The Iliad

While the Trojans pour into the city, Hector remains outside the gates. Apollo reveals himself to Achilles, taunting him. Furious, Achilles sprints back toward the city. Priam begs Hector not to face Achilles, foreshadowing what will happen when Troy falls, but he cannot change Hector’s mind. Hecuba pleads with Hector to pity his mother who gave him life and nursed him, but Hector feels he has no way out. Polydamas warned him, but he did not listen. Because of his “reckless pride,” the Trojan armies are ruined (545). He would be ashamed to face the Trojan men after turning back from the fight he himself courted. He briefly considers trying to speak with Achilles, to offer to return Helen and her treasures, but he quickly accepts that Achilles will not show him mercy.

At the last moment, Hector loses his nerve and runs. Achilles chases him three times around the city while the immortals look down on them. Zeus grieves for Hector and considers saving him, since he offered such excellent sacrifices. Athen advises her father that though he is the most powerful and can do as he pleases, the others will resent him if he saves Hector. Zeus tells her to “[h]old back no more,” and she speeds down to the plain (547). Hector longs for escape, but Zeus holds up his scales; Hector’s side drops, signaling his death. Apollo immediately leaves him, and Athena goes to Achilles’s side to strategize.

She appears to Hector disguised as his beloved brother Deiphobus, telling him that they will take on Achilles together. Hector is overjoyed that his brother risked his life to come to his aid. Lured by Athena, Hector faces Achilles and suggests they swear oaths that the victor will not mutilate the victim’s body but return it to his comrades. Achilles retorts that there are no oaths “between men and lions” or “wolves and lambs,” then throws his spear (550). He misses, but Athena returns his spear to him. Hector’s throw hits but does not pierce Achilles’s shield. He calls Deiphobus for a replacement spear, but his brother is gone. Hector understands that a god has tricked him and his death has arrived.

Resolving not to die without glory, he lunges at Achilles with his sword, and Achilles charges too. He drives his sword into Hector’s neck, at the one vulnerable spot of the armor Achilles knows so well. With his dying breaths, Hector begs Achilles to return his body to his family, but Achilles refuses. Hector predicts Achilles’s death at Paris and Apollo’s hands, then dies. Achilles taunts his body, saying he will meet his death willingly “whenever Zeus and the other deathless gods would like to bring it on” (553). Achilles strips off Hector’s armor while the Achaean armies rush forward to stab his body. Achilles ties Hector’s heels to his chariot and drags his body through the dirt.

Watching from the walls, Hecuba tears off her veil and screams, tearing out her hair. Priam and the Trojans cry out in grief. Hecuba leads the Trojan women in a dirge for her son. Andromache, who had been arranging a bath for Hector upon his return from battle, hears her mother-in-law’s cries and rushes to the walls. Seeing Hector being driven through the dirt, she faints, then rips off her headdress (a wedding gift from Aphrodite) and laments for Hector and the fate of their son. The women wail in response.

After the Myrmidons return to camp, Achilles leads a dirge for Patroclus then oversees a funeral feast for the Myrmidons. He refuses to eat or wash until Patroclus’s funeral rites are performed. Patroclus’s shade visits Achilles after he falls asleep and asks him to perform the rites so he can pass through Hades’s gates. His final request is for their bones to be buried together. Achilles tries to embrace Patroclus, but he is “like a wisp of smoke” (562).

At dawn, the Myrmidons prepare Patroclus’s funeral pyre. They sacrifice sheep and cattle and surround his bier with honey and oil, four large stallions, two of Patroclus’s dogs, and the 12 Trojan youths whom Achilles previously captured. Achilles burns everything but Hector, whom he intends to feed to the dogs. Aphrodite, however, will not allow it and preserves Hector’s body. The pyre initially refuses to catch, prompting Achilles to pray to the west and north winds, Zephyr and Boreas, respectively. Iris carries the message to them, and they unleash a “superhuman roar” that sends “a huge inhuman blaze [...] howling up the skies” (566). Achilles instructs the Achaean leaders to collect Patroclus’s bones and raise a temporary funeral mound.

After the rites, Achilles brings out prizes for funeral games. The first competition is a chariot race. Nestor advises his son Antilochus on strategy. During the race, Eumelus takes the lead, followed by Diomedes. Apollo sabotages Diomedes by knocking his whip out of his hands, but Athena returns it to him and causes Eumelus and Admetus to crash. Diomedes takes the lead, followed by Menelaus and Antilochus. Antilochus swerves dangerously through a narrow pass, prompting Menelaus to rebuke him, but Antilochus ignores him, surging ahead. Diomedes wins, followed by Antilochus then Menelaus, and Eumelus last. Achilles wants to give the second-place prize to Eumelus out of pity, but Antilochus objects. Achilles accommodates both. Menelaus accuses Antilochus of deliberately blocking his chariot, and Antilochus immediately apologizes, deferring to Menelaus as his senior and “the greater man” and relinquishing the prize (a mare) to him (577). Satisfied, Menelaus cautions Antilochus “to refrain from cheating your superiors in future” and returns the mare to him (578). Achilles gives Nestor, who is too old to compete, a gift to remember “the burial of Patroclus” (578). Thrilled, Nestor tells a story of his past glory.

Boxing and wrestling matches come next. Odysseus and Greater Ajax are evenly matched in the latter, and Achilles calls a draw. In the foot race that follows, the two men again are neck-and-neck. Odysseus prays to Athena, and she trips Ajax, causing him to fall in a pile of manure. Odysseus wins, and the Achaeans laugh at Ajax’s expense. Antilochus teases Odysseus for being old and praises Achilles, earning a prize from the latter. After the foot face, a duel in full battle gear is held. Ajax and Diomedes volunteer, but the duel is cut prematurely short as the Achaeans worry that one of them will be killed. Weight toss and archery competitions close the games. Lastly, Achilles presents a prize to Agamemnon though he has not competed because he is “the best by far” (587).

The Achaean armies return to their camps after the games, while Achilles continues to grieve Patroclus, unable to sleep. At dawn, he drags Hector’s body behind his chariot around Patroclus’s tomb, but Apollo protects the corpse from being harmed. The immortals pity Hector and consider sending Hermes to steal his body, but Hera, Poseidon, and Athena object. Twelve days after Hector’s death, Achilles’s outrage continues, prompting Apollo to rebuke the immortals for allowing it to continue. Zeus will not permit the body to be stolen behind Achilles’s back, out of respect for Thetis, but he sends Iris to summon her. He instructs Thetis to inform Achilles that the gods are angry with him, and he must accept ransom for Hector’s body from Priam. After speaking with his mother, Achilles consents.

Zeus sends Iris to Priam. Finding the king and city in deep mourning, she instructs Priam to prepare a cart with gifts and deliver them to Achilles, traveling only with a herald; Hermes will guide him and ensure his safety. Hecuba objects to the plan, but Priam trusts Iris’s word and insists on going, even if it leads to his death. He orders his surviving sons to prepare his cart, filling it with gifts. Hecuba urges Priam to pray for an omen, and he complies. Zeus sends an eagle, filling the Trojans with joy. Observing Priam’s progress fills Zeus with pity, and he sends Hermes in the guise of a Myrmidons prince to deliver Priam safely to Achilles. Priam is initially frightened, but Hermes tells him, “you remind me of my dear father, to the life” (600). Priam asks him if Achilles has mutilated Hector, and Hermes assures him that the gods are preserving his body because they “love him dearly” (602).

When they arrive, Hermes reveals himself and instructs Priam to enter and supplicate Achilles. Priam obeys, kneeling before Achilles, grasping his knees, and kissing his “terrible, man-killing hands / that had slaughtered Priam’s many sons in battle” (604). Achilles and his men marvel at Priam, who begs Achilles to remember his own father. Priam’s word hit their mark. Achilles gently pushes Priam away, and both weep, each for their own sorrows. After a while, Achilles lifts up Priam, praising his courage and seeing his father’s joys and hardships reflected in his enemy’s father. He asks Priam to rest, but he wants to see his son immediately. Achilles warns Priam not to “tempt my wrath” (607). Frightened, Priam obeys, while Achilles and his comrades lead in the herald and unload the ransom. Achilles orders Hector’s body bathed and anointed. He personally carries out the body, asking Patroclus not to be angry with him.

Achilles tells Priam that Hector has been set free and asks Priam to eat with him, recalling Niobe who ate even though Apollo and Artemis killed her children. After their meal, they gaze at each other, marveling at each other’s beauty and nobility. Priam asks to rest, and while his bed is being made, Achilles asks how long the Trojans need to perform Hector’s funeral rites, promising to hold himself and the Achaeans back for as long as he needs. Priam goes to his bed, while Achilles sleeps beside Briseis. Hermes rouses Priam and leads him safely out of the Achaean camp.

Cassandra is the first to see her father returning and cries out, alerting the city. The Trojans stream out of the gates to meet Priam. Andromache and Hecuba are the first to throw themselves on the cart. Singers begin the dirges, then Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen each lead one, lamenting Hector’s fate and their own, and the Trojan women answer. Priam orders preparation for the funeral rites, “[a]nd so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses” (614).