Achilles is the greatest warrior of the Greeks before Troy and the hero of the Iliad: son of Peleus and of the sea goddess Thetis. The poem opens with the name of the passion that defines him, even before his own name: "Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus, the baleful wrath that brought the Achaeans countless griefs."
In Book I, King Agamemnon, leader of the whole Greek army, takes from Achilles the captive Briseis, who was his prize, and Achilles draws his sword to kill him; only the goddess Athena holds him by the hair. Achilles obeys the goddess, but withdraws from the war and asks his mother to obtain from Zeus the victory of the Trojans, until the Greeks, trapped beside the ships, feel his absence. He knows he will live briefly: "Mother, since you bore me to live only a short time, at least Olympian Zeus should have given me honor."
His mother told him there are two fates: if he stays and fights at Troy, he loses the return home, but his glory will be imperishable; if he goes back, he lives long and loses the glory. Only the death of his friend Patroclus, killed by Hector, brings him back to combat, and his anger takes on another target: he kills Hector, drags the body behind his chariot and, in the end, returns the corpse to the father, King Priam, and weeps with him.
The text supports two readings of Achilles. In one, he is the man who wants honor and sees it taken, and his refusal and vengeance are matters of reputation. In the other, he is the man who sees his own death and that of others: he tells a Trojan who begs for mercy, "you too must die," and reminds him that Patroclus, "far better than you," also died.