Agamemnon the Problem With Agamemnon:

Agamemnon

The Problem with Agamemnon: Egotism

The problem with Agamemnon is that he is too egotistical to be an effective leader of men. An ideal or even an adequate leader would know that it is unwise to offend the gods during a crucial part of a military campaign. Agamemnon does so when he takes the daughter of a priest of Apollo as his mistress against her will, causing the wrath of the god to come down upon the lot of the Greeks in the Trojan War. When Agamemnon is forced to surrender the girl, the general offends yet another crucial actor in the Greek's campaign. Achilles is the undisputedly greatest warrior of all of the Greeks. But Agamemnon demands Achilles surrender Brisesis, whom Achilles adores. A good leader would put his own needs aside in deference of the needs of the group, but instead Agamemnon openly inflames the wrath of the young, hot-headed Achilles, even though Agamemnon is a mature man who should know better, and recognize his crucial role as a leader, who should be level-headed and show impartiality. Agamemnon's action is also simply unfair; because it is not Achilles' fault that Agamemnon's original concubine was taken away from him because of her lineage.

Thus, Homer's "Iliad" begins in "Book 1 Quarrel, Oath, and Promise," depicting Agamemnon as a poor, narcissistic leader who only has his own interests at heart. Rather than earning the loyalty of his warriors, simply demands obedience as his due, just as he demands all of the best spoils of war. Agamemnon acts with emotion, not with reason. He does whatever pleases or satisfies his desire at the moment, as in Book 6 the general urges Menelaus to kill a captured Trojan, rather than to ransom the man. This cruelty accomplishes no military objective, and merely serves to inflame the Trojans against the Greeks. This encourages the Trojans to adopt a take-no-prisoners attitude by the Greek's poor example.

It is true that Agamemnon attempts to makes amends to Achilles, too little, too late, in Book 9. He seeks to heal his broken relations with Achilles only when the Greeks are desperate, a transparent ruse Achilles easily sees through. Agamemnon does not go as one of the emissaries to Achilles, but sends Odysseus, laden with gifts. The general refuses to come humbly bearing a personal apology for his foolishness, as a good leader might try to heal the rift in the Greek camp. Achilles only agrees to return to war in Book 19 after his friend Patroclus dies, not because of the gifts Agamemnon gives to in reparation for his earlier insult. Agamemnon should have seen that Achilles was less motivated by material rewards than he was by love for people he cared about, like Brisesis and Patroclus. Agamemnon is too egotistical to understand the psychological motivations of other people. This is part of his self-obsession -- because he is motivated by spoils, he assumes all other people are motivated solely by the need for power and satisfying their pleasures.