The Purpose of Life Should one live a long, simple life or die early in battle to achieve glory?  This is an essential question Homer forces the reader to ponder about while reading the  Illiad.  He uses different characters to present the contrasting arguments on the pros and cons of each viewpoint.  Achilles wants to make sure he is fighting for the right reasons and  not just die young for a lost cause.    The wife of Hector, Andromache, feels that one should not have shame with a life of modesty and without complication. On the contrary, Hector, believes that his fate is out of his hands and that time will tell what his destiny holds.  Although he seems to go back and forth on the issue, Homer always ends with the idea of dying for a purpose, one's legacy. Achilles has little desire to fight in the battle of Troy and also has little individual gain at stake. In book 1 he expresses this when talking to Agamemnon,   " ¦I don't have any quarrel with the Trojans, They didn't do anything to  me  to make me Come over here and fight, didn't run off  my  cattle or horses Or ruin  my  farmland back home in Phthia, not with all The shadowy mountains and moaning seas between. It's for  you, dogface, for your pleasure ¦  (1. 161-167). Achilles is not going to hazard his life over a war he is not respected in or concerned about.  He lets his pride get in the way of the common good of the Greeks. This is evident when he prays to Zeus that the Trojans kill his men.  However, when Achilles discovers Patroclus' death he proclaims, " ¦You will never again Welcome me home, since I no longer have the will To remain alive among men, not unless Hector Loses his life on the point of my spear,  (18. 94-97). Patroclus' death gives him the rationale he needs to rejoin the war.  It is evident Achilles now accepts his fate and the possibility of death.  Despite originally hoping his men would die, he is now