Compare and contrast Achilles in Dante’s Inferno and Homer’s Iliad
Compare and contrast Achilles in Dante’s Inferno and Homer’s Iliad
Introduction
Dante Alighieri in his legendary text, Inferno, believes that anyone who committed unacceptable deeds would be damned eternally among the nine circles of Hell. Without a doubt, people like Achilles were to be found in these circles. Specifically, Achilles existed in Hell’s second circle. He qualified for this circle by being not only extremely selfish but lacking self-control, having raging passions and betraying his country at times. These descriptions paint Achilles largely in weakness. His description of Hell focuses mainly on his failings rather than his strength. In Homer’s Iliad, the character of Achilles comes to the fore in a more complex manner than it does in Inferno. For example, Homer shows Achilles’ anger as having a detrimental effect on the Greek army, but also elevates him to glory. Achilles is a formidable Greek hero in the Trojan War. He kills Hector and brings a sense of honor back to the Greek troops. Undoubtedly, these two accounts on Achilles help provide a balanced look at Achilles as not only a Hero and courageous man but also as a mortal with considerable weaknesses. This paper compares and contrasts the depiction of Achilles in Dante’s Inferno and Homer’s Iliad.
The first similarity in the depiction of Achilles by the two authors is that he is amorous. In Book 1 of the Iliad, Achilles captures Briseis as his sex slave.
“So he spoke, and Patroclus obeyed his beloved companion. He led forth from the hut Briseis of the fair cheeks and gave her to be taken away;
and the woman all unwilling went with them still.”
These lines from Homer’s Iliad show that Achille’s takes Briseis against her will. Achilles goes to great lengths to get her, sacking the Hyupoplacian Theme, Briseis’ hometown, and killing Bryseus as well as his sons and Briseis’ husband, Mynes. Also, before he dies, Achilles falls in love with Penthesilia, another woman. He forces Polyxena to be sacrificed at his death. Similarly, in Dante’s Inferno, Achilles emerges as an amorous man whose sexual desires lead him to Hell. It is obvious from the description that Dante is describing Hell.
“There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments,There they blaspheme the puissance divine.I understood that unto such a tormentThe carnal malefactors were condemned,Who reason subjugate to appetite.And as the wings of starlings bear them onIn the cold season in large band and full.”
These words show the suffering of the carnal sinners who are in Hell. The text describes the second circle of Hell, designated for carnal sinners. Dante then proceeds to name them, mentioning Cleopatra and Achilles among others. It is clear that Achilles is a carnal sinner. The line, “there the great Achilles, who with love fought to the end,” depicts Achilles among the amorous sinners in Hell. These examples show the similarity in the depictions of Achilles as amorous or lecherous.
In his role as a formidable warrior, Achilles has a dualism in the character of selflessness and selfishness in Dante Alighieri's Inferno as well as Homer’s Iliad. As a leader, he does good deeds, but also makes decisions that hurt those around him. For example, in Inferno, Dante makes an allusion to Achilles in rhyme, where he does not mention his name expressly. He relies on medieval legends relating to Achilles’ spear, which could cause pain as well as happiness “Thus do I hear that once Achilles' spear, his and his father's, used to be the cause: First of a sad and then a gracious boon.” In this passage, Achilles emerges as a hero with the potential to heal as well as cause harm. He can do acts of immense benefit as well as those of immense harm, driven by selflessness or selfishness. His character is unpredictable in this regard. Similarly, in Homer’s Iliad, Achilles restores the glory of his army and the entire Greek people by leading his army triumphantly against the city of Troy. However, he leaves his army at their most vulnerable moment. At this time, the Greeks are already suffering the plague resulting from their abduction of Chryseis, Chryses’ daughter who was loved immensely by God. After Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to avoid further god-driven wrath, Achilles withdraws from the battlefield because he does not agree with Agamemnon’s decision. This action has a detrimental effect on the Greek soldiers not only because their best soldier departs, but also because it emboldens the Trojans to fight the Greeks.
“But the son of Atreus drew a fast ship down to the water
and allotted into it twenty rowers and put on board it the hecatomb for the god and
Chryseis of the fair cheeks leading her by the hand.”
This passage depicts Achilles’ selfish side. Further, Achilles displays his selfishness by causing the Greeks a second plague through his selfish prayers. These examples show that although Achilles is capable of much good, and selflessness, he can also be very selfish. Both Homer and Dante Alighieri study his dualist character of selflessness and selfishness.
One major point of contrast between the two texts is that while Achilles is powerful in the Iliad, he is powerless in Dante’s Inferno. In the Iliad, Achilles emerges as a powerful warrior in his glory and fullness of life. However, in the Iliad, he is helpless in the Inferno. He suffers the real tortures of Hell as is described the logical arrangement of Hell’s second circle. In the second circle, the heavy-hearted criminals who died for their sexual sins and the pursuit of ungodly bodily passions are whirled and buffeted incessantly by a great windstorm through the murky airs of hell. “Where light was silent all. Bellowing there groaned a noise, as of a sea in tempest torn by warring winds- the stormy blast of Hell.” These lines show the tumultuous nature of Hell. Dante describes the second circle and its suffering. “From the first circle I descended thus down to the second, which, a lesser space embracing, so much more of grief contains, provoking bitter moans. There, Minos stands, grinning with the ghastly feature.” This passage shows the suffering and helplessness that the sinners in Hell, such as Achilles undergo. In contrast, Achilles is glorious and powerful in the Iliad. He has freedom of choice and, most importantly, power. He displays his power when he announces his reasons for fighting against Troy.
“I for my part did not come here for the sake of the Trojan spearmen
Never yet have they driven away my cattle or my horses”
These words show that Achilles has the power to do as he pleases. He not only has the freedom of choice about his private matters, but also the luxury to fight for his pleasure. This power contrasts significantly with his position of weakness in Hell as depicted in Dante’s Inferno.
Conclusion
Dante Alighieri's Inferno and Homer’s Iliad tell stories that allude to the same characters. Dante, alluding to the Iliad and other earlier Greek mythologies refers to the character of Achilles to enrich his story. In his text, he explores Hell as the afterlife, where he visits the character of Achilles among other carnal sinners. His account of Hell captures a systematic and logical arrangement of hell especially when he describes the second circle, where sinners such as Cleopatra, Hellen and Achilles reside. Through Dante’s description, one gathers similarities as well as differences between Achilles’ character in Inferno and the earlier text, the Iliad by Homer. One major similarity in Achilles character is that he is amorous. He keeps a sex-slave named Briseis and goes to great lengths to acquire her. He also captures other women and leaves his wife in an attempt to satisfy his sexual passions elsewhere. Secondly, Achilles emerges in a dualist sense as both selfless and selfish. In the Iliad, he is selfless by risking his life for the glory of the Greeks, but selfish because he places his pursuit of love ahead of his duty as a leader of his people. The two texts differ in their depiction of Achilles regarding his power and freedom. In Inferno, he is powerless against the tumultuous Hell, but in the Iliad, he is powerful and free. These examples show that although Homer and Dante describe Achilles in similar ways, there are also points of contrast in the characters from their texts.
Bibliography
Dante Alighieri. Dante's Inferno. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Homer. The Iliad. [Chicago]: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
