The Sweetness of Anger

Wrath, revenge, and competing measures of strength

Anger can feel like strength even while it takes command of the angry person. Achilles knows its sweetness, and Aeneas lets grief for Pallas settle a final act of revenge. Marcus and Dante, in different moral worlds, turn attention to the power anger gains over its bearer.

1. Iliad 18.107–116
2. Aeneid 12.940–952
3. Meditations 11.18.5
4. Inferno 7.109–120