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Hector knows his death will soon be upon him and, rather than seek to avoid it, he simply wishes to achieve some heroic feat that will help sustain his legacy. This speaks to an innate human desire to leave something behind that people will remember us for. Mortality matters
- “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.”
- “…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.” ― Homer, The Iliad.
- “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” ― Homer, The Iliad.
- “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.” ― Homer, The Iliad.
- Summary: Book 9
- Summary: Book 10
- Analysis: Books 9 & 10
With the Trojans poised to drive the Achaeans back to their ships, the Achaean troops sit brokenhearted in their camp. Standing before them, Agamemnon weeps and declares the war a failure. He proposes returning to Greece in disgrace. Diomedes rises and insists that he will stay and fight even if everyone else leaves. He buoys the soldiers by remind...
The Greek commanders sleep well that night, with the exception of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Eventually, they rise and wake the others. They convene on open ground, on the Trojan side of their fortifications, to plan their next move. Nestor suggests sending a spy to infiltrate the Trojan ranks, and Diomedes quickly volunteers for the role. He asks for...
Although the episodes in Books 9 and 10 take place during the same night, providing a break from the fighting, little continuity exists between them. The mission to Achilles’ tent occurs early in the evening, while the mission across the Trojan line occurs quite late—during the third watch, according to Odysseus, or around 3a.m. The only seeming co...
- “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.”
- “Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.” ― Homer, The Odyssey.
- “…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.” ― Homer, The Iliad.
- “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” ― Homer, The Iliad.
The Odyssey (Book V) Lyrics. Calypso—Ulysses Reaches Scheria On A Raft. And now, as Dawn rose from her couch beside Tithonus—harbinger of light alike to mortals and immortals —the gods met in...
Athena pleads Odysseus's case with Zeus, who sends Hermes to Kalypso's island to demand Odysseus's release. After 2,350 verses, Homer finally brings his hero onstage. We have already seen him through others’ eyes, in Ithaka, Pylos, Sparta, even on Olympus.
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How does Homer humanize Achilles?
He took the balance by the middle, and when he lifted it up the day of the Achaeans sank; the death-fraught scale of the Achaeans settled down upon the ground, while that of the Trojans rose heavenwards.
