Quote 16
(Achilleus:)
No more entreating of me, you dog, by knees or parents.
I wish only that my spirit and fury would drive me
to hack your meat away and eat it raw for the things that
you have done to me. So there is no one who can hold the dogs off
from your head, not if they bring here and set before me ten times
and twenty times the ransom, and promise more in addition,
not if Priam son of Dardanos should offer to weigh out
your bulk in gold; not even so shall the lady your mother
who herself bore you lay you on the death-bed and mourn you:
no, but the dogs and the birds will have you all for their feasting. (22.345-354)
This is probably the most extreme expression of hatred in the entire Iliad. (The only other lines that come close, and possibly equal these, are those of Hektor's mother, in Book 24, lines 212-214.) How do these lines contribute to our understanding of Achilleus's character?
Quote 17
(Achilleus:)
Friends, who are leaders of the Argives and keep their counsel:
[…] the gods have granted me the killing of this man
who has done us much damage […]. (378-380)
Achilleus gives the gods credit for the killing of Hektor. Does this seem consistent or inconsistent with his character more generally?