Book 24, pg 592, line 154-161
Comments(3) Book 24, pg 592, line 154-161
“But his noble mother, settling down at his side, stroked Achilles gently, whispering his name: “My child— how long will you eat your heart out here in tears and torment? All wiped from your mind, all thought of food and bed? It’s a welcome thing to make love with a woman . . . You don’t have long to live now, well I know: already I see them looming up beside you—death and the strong force of fate”.
I really like these lines because it characterizes the love of a mother to her son. It is also sad that she already can see that the end to his son is coming. This was something that was part of Achilles’s destiny, which was that Achilles will have to picked ether to has a long but boring life, or a glorious but short life. In this part I can relate to some of the larger themes in the poem, those moment were he has a choice. At the beginning he picked that he will go to war and with that he picked that he will have a short life and die with glory in battle. But later in the poem, for example in book 9, lines 500-505, he is thinking about his choices, to live a long live and with glory or to go home and die an old man. Thetis, also in a lot of the compensation with her son Achilles try to convince him no to go to battle, but now she can see that it is to late. Which by now it is clear that he picked to die with glory and live a short life. And now Thetis is seeing that Achilles destiny is becoming a reality.
Eridania Suarez
I think Achilles rushed into deciding to go back to battle and choose to die young but glorious because he was blinded by the death Patroclus. I also liked these lines as well because it made me think of my own mother and how she always wants me to do what’s best even if sometimes i dont agree with her. Achilles chose his destiny and now he must live his short but glorious life to the fullest.
Achilles didn’t rush to the deciding this. He always wanted to die gloriously. That was his mission from the start. Because he knows he is a great warrior, he must die a great warriors death.
Very true the whole idea that Achilles fate was to die is now unfolding and becoming a reality. Achilles died for his closest friend Patroclus which was the only reason that Achilles went into battle and because of this his fate was set to die under the Trojan walls.