The Warrior

for it’s written in the stars
and every line in your palm,
we’re fools to make war on our brothers in arms.
- Mark Knopfler

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My father was Telamon: Argonaut, boar hunter, brother of Achilles’ father Peleus, friend of Herakles, sacker of Old Troy, king of Salamis, father of Teucer by a hostage-princess of Troy, father of me by his true wife.

I am Ajax. An ovine assassin. A murderer of sheep.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Achilles

It's interesting how a story one plans meticulously can suddenly rise and stride away on its own course, and there is nothing to do but follow and take notes.

While Odysseus is still the master manipulator, Achilles (Ajax's parallel cousin) has suddenly come to full, chilling life with my reading of "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us" by Robert D Hare. This book explains everything that Achilles did, before and after the events of The Iliad. And that explanation does not flatter him.

From his hiding among the girls to avoid being called by Agamemnon to go to Troy, to his wailing for his mother for help, to his fury over the loss of Briseis and Patroclus, to his death while negotiating a secret peace with the Trojans, all is explained by Dr Hare.

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Please tell Ajax what you think. But be nice; he's always armed.