feeling disrespected as a warrior Prayer to Thetis After the quarrel Achilles prays to his mother Thetis He asks her to speak with Zeus the king of the gods Achilles wants Zeus to give victory to the Trojans His aim is to make the Greeks suffer without his help This prayer shows how deep his wrath goes The wrath here is not only against Agamemnon but also against the whole Greek army The Effects of Achilles Anger When Achilles refuses to fight the Greeks start losing battles Hector and the Trojans to gain the upper hand Many Greek soldiers die because Achilles is too angry to help His stubbornness shows how one person s pride can bring disaster to many Death of Patroclus The wrath of Achilles takes a new turn with the death of Patroclus Patroclus his close friend goes to fight wearing his armor He is killed by Hector the prince of Troy This loss shakes Achilles badly His grief mixes with his wrath Now he forgets his anger with Agamemnon Instead his rage turns against Hector and the Trojans Achilles says I will not stop killing Trojans until I meet Hector and fight him man to man and he kills me or I kill him This new fire of wrath leads to a cruel and bloody battle Killing of Hector The climax of Achilles wrath is seen in his fight with Hector Achilles returns to war with new armor made by Hephaestus He kills many Trojans in wild anger Finally he meets Hector outside the walls of Troy With the help of Athena Achilles kills Hector His wrath is so strong that he ties Hector s body to his chariot and drags it in front of the city His actions shock even the Gods This shocking act shows how extreme his anger has become But the more Achilles kept looking the more his rage at Hector grew This cruel act shows the dark power of his anger Change of Heart The end of the poem shows a change in Achilles Priam the old king of Troy comes to beg for his son s body He reminds Achilles of his own father Priam says Have pity on me remember your father Achilles feels pity for Priam His heart softens and he returns Hector s body This scene shows that even great wrath can end in mercy The subject of the epic starts with anger but ends with humanity It proves that wrath is the key theme of The Iliad In The Iliad the wrath of Achilles is the central subject His anger shapes the plot from beginning to end It causes suffering death and destruction At the same time it also shows human feelings of grief love and mercy Through this theme Homer shows the power of pride and anger in human life