Aristotle once said that "the man who is incapable of working in...

Aristotle once said that "the man who is incapable of working in common, or who in his self-sufficiency has no need of others, is no part of the community, like a beast or a god." The conduct of Achilles and Agamemnon in the Illiad validates Aristotle's fears: both them have strikingly different conceptions of the moral obligation appropriate to themselves and remain steadfast in their convictions.

In your paper consider the extent to which Agamemnon and Achilles's moral obligation are truly in conflict. How people who hold such opposing views on morality (and life in general) avoid the kind of tragic conflict portrayed in the epic?

I know I didn't address the question properly. Can you please help?

Safa Chowdhury
ENG 2800
Heroic Conduct and Civic Obligations at Odds
Aristotle once said that “the man who is incapable of working in common, or who in
his self-sufficiency has no need of others, is no part of the community, like a beast or a god.”
In other words, as Jewett translated from Aristotle Politics (c340 B.C) “The proof that the
state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual, when isolated, is
not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable
to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a
beast or a god: he is no part of a state.” (Book 1, para 2) In Homer’s The Iliad, Achilles and
Agamemnon, both the characters depicted the characteristics of the man defined by Aristotle.
Achilles and Agamemnon, both are a great man, but both are hot-tempered and are conscious
of the role they must play within the heroic code. They are not willing to make any
compromises or accept anything lower than their heroic code. They believe they are superior
than many other and are in need of no one. Due to their self-sufficiency attitude, many times
in the epic, their arrogance has clouded their moral obligations and for that, many people
around them had to suffer for it.
Agamemnon, King of the Greeks has the characteristic of being “the man who is
incapable of working in common” as Aristotle states. When Chryses, the priest of Apollo,
begged Agamemnon in front all Agamemnon’s chieftains to return his girl whom
Agamemnon took as victory prize from conquering Chryse, he offered ransom and asked to
respect him for his profession, Agamemnon dismissed him in a harsh way. He said, “don’t let
me catch you, old man. ...the girl is mine, and she’ll be an old woman in Argos before I let her
go, working the loom in my house and coming to my bed, far from her homeland. Now clear
out of here before you make me angry!” (Homer 231; line 34-40) Agamemnon did not show