The Iliad Pride Quotes

The girl – I won’t give up the girl. Long before that,
old age will overtake her in my house, in Argos,
far from her fatherland, slaving back and forth
at the loom, forced to share my bed!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 33-36. Agamemnon says this to Chryses about his daughter Chryseis, whom Agamemnon has enslaved. He will not give up the girl, he says, and indeed is going to force her to sleep with him. Despite pleas from his own military to accept the Chryseis’ offer of ransom for the return of his daughter, the proud and selfish Agamemnon refuses. Chryses is the priest of Apollo at Chryse and this dishonor shown to him will have have serious consequences for the Greeks.

But I am willing to give her back, even so,
if that is best for all. What I really want
is to keep my people safe, not see them dying.
But fetch me another prize, and straight off too,
else I alone of the Argives go without my honor.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 135-139. The proud Agamemnon is a very selfish king. He is willing to give back his spoil of war, the enslaved daughter of Apollo’s priest Chryses. But he will only do so if he is given another "prize," because otherwise he would be left without honor.

if our generous Argives will give me a prize,
a match for my desires, equal to what I’ve lost,
well and good. But if they give me nothing
I will take a prize myself – your own, or Ajax’
or Odysseus’ prize – I’ll commandeer her myself
and let that man I go to visit choke with rage!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 159-165. To repair his pride, Argamemnon agrees to give up the Trojan woman Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, if he gets a new prize of war. Fuelling his fight with Achilles further, he threatens to take the Greek hero’s war prize Briseis or Great Ajax’s, even if they choke with rage.

And now you threaten to strip me of my prize in person –
the one I fought for long and hard, and sons of Achaea
handed her to me.
My honors never equal yours,
whenever we sack some wealthy Trojan stronghold –
my arms bear the brunt of the raw, savage fighting,
true, but when it comes to dividing up the plunder
the lion’s share is yours, and back I go to my ships,
clutching some scrap, some pittance that I love,
when I have fought to exhaustion.
No more now –
back I go to Phthia. Better that way by far,
to journey home in the beaked ships of war.
I have no mind to linger here disgraced,
brimming your cup and piling up your plunder.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 190-202. The dispute between the two dominant Greeks Achilles and Agamemnon escalates. A proud Achilles launches a strong verbal attack on Agamemnon for theatening to take his war prize, Briseis. He complains that Agamemnon takes the lion’s share (metaphor) of the spoils and honors of war, while he gets the scraps after fighting to exhaustion. Achilles says that he would rather go home than remain in Troy dishonored.

True, old man – all you say is fit and proper –
but this soldier wants to tower over the armies,
he wants to rule over all, to lord it over all,
give out orders to every man in sight. Well,
there’s one, I trust, who will never yield to him!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 335-339. Agamemnon responds to Nestor’s attempt to mediate in his dispute with Achilles, when the elder captain and king of Pylos asks that they both back down. But fueled by his intense pride, the angry Agamemnon ignores Nestor’s plea, accusing Achilles of wanting to rule and lord it over everyone. He vows that he will never yield to Achilles.

Now what’s this, Atrides,
this talk that slips through your clenched teeth?
How can you say I hang back from the fighting
when Argive units spur the slashing god of war
against these Trojan horsemen? Just you watch,
if you’ll take the time and care to taste some action,
watch Telemachus’ loving father lock and fight
with enemy champions, stallion-breaking Trojans.
You and your bluster – you are talking nonsense!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 406-414. Odysseus angrily responds to Agamemnon’s criticism that he is not giving his best in battle and is hanging back from the fighting. His pride hurt and honor offended, he accuses Agamemnon of bluster and speaking nonsense.

What’s this? –
you, the son of Tydeus, that skilled breaker of horses?
Why cringing here? Gazing out on the passageways of battle!
That was never Tydeus’ way, shy behind the lines –
he’d grapple enemies, bolting ahead of comrades.
…Now there was a man, that Tydeus, that Aetolian.
But he bore a son who’s not the half of him in battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 430-434, 465-466. Agamemnon rebukes Diomedes for his timidity in the face of battle, when he finds him standing by in the combat car. In an effort to spur Diomedes on by appealing to his pride, Agamemnon mentions the heroic and glorious feats of Diomedes’s father Tydeus, adding that Diomedes is not half the man he was in battle.

Now be men, my friends! Courage, come, take heart!
Dread what comrades say of you here in bloody combat!
When men dread that, more men come through alive –
when soldiers break and run, good-bye glory,
good-bye all defenses!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 610-614. Agamemnon shouts out commands to rally the Achaeans for war against the Trojans. He demands that they be courageous and reminds then that there is no glory for soldiers who break and run. Here he appeals to their pride in themselves as warriors in order to motivate them.

As a stallion full-fed at the manger, stalled too long,
breaking free of his tether gallops down the plain,
out for his favorite plunge in a river’s cool currents,
thundering in his pride – his head flung back, his mane
streaming over his shoulders, sure and sleek in his glory.
knees racing him on to the fields and stallion-haunts he loves –
so down from Pergamus heights came Paris, son of Priam,
glittering in his armor like the sun astride the skies,
exultant, laughing aloud, his fast feet sped him on.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 604-672. Paris, who has been scolded by his brother Hector for avoiding battle, now sets off for the battle lines. Here in this epic animal simile he is compared to a proud stallion, sure in his glory, breaking free of his tether and galloping on to the battlefield.

No one will offer a better plan than this…
the plan I still retain, and I’ve been forming,
well, for a good long while now, from the very day
that you, my illustrious King, infuriated Achilles –
you went and took from his tents the girl Briseis,
and not with any applause from us, far from it:
I for one, I urged you against it, strenuously.
But you, you gave way to your overbearing anger,
disgraced a great man the gods themselves esteem –
you seized his gift of honor and keep her still.
But even so, late as it is, let us contrive
to set all this to rights, to bring him round
with gifts of friendship and warm, winning words.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 123-135. Nestor, King of Pylos and oldest Achaean commander, calls out Agamemnon for his self-pride and says that it is not too late to heal his rift with Achilles. He tells us that Agamemnon in anger stole Achilles’s gift of honor Briseis and keeps her still, infuriating Achilles, a hero with the gods on his side. Nestor urges Agamemnon to acknowledge his fault and set things right.

Mother tells me,
the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet,
that two fates bear me on to the day of death.
If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.
If I voyage back to the fatherland I love,
my pride, my glory dies…
true, but the life that’s left me will be long,
the stroke of death will not come on me quickly.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 497-505. Achilles has rejected the embassy of Achaean commanders come to persuade him back to the war effort, with promises of Agamemnon’s gifts and plunder. In this passage he talks about his fate. His mother and sea goddess Thetis has told him that if he returns home he will live a long life without glory or pride. If he joins in the siege of Troy he faces death but his glory never dies.

Why, any man will accept the blood-price paid
for a brother murdered, a child done to death.
And the murderer lives on in his own country –
the man has paid enough, and the injured kinsman
curbs his pride, his smoldering, vengeful spirit,
once he takes the price.
You – the gods have planted
a cruel, relentless fury in your chest! All for a girl.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 771-777. Great Ajax cannot fathom why Achilles is so full of rage and refuses to forgive and end the quarrel with Agamemnon. He points out that people put aside their differences and curb their pride when they accept blood money for a murdered brother or child. But not Achilles, in whose heart the gods have put a relentless fury – all over the girl Briseis.

Great marshal Atrides, lord of men Agamemnon –
if only you’d never begged the dauntless son of Peleus,
holding out to Achilles trove on trove of gifts!
He’s a proud man at the best of times, and now
you’ve only plunged him deeper in his pride.
I say have done with the man –
whether he sails for home or stays on here.
He’ll fight again – in his own good time – whenever
the courage in him flares and a god fires his blood.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 850-858. Diomedes tells Agamemnon that he has only offended Achilles’s pride even more by offering him a trove of gifts to return to the war. He advises Agamemnon to ignore Achilles, that he will fight again in his own good time.

And now as he scanned across the Trojan plain
Agamemnon marveled in horror at those fires,
a thousand fires blazing against the walls of Troy,
and the shrill of pipes and flutes and low roar of men.
And now as he glanced back at Achaea’s troops and ships
he tore out his hair by the roots, he looked to Zeus on high,
groaning from the depths of his proud, embattled heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 10, lines 13-19. As Agamemnon looks across the plain in horror at the thousand fires of the confident Trojans, he turns his gaze up to Zeus, groaning from the depths of his proud heart. He is fearful for the fate of his armies, after the thrashing they received from the Trojans the day before. So worried is he, he is literally pulling his hair out.

As a stallion full-fed at the manger, stalled too long,
breaking free of his tether gallops down the plain,
out for his favorite plunge in a river’s cool currents,
thundering in his pride – his head flung back, his mane
streaming over his shoulders, sure and sleek in his glory.
knees racing him on to the fields and stallion-haunts he loves –
so Hector hurtled on, his legs driving, his knees pumping,
spurring his reinsmen once he heard the god’s command.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 313-320. We are told in one of Homer’s brilliant extended similes that Hector, filled with new courage and strength by Apollo, is like a fully-fed stallion breaking free of his tether and charging with pride down the plain. So Hector rejoins the ranks.

Even so, Patroclus, fight disaster off the ships,
fling yourself at the Trojans full force –
before they gut our hulls with leaping fire
and tear away the beloved day of our return.
But take this command to heart – obey it to the end.
So you can win great honor, great glory for me
in the eyes of all the Argive ranks, and they,
they’ll send her back, my lithe and lovely girl,
and top it off with troves of glittering gifts.
Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet
you must come back, Patroclus. Even if Zeus
the thundering lord of Hera lets you seize your glory,
you must not burn for war against these Trojans,
madmen lusting for battle – not without me –
you will only make my glory that much less.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 92-106. When Achilles lends his armor to Patroclus, he tells tells him that Patroclus can win great honor and glory for him and he will get back his "lithe and lovely girl" Briseis. But Achilles warns him that when he drives the Trojans away from the Greek ships, he must come back, even if Zeus allows him seize this glory. If Patroclus goes on to pursue battle against the Trojans without Achilles, that would make lessen Achilles’s glory, he tells Patrocles. The fact that Achilles is more interested in his own glory than his friend’s safety only serves to demonstrate Achilles’s major character flaw, excessive pride.

So you sprang at Cebriones, full fury, Patroclus,
as Hector sprang down from his chariot just across
and the two went tussling over the corpse as lions
up on the mountain ridges over a fresh-killed stag –
both ravenous, proud and savage – fight it out to the death.
So over the driver here and both claw-mad for battle,
Patroclus son of Menoetius, Hector ablaze for glory
strained to slash each other with ruthless bronze.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 878-885. Pride, honor and glory are at stake as Patroclus and Hector fight over the body of Hector’s charioteer Cebriones. They are compared to two lions fighting to the death over a freshly killed stag.

Hector! Now is your time to glory to the skies…
Now the victory is yours.
A gift of the Son of Cronus, Zeus – Apollo too –
they brought me down with all their deathless ease,
they are the ones who tore the armor off my back.
Even if twenty Hectors had charges against me
they’d all have died here, laid low by my spear.
No, deadly fate in league with Apollo killed me,
From the ranks of men, Euphorbus. You came third,
and all you could do was finish off my life.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 986-995. When Hector fatally stabs Patroclus with his spear, Patroclus calls into question the Trojan’s pride as a successful warrior in battle. He reminds Hector that he is only his third slayer, after being knocked down by Apollo and then wounded by Euphorbus. All Hector could do was finish off his life, he says. Hector’s victory and glory is a gift of Zeus and Apollo, he tells him.

If it really was Achilles who reared beside the ships,
all the worse for him – if he wants his fill of war.
I for one, I’ll never run from his grim assault,
I’ll stand up to the man – see if he bears off glory
or I bear it off myself!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 355-359. Hector is aware of Achilles’s brilliance in battle, but that does not deter him from heroically charging forth. The greatest glory awaits one of the two heroes, he believes, and Hector chooses not to run from it but to stay and fight for it. Hector’s pride is one of his strengths that make him a great warrior, but it also a weakness that will lead to his downfall.

No way out. If I slip inside the gates and walls,
Polydamas will be first to heap disgrace on me –
he was the one who urged me to lead our Trojans
back to Ilium just last night, the disastrous night
Achilles rose in arms like a god. But did I give way?
Not at all. And how much better it would have been!
Now my army’s ruined, thanks to my own reckless pride,
I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes…
Someone less of a man than I will say, "Our Hector –
staking all on his own strength, he destroyed his army!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 118-128. Hector probes his own heart as he waits to fight Achilles. He blames his own reckless pride for not listening to Polydamas’s advice to retreat after Achilles returned to the battlefield. However, if he slips back behind the city walls, he will be called a disgrace and lose his honor. Hector knows that he is in a bad situation, but cannot get out of it.

Quickly –
two of you follow me – I must see what’s happened.
That cry – that was Hector’s honored mother I heard!
My heart’s pounding, leaping up in my throat,
the knees beneath me paralyzed – Oh I know it…
something terrible’s coming down on Priam’s children.
Pray god the news will never reach my ears!
Yes but I dread it so – what if great Achilles
has cut my Hector off from the city, daring Hector,
and driven him out across the plain, and all alone? –
He may have put an end to that fatal headstrong pride
that always seized my Hector – never hanging back
with the main force of men, always charging ahead,
giving ground to no man in his fury!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 527-540. Hearing the cries of Hector’s mother Hecuba, Andromache fears the worst for her husband Hector on the battlefield. She is afraid for his life because of Achilles and also his own stubborn pride, always wanting to charge forward and give ground to no man. She turns out to be correct, Hector has been cut down by Achilles.

But murderous Achilles – you gods, you choose to help Achilles.
That man without a shred of decency in his heart…
his temper can never bend and change – like some lion
going his own barbaric way, giving in to his power,
his brute force and wild pride, as down he swoops
on the flocks of men to seize his savage feast.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 46-51. Apollo complains about Achilles’s treatment of the body of fallen Trojan hero Hector. In an epic simile he likens him to a barbaric lion, unleashing his brute force and wild pride to feast on men’s flocks.
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