The Iliad is a poem written by the famous poet Homer, and my version was translated by Robert Fagles. The Iliad is about the Trojan war. The Trojan war was a conflict between the Trojans and the Greeks in the 12th century BC. The war started when a Trojan prince named Paris stole Helen, a beautiful young woman, from the Achaeans, AKA the Greeks. The Greeks then, being upset and all, went to Troy to try to take Helen back. They spent 9 years laying siege to Troy. Achilles didn’t participate, though, because the Achaean commander, Agamemnon, took his wife to be given as tribute to the god Apollo. Apollo is the god of medicine and archery. He was plaguing the ships because Agamemnon had scorned a priest of Apollo, who then told Apollo to plague the ships of the Greeks. Achilles had been sulking for 9 years and was still upset about Agamemnon. He was also irritated that Agamemnon did not fight in battles, even though he was the commander of the Achaean army.
One night, Achilles went out to the Ocean and prayed to his mother, the goddess Thetis. He asked her to do her best to drive the Achaeans against their ships, so that they would need him to help and would give him great rewards.
Meanwhile, though, while Achilles was still busy sulking, the Achaeans were making a truce with the Trojans. The formally warring parties had decided that Helen’s two husbands — Paris, Prince of Troy, and Menelaus, her former husband in Achaea — should fight it out by themselves. Then, the clash commenced. Paris threw his spear first and hit center. However, Paris’s spear did not penetrate Menelaus’s shield. Next, Menelaus threw his spear and broke Paris’s shield; however, Paris himself dodged the blow. Next, Menelaus charged with his sword, which quickly broke. Then, when Menelaus started to strangle Paris, the goddess Aphrodite intervened to save Paris, and dropped him in his bedroom, safe inside the walls of Troy. While Menelaus was screaming at the Trojans, an archer let fly, and hit Menelaus in the shoulder. The brief truce was broken, and the armies resumed their conflict.
The Greeks initially had the upper hand, because they were fueled by the goddess Athena. One man in particular was helped even more than the others: the captain Diomedes. He attacked and killed many Trojans, before the war god Ares intervened. However, Athena stood with Diomedes, and while Athena blocked Ares’s spear, Diomedes stabbed the war god in the chest. But then the king of the gods, Zeus, intervened.
Zeus gave another Trojan prince and the Trojan’s best fighter, Hector, incredible strength. So fortified, Hector challenged all of the Greek captains to a duel with him. Before fighting the others, Hector and Ajax battled. Ajax was a shield-man, and one of the best fighters for the Greeks. But the most amazing part about him was his size. Ajax loomed over all of the other Greeks or Trojans by a good two feet. Ajax and Hector battled until night — Hector attacking Ajax, and Ajax blocking the blows with his gargantuan shield. Once night had fallen, Ajax and Hector stopped fighting, and both sides made camp.
That night, the Trojans lit 1,000 watch fires and slept just a little beyond the Greek ships. Nestor, one of the Greek captains, proposed that the troops work through the night to construct fortifications between the Trojans and the Greek ships. Agamemnon agreed, and so fortifications were built. While the building was taking place, Agamemnon decided that he wanted Achilles in the battle against the Trojans. So he called the captains Ajax and Odysseus to go and offer rewards to Achilles if he would fight. The rewards were as follows: seven tripods never touched by fire, ten bars of gold, twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen massive stallions, racers who earned him trophies with their speed, seven women, including his wife, half the loot of Troy, twenty Trojan women, marriage to one of Agamemnon’s daughters, and seven citadels. Achilles declined.
Agamemnon decided to fight the next day. When dawn broke, the Trojans attacked the fortifications. Zeus told Hector to not enter the battle until Agamemnon was wounded. Agamemnon fought well and killed many Trojans. However, an archer shot him in the leg, causing Agamemnon to exit the battle. With Agamemnon out, Hector entered the fray.
Hector immediately broke through the fortifications and killed a lot of Greeks. Ajax and Menelaus were the only ones standing in his way to the ships. The rest of the Greeks had cut and run. The duo held for a long time, but, eventually, Menelaus got wounded, and Ajax was overwhelmed. Then, by the persuasion of his best friend, Patroclus, Achilles exited the ships where he had been sulking, and let loose his battle cry.
Achilles’s yell killed twelve Trojans, because they were so afraid that they either stabbed themselves or their friends. Then, Patroclus donned the armor of Achilles and rallied the Greeks. Patroclus was a great fighter and drove the Trojans back to the plain where they had originally been fighting. But sadly, he came up against Hector. Hector killed him and put on Patroclus’s armor. Then, night came again and the Trojans and Greeks made camp.
That night, Achilles finally decided he was going to join the battle. His mother, Thetis, determined that she wanted her son to have the best armor and the best shield, so he could stay safe in battle. Thetis went up to Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, and asked him to make her son armor and a shield better than all others of its kind. Hephaestus agreed and made Thetis the armor and shield.
Then, before dawn, Zeus called all of the gods together and told them that they could intercede, pick a side, and fight for the Trojans or the Greeks. For Troy were Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, and Leto. For the Greeks were Athena, Hera, Poseidon, and Hermes. Neutral gods were Hephaestus, Zeus, Demeter, and Dionysos. The gods and mortals battled, and in time, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Aphrodite, and Apollo were defeated. Meanwhile Achilles was fighting the river god Scamander. Scamander was winning, but then Hera decided to send her son Hephaestus down to help Achilles survive. Hephaestus, the god of fire, burned the river until Scamander swore that he would not stop Achilles from taking the walls of Troy.
Overwhelmed by Achilles, the Trojans decided to retreat to within their walls. All except Hector. He stayed to face Achilles alone. Achilles chased him three times around the walls of Troy before Athena granted him the strength to kill him. After this, Achilles had a grand funeral for Patroclus, and didn’t eat for three days. Then, Priam, the king of Troy, wanted to have his son Hector back, so he could have a funeral too. He brought treasures which he gave to Achilles in return for Hector. Achilles gave Priam lodging in his cabin and nine days to hold the funeral of Hector.
I really enjoyed this book because Greek mythology is really unbelievable (get it?) and sometimes funny. Homer explains things a lot better than I have explained them, mostly because he had more pages in the Iliad than I have words of this book report. This book teaches you to never get too angry because if Achilles had not sulked, he would have killed Hector a lot earlier and saved a lot of Achaean lives. You would think that sometimes Achilles would see the bright side. And if not, he should at least see the bright angle. The Iliad is my favorite book that I have read so far on this trip. It is truly stunning.
Fanatical Sabbatical 