Achilles' search for immortality in the Iliad

In Homer's Iliad, Akhilleus, the greatest of all Greek warriors, is driven towards immortality by his own need for self-preservation. Akhilleus embodies the driving goal of Western culture in its attempt to preserve society and make the individual immortal through unity with it. In the story, Akhilleus leaves the fighting and then returns to it because of his struggle to attain this immortality. He attempts to evade his fate of death at the shores of Ilion by quitting the battle to search for divine immortality, a search he knows to be futile. Upon realizing his defeat after the death of Patroklos, he returns to battle in order to obtain mortal glory.

The human need for immortality is the adversary in Akhilleus' fight; but it is a need that is a part of him. For Akhilleus, only two options exist: there is divine immortality and human immortality. The immortality of the divine is eternal youth and life; but for humans, immortality is glory (being remembered after one's death). The need for this immortality is represented all throughout early Western writing. The Babylonian story of Gilgamesh's life begins and ends with the same phrase: "This is Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh." Here it is shown how Gilgamesh's quest resulted in the creation of his own legacy, the same option for which Akhilleus must strive. Akhilleus is unable to avoid the desire for eternal life: his torment through the book and his return to fighting at the end are the results of this desire.

Akhilleus' attempts at immortality reflect upon the life of the Greek society. The collective Greek army is represented as one individual. They fight together, they die together, they have no real choice; they exist as a whole-they cannot exist without each other. Among all of them, only Akhilleus questions his motivations for fighting in the war. By bringing his "self" away from the Greek collective, he has brought about their downfall because they will not be able to win the war without him. It is only by Akhilleus giving in to his desire for immortality that the Greeks can defeat the Trojans. Akhilleus tries to maintain his separation from the culture, but he is not capable of actually removing the link between it and himself. The need for immortality has been so deeply instilled into his instinct for self-preservation that he is unable to leave society forever. As a result, he returns to carry it and himself forward by battling his foreordained opponent.

The Trojan heroes Hector and Sarpedon are mirrors to Akhilleus and, in the case of Hector, the object of his goal. Hector is the grand fighter who slaughters all who stand in his way and also the domestic prince, beloved by all people. Although tempered by wisdom (in avoiding battle with the great Aias), once he steps on the battlefield, he becomes a killing machine in the name of his people-just like Akhilleus. After he kills Patroklos, Hector takes the armor of Akhilleus, which to fight Akhilleus before the gates of Troy. Despite the pleas of everyone in Troy to enter the sanctuary of the town and help to keep them alive, Hector decides to fight a lost cause battle against the enraged Akhilleus.

When the two meet, Akhilleus fights himself. Not only is Hector wearing the true armor of Akhilleus, but he represents the same dualistic ideals of war and societal safety. When he kills Hector, Akhilleus destroys the last thought within himself of being able to go back and live a long life. The death of Patroklos shows Akhilleus that his search for divine life everlasting is futile; but it is only when he enters combat with, and slays Hector, that he finally casts his lot with humanity's goals. His foreordained death is coming, but Akhilleus does not fear it. The only time he fears his death is when Scamander threatens to drown him: "fated to ignoble death,/whelmed in a river, like a swineherd's boy" (XXI, 330-1). Such a death scares him because it provides none of the immortality for which he threw away his life. After escaping this, however, his own fate is merely a course to be awaited upon Hector's death.

Had he allowed Hector to live, Akhilleus could have had life, but instead he takes the immortality of legend by ending his human existence. Similarly, faced with the choice of being with his family and friends inside of Troy, Hector decides to die so that his own glory will live forever. He will then die as the man who fought so valiantly against the greatest of all men, or, had he won, he would have been the greatest, himself. Hector becomes one with Akhilleus in his decision to fight; their decisions make them immortal members of culture.

Hector's ally, Sarpedon, also offers an explanation for Akhilleus' decision; and in this he mirrors both Akhilleus and Hector. In battle he says to his cousin Glaukos:

…could we but survive this war

to live forever deathless, without age,

I would not ever go again into battle,

nor would I send you there for honor's sake!

but now a thousand shapes of death surround us,

and no man can escape them, or be safe.

(XII, 362-7)

Sarpedon reinforces the knowledge that while to be young forever would be unparalleled excellence, it is unattainable. Therefore, he goes on to say that they must win glory or given to another (by their own defeat). This is the only mechanism to obtain immortality; he knows this and is encouraging both himself and Glaukos so that they will fight with renewed vigor. He states quite clearly that there is no real choice. He must have immortality; and, as the divine form is inaccessible, he takes the human version and reinforces Akhilleus' eventual decision, upon which the entire story hangs.

Akhilleus does, however, attempt to break away from this need to die for glory. During his abstinence from battle, Akhilleus argues on behalf of life:

A man may come by cattle and sheep in raids;

tripods he buys, and tawny-headed horses;

but his life's breath cannot be hunted back

or be recaptured once it pass his lips.

(XI, 495-8)

Akhilleus knows that his life is a precious thing and he truly wishes to live it, but in the end there can be no alternative but to die so that he may be immortal. The death of Patroklos shows him that there is no eternal youth, not even for as great a man as Patroklos. At this, Akhilleus acknowledges that he must obtain the glory of war. Combat becomes his avenue to force fate upon himself. He becomes a man of war, without human emotions; in particular, he sheds all pity from his heart. In giving in to his need for immortality, Akhilleus becomes something other than human. He becomes divine in the only way available to him-Akhilleus gives up his humanity right along with his life in order to secure his glory and immortality forever.

Translations of the Iliad come from Robert Fitgerald's work.