Iliad, Book 7

Summary, Book 7:

Hello everyone!  Today we are going to tackle the next couple of books of the Iliad!

Hector and Paris leave Troy and head back to the battle.  When she sees some Achaeans getting slaughtered, Athena comes down from Mt. Olympus with Apollo (who, if you will recall, favors the Trojans).  Apollo sparks in Hector the desire to challenge an Achaean to single combat.  Oy.  Helenus, whose predictions worked out so well in the last book, thinks this is a good idea and encourages Hector to challenge someone.  “Hector was elated with the plan.”

So Hector poses the challenge to the Achaeans and hears crickets in response.  Menelaus is not happy about this:

“Alas, you boasters, you’re Achaean women,                                  
not men. This shame will mean total disgrace,
unless some Danaan now stands up to Hector.
All of you sitting here, without heart,
disgraced like this, may all of you dissolve,
disintegrate to earth and water.                                                                   
I’ll personally take up arms myself.
I’ll fight Hector. The rope that’s tied
to victory comes from heaven above,
from the hands of the immortal gods.”

So Menelaus prepares to fight and Agamemnon is all, “MUST PREVENT” and tells him not to let his love of fighting cause him to lose sight of the fact that Hector will wreck him.  Menelaus changes his mind (this guy is very suggestible) and steps back.  Nestor weighs in now and shames several of the Achaeans into volunteering.  Agamemnon volunteers, as does Diomedes, Ajax, Odysseus and others.  They decide to draw lots and Ajax “wins”.

Hector and Ajax start fighting and Hector is injured.  It’s looking grim but then it gets dark (apparently this is not a predictable outcome of the time of day it is) so they call it off and part as friends. (?)

Moving on, Nestor asks Agamemnon if they can take a day off of fighting to bury their dead properly and to build a wall along the sea coast to guard their ships. The Trojans have the same idea on their side, about burying their dead.  Antenor, a wise Trojan, makes the highly obvious suggestion at this point: he suggests that they just give back Helen!  YES!  Antenor = another character I like.

But Paris.  Ugh, Paris.  He flatly refuses to return Helen, but does offer to return all of her possessions.  Sure, Paris, they’ll go for that.  Predictably, the Achaeans decline this offer with extreme prejudice.  But they are willing to grant them a day to bury their dead.

As the Achaeans and Trojans do their thing, we cut to the gods.  The gods are watching the Achaeans build their wall.  Poseidon is for some reason really, really irritated by this wall.  He says that the new wall will cause people to forget the wall he and Apollo built.  I guess this refers to some other myth I have no knowledge of?  Zeus thinks this is stupid, and reminds him that when the Achaeans sail home, Poseidon can just destroy the wall.  Poseidon hadn’t thought of this.  And that’s where it ends.  That was a pretty quick one.

Notes:

I actually don't have a ton to say about this book, but I think the Trojans should call for a moratorium on listening to Helenus's advice.  They should listen to Antenor.  Give back Helen.  Girlfriend is not worth the trouble.  In fact, why do we care what Paris thinks?  Grab that woman, toss her to the Achaeans and move on with your lives!  There's more of you than there are of Paris!  GAH!

I'm going to do another book later tonight.

-Lily