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Achilles, Celebrity Recluse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Grant Farred
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Extract

Refusing to fight the trojans because he will not countenance agamemnon's colonizing self-interest, achilles re-treated to his tent. All because Agamemnon did not want to give up a woman (Chryseis) and, when he is forced to do so, claims a woman who was part of Achilles's war bounty (Briseis). Suffering humiliation after injustice is not a fate that proud Achilles will endure, and he responds to this outrage with a signal act: retreat. In this moment, Homer's “brilliant Achilles,” famed military man and the “greatest hero of the Greeks,” becomes the first celebrity recluse in history (1.10). Achilles is the first figure to give the recluse a (heroic) place in the popular imaginary. We even have a phrase for Achilles's act, bequeathed to us as an accusation: sulking in one's tent. This popular expression is used to indict, often harshly, those who quit because they believe they have been unfairly treated. In leveling this charge, we implicitly side with Agamemnon, who accuses Achilles of the most dastardly military act: “Desert, by all means, if the spirit drives you home!” (1.204). As an expression, sulking in one's tent is ripe for mockery, redolent with puerile imagery, conjuring up scenarios in which spoiled children, obstreperous adolescents, or overindulged celebrities behave badly because they cannot get their way.

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Information
PMLA , Volume 126 , Issue 4: Special Topic: Celebrity, Fame, Notoriety , October 2011 , pp. 1102 - 1109
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2011

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References

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