Peter > Recent Status Updates

Book XXIV, time to Mourn, closes out the Illiad and details the ransom of hector’s body from Achilles. Hermes plays a greater role in these last few pages, but what astonishes me is how plight and cooperative Achilles proves — both to the Gods and to Priam, who comes to ransom his son. Imagine if he had listened to reason some time before? Remember, the Greeks had sat there for a decade before this.

Book XXIII, funeral games, feature films he races (chariot and foot), the wrestling, archery, and boxing competitions Achilles organizes in the memory of Patroclus. The chariot race was my favorite, but I didn’t like the archery competitions Achilles organizes because of the slain dove.

Book XXII, a race to death, describes the death of Hector with Athena’s shameless deceit of him in the form of one he trusts, who urges him to face Achilles straightforwardly. And then, after the Greeks desecrate his corpse, Achilles ties him feet first to the chariot and drags him around the walls of Troy. Andromache’s discovery of Hector’sp death is appropriately heartbreaking.

Book XXI, the rider, details the disgust a rider his expresses at Achilles’ wanton slaughter of Trojans and the pollution of the river with the bodies and blood Achilles spills. In response, the river rises up and tries to overwhelm Achilles before he reaches the gates of Troy. Alas, there are other gods supporting Achilles and the river god’s efforts get thwarted by Hephaestus at his mother Hera’s bidding

In book XIX, a meal before dying, all the Greeks save Achilles dine before battle Achilles swears he can not eat, and Athena gives him nectar and ambrosia to sustain him.

In Book XX, the warrior’s return, Achilles takes to the battlefield in search of Hector. His bloodlust approaches berserker levels of gore, but Apollo prevents him from killing Aeneas. Zeus has encouraged all the gods to join the battle.

Book XVIII, Divine Armor, related the exquisite detail that Hephaestus adorns the shield he makes for Achilles in response to Thetis’ plea.

I neglected to mention my surprise when the Greeks bring the Patroclus to Achilles. Achilles’ slave women seek to restrain his hands in case he opens his veins with an iron knife.

IRON? This is the Bronze Age!

There were iron weapons back then, forged from meteorites.

Book XVII, titled “battle for a dead man,” plays out the incredibly intense and acerbic bloodshed that surrounds the body of Patroclus. Hector wants to bring it to Troy as a trophy, while the brothers Ajax guard the corpse (already denuded of armor). Thanks to divine intervention on both sides, neither faction succeeds until the very end when Achilles’ mother Thetis appears.

In chapter XVII, Battle for a Dead Man, the Greeks and Trojans engage in a deadly war of attrition, the goal of which is to bring Patroclus either back to Achilles or to Troy. The body count is high, as Athena, Apollo, and even Zeus interfere at ground level. It’s a bloody battle.

Book XVI Love and Death: Sarpedon of the lycians falls, and Patroclus dies — not quite exclusively — by hector’s hand. What sorcery, what interference the gods practice!

Chapter XIV, titled “an afternoon nap” by the translator, amazed me. when Hera goes to seduce him, he spends an eternity listing ALL the women he beguiled and seduced in his bid to lay down with the wife he consistently betrayed.

But she has ulterior motives, and while he sleeps, ensnared by a postprandial torpor, the Trojans lose valuable ground against the Greeks.

Chapter XII, the wall, tells us about the Greek effort to protect their ships from Trojan sabotage, while chapter XIiI, the wounds, finds the wall the Greeks built has been breached and hector, accompanied by Paris and Aeneas, are making serious inroads against the Greeks. Zeus has the Trojans’ back, while Poseidon protects the Greeks. Meanwhile, Ares continues to inspire mayhem on both sides.

Well, The Wounds was a most exciting chapter! After the subterfuge of “espionage at night,” the open and untrammeled battle by daylight was both exuberant and deadly. I did not expect a lecture from Nestor to Patroclus — it had the snug sanctimony of John Galt’s radio address in “atlas Shrugged,” with a Bronze Age spin.

Book XI, titled “espionage at night,” reveals the sad fate of a Trojan spy (Dolon) and the thracians he gave up in an attempt to save his own life in return for theirs. Ajax and Odysseus make off with first rate horses, garments, weapons in what was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission.

Book IX, the Embassy, details the future effort of Ajax, Odysseus, and Phoenix to convince Achilles to rejoin the Greeks in the effort to take Troy. As a textbook case of hubris, this passage has few equals, I think. Even vainglorious and boastful Agamemnon steps down from his pride to beg Achilles, all to no avail.

Book VIII saw the odds tip in the Trojans’ favor and both Hera and Athena tried to undo this, but Zeus was relentless in his defense of Hector

Book VII, which describes the duel between Hector and Ajax, surprised me in the obedience of the Greeks AND Trojans with the suggestions of the Gods. Usually, we see hubris, rage, or vengeance pushing individuals to resist the word of Athena, Apollo, Hera, or Zeus. As if they know any better what Fate holds for them!

Book VI, the price of honor” in this translation, is a hard pill to swallow, as hector knows full well he is doomed, but nothing in his culture and upbringing will let him seek safety.

Honor and suicide seem inextricably linked.

I Had to look up Thebe where Andromache came from — it’s not the same Thebes of Greece or Egypt. Equally confusing is the use of the name Pergamum to denote the highest point of Troy.

Well, just finished Book V. And what a mess those pesky gods made of human conflict!

Just finished Book IV, a momentous and nasty piece of work, not only do the God frame the Trojans to make it appear they violated a truce, but the Greeks prove themselves to be quite the vindictive and splenetic humans. It’s amazing, reading that passage, that the Greeks didn’t kill each other in the nine years prior!

This glorious translation accomplishes so many different things without losing scope and focus.

I just finished book two, which amazed me. It amazed me because I’ve long hated the use of lists for narrative purposes — Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray is tedious because it leans heavily on lists. This translation, and the introduction which glosses the text, brought light and glory to the text.