Andrea’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

Book 23: Funeral games, which feature Ajax face down in some cattle dung. Best! Book 24: Priam ventures out of Troy to beg Achilles to release Hector`s body. True to his own self the dude has to make things difficult.

Book 21: Achilles goes on a murderous rampage and angers the river Scamander, which attempts to drown him. Book 22: My homeboy Hector meets Achilles in battle and finally fulfills the prophecy. *sadface* Like a frat boy he is, Achilles refuses Hector one last dying wish. What a douche.

Book 19: Achilles and Agamemnon reconcile their differences. Book 20: The gods are now free to interfere in the conflict, and they take sides as a great battle is about to begin. Achilles and Aeneas exchange insults, and Hector is unable to stand idle while his friends perish at the hands of the great warrior.

Book 17: A fight breaks out for Patroclus’s body, with Trojans aiming to desecrate it, and Greeks hoping to bring it back for proper burial. Hector puts on the legendary armour to brag of his victory. Book 18: Achilles learns of Patroclus’s death, mourns, and begs his mother to appeal to the divine Smith for new armour, so he can rejoin the battle and kill Hector.

Book 15: Zeus wakes and is angry at Hera and Poseidon for tricking him. But soon he reveals that why he may assist Troy for a while, it’s all part of the plan to punish Achilles, and that the great city will still fall. Meanwhile Trojans rain fire on Achaean ships. Book 16: Patroclus begs Achilles to lend him his armour to assist the ailing troops. Successful, Patroclus fights, but his enthusiasm gets him killed.

Book 13: An extensive battle complete with entrails spurting, brains splattering, and eyeballs popping out of skulls. Poseidon gets heavily involved on the Argives’ side, but his hands are tied under the watchful eyes of Zeus. Book 14: Fantastic chapter where Hera devises a plan to seduce Zeus and put him to sleep so that her brother in law can reverse the tides of war. Great Ajax gravely wounds Hector.

Book 11: Zeus rains blood on Argives, but Agamemnon leads a vicious attack against the Trojans until he is wounded. Taking advantage of his enemy’s shock Hector charges ahead. Nestor begs Patroclus to put on Achilles’s armour to inspire the troops. Book 12: Hector storms fortifications despite Polydamas’s bad omen.

Book 7: Hector challenges Achaeans to fight him one on one, but no volunteer steps forward, fearing the Trojan's strength. Finally Ajax is chosen by a draw and a duel ensues. When night falls the two agree to part ways friends and exchange armour, which is a curious resolution in itself. Both armies decide to take a day to cease fighting and bury their dead. Book 8: Zeus enters the war for real and makes a mess.

Book 5 continues to be a bloody tangle between the Argives and the Trojans - a lot of deaths are described with gratuitous violence and gore. What makes them stand out, however, is humanization of victims by Homer. The tragedy is palpable. Assisted by Athena, Diomedes attacks and injures meddling gods, which does not win him any affection up on Olympus. Book 6 witnesses a tender moment between Hector and his wife.

Book 3 features a promise of truce and a one-on-one battle of Paris and Menelaus that is meant to end Trojan War. Unfortunately Aphrodite decides to intervene and puts peace negotiations in jeopardy, because she thinks she knows best who is the better suitor to Helen. Book 4 is where tensions rise once again and a bloody battle breaks out. Homer indulges in gore like it's HBO.