“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” – John Maxwell.
This famous quote spoken by John Maxwell is an accurate description of why Agamemnon is not a great leader in Homer’s The Iliad. Agamemnon is selfish, arrogant, and a coward. These characteristics do not make him an adequate leader. Achilles displays better leadership skills then Agamemnon in that he actually understands what his people needs, he is a better warrior, and he understands the idea of respect. Achilles is not a perfect man; he is flawed with too much pride. However, if I were to call a man the King of all Achaeans, Achilles would be my choice over Agamemnon.
Immediately in the first book of The Iliad, we can see that Achilles is a more logical man than Agamemnon. Sick of seeing his fellow soldiers fall to Apollo’s arrows and plague and Agamemnon doing nothing about it, Achilles calls a meeting to face this problem. If Achilles had never called this meeting, all the Achaeans may have fallen to Apollo’s arrow. Another strong leadership quality that Achilles has is that he’s able to convince people to do things under him and provides a sense of security. This can be seen when Achilles is able to convince Kalchas to rise up and speak about the reason why the Achaeans are suffering. Kalchas who was in fear of speaking out against Agamemnon openly spoke up when he knew he had the support of Achilles.
Agamemnon is stubborn, and makes rash decisions that put the lives of his soldiers in danger. Agamemnon puts his pride and honor before anything, even if that means thousands of his own people dying. Referring back to the quote by Jon Maxwell, Agamemnon does the opposite of empowering his supporters. Instead, he is able to enrage his best soldier Achilles to the point where Achilles refuses to fight for him. If you’re in the midst of fighting a war that’s bene going on nearly 10 years, it may not be wise to anger your best soldier. However, Agamemnon is stubborn, and blind to the smart minds that surround him. Even with all of his top generals telling him to send Chryseis back to the Trojans and that he can have a large sack of the treasure after they conquer Troy, Agamemnon’s arrogant decision to take Bryseis from Achilles just to save his pride could have caused the Greeks to lose the war to Troy. Luckily, the death of Patroklos was able to bring Achilles back into the war.
A king who sits back and watches his people die, is that a good king? A king who only knows how to speak of honor and pride, but never did anything to earn it, is that a good king? Achilles makes many good points about Agamemnon’s leadership skills when he says
“You wine sack, with a dog’s eyes, with a deer’s heart. Never once have you taken courage in your heart to arm with your people…King who feed on your people, since you rule nonentities; otherwise, son of Atreus, this were your last outrage.” (Book 1, Lines 225-232)
Agamemnon is a coward. He hides behind his soldiers and lets others do all the dirty work for him while he basks in the glory and treasures. A good leader would be riding out onto the field leading his soldiers into battle. This makes the leader someone his soldiers look up to and trust. Achilles actually fights with his soldiers, the Myrmidons. In fact, under his leadership the Myrmidons were known to be the fiercest Greek soldiers of that time. Achilles actually cares about the lives of his soldiers and worries for his men.
Now, since I am not going back to the beloved land of my fathers,
since I was no light of safety to Patroklos, nor to my other
companions, who in their numbers went down before glorious Hektor,
…why, I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals,
and gall, which makes a man grow angry for all his great mind,
that gall of anger that swarms like smoke inside of a man’s heart
and becomes a thing sweeter to him by far than the dripping of honey.(Book 18. Lines 101-110)
Where these lines are more about the death of his close friend Patroklos, Achilles also does mention his other soldiers in it as well. He mourns the death of his close friend Patroklos as well as the lives of his other soldiers as well. He doesn’t even refer to his soldiers as people beneath him, but instead as “companions” and friends. This shows that Achilles does care about the lives that serve him, and he grieves over the death of his fellow fighters. An honorable king and leader puts the general wellbeing of his people before his personal wants and needs.
Opposite of an honorable king and leader who puts the wellbeing of his people before himself is Agamemnon. A king who would gladly send out thousands and thousands of his soldiers to die for him, as long as he gets what he wants. In book 9, Agamemnon himself realizes he messed up and will lose the war without the help of Achilles. Agamemnon doesn’t care that he has lost the lives of thousands of soldiers, but he does care that his pride and honor will be tarnished if he loses this war and returns home. He says himself that it was wrong for him to insult Achilles and that he was not in his right mind when he said such insults. Being the cowardly man that he is, he was still not able to swallow his pride and go apologize to Achilles himself.
Two people can still be enemies while respecting each other. This is a quality that I find extremely honorable. Just like in sports, or any competition one takes place in, one should still show some kind of respect to the opponent. Even though Achilles does not seem like he does this while dragging Hectors body around with his chariot, we see him display some respect when speaking to King Priam in book 24. Achilles decisions are very emotion-based, which could be seen as a downfall characteristic of a leader. However, I find that better than a leader who doesn’t care about his people at all. Even though we see that his emotions get the best of him sometimes, Achilles can be reasoned with. When spoken to with respect and logical reasoning, he comes to his senses.
“Then when great Achilleus had taken full satisfaction in sorrow
and the passion for it had gone from his mind and body, thereafter
he rose from his chair, and took the old man by the hand, and set him
on his feet again, in pity for the grey head and the grey beard,
and spoke to him and addressed him in winged words: “Ah, unlucky,
surely you have had much evil to endure in your spirit.”(Chapter 24, lines 508-518)
In this scene, Achilles pays his respects to Priam, father of Hector, the honorable warrior that Achilles had killed. He understands the suffering Priam had gone through, and he feels like he can connect in some way through his own father. Displaying this side of him makes him seem much more honorable then dragging Hectors body around with a chariot. We see that he can actually be reasoned with, unlike Agamemnon who only makes decisions for his own benefit.
When you look at the two leaders side by side, it is a lot easier to say that Achilles has more fitting characteristics of a leader then Agamemnon. However, some may argue that Agamemnon must be doing something right as a leader to have all of Greece under his control. The fact that he was able to gather all the city states of Greece to fight under him during the Trojan war must mean he has the respect of many. Also, there are many factors that we see in Agamemnon and Achilles that make them quite similar as well. Both are very prideful, stubborn men. Where Agamemnon was too prideful when he decided to take Bryseis from Achilles, Achilles was to prideful to rejoin the war even when his fellow soldiers were dying. Achilles stubbornness refuses to rejoin the war, even when presented with amazing gifts, including the hand in marriage of Agamemnon’s daughter. This makes Achilles looked down upon by some of his other fellow generals.
“Son of Atreus, most lordly and king of men, Agamemnon,
I wish you had not supplicated the blameless son of Peleus
with innumerable gifts offered. He is a proud man without this,
and now you have driven him far deeper into his pride.”(Book 9, Lines 697-700)
These words are spoken by Diomedes who believes that Achilles has become cocky and prideful.
In fact, did Achilles even love his country? He was praying for the death of his fellow soldiers after Agamemnon did him wrong. Maybe he did not love his country. He even said that he could care less whether the Trojans won the war or the Greeks did and that the Trojans never did anything to him. However, I do not believe that this takes away from Achilles abilities as a leader. It just simply means he did not have the ambition to want to lead the Greeks. He was not the leader of all the Greeks, that was Agamemnon’s role. For those that actually were under the leadership of Achilles, Achilles showed much love and care for them. He mourned their deaths and grieved deeply.
In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles is an audacious, powerful, logical, and honorable leader of the Myrmidons. He established an army of soldiers that were considered to be the strongest of all the Greek city states. He called a meeting that possibly saved Greeks during the Trojan war at the loss of his own prize Bryseis and stood up for the lives of his fellow soldiers against a selfish, arrogant, stubborn King Agamemnon. Where Achilles leads his soldiers right out into the battlefield, Agamemnon hides behind his soldiers only to receive more prize and treasure then the ones doing the real dirty work. Even though both men share the characteristics of being prideful, and stubborn, at least we see Achilles can be reasoned with. By the end of Homer’s tale, we can see that Achilles respects his dead companions, and respects his enemies. Of all the great leaders during this time period, Odysseus, Achilles, Diomedes, who all seemed to be more logical then Agamemnon, I still wonder: what quality of Agamemnon made him the King of all of Greece?