Achilles Heros Journey Activity

Achilles's Heroic Journey:  The Departure Departure Instructions: Find quotes from from the textbook that illustrate each stage 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: Agamemnon requests Achilles’ presence in the Trojan war; Odysseus convinces him to fight OR the prophecy that predicted Achilles’ role in the war 

1. Not mentioned in selections selections (background knowledge)

2. “Back I go to Phthia / Better that way by far /to 2. Refusal of the Call:  journey home in the beaked beaked ships of war . . . .” (line 198 Achilles leave battlefield after fighting with Agamemnon over Briseis; refuses Odysseus’ attempts to  – 202). recruit him back to battle 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: Threshold: Achilles returns to battle after Patroclus is killed by Hector 

4. Patroclus 4. Patroclus manages to drive the Trojans Trojans back to the city walls, but Apollo intervenes, allowing Hector to slay  Patroclus and strip the body of its armor. Almost mad  with grief, Achilles re-enters the battle wearing new armor made for him by the god Hephaestus. 5. (see above) above) - excerpt from from summary on pg. pg. 383

5. Belly of the Whale: Whale: The long period in which Achilles grieves for Patroclus

 The Quest Description of Achilles’ Quest

Supporting Quote from Story

1. Road of Trials: Killing Trojan soldiers in an attempt to reach Hector, chasing Hector around the city of Troy, fighting Hector 

1. “Hector looked up, saw him, started to tremble / nerve gone, he could hold his ground no longer, / he left the gates behind and away he fled in fear / and Achilles went for him” (lines 50 – 100)

2. Meeting with the Goddess : Athena assists Achilles by distracting Hector and retrieving spears (also Achilles new armor is the product of supernatural assistance at this point in the story).

2. “And Athen left him there, caught up with Hector at once / and taking the build and vibrant voice of  Deiphobus . . . Athena snatched the spear up / and passed it back to Achilles” (lines 160 – 240)

3. Encounter with Temptation : Achilles continues to give into his weakness (anger) when he refuses Hector’s pact and continues to drag his his body around the camp.

3. “Then he’d yoke his racing team to the chariot-harness / lash the corpse of Hector behind the car for draggin / and haul him three times round the dead Patroclus’ tomb” (lines 15-21)

4. Atonement with Father : Achilles’ conversation with Priam; he faces Hector’s father, thinks of his own father, and learns to control anger and grief 

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.” (lines 140-150)

5. Apotheosis: Agrees to return Hector’s body to King Priam.

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)

6. The Ultimate Boon: The ransom that Achilles receives in exchange for the  body or the fact that he helps to win the war.

6. “He gave me worthy ransom / and you shall have your  share from me, as always, / your fitting, lordly share . . .” (lines 245-247)

Description of Achilles’ Return

Supporting Quote from Story

1. Refusal of Return 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.

1. Not described in epic.

2. N/A 2. Magic Flight  NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY

3. Rescues from Without  NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY

3. N/A

4. Crossing the Return Threshold  NOT APPLICABLE TO THIS STORY

4. N/A

5. Master of Two Worlds Achilles is both famed Greek soldier and conquerer of  Troy.

5. Not described in epic.

6. Not described in epic. 6. Freedom to Live He earns immortality through his feats in the war, which are still told in myths – thousands of years later.

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