Why Are Achilles In A Hurry? Does He Know Something That We Don’t?
Short Answer: He knows his fate.
Imagine being told about your fate. You know when you will die in terms of the year, date, and time down to the second. What would you do?
That is the wrong question. There is nothing we can do. Achilles, our Greek Hero in Homer’s The Iliad, responded in the same way.
The hero of the Trojan War, Achilles, was born into a family of royalty and immortality.
His father, Peleus, is the King of the Myrmidons of Thessaly. His mother, Thetis, is a sea-nymph, and a daughter of Sea God, Nereus.
Like other mere mortals, Achilles is not spared the fate of death given his spectacular birthright. His mum foresaw his destiny and moved quickly to immortalize him.
She secretly dipped him into River Styx, where it confers the immortality of the Gods.
That did not prevent Achilles from fulfilling his destiny. His heel, where his mum held as she dunked him continuously into River Styx, never made contact with the water.
A Sear predicted that Achilles’s destiny was to become a great warrior, and he will die in The Battle of Troy.
While Thetis (Achilles’ mum) did what she could to prevent this from happening, destiny fulfils itself eventually.
Achilles marched to the drumbeat of his death in the Battle of Troy.
Does Achilles Know When Exactly He Is Going To Die?
The Iliad did not explicitly mention that he knows. However, it was clear that his mum knows. That is why she tried to immortalize him.
I postulate Thetis might have told Achilles from time to time, warning him against fulfilling his destiny. He might have listened and not put it to heart.
After all, no heroes in Greek Mythology ever got to defy their destiny. Achilles must have known that instinctively.
How Did He Approach His Life Knowing Exactly When And Where He Is Going To Die?
He fulfilled his destiny as a great warrior. I opine that he lived his life in a hurry.
He was quick to collect honor. He was also quick to respond when the symbols of honor got taken away.
It can explain why he refused to fight for the Greeks when the Greek King, Agamemnon, seized his bride.
He complied with the order. And then, followed by a refusal to fight for the Greeks regardless of the fatality count.
He was adamant about having his way because he knows that he is running towards his deathbed.
How Is Achilles Different From Us, The Mere Mortals?
Clearly, Achilles knew something that we do not.
Achilles knew when and how he would perish, right from the start.
I believe we will be paralyzed by fear if we do. Let us assume that we know we will encounter death at the age of 40, and we are 38 today. How would we respond?
I am willing to make the following guesses.
- We may retire from the workforce today.
- We may try all extreme sports, knowing that we will not die today.
- We may spend all our time worrying about the date of our imminent death and how the event will unfold.
- We may try ways to prolong our life because we do not want to die young.
Human beings respond differently to Heroes. We will do whatever we can to enjoy up till our very last moments on Planet Earth.
If we had the ability to foresee the future, we want to know the winning lottery number combination for next week’s draw.
Achilles accepted his fate and sealed his destiny with his actions. He continued to do what matters to him even as he approaches his final living hour.
He did not choose to sip Martini by the Aegean Sea.
How Does This Story Matter To Us?
How we reflect on Life and Death sheds light on our interpretation of the meaning of life. It has nothing to do with the matter of Life and Death per se.
We cannot control our birth and death. What we can do is foster meaning into our life experience in between.
Meaning must be injected through an understanding of our being and calling in life. And from this perspective, trial and error matter. Textbooks are useless.
We have to run to know that we enjoy running. We have to swim to discover our talent. We have to write to test whether we can excel in writing.
Once we kiss enough frogs, we will get to a prince. When we try enough things to know what we do not enjoy doing, we will finally get to the one we cannot stop doing.
Those who are brave enough to march to their drumbeats will live a fruitful life.
What Can We Learn From This Story?
We have to learn to live a meaningful life.
We spend way too much time drowning in hypochondria. We worry about money, our children’s education, and financing our retirement.
We also spend way too much time on activities that do not matter. What I mean is: -
- We spend way too much time bitching about our colleagues.
- We spend way too much time lamenting about our bosses.
- We spend way too much time on social media giving likes to frivolous content.
- We spend way too much time on vacations, channel surfing, buffet gorging, shop-till-we-drop.
- We spend way too much time making merry at pubs and clubs.
And the reverse is true. What I mean is: -
- We do not spend enough time on building mutually beneficial relationships with our colleagues.
- We do not spend enough time understanding what works for our boss and us.
- We do not spend enough time creating value-adding content on social media platforms.
- We do not spend enough time on our personal and professional growth.
- We do not spend enough time at our desk creating a scalable side-hustle, achieving our life goals.
I often wonder why we live life as if there is no expiry date. And because of that line of thinking, we pull hedonistic activities forward and procrastinate on work that matters.
A Thought Experiment is necessary at this point.
Would we still make time to make merry if we know that we will perish by the end of this year?
I know that I will not. That is because every single day, hour, minute, and second counts. There are too many things to be done and too many goals to be achieved.
It would be a waste of time to be by the beach sipping Martini, waiting for Death Missionaries to come and bring me to the Third Realm.
On this note, I am with Achilles.
Life is too short to be wasted. We have to be in a hurry. We need to do what matters uniquely to us.
We need to focus on living our life.
Three Cheers To Achilles.
Aldric
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