Ah, it all boils down to wounded pride and vexation over the loss of a woman. Achilles withdraws from the war because his king pulled rank and took his lady-loot, Briseis. Later in Logue’s pithy wording, Achilles is described by one of his peers as Wondersulk. These sixty ‘handsome-bodied warriors’ are impressive until you realize they are just in a day’s slaughter for Achilles, leaving Briseis and other widows or orphans as so much battle-chattel to be squabbled over by the handsome-bodied warriors who are still standing among the carnage.
Except for her, my ribbon she,
Whose dauntless husband plus some 60
Handsome-bodied warriors I killed and burned.
Source: Christopher Logue, War Music, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 19
