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Title: The Iliad Author: Homer Written: the 8th century B.C. Translator: Robert Fagles (1990) Publication Date: 1992 (audio) Publisher: Penguin-HighBridge Audio Narrated By: Derek Jacobi Recording Length: 8 hours, 44 minutes
The Iliad is one of the oldest works of literature still widely read n modern times, though for most of its existence, the story was more likely to have been heard through a performance than read. It is attributed to Homer, and that attribution went unquestioned and unchallenged for most of the last three thousand years. However, some modern scholars now believe that the story arose from oral traditions which were subsequently written down. The scholarship over the story’s origins is further complicated by the changing archaeological views regarding the Greek war against Troy. If the stories began as an oral tradition, we can guess relatively well when those stories began, inasmuch as we now know roughly when the Trojan War occurred – in the late 1100s BC. Traditional actually tells us that the fall of Troy occurred on April 24, 1184 BC.
The story begins with an invocation to the Muse. The events take place towards the end of the Trojan War, fought between the Trojans and the besieging Achaeans. The Achaean forces consist of armies from many different Greek kingdoms, led by their respective kings or princes. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, acts as commander for these united armies.
Chryses, a priest of Apollo, offers Agamemnon and the Achaeans wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive by Agamemnon. Although most of the Achaeans are in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollo’s help, and Apollo sends a plague to afflict the Achaean army. After nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon forces and aristos achaion (“best of the Greeks”), calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father but decides to take Achilles’s slave, Briseis, as compensation. Viewing Agamemnon’s decision as a huge dishonour in front of the assembled Achaean forces, Achilles furiously declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon. Odysseus returns Chryseis to her father, causing Apollo to end the plague.
In the meantime, Agamemnon’s messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset and prays to his mother, Thetis, a minor goddess and sea nymph. Achilles asks his mother to supplicateZeus, wanting the Achaeans to be beaten back by the Trojans until their ships are at risk of being burnt. Only then will Agamemnon realise how much the Achaeans need Achilles and restore his honour. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees. Zeus then sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but first decides to test the Achaean army’s morale by telling them to go home. However nine years into the war, the soldiers’ morale has worn thin. The plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a common soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnon’s war.
The Achaeans deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain. When news of the Achaean deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans respond in a sortie upon the plain. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by Hector, his brother and hero of Troy. Here, the initial cause of the entire war is explained: Helen, wife of Menelaus, and the most beautiful woman in the world, was taken by Paris from Menelaus’s home in Sparta. Menelaus and Paris agree to duel; Helen will marry the victor. However, when Paris is defeated, Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him.
The gods deliberate over whether the war should end here, but Hera convinces Zeus to wait for the utter destruction of Troy. Athena prompts the Trojan archer Pandarus to shoot Menelaus. Menelaus is wounded, and the truce is broken. Fighting breaks out, and many Achaeans and Trojans are killed.
Duels of Greek and Trojan Heroes (Books 5–7)
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In the fighting, Diomedes kills many Trojans, including Pandarus, and defeats Aeneas. Aphrodite rescues him before he can be killed, but Diomedes attacks her and wounds the goddess’s wrist. Apollo faces Diomedes and warns him against warring with gods, which Diomedes ignores. Apollo sends Ares to defeat Diomedes. Many heroes and commanders join in, including Hector, and the gods supporting each side try to influence the battle. Emboldened by Athena, Diomedes wounds Ares and puts him out of action.
Hector rallies the Trojans and prevents a rout. Diomedes and the Trojan Glaucus find common ground after a duel and exchange unequal gifts, sparked by Glaucus’s story of Bellerophon. Hector enters the city, urging his mother Hecuba to perform prayers and sacrifices, inciting Paris to battle, and bidding his wife Andromache and son Astyanax farewell on the city walls. He then rejoins the battle. Hector duels with Ajax, but nightfall interrupts the fight, and both sides retire. The Trojans quarrel about returning Helen to the Achaeans. Paris offers to return the treasure he took and give further wealth as compensation, but not Helen, and the offer is refused. Both sides agree to a day’s truce to bury the dead. The Achaeans also build a wall and trench to protect their camp and ships.
The Rout of the Greeks (Books 8–15)
Source:
Iliad, Book VIII, lines 245–253, Greek manuscript, late 5th, early 6th centuries AD
The next morning, Zeus prohibits the gods from interfering, and fighting begins anew. The Trojans prevail and force the Achaeans back to their wall. Hera and Athena are forbidden to help. Night falls before the Trojans can assail the Achaean wall. They camp in the field to attack at first light, and their watchfires light the plain like stars.
Meanwhile, the Achaeans are desperate. Agamemnon admits his error and sends an embassy composed of Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix to offer Briseis and extensive gifts to Achilles, if he will return to the fighting. Achilles and his companion Patroclus receive the embassy, yet Achilles angrily refuses the offer, considering the slight to his honour too great. He declares that he will only return to battle if the Trojans reach his ships and threaten them with fire. The embassy returns, unsuccessful.
Later that night, Odysseus and Diomedes venture out to the Trojan lines, kill the Trojan Dolon, and wreak havoc in the camp of some Thracian allies of Troy. In the morning, the fighting is fierce, and Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus are all wounded. Achilles sends Patroclus from his camp to inquire about the Achaean casualties, and while there, Patroclus is moved to pity by a speech by Nestor. Nestor asks Patroclus to beg Achilles to rejoin the fighting, or if he will not, to lead the army himself wearing Achilles’s armor.
The Trojans attack the Achaean wall on foot. Hector leads the terrible fighting, despite an omen that their charge will fail. The Achaeans are overwhelmed and routed, the wall’s gate is broken, and Hector charges in. The Achaeans fall back to their ships.
Poseidon pities the Achaeans and decides to disobey Zeus and help them. He rallies the Achaeans’ spirits, and they begin to push the Trojans back. Poseidon’s nephew Amphimachus is killed in the battle; Poseidon imbues Idomeneus with godly power. Many fall on both sides. The Trojan seer Polydamas urges Hector to fall back because of a bad omen but is ignored.
Hera seduces Zeus and lulls him to sleep, allowing Poseidon to help the Greeks. The Trojans are driven back onto the plain. Ajax wounds Hector, who is then carried back to Troy. Zeus awakes and is enraged by Poseidon’s intervention. However, he reassures Hera that Troy is still fated to fall once Hector kills Patroclus. Poseidon is recalled from the battlefield, and Zeus sends Apollo to aid the Trojans. The Trojans once again breach the wall, and the battle reaches the ships.
The Death of Patroclus (Books 16–18)
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Thetis at Hephaestus‘s forge waiting to receive Achilles’s new weapons, fresco from Pompeii, 1st century
Patroclus cannot stand to watch any longer and goes to Achilles, weeping. He admonishes him for his stubbornness and then asks him to allow him to fight in his place, wearing Achilles’s armor so that he will be mistaken for him. Achilles relents and lends Patroclus his armor but sends him off with a stern warning to come back once the Trojans have been pushed back and not to pursue them to the walls. Achilles says that after all has been made right, he and Patroclus will take Troy together.
Patroclus leads the Myrmidons into battle and arrives as the Trojans set fire to the first ships. The Trojans are routed by the sudden onslaught, and Patroclus begins his assault by killing Zeus’s son Sarpedon, a leading ally of the Trojans. Patroclus, ignoring Achilles’s command, pursues and reaches the gates of Troy, where Apollo himself stops him. Patroclus kills Hector’s charioteer Cebriones, is weakened by Apollo and Euphorbos, and is finally killed by Hector.
Hector takes Achilles’s armor from the fallen Patroclus. The Achaeans fight to retrieve Patroclus’s body from the Trojans, who attempt to carry it back to Troy at Hector’s command. Antilochus is sent to tell Achilles the news and asks him to help retrieve the body.
When Achilles hears of Patroclus’s death, his grief is so overwhelming that his mother, Thetis, hears him from the bottom of the ocean. Thetis grieves too, knowing that Achilles is fated to die if he kills Hector. Although he knows it will seal his own fate, Achilles vows to kill Hector in order to avenge Patroclus.
Achilles is urged to help retrieve Patroclus’s body but has no armor to wear. Bathed in a brilliant radiance by Athena, Achilles stands next to the Achaean wall and roars in rage. The Trojans are terrified by his appearance, and the Achaeans manage to bear Patroclus’s body away. Polydamas again urges Hector to withdraw into the city; again, Hector refuses, and the Trojans camp on the plain at nightfall.
Achilles mourns Patroclus, brokenhearted. Meanwhile, at Thetis’s request, Hephaestus fashions a new set of armor for Achilles, including a magnificently wrought shield.
In the morning, Thetis brings Achilles his new set of armor, only to find him weeping over Patroclus’s body. Achilles arms for battle and rallies the Achaean warriors. Agamemnon gives Achilles all the promised gifts, including Briseis, but Achilles is indifferent to them. The Achaeans take their meal, but Achilles refuses to eat. His horse, Xanthos, prophesies Achilles’s death; Achilles is indifferent. Achilles goes into battle, with Automedon driving his chariot.
Zeus lifts the ban on the gods’ interference, and the gods freely help both sides. Achilles, burning with rage and grief, slays many Trojans. Achilles slaughters half the Trojans’ number in the river, clogging the water with bodies. The river god, Scamander, confronts Achilles and commands him to stop killing Trojans, but Achilles refuses. They fight until Scamander is beaten back by Hephaestus’s firestorm. The gods fight amongst themselves. The great gates of the city are opened to receive the fleeing Trojans, and Apollo leads Achilles away from the city by pretending to be a Trojan. When Apollo reveals himself to Achilles, the Trojans have retreated into the safety of the city, all except for Hector.
Despite the pleas of his parents, Priam and Hecuba, Hector resolves to face Achilles. When Achilles approaches, however, Hector’s will fails him. He flees and is chased by Achilles around the city. Finally, Athena tricks him into stopping by taking on the form of his brother Deiphobus, and he turns to face his opponent. After a brief duel, Achilles stabs Hector through the neck. Before dying, Hector reminds Achilles that he, too, is fated to die. Achilles strips Hector of his own armour, gloating over his death. Achilles then dishonours Hector’s body by lashing it to the back of his chariot and dragging it around the city. Hecuba and Priam lament, with the latter attempting to face Achilles himself. Andromache hears the news and comes to the walls, fainting on seeing the scene below. The Trojans grieve.
The ghost of Patroclus comes to Achilles in a dream, urging him to carry out the burial rites so that his spirit can move on to the Underworld. Patroclus asks Achilles to arrange for their bones to be entombed together in a single urn; Achilles agrees, and Patroclus’s body is cremated. The Achaeans hold a day of funeral games, and Achilles gives out the prizes.
Achilles is lost in his grief and spends his days mourning Patroclus and dragging Hector’s body behind his chariot. Dismayed by Achilles’s continued abuse of Hector’s body, Zeus decides that it must be returned to Priam. Led by Hermes, Priam takes a wagon filled with gifts across the plains and into the Achaean camp unnoticed. He clasps Achilles by the knees and begs for his son’s body. Achilles is moved to tears and finally relents, softening his anger. The two lament their losses in the war. Achilles agrees to give Hector’s body back and to give the Trojans twelve days to properly mourn and bury him. Achilles apologises to Patroclus, fearing he has dishonored him by returning Hector’s body. After a meal, Priam carries Hector’s body back into Troy. Hector is buried, and the city mourns.
My Review:
If there is a book made for an audio-recording format, it’s The Iliad. That makes sense because that was the format in which the story was delivered for most of its first thousand years. It is really only in the last few hundred years that Homer’s epic has moved primarily to a written medium. This was a story which was intended to be performed! Fortunately, Penguin hired Derek Jacobi to do the narration here. He’s reliably a phenomenal audiobook narrator. This performance from him was no exception. I enjoyed his reading immensely. As I listened, I could imagine myself sitting in a crowded amphitheater hearing him shout about the rage of Achilles.
I highly recommend giving yourself this same experience.
The first thing that might jump out at you, after you read this book, is the realization that it does not tell you about either the beginning or the end of the war – at least not directly. We arrive to the story mid-war, with characters who occasionally tell us about the conflict’s beginnings. We leave before the Greeks have ultimately won. The famous Trojan Horse is not mentioned at all. That should instruct us as the reader as to the purpose of this story. We are not here to learn a history lesson, or at least not a complete one. We are here to learn a lesson about the realities of war, and the realities of man’s relationship with the gods.
War is shown to be brutal. Characters in the tale occasionally say remarkably vicious things about the men on the other side. The gods are also occasionally vicious, interfering in events directly and indirectly in ways that result in death and mayhem. Indeed, the humans who do terrible things are regularly not shown to be at fault. If Agamemnon treats Achilles unfairly, maybe it is because Zeus or another of the Olympians put it into his heart to do so. Everyone just accepts this.
In this way, characters in the story are shown to be entirely captive (or nearly so) to the capriciousness of the gods they serve. The Greek deities fight amongst themselves throughout, with human life, blessings, and sufferings the result of their interference. Trying to put yourself into the mind of a Greek pagan reader, the dynamic seems to be one wherein humans offer petitions as faithfully as possible and simply hope for the best – knowing very well that the best might not come at all. You are a character in a play directed by Zeus, with deities giving him suggestions and demands on the script, and you have no say over how your role might be written other than via service and offerings to the gods, and hoping for the best.
If this is your worldview, it is no wonder that philosophies such as stoicism and hedonism emerged as a way of helping the people learn to cope.
The story itself is not great, in and of itself, if you divorce the story from the themes and philosophical questions it inspires. We meet Achilles – an embodiment of unstoppable rage – and we follow him through offense taken by him from his allies, reconciliation with his allies, the loss of his friend Patrochlus, the killing of Hector, and ultimately the abating of his rage after meeting with Priam, Hector’s father. The story ends with mutual mourning on both sides of the war, and no one as yet the war’s victor. Without philosophy you might ask what is the point.
On the other hand, if you enjoy asking about the meaning of life, The Iliad is a very enjoyable tale. It’s an exploration of religion, fate, pride, glory, hubris, and loss. The challenge of the story is with the reader. What can we conclude when faced with all of this? How should we then live? People over the span of millennia have spent entire careers trying to come up with answers.
I definitely recommend the book, and in particular I recommend giving Derek Jacobi’s audio narration an listen. If you come up with any answer about the meaning of life, please let me know. I’m still thinking.
Have you read The Iliad? If so, what did you think?
