i just don't think you can genuinely make achilles out to be an oppressed soldier/worker in the iliad when he doesn't experience any disciplinary consequences for retaliating against agamemnon by leaving the battlefield. does achilles feel exploited? i'm sure he does. the iliad makes no bones about the fact that agamemnon abused his authority by taking briseis. but the power dynamic is such that achilles can still leave, and that's not considered disobedience or insubordination. in point of fact, there are lower classes on the battlefield: the common soldiers. there may even be a commoner who rebels against the kings: when thersites insults agamemnon, odysseus beats him and the narrative clowns on him happily. but when achilles insults agamemnon, the other kings supplicate him. (do you want gifts? do you want your sex slave? do you want even more women? do you want his daughter's hand in marriage? please please come back!) that is a privileged position. it isn't situated in a modern military or modern capitalism, and it doesn't make sense to act like that's how the achilles/agamemnon conflict operates.
