the claims of other

Achilles is the protagonist of Homer's Iliad and the wrath of the " blazing Achilles " is the subject of the epic . The structure of the epic is determined by the direction of that wrath ; first towards his who insulted Achilles by commander - in - chief Agamemnon demanding his concubine Briseis and then towards Hector who killed Achilles ' bosom friend Patroclus in the battlefield . The two destructive fits of anger start and end the action of the epic , but they do not entirely define the character of Achilles . Achilles has many features which is common to an epic hero . His father is a king , and his mother is a deity . He is brave , courageous and possesses super human strength . He is the mightiest warrior in the Achaean army . However , he has some flaws in his character . He is proud and he cannot control his anger that surges up when his pride is injured . He mercilessly mauls his opponents , ignobly desecrates the body of Hector and savagely sacrifices twelve captive Trojans at the funeral of Patroclus . His brutality continues until the final book of The Iliad when King Priam meets him with ransom for his son Hector's desecrated corpse . He behaves towards the old king kindly and returns Hector's corpse after cleaning and anointing it . Yet it remains unclear whether an old father's heartrending pleas , really testifies to Achilles ' grief and acquaintance with anguish , which has already been proved in his intense mourning for Patroclus . In one sense Achilles is a tragic figure because he knows that he must have to die in spite of his heroic achievements . Moreover to the ancient Greek poets , tragedy has the deepening ( or awakening ) of understanding of someone that changes one's relationship with the world . Achilles is reconciled to Agamemnon and he is , to his surprise , reconciled in a sense to Hector . When Hector , before his death , asks for an agreement that neither combatant will despoil the other's body but return it for a decent burial , Achilles refuses , saying that the lion makes no pacts . Achilles does return Hector's body until his grief for Patroclus has made him understand the claims of other

people's grief ( a quality of manhood rather than of lions ) . He also learns sympathy when Priam makes him understand how Achilles ' father , Peleus , will feel when he , too , will die in battle . Thus , it is true that in respect of heroism , Achilles supersedes Hector . If Hector is a hero , Achilles is a superhero . The way Achilles killed Hector reveals his superior physical strength and gallantry . He seems to be irresistible . So. Achilles is the central hero of The Iliad as the subject of the poem is the wrath of Achilles . To conclude , we may say that the Homeric Achilles is a great hero . In the words of Robin Sowerby " Achilles is not a hero in control of his destiny but the victim of arbitrary power of another man's folly and the imperious demands of his own nature . What happens to him in the poem is determined not by any external decree of gods but by his own absolute sense of honour . " The knowledge in which the greater humanity of Achilles is revealed in Book XXIV is not the confident knowledge of what his own heroic choice has cost him . It is a bitter recognition of his own error and then an acceptance of necessary suffering in the universal condition which transcends the original myth of Achilles . The tragic pattern imposed by Homer upon the heroic myth reveals a depth of humanity beyond the heroism of the hero