Near death, Hector pleads with Achilles to return his body to the Trojans for burial, but Achilles resolves to let the dogs and scavenger birds maul the Trojan hero. Andromache hears them from her chamber and runs outside. In this section of the epic, the feuds of the gods continue to echo the battles of the mortals. As the human battles become ever more grave, however, the divine conflicts in these episodes seem ever more superfluous.
In their internal fighting, the gods do not affect or even try to affect the underlying issues of the human conflict. Two of them explicitly swear off fighting over the mortals, though one of these, Hera, ends up doing just that.
It seems that the gods are not actually fighting over the mortals but rather expressing the animosities that the mortal conflict has stirred in them. Homer uses several devices, including prophecy and irony, to build a heavy sense of pathos. When Andromache bewails the miserable life that Astyanax will have to endure without a father, a sharp sense of irony enhances the tragic effect of her words: Astyanax will suffer this fatherless life only briefly, as he dies shortly after the fall of Troy.
This section of the poem reveals a particularly skillful control of plot. Events interweave with one another in elaborate patterns. Hector must fight to the death in these episodes in order to redeem the honor that he loses earlier; after he recklessly orders his troops to camp outside the city walls, the men have to flee, causing Hector great shame.
The final duel between Achilles and Hector becomes not only a duel of heroes but also of heroic values. While Achilles proves superior to Hector in terms of strength and endurance, he emerges as inferior in terms of integrity.
As we have seen, Achilles engages in such indignities quite routinely and does so not out of any real principle but out of uncontrollable rage. Achilles stands poised to draw his sword and kill the Achaean commander when the goddess Athena , sent by Hera, the queen of the gods, appears to him and checks his anger.
Achilles prays to his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, to ask Zeus, king of the gods, to punish the Achaeans. Why is Athena in disguise?
How did Athena trick Hector? Who is Athena? Why did Athena hate the Trojans? Did Achilles know about his heel? Where is Athena the Greek goddess from? Is Troy a real place? When did Achilles die? Is mythology considered history? Why is Athena considered important in Greek mythology? Why was Athena Zeus favorite child? What does Pallas Athena mean? Definition for pallas athena 2 of 2.
Who killed Medusa? What did Hercules kill? Who Won the Trojan War? Who does Athena disguise herself as in the Iliad? Book 7. Back on the battlefield, Hektor proposes a duel with one of the Achaeans. However, none of the Achaeans is brave enough to accept the Trojan heroes challenge. Nestor chides the warriors until nine of the Achaean champions volunteer to fight Hektor.
Finally, Telamonian Ajax is chosen by lot and the warriors engage in a ferocious fight, but the duel ends in a draw as night falls. Both sides agree to a truce to bury the dead, and the Achaeans build a wall and a trench to defend their ships and fortify their camp.
Book 8. The battle resumes. At a council on Olympus, Zeus tells the gods that he is planning on bringing the war to an end and orders them not to interfere on either side.
Book 9. The Achaean leaders hold an assembly. Agamemnon, on the verge of tears, proposes to go home, but Diomedes and Nestor dissuade him, for it is fated that Troy will eventually fall. Agamemnon admits his mistake at having insulted Achilles and Nestor convinces him to return Briseis and offer Achilles splendid gifts in reconciliation. Achilles, putting his injured pride above all else, rejects their appeals. Book On the way, they capture Dolon, a Trojan nobleman sent by Hektor to spy on the Achaeans.
After extracting advantageous information from Dolon, they kill him. They then sneak into the Trojan camp, brutally murder Rhesos, a Trojan ally, and twelve of his warriors, and lead off their magnificent horses as spoils. Battle resumes the next morning and several prominent Achaean warriors are wounded and must leave the fighting. Achilles watches the defeat and, troubled by the turn of events, sends Patroklos, his comrade-in-arms, to find out about the casualties, since his own wounded pride will not allow him to openly show an interest in the fate of the Achaeans.
Books The battle is bloody. Agamemnon, Diomedes and Odysseus are all wounded and the Achaeans are forced to take refuge behind their wall. Hektor and the Trojans breach the wall and storm the Achaean camp.
Hera figures out what Poseidon is up to and seduces Zeus to distract his attention away from the battle. As the Achaeans rally, Hektor is wounded. Having fallen asleep, Zeus wakes up and threatens the gods to cease their assistance. Hektor returns to the battle, drives the Achaeans back to their ships, and tries to set them on fire. Achilles warns him to do no more than rescue the ships, which are now burning, and to return once he has driven the Trojans away.
Apollo sends a plague upon the Greek camp, causing the death of many soldiers. After ten days of suffering, Achilles calls an assembly of the Achaean army and asks for a soothsayer to reveal the cause of the plague. Calchas, a powerful seer, stands up and offers his services.
Though he fears retribution from Agamemnon, Calchas reveals the plague as a vengeful and strategic move by Chryses and Apollo. Agamemnon flies into a rage and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles gives him Briseis as compensation.
The men argue, and Achilles threatens to withdraw from battle and take his people, the Myrmidons, back home to Phthia. Achilles stands poised to draw his sword and kill the Achaean commander when the goddess Athena, sent by Hera, the queen of the gods, appears to him and checks his anger.
Achilles prays to his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, to ask Zeus , king of the gods, to punish the Achaeans. He relates to her the tale of his quarrel with Agamemnon, and she promises to take the matter up with Zeus—who owes her a favor—as soon as he returns from a thirteen-day period of feasting with the Aethiopians.
Meanwhile, the Achaean commander Odysseus is navigating the ship that Chryseis has boarded. When he lands, he returns the maiden and makes sacrifices to Apollo. Chryses, overjoyed to see his daughter, prays to the god to lift the plague from the Achaean camp. Apollo acknowledges his prayer, and Odysseus returns to his comrades.
But the end of the plague on the Achaeans only marks the beginning of worse suffering.
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