ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the decisive role played by the exchange between Achilles and Priam in subduing the species of madness. Achilles forgets: this is both his forgiveness and his revenge, and Agamemnon deserves no better. The chapter examines how Achilles seeks reparation for the offence received, and in relation to this, his reason for rejecting Agamemnon's gifts. The embassy sent by Agamemnon seeks to appease Achilles' wrath by restoring balance in the honour each deserves, a mechanism consistent with the Aristotelian analysis of anger understood as a result of a slight or diminishment. Priam says he deserves more pity than Achilles' aged father since nobody before has dared to do what he has done, kiss the hands of his children's murderer. The meeting between Achilles and the aged king of Troy is a motif that is repeated on both black-figure and red-figure Greek pottery.
