Achilles's heroic journey:



Achilles's Heroic Journey:

The Departure

Instructions: Find quotes from the textbook that illustrate each stage of Achilles’ adventure. There can be more than one answer for each stage; these situational archetypes are flexible.

|Description of Achilles at Departure |Supporting Quote from Story |

| | |

|1. Call to Adventure: |1. Not mentioned in selections (background knowledge) |

|Agamemnon requests Achilles’ presence in the Trojan war; Odysseus convinces him to fight OR the | |

|prophecy that predicted Achilles’ role in the war | |

| | |

|2. Refusal of the Call: | |

|Achilles leave battlefield after fighting with Agamemnon over Briseis; refuses Odysseus’ attempts|2. “Back I go to Phthia / Better that way by far /to journey home in the beaked ships of war . . |

|to recruit him back to battle |. .” (line 198 – 202). |

| | |

|3. Supernatural Assistance: | |

|The goddess Athena stops Achilles from fighting with Agamemnon over the “prize” (Briseis). |3. “Down from the skies I come to check your rage / if only you will yield . . . .” (lines 241 – |

| |251). |

|4. Crossing the Threshold: | |

|Achilles returns to battle after Patroclus is killed by Hector | |

| |4. Patroclus manages to drive the Trojans back to the city walls, but Apollo intervenes, allowing|

|5. Belly of the Whale: |Hector to slay Patroclus and strip the body of its armor. Almost mad with grief, Achilles |

|The long period in which Achilles grieves for Patroclus |re-enters the battle wearing new armor made for him by the god Hephaestus. |

| |5. (see above) - excerpt from summary on pg. 383 |

The Quest

|Description of Achilles’ Quest |Supporting Quote from Story |

|1. Road of Trials: |1. “Hector looked up, saw him, started to tremble / nerve gone, he could hold his ground no |

|Killing Trojan soldiers in an attempt to reach Hector, chasing Hector around the city of Troy, |longer, / he left the gates behind and away he fled in fear / and Achilles went for him” (lines |

|fighting Hector |50 – 100) |

| | |

| |2. “And Athen left him there, caught up with Hector at once / and taking the build and vibrant |

|2. Meeting with the Goddess: |voice of Deiphobus . . . Athena snatched the spear up / and passed it back to Achilles” (lines |

|Athena assists Achilles by distracting Hector and retrieving spears (also Achilles new armor is |160 – 240) |

|the product of supernatural assistance at this point in the story). | |

| |3. “Then he’d yoke his racing team to the chariot-harness / lash the corpse of Hector behind the |

|3. Encounter with Temptation: |car for draggin / and haul him three times round the dead Patroclus’ tomb” (lines 15-21) |

|Achilles continues to give into his weakness (anger) when he refuses Hector’s pact and continues | |

|to drag his his body around the camp. | |

| |4. “Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire / to grieve for his own father. Taking the |

| |old man’s hand / he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory both men gave way to grief.”|

|4. Atonement with Father: |(lines 140-150) |

|Achilles’ conversation with Priam; he faces Hector’s father, thinks of his own father, and learns| |

|to control anger and grief |5. “Your son is now set free, old man, as you requested / Hector lies in state / With the first |

| |light of day you will see for yourself as you covey him home.” (lines 250-55) |

|5. Apotheosis: | |

|Agrees to return Hector’s body to King Priam. |6. “He gave me worthy ransom / and you shall have your share from me, as always, / your fitting, |

| |lordly share . . .” (lines 245-247) |

| | |

|6. The Ultimate Boon: | |

|The ransom that Achilles receives in exchange for the body or the fact that he helps to win the | |

|war. | |

|Description of Achilles’ Return |Supporting Quote from Story |

| | |

|1. Refusal of Return |1. Not described in epic. |

|According to myth, Achilles dies at gates of Troy on the day that the city falls to the Greeks. | |

|Paris prevents his return home by shooting an arrow through his heel. | |

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|2. Magic Flight |2. N/A |

|NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY | |

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|3. Rescues from Without | |

|NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY |3. N/A |

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|4. Crossing the Return Threshold | |

|NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY |4. N/A |

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|5. Master of Two Worlds | |

|Achilles is both famed Greek soldier and conquerer of Troy. |5. Not described in epic. |

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|6. Freedom to Live | |

|He earns immortality through his feats in the war, which are still told in myths – thousands of |6. Not described in epic. |

|years later. | |

|He also freed himself of the constraints of anger and grief that held him back at beginning of | |

|war. | |

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