Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
The Iliad
‘The Iliad’ is an epic poem versed by Homer. ‘The Iliad’ is usually grouped by scholars under the Epic cycle which consists of books related to the Trojan war. ‘The Iliad’ consists of 24 books and 15,693 verses in the dactylic hexameter and is one of the oldest works in the Western literature. Even though ‘The Iliad’ doesn’t cover the entire 10 year Trojan war, it describes most of the heroes of the Trojans and Achaeans.
The 9th Year of Trojan War ⚔️
‘The Iliad’ in its epic tradition is executed in media res, i.e, in the midst of the plot after the invocation of Muses. The Trojan war ⚔️ is in its ninth year. The enslavement 🙄 of the captives is very common. And the Achaeans of the Greeks have held Chryseis 👩🏻🦰, the daughter of Chryses 🧙🏼♂️: a Trojan priest of Apollo 🌞, as captive. Chryses had offered money💰 in return for his daughter and most of the Achaeans favoured the deal 🙂. But, the Achaean leader, Agamemnon, refuses to 🙅🏼♂️ accept it.
The Plague 🦠
As Agamemnon refuses 😕 to return his daughter, Chryses seeks the help 🙏 of Apollo. This prayer urges Apollo to cause plague 🦠 in the Achaeans. Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidons of the Greek army, calls for an assembly 💭 to deal with the problem. Agamemnon is forced 😒 to accept the offer but asks Achilles to give Briseis his captive in return 😏. This furies Achilles 😡.
Myrmidons × Achaeans
😠😡
Achilles ×Agamemnon
There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.
The Iliad
Achilles calls off his participation from the Trojan war ⚔ as well as of his men. They decide to return back. Meanwhile, Odysseus, the King 👑 of Ithaca arranges a ship 🛳 and returns Chryseis. The plague 🦠 stops. Agamemnon’s men capture Briseis. The upset 😔 and furious 😡 Achilles prays to his mother Thetis to ask Zeus, the thunder ⚡ and sky ☁️ God to bring the Agamemnon to the weakest 👎🏽 by Trojans, who then will realize the worth 🛡️ of Achilles.
Beauty! Terrible Beauty! A deathless Goddess– so she strikes our eyes!
The Iliad | The Old Chiefs Of Troy, Book 3
The reason for the Trojan war was Helen 👸🏼, the most beautiful woman in the world. And now, the reason for the dispute 👊🏻 between Agamemnon and Achilles is also another woman, Briseis 👩🏻🦰. Will they end up like this or Achilles, the greatest of warriors, return 🗡️?
No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.
The Iliad
The Dream of Agamemnon 😴
Agamemnon, caught by a dream sent by Zeus, is encouraged 👏 to fight with the Trojans. But he asks his soldiers to leave for home to test the morale 🙂 of his soldiers. Things turn topsy-turvy 👎🏽 as the bullet shot strikes him back. The soldiers pack 🎒 up to go home 🏡. But it is only Odysseus who could stop the rout after the instructions given by Athena, the protectress of the Greek cities 🌉. Odysseus even beats 👊🏻 a common soldier named Thersites who expressed his dislike 😐 to participate in the war.
The Deployment of Troops in Trojan Plain
The Achaeans move towards the Trojan plain after a meal 🍙. The news 📰 reaches the Trojan King 👑, King Priam. They too move towards the plain 🏞️. The features of both the troop of soldiers is detailed by the poet. The soldiers are about to fight… But Paris makes an announcement 📢 urged by his brother, Hector: the leader of the Trojan army, to have a duel ⚔ with Menelaus. Helen 👸🏼 will become the wife of the winner🏆.
“Menelaus are going to fight about yourself, and you are to be the wife of him who is the victor”.
The Iliad
The Duel ⚔
The duel is conducted between Paris and Menelaus ⚔. Both the troops agree 👍🏻 to abide by the terms put forward. Unfortunately Paris is wounded 😥 in the duel ⚔️ but Aphrodite saves him before Menelaus kills Paris. The battle is called when the vow 🤝 is broken by Pandoras wounding Menelaus by his arrow 🏹.
The War 🗡️
The war happens in which even Gods 🧚🏽♀️ choose their sides. But Diomedes, one of the strongest 💪 Achaean warriors, was defeating multiple Trojan warriors 👎. He killed Pandoras, defeated Aeneas who was then saved 😌 by Aphrodite. Diomedes continues with the help of Athena despite the warnings of Apollo.
Hector
Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.
The Iliad
Hector inspires his Trojan army to fight on the war front 🗡️. Diomedes meets Glaukos, the leader of the Lycian army who has allied 🤝with Troy. He narrates 💬 the story of the greatest warrior and his grandfather Bellerophon to Diomedes. Meanwhile, Hector bids bye 👋 to his loving wife, Andromache 💕 and son, Astyanax 👶🏻. He asks his brother Paris too to join him. Hector rejoins the army and duels with Ajax the Great 💥 till night 🌃 falls.
You, why are you so afraid of war and slaughter? Even if all the rest of us drop and die around you, grappling for the ships, you’d run no risk of death: you lack the heart to last it out in combat—coward!
The Iliad
The Corpses are Burnt 🔥
The troops retire from the war as night falls 🌃. A day’s truce is announced to burn 🔥 the bodies of the dead. The Achaeans build a wall 🧱 to protect their ships 🚢 and a trench. While a dispute is being held in the royal house 🏯 of Troy to return Helen 😶. But, Paris refuses 🤦🏼♂️ to accept the deal, instead he is ready to compensate them for any amount of wealth 💵.
No Interference of Gods 🚫
Cattle and fat sheep can all be had for the raiding,
tripods all for the trading, and tawny-headed stallions.
But a man’s life breath cannot come back again—
. . .
Mother tells me,
the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet,
that two fates bear me on to the day of death.
If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.
If I voyage back to the fatherland I love,
my pride, my glory dies. . .
The Iliad |Achilles
Zeus commands Gods not to interfere in the Trojan war ⚔. Agamemnon has fallen weak 😕 and sends an embassy of his men including Odysseus, Ajax, Phoenix, and two heralds to convey his message 📜. Agamemnon is now ready to return Briseis along with luxurious 💸 gifts 🎁 to Achilles if he rejoins the Achaean army. Achilles and his companion Patroclus refuses 😏 and the embassy returns in despair ☹️.
All Wounded
All of the great Achaean warriors are found 😮 fatally wounded 😥 by Patroclus in the outrageous Trojan war. This moves Patroclus to pity 😧 them. The Trojans fight so fiercely that they even break the Achaean wall by foot 👣. Hector charges in with his troop. He ignores the warnings ⚠️ of Polydamas who reminds him of Achilles. Poseidon, the God of sea 🌊 and Earthquake 🌍 helps the Achaeans pitying them. He too ignores 😣 the command of Zeus, but Zeus is seduced by Hera and lured into sleep 😴.
Patroclus in the Battlefield 🛡️
Patroclus arrives in the battlefield informing Achilles. Achilles had given Patroclus his own armor 🛡️. But he ignores the warning ⚠️ of Achilles not to take part in the war 🚫. Instead, Patroclus leads Myrmidons into the battlefield. Seeing 🧐 Patroclus in the armor of Achilles, the Trojans mistake him as Achilles. The war continues 🏹 and Patroclus is finally killed by Hector.
Achilles Returns
Achilles goes mad 😡 and sad 😔 hearing the death of Patroclus. He vows 🤝 to avenge the death of his companion but has no armor. Hephaestus: the God of Blacksmiths ⚙️ or Artisans designs a new armor 🛡️ for Achilles. Thetis 🧜🏻♀️ is sad 😔 realising that his son will die 😭 soon after he kills Hector.
The Gods Fight
Zeus takes back his command 📣 of the participation of Gods 🧙🏼♂️ in the war. Achilles is back to action and slaughters people. The river, Skamandros 🏞️ turns red with blood and the angry 😡 river who tries to confront Achilles is beaten back by the firestorm 🔥 of Hephaestus. Finally Achilles and Hector come face-to-face👀.
Achilles × Hector
Come, Friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?
Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you.
And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am?
The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life–
A deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you,
Death and the strong force of fate are waiting.
There will come a dawn or sunset or high noon
When a man will take my life in battle too–
flinging a spear perhaps
Or whipping a deadly arrow off his bow.
The Iliad
All of the Trojans except Hector run 🏃 back to the city 🏙. But Hector stands to fight with Achilles. He is chased around the city, then a duel ⚔️ is conducted between them and finally Achilles stabs Hector through his throat 🗡️ and kills him. But his revenge doesn’t end there. Achilles disregards and dishonors 😵 the corpse of a warrior by dragging it tied up to his chariot 🎠.
Burial Rites of Patroclus
The burial rites of Patroclus is performed after his Ghost 👻 appears asking Achilles to perform them. The funeral games ⚽ are conducted and the prizes are also given to the winners 🏅 by Achilles.
Hector’s Body is Buried ⚰
And overpowered by memory both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely for man – killing Hector, throbbing, crouching before Achilles’ feet as Achilles wept himself, now for his father, now for Patroclus once again and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.
The Iliad | Book 24
King Priam 👑 sets out for the Achaean camps 🏕 unnoticed and begs Achilles bowing down in his knees to returns his son’s body. Achilles is moved to tears 😭 even though he has abused it. Achilles treats the King 👑 with a meal 🍱 and return his body. Hector’s body is taken back to Troy, the funeral rites are performed and the whole city mourns 😥 for the loss of their greatest warrior 💪.
Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles—
as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age!
No doubt the countrymen round about him plague him now,
with no one there to defend him, beat away disaster.
No one—but at least he hears you’re still alive
and his old heart rejoices, hopes rising, day by day,
to see his beloved son come sailing home from Troy.
The Iliad
The Iliad: The Song of Ilion/Ilium
And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you – it’s born with us the day that we are born.
The Iliad | Hector, Book 6
Now I am making an end of my anger. It does not become me, unrelentingly to rage on.
The Iliad
‘The Iliad’, which is also known as the Song of Ilium 🎶 or the Song of Ilion 🎵 set in the seige of Troy. ‘The Iliad’ is written ✍️ in various Greek dialects including Ionic Greek which is now know as Homeric Greek. The English translation of ‘The Iliad’ was published 🗳️ by George Chapman in 1598 🗓️. ‘The Iliad’ is considered to be written 📝 by 8th century BC but the oldest surviving copy 📕 of it is from the 10th century AD 🗓️.
Wohoo, final reminder for Sale 🏷️
😃👇
Inclined Scorpio
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Writer at Inclined ScorpioOn an extended process of giving birth to myself structuring own concepts & beliefs.
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1 Comment
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