Like many in the manosphere, I have a certain set of rituals that I conduct to keep my mind sharp. One of these rituals is that I read the Homeric epics every spring. There are many reasons I do this, Homer being a huge influence in my own writing one of the foremost.
Another reason is simply that the story of Troy is such a powerful one that I am compelled to keep coming back to it. The Iliad is so powerful because, despite the poem being 2,700 years old, and the events it is based on (to what extent they occurred) are older still, the story’s tale of human glory and folly is timelessly true, and Homer’s magnifying glass can as easily be fixated on our own time as it was on the Bronze Age.
The following are some lessons from the Iliad that are as relevant now as they were then:
1. Good Leaders Must be Servants
This is the paradox of power and ambition. Those that seek power doubtlessly have a good amount of personal ambition and desire for greatness. However, this desire must never be allowed to run amok where the leader uses his position for his personal aggrandizement at the expense of the rest.
Agamemnon is an example of a poor, or at the very least mediocre, leader. While he is often seen rallying his troops, he is just as often accused, most famously by Achilles, of skulking shamelessly in the back, watching others doing the fighting for him, all the while taking the lion’s share of the spoils, revealing in no uncertain terms the purpose of the expedition: his own gain.
Achilles remarks in Book 1:
Never once did you arm with the troops and go to battle or risk an ambush packed with Achaea’s best men – you lack the courage, you can see death coming. Safer by far, you find, to foray all through camp, commandeering the prize of any man who speaks against you. King who devours his people!
It is significant that Agamemnon rallies his subordinates, such as Teucer in Book 8, by making them promises based on the treasures of Troy as if they all belonged to him:
Teucer, lovely soldier, Telamon’s son, pride of the armies – now you’re shooting! I tell you this, so help me it’s the truth: if Zeus with his storm-shield and Queen Athena ever let me plunder the strong walls of Troy, you are the first, the first after myself – I’ll place some gift of honor in your hands, a tripod, or a purebred team with their own car or a fine woman to mount and share your bed.
Finally, Agamemnon refused to recognize he was in the wrong upon seizing Briseis from Achilles, not offering a semblance of apology in his “plea” to bring Achilles back into the action in Book 9, and blaming esoteric instances such as madness in Book 19:
I am not to blame! Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night, they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart, that day in assembly when I seized Achilles’ prize – on my own authority, true, but what could I do? A god impels all things to their fulfillment…
What emerges is the portrait of a greedy, selfish human being who, though he may care for the men around him, is at Troy first and foremost for his personal gain. His destructive quarrel with Achilles was the natural result of this attitude.
2. The Socially Destructive Nature of Narcissism
Achilles is not off the hook. He is in fact the single biggest cause of the horrendous loss of human life that occurs in the Iliad. His response to Agamemnon’s (admittedly wrong) seizure of Briseis in Book 1 was to take it as an extremely personal insult, an affront to his honor and his very reason to exist. He then got his mother Thetis to intervene with Zeus on his behalf:
Persuade him, somehow, to help the Trojan cause, to pin the Achaeans back against their ships, trap them round the bay and mow them down. So all can reap the benefits of their king – so even mighty Atrides can see how mad he was to disgrace Achilles, the best of the Achaeans!
This shows that Achilles cares absolutely nothing for his brothers in arms. Their lives and deaths mean nothing to him. The only thing that truly matters at the end of the day is himself and his glory. He says as much before he sends Patroclus off to battle in Book 16:
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…
Oh would to god – Father Zeus, Athena, and lord Apollo – not one of these Trojans could flee his death, not one, no Argive either, but we could stride from the slaughter so we could bring Troy’s hallowed crown of towers toppling down around us – you and I alone!
And it is Achilles’ narcissism that ensures his own friend’s death. His reaction is simply to transfer his rage to Hector, displaying a complete lack of empathy for his comrades who are hungry, tired, and wounded, once more showing the audience in Book 19 that they are merely means to his end:
You talk of food? I have no taste for food – what I really crave is slaughter and blood and the choking groans of men!
Achilles’ rage and his narcissistic solipsism are ended only by the surprising and passionate pleas of Priam for the body of his son at the poem’s conclusion. It is here, finally, where he can see himself the way that others see him, and the damage that he has caused:
When Zeus dispenses gifts from the jar of sorrows only, he makes a man an outcast – brutal, ravenous hunger drives him down the face of the shining earth, stalking far and wide, cursed by gods and men. So with my father, Peleus. What glittering gifts the gods rained down from the day that he was born! He excelled all men in wealth and pride of place, he lorded the Myrmidons, and mortal that he was, they gave the man an immortal goddess for a wife. Yes, but even on him the Father piled hardships, no powerful race of princes born in his royal halls, only a single son he fathered, doomed at birth, cut off in the spring of life – and I, I give the man no care as he grows old since here I sit in Troy, far from my fatherland, a grief to you, a grief to all your children…
And it is this realization that is to set the stage for ending the Iliad on such a sad note, leaving the reader with a sense of hopeless despair. Hector is dead and Achilles is soon to die. What good resulted from Achilles’ overweening pride?
As our own societal narcissism grows, and as we continue to get unhappier at the same time, the ending of the Iliad is perhaps the most poetic reminder of the consequences of a narcissistic, solipsistic worldview, and the fate of a society that celebrates it and disincentivizes ethical behavior.
3. Evil Often Happens To Those Least Deserving
Although he is no saint, Hector is by far the noblest warrior on the field at Troy. Unlike Achilles and Agamemnon, he is not partaking in combat to advance his own aims. He is instead fighting for his family and his homeland.
He uses his position as the Trojan field commander first and foremost in the service of the cause. Though like his aristocratic peers on both sides, he is not above looting to accumulate wealth or attempting to make a name for himself, his chief aim and guiding motivations are to save Troy, and he is willing to sacrifice his personal interests (and his life) in this duty. H
is rewards for his efforts are to be brutally killed, have his corpse disrespected and nearly defiled (were it not for divine intervention, something that is not so forthcoming to most), and to have his labor and his death count for nothing.
Hector utters one of the most famous speeches in the poem, lashing out at Polydamas, in Book 12:
Bird signs! Fight for your country – that is the best, the only omen! Even if all the rest of us drop and die around you, grappling for the ships, you’d run no risk of death: you lack the heart to last it out in combat – coward!
Hector’s reward for his patriotic attitude:
So he (Achilles) triumphed and now he was bent on outrage, on shaming noble Hector. Piercing the tendons, ankle to heel behind both feet, he knotted straps of rawhide through them both, lashed them to his chariot, left the head to drag and mounting the car, hoisting the famous arms aboard, he whipped his team to a run and breackneck on they flew, holding nothing back. And a thick cloud of dust rose up from the man they dragged, his dark hair swirling round that head so handsome once, all tumbled low in the dust – since Zeus had given him over to his enemies now to be defiled in the land of his own fathers.
As has often been remarked, bad things happen to good people, seemingly more than they do to those that deserve such evil happenstances. Why does this cruel fate seem to so often accompany those that do the right thing? I believe one reason is the theme below:
4. Force Is Man’s Master
Hector, stop! You unforgivable, you…don’t talk to me of pacts. There are no binding oaths between men and lions – wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds – they are all bent on hating each other to death.
Achilles’ chilling words in Book 22 ring as true today as in the Bronze Age that Homer portrayed. Hector proposed a binding pact, a civilized set of rules for his duel with Achilles. Achilles’ response was that of a wild beast. He is a powerful, hungry lion, neither knowing nor caring for civilization or its rules. His only goal is self-satisfaction, and he has the power to do all of this because Hector is weak.
So the strong Achilles slew the weak Hector, just as the strong Achaeans would destroy the weak Trojans, and neither victor, individual or collective, showed any mercy. Agamemnon reminds us in Book 6 what the real intentions of the Achaean expedition were:
So soft, dear brother, why? Why such concern for our enemies? I suppose you got such tender loving care at home from the Trojans. Ah, would to god not one of them could escape his sudden plunging death beneath our hands! No baby boy still in his mother’s belly, not even he escape – all Ilium blotted out, no tears for their lives, no markers for their graves!
The Iliad and the story of Troy are stark reminders that for all our civilized pretensions, for all our warmest fantasies of kindness and altruism, we are still at the mercy of force and those that can wield it. It is, in the end, force, if masked by civilized rules and procedures, that keeps those that want to do us harm at bay.
And ultimately, those without power will forever be at the mercy of those that have it. A civilization, people, or nation that is either unwilling or unable to use power to defend itself is not one that can long survive. As always, the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.
This is something we would do well to remember, as the “Long Peace” after the Second World War in which we live has no doubt diluted this sense of urgency. As Western civilization’s future elites are increasingly brainwashed by their university “educations” into believing that the weak passivity of “thou shalt not offend” (except for their own people and culture, that’s fair game and encouraged) and a nothing-matters narcissism are society’s raisons d’etre, all the while its present leaders willingly and continuously weaken its military and borders under an irrational, religious zeal devoted to abstract and foolish notions of equality, Homer echoes more loudly now than perhaps in quite some time.
When the societal zeitgeist collapses, it does so very rapidly. Troy was the dominant city in Homer’s Asia Minor. It was proud, rich, and full of hope. Its world was shattered by the arrival of a vast Achaean horde from across the sea which came to annihilate it from the face of the Earth.
Those that ignore that force is master of men and nations, who naively think otherwise, will be sorely disappointed at some point. And at that point, their doom is assured, for there are no oaths between men and lions.
Read More: This Accidental Experiment Shows The Superiority Of Patriarchy
According to Virgil’s Aeneid, the survivors of Troy went on to found Rome so the Trojans arguably had the last laugh.
And then the Western Empire based in Rome fell, while the Greek East survived for another thousand years, because one was strong and the other weak.
The cycle never ends.
I don’t know, only the centers fell, the states of Rome still existed to defeat the Turk, Arab, and mongol hoards in Europe till recently.
It is arguable that the Greeks who fled the fall of Constantinople and went West ignited the philosophical portion of the so-called Renaissance.
But don’t get me started on that political-historical theory.
And even that Byzantine dynasty would end up slowly being consumed by corruption & rot. The Ottomans dealing the death blow much later on would be par for the course.
The scary part is the modern parallels we see today. The hearts of Men seem programmed to see out its own destruction (I’m not arguing about the notion of free will here either).
As you correctly stated. The never ending cycle…
I have just started reading virgil. God, how writing has declined!
I’ll have to sit down and read this epic one day, as well as the Odyssey in its entirety. Funny that this article shows up because I was watching Troy yesterday lol.
The Odyssey’s more fun and an easier read
Funny enough, I just bought the Iliad last week. Prepare yourself, it is more than 500 pages long, has a lot of minor characters and thicker than the Odyssey and the Aeneid (not at the same time).
I read the Illiad every year as a summer project, as it’s been one of my favorites stories since childhood. I personally recommend the Stanley Lombardo translation, as he really manages to capture both the spirit and prose of Homer’s words while still making it a fairly comfortable read that won’t have you scratching your head like some Shakespeare will. You can pick it up for under $10 used on Amazon.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll check it out.
A bit disappointed that my paragraph regarding the lead up to World War I was removed. That was a similar long peace that was shattered and no one saw it coming.
The ancients used to say, “Study Homer to learn about war, Hesiod to learn about farming.” They implied that there’s not much more to figuring out life.
Great work Libertas.
“As is the race of leaves, so that of men.
Of leaves the wind strews some upon the earth,
Others the springtime forest putteth forth,
And so of men, these grow and these decline.”
“They implied that there’s not much more to figuring out life.”
The Odyssey to learn about hospitality.
“The ancients used to say, “Study Homer to learn about war, Hesiod to
learn about farming.” They implied that there’s not much more to
figuring out life.”
They were in essence right. Farming at its fundamentals is providing for yourself and not having to be at the complete mercy of nature to gather sustenance each day. War’s needed to stop other people from taking it from you.
solid article, which like the film finds virtue in Hector over Achilles, which matches the book as far as I remember, as Achille’s just goes into one great sulk for half the war – probably a plot device actually as the war would be over in about ten minutes if Achille’s had been in the fray the whole time. When I read it as a teen I never quite got what was going on with regard to Briseis, let alone Patroclus ooh err – one does wonder though why Achille’s the great hero is portrayed as such an arse.
I also found it strange that the book doesn’t detail the cause of the war: Paris and his kidnap / elopement with Helen, the Kim Kardashian of her age who launched a thousand ships. Paris, is the other key to the issue of narcissism in the trojan war – but this time female (both human and divine) – as interesting in his own right as his brother. In fact if Hector is the real hero, Paris is the pussy hound pick up artist of ancient Greece – showing the dangers of chasing skirt without adequate preparation and risk management. As far as PUA is concerned as an ancient Greek he probably practised the ‘mystery’ method…
so narcissism was supposed to be his real Achille’s heel?
The Iliad was only one book in the Epic Cycle detailing the Trojan War. The Cypria, the first installment in the myth explains how the war started. Unfortunately, all of the epics have been lost except for the two Homeric ones – the rest survive in only what fragments and second hand accounts we can find.
Hector actually does rake Paris through the Iliad for those reasons. Paris isn’t a pussy, he just holds back of his own accord, according to Hector.
Thanks. I’d never heard of the Cypria or that it was part of a a cycle. Shame its lost
I actually have a blog that I haven’t updated in a while about the Trojan War mythos, with some links to fragments of the lost epics. http://thewarintroy.blogspot.com/
I might be inspired to go at it again.
Had a quick look. Looks really good.
It may not be a myth. Homer wrote this 500 years after the war and may of course not got everything correct, sort of like a modern writer writing about something that happened in 1500 but the actual location of Troy was discovered by a German archeologist in the 1800’s and it appears that the walls of the city were rebuilt a number of times.
Troy VIIa, which dates around the end of the Late Bronze Age and had contact with Mycenaean Greece appears to have been destroyed by war. So there is probably some kind of historical basis for the myths.
Whether it was a coalition of Mycenaean cities that attacked the place remains unanswered.
Interesting insight with regards to Paris & Helen of Sparta. One might argue it was actually Aphrodite (the temptress Eve figure of the piece) who started the whole damn mess.
Didn’t the entire Trojan War start over ONE woman? Pussy causing destruction since the beginning of time.
In fairness, that was supposedly just a pretext. Like the Gulf of Tonkin.
For Agamemnon. His brother Meneleus was genuinely pissed
Touche’
No. It started over three women arguing amongst themselves over which one of them was the prettiest.
Then they worked it out so that the blame got shunted onto one man. Same as it ever was.
The goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera or as we prefer to say here at ROK: a trio of sluts! Lets get that pussy down from that pedestal. Aphrodite: 6 at best.
Hmm. I’ve always kinda had something for the Athena archetype though. She’s a WB for me.
Hera : Goddess Wall Hitter. Craziness partially caused by Zeus not being able to keep his god balls in check. WNB.
Aphrodite: Hot for sure. Too much hypergamy. Would pump & dump & not call back but would not pursue the bang if her bitch shield stops me at first approach.
Hera is definitely a bunny boiling Glenn Close type. Agree about Aphrodite but not so sure about Athena, unless you’re talking about the girl in the tennis poster scratching her ass
Actually it all started with another woman, the goddess of strife Eris, daughter of Ares the war god. She wasn’t invited to a wedding party because she might cause trouble. She did it anyway with an casted golden apple branded “To the Fairest.” Hera, Athena and Aphrodite demand that Zeus pick one. Zeus refused, proving as over and over in the poems that he was the wisest male in the sorry story. He refused to change his frame for any man or woman.
Ultimately, when you get down to it, the story proves that change and evolution is inescapeble. There will always be changes and new rivals rising, hungry for wealth and glory. Nothing stay the same. Eris will see to that.
The question then became how to prepare for the change and challenges sure to come. The first step is to build your strenght. The next step is to be like Zeus, never let emotions run your life or your business. Defeat is bad but victory is even worst because when you allow victory get to your head, you will overstep yourself and end up destroying yourself as happened with Achilles when he disrespect Hector’s body. That is a MAJOR no-no with the Hellens. The Greeks often arranged truces so that both sides may bury the dead because the bond with the dead is vital to the survival of the present and future generations. That was why Zeus got mad.
Also, this story about the strong do what he can and the weak do what he must don’t tell the whole story. There are times when it’s better to conserve your strenght in face of an stronger enemy. You must trade space and time until the enemy tired out or you buy his trust to discover his weaknesses. Then strike. The Russian Front, Vietnam, Iraq, and the ‘Stans wars proved the advantage of such strategy.
Athena is the calm, rational alpha woman, her father’s daughter. Born from his thought, in fact. She never play games like others and, in fact, have contempt for the hypergamic games. She prefer the company of strong and clever men to the girls. She is concerned with defending and promoting civilization itself and the men are her allies in this respect. Cunning defense is one, economic development with her gift of the skill in weaving, taming of the horses, olive tree that can produce many goods is another. Her virginity mean that she refuse to allow any interest come before her loyalty to her father Zeus. Her only weakness is pride. Now that is a quality woman.
Good comment and interesting background about Eris. Given how he liked to screw anything with two legs, or wings for that matter Zeus certainly had his work cut out managing his women folk. And you’re quite right about conserving energy / choosing battles carefully.
Great comment. Plus, she is generally described as being more of a strategist than that other God of War, Ares, who is described as being a violent brute.
True, but let’s not forget that Helen wasn’t exactly kidnapped by Paris. She went willingly, and lived as his wife, even supporting him during the war. And once Troy was sacked, and Paris dead, she was right back snuggling up to Menelaeus like nothing had happened. Faithless bitch.
And Menelaus had the chance to do justice but he dropped his sword. Once again, a woman was pedestalized and not held responsible for her actions.
Apparently the whole thing started over three women or goddesses (Aphrodite, Hera & Athena) arguing over a magic testicle brought by this other bitch, the Goddess of Discord, Eris at some grand wedding. From that point on, the political perspectives & human drama play out as has been discussed in the article & comments section here.
One adulterous woman .
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nCOwlJ7Ngu4/hqdefault.jpg
Better yet: “if it’s hard to do it’s not worth doing.”
Never trying, Guarantees it.
“Its world was shattered by the arrival of a vast Achaean horde from across the sea which came to annihilate it from the face of the Earth.”
The West and Islam.
Very thought provoking. ” the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must” was the quote I liked the best. Rather than insisting on fairness..its best to find strength, because that alone is your surest guarantee.
If a man smite you on one cheek, smash him down; smite him hip and thigh, for self-preservation is the highest law.
Might is Right
Hi Mr. Stuart,
Great article, really spotlights the flaws that the common share with the heroic.
It is said that strength is the virtue from which all other virtues flow. The question I struggle with, and I put forth to be discussed here is; does having the strength to complete a task give the right to use said strength?
Anybody wanna weight in?
Best,
CapitalXD
The answer might be found in one of Gandhi’s dictums, that only the strong can be nonviolent, as one can only refrain from doing that which one is capable of doing.
Refraining from an action is not within the purview of the weak who can only suffer what they must. Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power.
Enter Sam Colt, stage right.
The speech from the Athenians to the Spartans before the outbrak of the war.
Fantastic article.
The natural world is a world of war; the natural man is a warrior; the natural law is tooth and claw. All else is error. A condition of combat everywhere exists. We are born into perpetual conflict. It is our inheritance, even as it was the heritage of previous generations.
Might is Right
That book is arriving at my house in 2 days, and from all that I’ve heard, I cannot wait.
Yeah, you obviously haven’t read the Iliad in context. It is not a pro-war book.
We tentatively know two things about the author: he may have been blind, and he may have been a captive, the name ‘Homer’ is derived from the Greek ‘homeros’ which mean hostage/captive.
Homer was describing the tragedy of war, its effects, its highs and lows. And Homer may have been the loser in such a conflict.
The Greeks understood war- as do all men who actually fought in one- as a sometimes necessary evil with a heavy price to pay.
Yeah, I was not quoting Might is Right in order to suggest the Iliad was a pro war book. I quoted Might is Right to point out that war is an inevitable part of being human, it’s part of nature. Maybe you should read the quote for what it is instead of trying to read something into about me.
And the Greeks in contending with this fact started the West onto the line of thinking about what is a Just War.
If you don’t think at the end of the day that force and the threat of force are not being used against you everyday, just think how fast you will have a gun put to your head for not being compliant with our Socialist Republic ‘ s agenda. You have a gun to your head everyday you get up and fill your lungs. The Bill of Rights? The Constitution? Just meaningless pieces of paper. You have no rights. You have the right to be a slave and do what you are told.
That is modern society. Check out Plato’s Crito as to the rationale and justification for laws. We as moderns violate every idea presented in that work.
Fair enough. I have not read Plato. I do know he spoke of the need for a “guardian class”. I don’t think the US has engaged in a just war since the war of 1812. I suggest you read Major General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket”. The wars of the 20th century were horrific wastes of human lives that only served to enrich the central bankers and consolidate their control of this plantation.
That is found in ‘The Republic’ which is more about justice, the soul, and the type of society it creates. Most scholars, and I agree as a Classicist, think that the dialogue is about the states of the soul and the influence philosophy has on it.
In context with the time and the author the idea of a guardian class would have been kind of funny in that Socrates was a veteran and most propertied men were military trained.
I’ve read some of General Butler, the last real generation of warriors the US has produced. After that war became ‘a continuation of business by other means.’
Was it not Socrates who would seemingly lapse into a trance like state while in the midst of a battle?
Roman militia was also composed of propertied men until Marcus enlisted peasants into the legion during the first barbarian wars with the Cimbri, Teutons and Antones. Boirax and Teutobod were on a roll for 13 years against the Legion and the Legions had been decimated by many large defeats.
Equality can only exist between equals.
Civilization implies division of labor, division of labor implies subordination and subordination implies injustice and inequality.
Might is Right
He who turns the other cheek is a cowardly dog — a Christian dog.
Ragnar Redbeard, Might is Right
Reminds me of these verses by Archilochus, the warrior poet:
I do know one big thing:
to respond with terrible evils to one who does me evil.
This fetid regime of Zionist money-men have turned American men into whimpering cowards. We have given over our natural right of self-defense and the use of marshal force to the state. Here is a news flash: the state means to exterminate you White man. As my friend calls them “the costumed clowns” of law enforcement and state agencies will surely put a bullet in your head when ordered to do so if you have no means of resistance. Obama is just a symptom of the disease. It’s not Black run America that means to wipe you out, it’s Jewish run America.
too much to read, thats gay.
“As always, the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”
A fact the weak, cowardly, and inferior of the world love to ignore and claim “immorality” . LOL. As if objective reality gave a shit about their personal feelings. Peace and Harmony is a desire of some men, War and Violence is a fact of life and existence. Might doesn’t determines who is morally right, it determines who is actually left.
Nice article – Number 3 is
mentioned in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 8-14)
“There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous
who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous
deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.”
One thing that was missed from #3. Hector was far from blameless and “good.”
Maybe from a modern standpoint, but in ancient eyes Hector was sympathetic, but ultimately impious.
Hector sheltered and defended an adulterer and abuser of hospitality- i.e. Paris, his brother who insulted and abused his host Menelaus by taking Helen away.
Hector persisted with impiousness, and paid for it when he went against a force of nature (Achilles.)
Hector was the archetypal White Knight.
Horrible! Are you a woman? A leftoid brainwashed drone?
A 9 year old naive child?
To keep it straight here is a dark triad take on the matter – and dark triad is what makes the bad boy, the alpha, the winner type.
1) Wars are without exception, to this day, fought for the personal gain of its LEADERS. Never the people. The war in iraq or the war against terror is no exception.
All the soldiers and civilians who died there, did die for the personal gain of some of our leaders first – everything else beeing of minor importance.
Agamemnon is a great example of a good leader. He keeps its subjects motivated without risking his position and life and makes damn sure he gets his fair share.
Do you think the clintons or bush’s are different?
2) Of course he does not care. Leaders are not there for a “just cause” they have personal goals. This was a serious setback and what he did was a decent plan to get back into the game. Soldiers are replaceable.
3) Bullshit! Who is naive and fails to secure his personal savety and position, who makes himself an easy target, he deserves no better.
Had he made better choices FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY they would have lived. The rest is not his problem.
4) At least one thing you got right in the article:
“the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”
This is an enternal law of nature and it is good.
Be strong, let the others suffer.
But Agamemnon doesn’t fair well down the line. There are higher laws beyond the will to power perhaps?