The epic hero has evolved extensively since his foundation in Mesopotamian literature some four millennia ago. Yet his fundamental qualities have endured with each example, from Gilgamesh, to Beowulf, to Anakin Skywalker. His pursuit of glory. His sense ofhonor. His pride before the fall. His achievement of excellence. Heroes retain similar traits. Perhaps no hero is as pertinent to this as swift-footed Achilles. Many scholars have viewed him as a monolithic figure, but there are arguably more facets to his character than any hero in Classical mythology. His fame is not because he represents the foundation of the epic, an honor which goes to Gilgamesh. It is not solely due to his might as he was not even the strongest hero, a feature belonging to Herakles. It is because Achilles is a hero to which we can relate. Despite being a demi-god, Achilles is the most human of heroes. He feels a greater range of emotion than Herakles or Aeneas, struggles with more realistic trials than Odysseus, and comes to terms with his fate more readily than Gilgamesh. He is hero and antihero, because he is, like us, human. Achilles has evolved beyond the ancient hero cult to become the standard through which we vicariously live, permeating modern pop culture as an archetype found in comics, film, and television. As we perpetually seek to understand our own nature, we recognize, and even embrace, our commonality with the persona of Achilles.

The son of Peleus has been analyzed since Ancient Greece. One of many of Homer’s epithets calls himθεοῖς ἐπιείκελος, ‘like to the gods,’ referencing how Achilles stands out from the pack. He is perceived as head and shoulders above others at Troy, revered as having no equal in combat and feared by mortal enemies and allies alike. Several heroes in The Iliad exhibit an aristeia, their great-est moment of heroic excellence. Diomedes enjoys it in Book V; Agamemnon in Book XI, but as Harvard Classicist Gregory Nagy points out, it is Achilles alone who continually earns the accolade ‘best of the Achaeans’—he experiences a consistent areisteia whenever he appears on the battlefield. In fact, the entire poem is written as a dedication to the glory, or kleos, of Achilles. More than any other warrior in the epic, Achilles is like to the gods. It is his exceptional prowess that gives him near-divine status, but also his genealogy. As he announces in Book XXI: “avow me to be of the lin-eage of great Zeus. The father that begat me is one that is lord among the many Myrmidons, even Peleus, son of Aeacus; and Aeacus was begotten of Zeus…”It is this position as the great-grandson of Zeus himself that permits him not only to excel, but to act dishonorably without consequence. When Achilles performs his most famous act of vengeance by dragging the corpse of the Trojan prince, Hector, behind his chariot, the gods are shocked and horrified, but Zeus delays punish-ment for the act. Rather, the ruler of gods and men orders Thetis to convince the hero to show compassion. The Greeks believed that Achilles’ wrath—his mênis—was an essential component of the Trojan War, deemed necessary by the will of the gods. His mother’s role was to calm her son’s wrath to create a resolution to the plot. Therefore, Achilles’ acts were justifiable. Diane Thompson’s article, Achilles’ Wrath and the Plan of Zeus points out thatAchilles asks Zeus for assistance both in his revenge against Agamemnon, requesting that the Greeks lose ground to the Trojans, as well as in his ultimate duel with Hector. He is given this special consideration each time; when Zeus bows his head, Achilles’ wish is granted.

Zeus’ compliance is a result of the circumstances surrounding the hero’s birth. Achilles’ divine mother, Thetis, was courted by Zeus but had been prophesized to bear a son greater than his father. Alarmed, Zeus married the goddess off to the minor hero, Peleus, and Achilles was the result of that union. Yet there is a notion that Achilles was bitter at being cheated out of ruling the universe. Thus, Zeus perhaps felt obligation, allowing Achilles to behave in ways no other would be permit-ted. Classicist J.T. Sheppard notes that Achilles is referred to as ‘Zeus-loved’ more than any other. Agamemnon and Hector also enjoy the title, yet as they act as foils to Achilles, it is evident that he is the highest Zeus-loved hero as he overcomes both opponents in their conflicts. Achilles is utterly insubordinate to Agamemnon, not only refusing to fight, but threatening to kill his commanding officer. Hardly heroic, it is selfish, and in Greek culture, serves as a crime of hubris. Yet Achilles is still the hero. He then humiliates his enemy by desecrating Hector’s corpse, mocking him and demoralizing the opposing army. This violates the tîmê, the honor, of Hector. Yet Achilles remains heroic.

The reality that no matter the sin, we are still loved in the eyes of God attracts us; a free pass to act as we wish because God is in our debt. While one hopes our actions bear little resemblance to those of Achilles, our very real human sense of entitlement does. We pride ourselves on our humanity, on our supposed altruism towards others, but few can doubt we feel things are owed to us in life. When we rationalize how we deserve the promotion over another, argue that our political or social viewpoint is intellectually superior to the other side, or even when we speed up upon noticing the adjacent driver’s turn signal threatens our lane—it all stems from pride in ourselves. We are all guilty of hubris, and we are all willing to defile another’s tîmê if they offend us. Like Achilles, we may disagree with our superiors over an administrative decision or seek to demean others for their political views; we simply keep it to ourselves . . . ideally. Thus, while Achilles acts in a less than altruistic manner, he displays typical human emotion. His behavior is contrary to conventional society, but his feelings are not. They are relatable, yet he reaches an unrelatable, though perhaps envious, level. He breaks the laws of the gods, but the behavior is exempted. Doubtless Agamem-non or Diomedes would have been punished accordingly had they acted similarly. Achilles is above and beyond them. He is outside the law of man or god.