The Iliad

Agamemnon and Menelaus are both unable to sleep for worrying. Agamemnon tells his brother that they need good tactics now that Zeus has decided to give Hector glory. Menelaus defers to his brother. Agamemnon sends Menelaus to gather the leaders and goes to Nestor, who criticizes Menelaus for being asleep. Agamemnon gently corrects him, saying that while Menelaus expects Agamemnon to act first, he is currently awake and active.

On their way to check on the sentries, Agamemnon and Nestor pick up Odysseus and Diomedes. Finding the sentries away and watchful, Nestor praises them and suggests sending a spy into the Trojan camp. Diomedes volunteers and asks for a companion since two work better than one. Many volunteer, and Nestor tells him to pick the best man for the job, even if he is not the highest rank. Diomedes picks Odysseus, and the two dress for the mission. Meriones gives Odysseus a helmet with an impressive genealogy. Athena sends a good omen in the form of a heron, and Odysseus prays to her to stay by his side.

In Troy, meanwhile, Hector also calls for a spy mission, promising Achilles’s horses as the reward. Dolon accepts, but it is a doomed mission. Odysseus sees him coming, and he and Diomedes capture him. Dolon begs them to accept a ransom for his life, and Odysseus admonishes him to have courage. Dolon reveals everything he knows, including information about the Thracians, late-arriving Trojan allies camped apart from the rest. Their king, Rhesus, has the best horses. When Dolon asks to be taken to the Achaean ships, Diomedes tells him they cannot let him live and beheads him before Dolon can complete the gesture of supplication. Odysseus and Diomedes strip his body of weapons and dedicate them to Athena, asking her to guide them to raid the Thracian camp.

They slaughter a group of Thracians in their sleep, including the king, and Odysseus secures the horses. Diomedes pauses, considering the “most brazen thing he could do,” but Athena cautions him not to hurry lest another, hostile god notice him (293). As Diomedes and Odysseus race for the Achaean camp with the horses, Apollo wakes up another Thracian leader, who vomits at the carnage and wails, waking others.

Hearing the pounding of approaching hooves, Nestor worries about a Trojan charge and is relieved to see Odysseus and Diomedes with the horses. Their comrades welcome them warmly with hugs and handclasps. After telling their story, Diomedes and Odysseus wash, bathe, and eat, pouring libations “to the great goddess Athena” (295).

Zeus flings Strife onto the Achaean ships, and her cry rouses their “fighting fury” so they no longer think of returning “to their dear native land” (296-97). Agamemnon dresses for battle, the poet describing the images on his breastplate and shield. As he picks up his two spears, they flash up to the sky, and Athena and Hera release a thunder crack to honor him. Hector advances with his armies, and the two sides clash. Strife remains among them while the rest of the gods recline “at their royal ease,” complaining among themselves that Zeus is giving the Trojans victory (301). He ignores them, “glorying in his power” and gazing at the clashing armies (301).

Agamemnon rampages through the Trojan line, pushing the Achaeans forward to the gates of Troy. Zeus ensures Hector’s safety, sending Iris to instruct Hector to hold back until Agamemnon is wounded, then Zeus will lead him to the Achaeans ships. The poet asks the Muse to reveal who among the Trojans fought against and was killed by Agamemnon. One of his victims wounds him, and he is forced to withdraw from battle. Seeing his signal, Hector fires up his armies to press forward, and the poet catalogues his victims.

Odysseus tries to rouse the Achaeans’ fighting spirit, calling out to Diomedes, who fights on though he knows Zeus has marked Hector for glory. Together they slash through Trojans until Hector charges at them. Diomedes’s spear hits Hector but does not pierce his armor. Paris wounds Diomedes, and they trade insults. Diomedes taunts Paris for being a pretty boy incapable of hand-to-hand combat but has to withdraw, leaving Odysseus alone. Odysseus kills a few Trojans before being wounded, not fatally due to Athena’s intervention. He too retreats, killing the man who wounded him but being surrounded by Trojans in the process. Hearing his distress cries, Menelaus calls Greater Ajax, and the two remove Odysseus, scattering Trojans as they go. Hector, meanwhile, battles near Nestor and Idomeneus. Paris wounds the healer Machaon, and Idomeneus instructs Nestor to bring him back to camp. Hector continues his rampage, though he avoids attacking Greater Ajax directly. Zeus forces the latter to retreat, “spirits dashed and much against his will,” under a barrage of Trojan spears (314).

Seeing the rout from his ship and expecting the Achaeans to come crawling back to him, Achilles sends Patroclus to question Nestor, and “from that moment on [Patroclus’s] doom was sealed” (316). Patroclus finds Nestor with Eurymedon. Hecamede, a woman Nestor won as a prize, is waiting on them. Nestor greets Patroclus warmly, telling him the Achaeans are in danger. He asks how long Achilles will wait and laments that he is too old to fight as he once did, then launches into a long story about a past exploit involving Heracles and Athena. After he is finished, Nestor reminds Patroclus of the advice his father, Menoetius, gave him when they left for Troy: Achilles’s immortal blood makes him more powerful and noble, but Patroclus is older and must provide sound advice. He urges Patroclus to intervene. If Achilles refuses to fight, he should at least send Patroclus in his armor to frighten the Trojans and provide the exhausted Achaeans relief.

His fighting spirit ignited, Patroclus hurries back toward Achilles’s camp but stops to help a wounded comrade, who tells him the Achaeans’ situation is hopeless.

The fighting moves closer to the ships, endangering the Achaeans’ protective wall. The Achaeans did not secure it with a sacrifice to the immortals; the wall survives only as long as the war. After it ends, Apollo and Poseidon destroy it.

Hector fights his way to the wall like a boar among hunters, but his horses refuse to jump across the trench. Polydamas says it is madness to try driving the horses across and suggests crossing on foot. The poet catalogues the Trojan leaders who advance. One, Asius, refuses to leave his horses behind and drives toward a gate that Polypoetes and Leonteus successfully guard. The Trojans attack in force, and the Achaeans labor to hold back the charge. The poet notes that it is impossible to recount the battle in full; “[t]he strain is far too great” (331).

Hector and his forces are determined to breach the walls, but a bird omen appears. Polydamas urges Hector to stop attacking since the bird is a portend that the Trojans will not succeed in burning the Achaean fleet. Accusing him of being a coward, Hector replies that the only omen he obeys is fighting for his country. He trusts the plan of Zeus, not birds.

The Trojans continue to tear and hack at the wall. Zeus drives his son Sarpedon forward, charging at the wall. He calls out to Glaucus, telling him that the price of receiving the highest honors is the duty to serve on the front lines. Since they cannot escape death, they surge ahead. Sarpedon rips off a large chunk of the wall. Little Ajax injures Glaucus and strikes at Sarpedon, but Zeus protects his son. The fighting grows increasingly fierce and brutal, but the Trojans cannot rout the Achaeans.

Zeus gives Hector the strength to lift a massive boulder and hurl it at the gate. It smashes it, and Hector bursts through, urging his allies on. Some scale the wall while others surge through the wrecked gate.