ari’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

— “and there she found her dear son sobbing desperately and lying round Patroclus. Manu of his comrades sat weeping at his side.” T_T
— Thetis preserved Patroclus body so Achilles doesn’t have to worry about his corpse being dishonoured with him gone, “But I am still most terribly afraid for brave Patroclus, son of Menoetius, whose body has been hacked with so much bronze. Flies may get in his wounds and worms may grow there, dishonouring his corpse. His life is gone, and now his flesh may rot.” She tells him to go back to war and take back his anger for Agamemnon, which he does. Agamemnon is like… ha, females, amirite! I was deluded! Oops, sorry, have those gifts I promised! … Achilles is like ok whatever man idgaf abt those gifts that much let’s go and fight
— Odysseys says they should eat before battle again since they’d been fighting all day, but Achilles is set on battle, “no food nor drink will pass my lips because my friend is dead. He was cut down by sharp bronze weapons. Now he is laid out inside my hut, his feet towards the door. Around him, our companions weep and wail. These other things mean nothing to me now. My heart is set on slaughter and on blood and in the painful groans of dying men.” Odysseus does not waver, “The greeks cannot grieve for the dead with endless empty bellies. Too many more are falling every day. When is there ever any rest from pain? (…) Those who survive the horrors of war must satisfy their hunger and their thirst, so that we can continue in the battle, fighting the enemy unceasingly with even greater zeal and greater vigor, wearing unwanted bronze in our bodies. After the meal, let nobody hold back.” Then they bring out the gifts and make a sacrifice to Zeus where Agamemnon swears he hadn’t touched Briseis.
— Briseis cries for Patroclus (and also tells a crazy story about basically all of her family dying because of them? Really can’t look at this with a modern lens omg), “You said that you would make me be the lawful wife of godlike Lord Achilles, and that you would take me back to Phthia on his ship and there along the Myrmidons arrange a wedding feats to celebrate my marriage. So I will weep for you unceasingly now you are dead—because you always were so kind to me.
— Achilles refuses to eat out of grief, ‘The only comfort that his heart could feel was entering the bloody mouth of war.’ “My dearest love! My poor, unlucky friend! You used to make us such delicious food, preparing it yourself inside our hut quickly and competently, any time the greeks were hurrying to bring the tears of Ares to the Trojans, lord or horses. But now you have been killed. You lie here, dead, so I cannot taste any food or drink, although there are such plentiful supplies, because I miss you. Nothing else could ever be worse for me than this. (…) Till now, I thought that only I would die out here in Troy, far from the lands of Argos, grazed by horses, and you would go back home again to Phthia, and fetch my son from Scyros in black ships and show him everything—the wealth I won, the captive women, and my high-roofed home.” Athena, sent by Zeus, drips nectar and ambrosia into Achilles so he doesn’t starve.
— Achilles arms himself, ‘The sound of marching feet reverberated. In their midst, Achilles put on his armour. And his teeth were clenched, his eyes shone bright as blazing fire, his heart was full of intolerable grief.’ and gets in his chariot and there is talking horses, I guess, who already know of his fate, “I know all this already very well. It is my fate to die out here in Troy, far from my loving father and my mother. But even so, I shall not stop until I drive the Trojans to be sick of war.”