Quote 13
(Achilleus:)
Go back and proclaim to him all that I tell you,
openly, so other Achaians may turn against him in anger […].
He cheated me and he did me hurt. Let him not beguile me
with words again. This is enough for him. Let him of his own will
be damned, since Zeus of the counsels has taken his wits away from him.
I hate his gifts. I hold him light as the strip of a splinter.
Not if he gave me ten times as much, and twenty times over
as he possesses now, not if more should come to him from elsewhere, […]
not if he gave me gifts as many as the sand or the dust is,
not even so would Agamemnon have his way with my spirit
until he had made good to me all this heartrending insolence.
Nor will I marry a daughter of Atreus' son, Agamemnon,
not if she challenged Aphrodite the golden for loveliness,
not if she matched the work of her hands with grey-eyed Athene;
not even so will I marry her; let him pick some other Achaian […]. (9.369-370, 375-380, 385-391)
This is pretty self-explanatory. We just thought these were some serious disses, and deserved to be given a fair hearing. Actually, this is only a taste of the full passage. If you really want to hear Agamemnon get owned, you'll have to take a look at the original.
Quote 14
(Achilleus:)
Now, since I am not going back to the beloved land of my fathers,
since I was no light of safety to Patroklos, nor to my other
companions, who in their numbers went down before glorious Hektor,
but sit here beside my ships, a useless weight on the good land, […]
why, I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals,
and gall, which makes a man grow angry for all his great mind,
that gall of anger that swarms like smoke inside of a man's heart
and becomes a thing sweeter to him by far than the dripping of honey. (18.101-104, 107-110)
Like so many passages in the Iliad, this one looks simple on the surface, but can provide more than enough food for thought. First of all, we think it is worth considering that part of Achilleus's hate is directed towards himself, as these lines show. (Also remember that, earlier in this book, at lines 33-34, Antilochos had to hold Achilleus's hands to make sure he didn't kill himself.)
Second, what do you think about his closing words, which suggest that there is something about anger or hate that makes it taste sweet to those who experience it?
Quote 15
(Achilleus:)
Poor fool, no longer speak to me of ransom, nor argue it.
In the time before Patroklos came to the day of his destiny
then it was the way of my heart's choice to be sparing
of the Trojans, and many I took alive and disposed of them.
Now there is not one who can escape death, if the gods send
him against my hands in front of Ilion, not one
of all the Trojans and beyond others the children of Priam. (21.99-105)
For a fuller version of this quote, look at our discussion of it under the theme of "Compassion and Forgiveness." Right now, though, it stands as a pretty clear statement of how Achilleus has a turned a page. Instead of hating his friends and praying for the Trojans to beat them, now he is completely consumed with hatred for the Trojans.