In Book 9 of the Iliad, Agamemnon proposed to the Greeks to quit their siege and return to their country. With Zeus’ help, the Trojans are succeeded against them that they pushed the Greeks back into their ships, around which the Greeks have built a defensive wall and ditch. The Trojans now camp on the plain, no longer retreating into Troy at night.
Unsatisfied with their leader’s decision Diomed and Nestor suggested that their guard has to be strengthened, and a council has to be summoned to deliberate what measures are to be followed in this emergency.Recognizing they would not cop their triumph without Achilleus, Agamemnon appointed three ambassadors to win Achilleus over. He chose Odysseus and Ajax, who are to be accompanied by old Phoinix. They make, each of them, very moving and pressing speeches, but are rejected with roughness by Achilleus, and worse Achilleus retained Phoenix in his tent. With their offer, Achilleus replied:His gifts, I loathe his gifts ..
.I wouldn't give you a splinter for that man!Not if he gave me ten times as much, twenty times over, allhe possesses now, and all that could pour in from the world's end—not all the wealth that's freighted into Orchomenus, even into Thebes,Egyptian Thebes where the houses overflow with the greatest troves of treasure ...no, not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sandand dust in the earth--no, not even then could Agamemnonbring my fighting spirit round until he pays me back,pays full measure for all his heart-breaking outrage! (9. 167-168)Although the ambassadors offered of amends that included the return of Briseis and a huge number of additional prizes.
In a stunning response that reversed what the Greek expected as the outcome, Achilleus rejected all of these offers. In a long and passionate speech, he announced that he is going to leave Troy and return home.While the force of this speech is unmistakable, its exact meaning has been much debated because making sense of this difficult speech is a major challenge for readers of the Iliad.In the Iliad, Homer is speaking to this problem of order; he understands that both reason and identity have declined. As the situation worsened that was characterized with the lack of social identity and arbitrary, Homer wrote that Achilleus reject the ambassadors of Agamemnon not only because he believed that Agamemnon is no longer a legitimate leader, but also because his identity is no longer part of the general identity of the culture.
And as he slays Hector, it is finally not his glory that is important but rather that he begins to realize that his identity is part of a broader community. “But what am I thinking of? Patroclus’ body still lies by the ships, unmourned, unburied,” (22. 426-27).The ambassador’s speeches weakness fell in the part that it revealed the internal motives that have been understood by Achilleus as the import of Agamemnon’s offers. Each of the emissaries attempted to appropriated the “benefits” of Agamemnon’s goods, but they attach different and shifting definitions to them by supplying the soothing words that caused Achilleus to refuse these because they were too good that he suspected what is real intentions behind these.It appeared that the embassy’s plan is no less than Agamemnon’s scheme to dominate him.
