Agamemnon's consent to go home:
Doesn't factor into it dude. Achilles had a choice: stay in Greece and live a long life but be forgotten or go to Troy to certainly die but be remembered forever. He made his choice. He was never considering going back.... He knew he was going to die there. He also was NOT about getting approval from that guy. He was all about his own rights which he didn't think came from some king.
He also knew he was going to die at the hands of his comrades if he would have tried to stand up to Agamemnon directly. He knew he'd return at die at the hands of the Trojans, or at least on the battlefield, which is why he could leave the camp without second thoughts, knowing fully well Agamemnon would budge eventually.
Agamemnon explicitly mentions never having laid a hand on Briseis
And again, no one knows expressly why. Maybe he was hoping to use that as a bargaining chip. Maybe he was scared that would push Achilles over the edge and his sword into his throat? Who knows.
It's unlikely Homer would have included that if it didn't serve some purpose. The story could have done without it and nothing would have changed, yet apparently it was significantly enough for Homer to add it, or for the theme to be preserved in oral tradition through the times prior to Homer writing the story down. What it could signify however, is that Agamemnon gave back to Achilles everything he had taken, completely unaltered.
I'm getting the feeling that Homer explicitly wanted Achilles to be celibate or something.
Meh, we really can't know this one either. I'd argue no because of that "Ancient Greek Heroic Code" thingy, but again all we can do is speculate on this one. I think it is possible that the originals might have actually once mentioned Achilles being gay but Translations (largely done by Christian Church Scholars) removed it through editing. It just doesn't add up. Every other Hero under the Code got sexy with just about everything. Case in point, Odysseus. I just don't think the "Code" would choose a celibate person for its poster boy. Meh, who knows.
Edit: Ahhh, Edit Ninja'd
If we look at later Greek works, we see that there are some authors that speculate at a romatic relation between Achilles and Partoclos, while others either invoke a relation to Briseis or have him get it on with another girl. A memorable scene from the Bibliotheca tells how he fell in love with the Amazon Penthesilea after having killed her (though some have argued the author actually meant 'made love' instead of 'fell in love', for your daily dose of EEEW!). To me this means that even shortly after Homer, relatively speaking, nobody realy knew which way Achilles swung exactly, meaning that Homer probably didn't explicitly state his sexual preferences. Considering the way the world worked at that time, I'd say "probably swings both ways" would be the best description for the time being.
Being afraid of Agamemnon killing him:A Greek army could kill him as easily as a Trojan one. You're still focusing on survival as a motive though. That wasn't it at all. Achilles traded his life willingly for being remembered. He didn't care about living, he cared about doing something memorable to be remembered for without any taints. The whole thing about trying not to get killed by Agamemnon doesn't fit, because he could've easily had Achilles killed for refusing to fight.
Also Agamemnon was a stubborn bastard, absolutely no guarantee he'd give her back or give in eventually.He honestly wasn't worried about any of this and was prepared to go home because he was afraid Agamemnon had tainted his glory and legend, which would lead to him not being remembered. He thought he couldn't be remembered well after this stuff happened and was going to say "if I can't be remembered; I'll go home. Deal must be off, crap...." It was only when Patroclus got killed that he said screw everything. Even if he couldn't be remembered, he had nothing to live for now.... There's that rage again....
Agamemnon explicitly mentions never having laid a hand on Briseis [2]:Even if I accept your argument that it wouldn't be put in there without meaning, that doesn't say what that meaning is and it certainly doesn't conclude they ever had a romantic relationship. Even if I go and say "this proves Achilles got everything back from Agamemnon exactly as it was before it was taken," that doesn't mean he had a romantic relationship with her before she was taken....
Good point about inclusion = meaning, but what meaning was that and does it go to prove romance?
Some authors that speculate at a romantic relation between Achilles and _________:Fan fiction isn't cannon.
But, yup, we don't know. The story's been mangled over 3000 years. Fact is it doesn't say he had a romantic relationship with ANYONE.
I just find it hard to believe (as many do) that the "star quarterback" never got any ever..... All we can do is speculate from whom he got it. I've made my arguments about him being gay and I think they're pretty good ones. I also think the ones for Briseis are pretty weak. Basically he sorta kinda "won" her, thought she was neato but (despite everyone else in the book talking about sex) never said they did it, and got pissed when Agamemnon took her. That's about all there is for that one that I'm seeing. Then I look at what I see as the huge mass of "he's gay" arguments and just sorta compare the two.... Guess where I come out on that issue....
There really isn't and can't be a conclusive right answer, but I read those books long ago and totally thought he was gay....