Peter’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

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.