Achilles (In-Depth Analysis) Although Achilles possesses superhuman strength and a close relationship with the gods, he may strike modern readers as less than heroic. He has all the marks of a great warrior, and indeed proves the mightiest man in the Achaean army, but his deepseated character flaws constantly impede his ability to act with nobility and integrity. He cannot control his pride or the rage that surges up when that pride is injured. This …showed first 75 words of 310 total…

…showed last 75 words of 310 total…the funeral of Patroclus. He does not relent in this brutality until the final book of the epic, when King Priam, begging for the return of Hector's desecrated corpse, appeals to Achilles's memory of his father Peleus. Yet it remains unclear whether a father's heartbroken pleas have really transformed Achilles, or whether this scene merely testifies to Achilles's capacity for grief and acquaintance with anguish, which were already proven in his intense mourning of Patroclus.