Unforgiven shares many parallels with Homer's Iliad, in characters and themes. "In both works, the protagonists - Achilles and William Munny - are self-questioning warriors who temporarily reject the culture of violence only to return to it after the death of their closest male friend, in which they are implicated."[19] Munny and Achilles have the same dilemma between fate and counter-fate. They know that their fate is being a warrior and likely dying that way, however they both try to reject it for at least some time. Munny continually claims he has changed and "ain't like that no more" referring to his warrior-like hitman past, whereas Achilles continually refuses to be a soldier in the Greek army since he condemns Agamemnon for stealing his captured bride as war spoil.
Neither wants to kill for causes from their past (Munny being an outlaw, Achilles being a warrior-king) since they find them unjust. Both are committed to a "higher" cause—Munny to his children and his wife's wishes, and Achilles to the injustice of women-stealing and to Briseis, who at one point he would've had to sacrifice to Agamemnon to stop the war.
However, when their best friends are killed—Achilles' Patroclus and Munny's Ned—they allow their rage and desire for vengeance to make them return to their warrior-prescribed fate. Achilles rages against the Trojans and kills many. He gets vengeance by killing Hector and desecrating his corpse, dragging it around the town. Munny rages against Little Bill and his crew. He gets vengeance by killing them and Little Bill, threatening to kill anyone who opposes him.
There are however relevant differences in Homer's epic and Eastwood's film, namely that Achilles is fated to die in battle, whereas Munny moves to California at the end of the film to become a businessman to provide for his kids. Whether Munny has successfully countered his warrior-fate is unclear, as is whether a life in dry goods redeems him as his love for his wife had done.
