Achilles / Odysseus
Achilles and Odysseus, two of the great Achaean heroes of the Trojan War, are two different sides of the war hero coin. Odysseus is a great tactician, orator, and leader. He is old and experienced and fights only to uphold his allegiances and return to his family. Achilles on the other hand is handsome, young, daring, and brash. He is the greatest of warriors and flaunts it. He is also prone to fits of passion that leave him irrational and vulnerable. Odysseus survives the Trojan War, but Achilles secures a place as the Iliad’s epic warrior. Both great men, the differences between the two distinguish the qualities that popular mythology recognizes as heroic.
It was Odysseus who proposed the Trojan horse plan that led to the Achaean’s victory over Troy. He volunteered to battle Hector in a dual and aided Diomedes during the Night Operations during which they slaughtered many Trojan heroes in their sleep. After Achilles’ death, Odysseus competed against Telamonian Ajax for Achilles’ armor. Though he was not the greater warrior, Odysseus won the armor through eloquent oration. Odysseus also advised the Greeks to stone Cassandra’s rapist to death, a move that would have spared the Greek fleet their eventual decimation in a storm sent by Athena.
Achilles is one of the only two people in the Iliad described as “god-like” and is also the only mortal to experience god-like rage. He is totally devoted to being an excellent warrior and has little regard for human life. He is not afraid of dying so long as it happens in a glorious fashion. His anger is absolute. In fact, the main narrative of the Iliad describes how Achilles’ passionate anger slowly humanizes him and, in the end, brings about his death. After slaying Hector and defacing the body, Hector’s brother Paris kills him. Paris’ arrow pierces Achille’s in the heel, the only vulnerable point on his body.
Odysseus survives the Trojan War and returns home to Greece while Achilles perishes. While Odysseus is celebrated in his own way, it is Achilles who earns glory and honor as a great warrior. Odysseus is often cast as cowardly, favoring retreat over the engagement of a superior enemy. There is one passage towards the end of the Odyssey after Odysseus returns to his home and needs to defend it from usurpers in which he draws a bow. The Greek word used to describe his drawing back of his bow has two meanings, both “to draw” and “to pluck”, packaging this killing motion both as an act of violence and an act of music, of art. This is how Odysseus’ heroism differs from Achilles’. Odysseus is refined, cautious, and thoughtful where Achilles is fatally passionate. Odysseus is a great leader, but Achilles remains the figure of the great hero warrior.