The Iliad

Tending Machaon in his tent, Nestor hears the battle cries growing closer and hurries out to check on the situation; he is stunned to see the protective wall smashed. He rushes to Agamemnon and finds him dispirited, fearing Hector will succeed and all Achaea will hate him. Nestor agrees the situation is dire, and they need to strategize with the Achaean leaders. Believing that Zeus wants to kill the Achaeans at Troy, Agamemnon suggests that they drag their ships out to sea and flee in the night. Odysseus furiously calls him “a disaster,” pointing out that if the Achaean fighters see them putting the ships to sea, they will falter and be overwhelmed by the Trojans, and everyone will die (372). Agamemnon backs down and asks for a better plan. Diomedes steps forward. Realizing the others will not be inclined to listen to him because he is the youngest, he shares his noble genealogy, then suggests the leaders return to battle to encourage the others but stay out of direct combat since they are wounded.

Poseidon sends Agamemnon a heartening message and releases a thunderous shriek, as loud “as nine, ten thousand combat soldiers,” that instills fighting power and spirit into the Achaeans (374). Hera is pleased, but when she notices Zeus “at rest” on Mount Ida, “her heart is filled with loathing” (374-75). To distract him from the battle, she decides to seduce him, then put him into a deep sleep. She bathes, applies performed oils, does her hair, accessorizes, and puts on her sandals and headdress, then visits Aphrodite. Hera asks to borrow Love and Longing, claiming that she wants to use them to heal the feud between Ocean and Tethys. Aphrodite happily hands over the garment that contains them—a breastband “with every kind of enchantment woven through it” (376). Finally, Hera visits Sleep, Death’s twin brother, and asks him to put Zeus to sleep after they make love, promising that Hephaestus will make him a throne in return. Sleep refuses, reminding Hera of the last time he helped her, when she plotted against Heracles. Zeus would have destroyed Sleep if Night had not hidden him. Hera promises Sleep one of the Graces for a wife. After making Hera swear an oath, Sleep agrees.

The two proceed to Mount Ida, and Sleep hides in a tall pine tree. Zeus sees Hera and is overcome with lust. Listing his lovers and the children they bore him, Zeus declares he has never been so attracted to anyone before. He wraps them in a dense golden cloud, and they make love. After putting Zeus to sleep, Sleep visits Poseidon to tell him that he can now help the Achaeans without interference. Poseidon rouses the Achaean leaders, who distribute armor to ensure the best fighters are paired with the best weapons.

The war cries grow louder than crashing waves or gale-force winds. Hector throws his spear at Ajax, who responds by hurling a rock at Hector, knocking him off his feet. Trojan leaders remove him from the field to the Xanthus river. The Achaeans take advantage of Hector’s absence to press harder. The poet catalogues attacks and counter attacks and the grief warriors feel for their fallen comrades, culminating in Peneleos beheading Ilioneus and brandishing his head at the Trojans, which terrifies them. The poet invokes the Muses to tell him which Achaeans gained “bloody spoils” when Poseidon turned the tide toward them and follows with a brief list of Trojan deaths (386).

As the Trojans retreat in panic, Zeus awakens, sees Poseidon leading the Achaean rout and Hector incapacitated, and immediately blames Hera. He reminds her of his violent response to her treachery against Heracles and the other gods’ impotence to help her. She swears that it is all Poseidon’s doing; he pities the Achaeans. Accepting her explanation, Zeus orders her back to Olympus to fetch Iris and Apollo. He will send Iris to order Poseidon to stop interfering and Apollo to revive Hector and panic the Achaeans. This will send Patroclus into battle, which will lead to his death, which will lead Achilles to rejoin the fight to avenge him. After all this takes place, Zeus will give the Achaeans victory. He will permit no interference until his vow to Achilles is fulfilled.

Hera obeys but gripes to the other Olympians that Zeus claims to have greater power and is insensitive to their cares. When she reveals that Ares’s son Ascalaphus was killed, Ares is determined to avenge him and dresses for battle. Concerned that Zeus will punish them all, Athena restrains Ares, telling him the gods cannot rescue all humanity. Meanwhile, Apollo and Iris carry out Zeus’s orders. Poseidon fumes that he and Zeus share the same parentage and received equal shares of their inheritance; Iris reminds him that the Furies “stand by older brothers” (394). He agrees to yield, though it is unfair, and asserts that their rift will be permanent if Zeus attempts to save Troy from falling. The Achaeans feel Poseidon’s departure from the field.

A revived Hector returns to battle, and Achaean Thoas assumes Zeus is once again behind the Trojan leader. He suggests sending the “rank and file” back to the ships while the best fighters stay to face Hector (397). Apollo fills the Achaeans with fear and gives Hector and the Trojans “instant glory” (398). The poet catalogues the Trojan leaders’ victims. The Achaeans retreat, and Hectors orders his armies to “storm the ships” (399). Apollo leads the way, tearing down the Achaeans’ protective wall with the ease of a boy knocking down a sandcastle. The Achaeans pray to the immortals as they retreat. Nestor begs Zeus, if their sacrifices have meant anything, not to let this be the end of the Achaeans. Zeus releases a thunder clap that thrills the Trojans storming over the wall.

Hearing the din, Patroclus hopes to spur Achilles back into battle. Both sides fight fiercely at the ships. Hector and the Ajaxes face off, but Zeus guards Hector. Little Ajax realizes that a god is foiling him. Hector shouts encouragement to the Trojans, assuring them that Zeus is on their side and urging them to die fighting for their homeland. Ajax berates the Achaeans. The poet catalogues Trojan and Achaean deaths at the hands of leaders from both sides.

Zeus builds the Trojans’ fury and blunts the Achaeans’ fighting spirit, determined to bring Thetis’s “disastrous prayer” to fulfillment (407). After the Trojans set fire to an Achaean ship, he will drive the Trojans back and give the Achaeans victory. Zeus prizes Hector above the others because his life will soon end through Athena’s schemes. Zeus and Hector rout the Achaeans. Nestor begs them to be brave. Athena sends a bright light bursting forth to light the Achaeans’ vision. Greater Ajax leaps from ship to ship, urging the Achaeans to defend their only means of transport home. The Trojans press harder, and Ajax struggles to hold them back with his long pike. He begs the Achaeans to fight.

In tears, Patroclus rebukes Achilles for his stubborn rage and implores him to send in the Myrmidons with Patroclus wearing Achilles’s armor to deceive the Trojans into retreating. Though he continues to wallow in his anger, Achilles grants Patroclus’s request, instructing him to return to camp as soon as the ships are safe. He must not press on to Troy since he may attract an antagonistic god’s attention or, by breaching Troy’s walls, diminish Achilles’s glory.

Overwhelmed by the Trojans’ relentless onslaught, Greater Ajax begins to flag. The poet invokes the Muses to sing of the first ship to catch fire. Hector wrecks Ajax’s pike. Recognizing Zeus’s hand, Ajax retreats. A ship goes up in flames, and Achilles urges Patroclus to hurry before the Achaeans’ ships, their only means of escape, are destroyed. Patroclus wears Achilles’s armor but carries his own spear, since only Achilles can wield his weapons. Automedon yokes Achilles’s immortal horses and a purebred.

The Myrmidons are eager for battle. The poet catalogues their battalions, including genealogies and divine parentage. Achilles commands them to fight, then prays to Zeus for Patroclus’s success and safe return to camp. Zeus grants the first but not the second prayer. The Myrmidons surge out “like wasps from a roadside nest” that has been disturbed (421). Thinking Achilles has returned, the Trojans fearfully back away from the ships. Patroclus begins slaughtering Trojans. The Achaeans extinguish the fire. The fighting grows fierce, with Achaeans mauling Trojans like “ravenous wolves” (424).

The Trojans launch a mass retreat. Hector’s horses carry him away, leaving his men behind. Patroclus chases him, slaughtering Trojans along the way. Zeus’s son Sarpedon rebukes his Lycians for lacking pride and rushes Patroclus. They clash like “a pair of crook-clawed, hook-beaked vultures” (426). Zeus wants to save his son from his fate, but Hera warns him the other immortals will want to do the same for their mortal children. She recommends Zeus not interfere but instead arrange for Sleep and Death to return Sarpedon’s body to Lycia for funeral rites and honors. Zeus agrees, crying “tears of blood” that rain down on earth in praise of his son (427).

Patroclus cuts down Sarpedon, who begs Glaucus to save his armor from being stripped. Glaucus prays to Apollo for strength. Achaeans and Trojans fight over Sarpedon’s body, with Zeus intensifying the struggle. As the fight rages on, Zeus considers how to bring about Patroclus’s death. He provokes Hector, who recognizes the god’s hand, to retreat. The Trojans surge back toward the city. Patroclus captures Sarpedon’s armor, then Zeus has Apollo remove Sarpedon’s body to Lycia.

Patroclus drives toward Troy, forgetting Achilles’s orders; Zeus’s will “always overpower[s] the will of men” (435). The poet catalogues the Trojans Patroclus slaughters. Apollo defends Troy’s walls, ordering Patroclus to back off; it is not his fate to capture Troy. When Patroclus charges forward, Apollo smacks him on his back with the flat of his hand, stunning him. He knocks off Patroclus’s helmet, shatters his spear, and drops his shield and breastplate into the dust. Euphorbus spears him between his shoulders. Patroclus tries to retreat into the Achaean line, but Hector rushes forward and buries his spear into Patroclus’s stomach. The Achaeans are horrified. Hector taunts the dying man, who replies that Zeus and Apollo defeated him. He warns Hector that he will soon die at Achilles’s hands.