Homer's Illiad -- Reading Diary B

Homer's Illiad

The Rousing ofAchilles was interesting because it described how the Greeks fought to protect Patroclus’ body from the Trojans. Before this episode, I thought that when the opposing side took the “arms” of a fallen warrior, they were referring to their actual body parts. Here, it is made clear that they are referring to their armor, which is less disturbing. In this scene, the Greek chiefs and warriors are ready to die defending their honorable comrade’s body and the Trojans are (for some reason) willing to die to get it.

(book illustration)

In The Rousing ofAchilles (cont.), it seems that Achilles has finally realized the consequences of his actions. After all, he got his mother to ask Zeus for Trojan success so that the Greeks would realize they need Achilles. That seems a rather selfish request. Now, his best friend is dead and his enemy is wearing Achilles’ armor. It’s a tough day for him, so he needs a good cry with his mom. He must get an ego boost, though, when he goes to the trenches and all he has to do is shout for the Trojans to get scared and back up! Thankfully for the Greeks, this allows them to retrieve Patroclus’ body and put it safely back at camp. Also, Hera tells the sun to set early so the Greeks can sleep off this terrible day. (Wouldn’t that be nice to control the sun!)

The Slaying of Hector(cont.) is another example of someone’s pride getting in the way of doing what’s best for everyone. Here, Hector realizes that he should have listened to his advisors and gone back behind the walls the night before. But it appears that his pride got the better of him and he thought he and his army would be able to fight off Achilles. Now his pride again keeps him in front of the walls because he’s too ashamed to go back inside when his decisions have caused so much death.