Michael Fusco’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

Achilles: “And yet my heart is swollen up with anger whenever I remember what he did—how Agamemnon, son of Atreus, humiliated me among the Greeks, and treated me like someone with no honor, an outcast with no place to call his home.” (IX.846-851)

“The warriors met, bronze breastplates close together. Hides clashed, spears struck, and human wills collided... Despair and triumph swelled among the killers and those they killed. The earth ran red with blood.” (VIII.76-81)

Andromache to Hector: “Soon I shall be your widow. Soon the Greeks, all of them rushing at you all at once, will kill you. Then for me, when I have lost you—better that I sink down below the earth. There can be no more comfort afterwards for me when you are dead, but only pain.” (VI.553-557)

“At once the wound gushed blood as black as clouds, as when a woman from Maeonia or Caria stains ivory with purple to make a horse's cheekpiece… Menelaus, so were your handsome thighs all stained with blood, so were your handsome calves and shapely ankles.” (III.181-191)

“The Greeks will all be longing for Achilles one day and you will have no power to help, and you will grieve and many men will die at Hector's murderous hands. Then you will tear your heart inside you in a bitter rage because you failed to pay the best Greek fighter proper respect." (I.323-329)