Iliad

C

The Battle Begins

Paris offers to fight a duel with Menelaus to settle the conflict. After an exchange of blows, Paris’s protector, the goddess Aphrodite, intervenes to save him. Treacherously incited by their enemy Athena, the Trojans break the armistice made before the duel and thereby put themselves morally in the wrong. A series of single combats ensue, skillfully interspersed with domestic incidents inside Troy.

Eventually, when the Greeks are hard-pressed by the Trojans, Agamemnon sends representatives to Achilles who offer rich gifts and the return of Briseis if he will join the fight again. Achilles refuses because he knows reentry guarantees his death at Troy and he now believes no form of honor is worth his life. Yet, after the Greek warrior Ajax appeals to him as a friend, Achilles announces he will fight again if Hector reaches their ships.

D

The Death of Patroclus

Further duels and maneuvers follow. The Trojans attack the Greek camp, and Hector seems unstoppable. Hera, fearing a Trojan triumph, adorns and beautifies herself voluptuously and lures Zeus away from helping the Trojans. He and she withdraw together to Mount Ida. The Greeks regain the upper hand. Zeus awakens, furiously realizes Hera’s cunning, and gives help again to the Trojans. The Greeks fall back in panic. Pitying their plight, Patroclus, dearest friend of Achilles, puts on Achilles’ armor and drives the enemy back. But Hector meets Patroclus in single combat and kills him, and a bloody battle rages over his corpse.

E

The Death of Hector and the Funeral of Patroclus

Achilles resolves to avenge his friend’s death. Thetis persuades Hephaestus, god of metalworking, to make a beautiful new suit of armor for her son. The ornamentation of the shield is described in detail: It includes civic and rural scenes and dancing figures. Achilles, equipped with his new armor, sallies out and kills many Trojans. He fights the river-god Scamander and finally encounters Hector, who panics and is chased three times by Achilles around the walls of Troy. Achilles overtakes Hector and with the help of Athena kills him remorselessly. He ties Hector’s corpse by the heels to his chariot and drags it exultantly back to the Greek camp, while Priam, Priam’s wife Hecuba, and Andromache, Hector’s devoted wife, bewail Hector’s death.

---

---

Achilles makes preparations to give Patroclus a hero’s funeral. A feast is given; wood is gathered from the forests of Mount Ida for a great pyre. Patroclus’s corpse is laid on the pyre; the funeral rites are performed, the body is consumed by fire, and the bones are gathered in a golden vessel. Then come athletic contests in his honor.

The next day Achilles, still full of grief, drags the body of Hector round the burial place of Patroclus repeatedly. After twelve days Apollo appeals to the gods to end this indignity. Zeus agrees to allow Priam to ransom the body of his son, despite the opposition of Hera. Thetis is sent to persuade Achilles to consent to the return of Hector’s body. Iris, messenger of the gods, tells Priam of Zeus’s decision. Priam, despite Hecuba’s efforts to dissuade him, sets out for the tent of Achilles, bearing rich gifts as a ransom.

In a somberly magnificent scene Achilles receives Priam with grave courtesy and, remembering his own aged father Peleus (whom he knows he will never see again), gives Priam the body of Hector. Priam returns with it to Troy. Andromache mourns her husband, Hecuba her son, and Helen her friend. The Trojans perform the obsequies of Hector, and the poem ends with the line: “So they tended the burial of Hector, tamer of horses.”

III

The Characters

The characters of the Iliad are lifelike, vivid, and memorable. On the Greek side are the arrogant, self-centered, yet majestic Agamemnon and the young, quick-tempered, and honor-obsessed Achilles. Savage in his anger, Achilles at heart remains courteous and compassionate. Nestor, though prudent and subtle, is often long-winded. Odysseus, hero of the other epic attributed to Homer, is conciliatory, self-controlled, and resourceful; Ajax, bold, massive, and magnanimous; and Diomedes, dashing and debonair. Many others are portrayed with masterly variety and clarity.

Among the Trojans are the valiant, affectionate, lovable, and doomed Hector, and the age-worn, grief-stricken, but undefeated Priam. Hecuba, wild with grief, first tries in vain to coax her son back to safety, then laments his death in utterly hopeless grief. Andromache, noblest of young wives and mothers, appears in one of the most moving scenes ever composed: the final parting between her and Hector. Helen, conscious of the destructive element in her supreme beauty, remains helpless to escape it.

The gods, too, have vivid but by no means admirable personalities. They bicker, quarrel, scheme, deceive, and even come to blows; they provide the only moments of humor in the grim story. Yet Zeus is invested at times with a sublimity that approaches the highest conceptions of deity. There also are many glimpses of minor characters—soldiers, mythological figures, captives, servants, and country folk—in the background. No poet has surpassed Homer in the art of subtle, economical character drawing.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain