The Iliad, Book 8

Summary, Book 8:

Book 8 starts out with the Zeus summoning the gods to an assembly.  He announces that he will beat any god who intervenes in the battle from this point on.  The gods are shocked, and Athena says:

“Son of Cronos, you’re the father of us all,
highest ruling force. We well know your strength.
It’s invincible. Still, we’re sorry for the troops,
Danaan spearmen dying, suffering dreadful fates.
But we’ll stand apart from battle, as you wish,                              
although we’ll give the Argives our advice,
help them, to prevent destruction of them all,
just to answer your displeasure.”

Zeus backtracks a bit:

“My dear child Tritogeneia, have no fears.
I wasn’t speaking all that seriously.
I want to treat you in a friendly way.”        

Tritogeneia?  Seriously, these people have too many different names for each other.

Anyway, Zeus goes to Mt. Ida to watch the Trojans.  He takes the fate of the Trojans and the fate of the Achaeans and places them on opposite sides of a scale.  The Achaean side sinks, so Zeus decides to favor the Trojans.  Frankly, I thought that was already inherent in his deal with Achilles’s mother.

The battle is raging, and in the chaos Nestor’s horse is killed.  Nestor looks like he’s done for, but he’s annoying so I’m sure he’ll be okay.

And he is. Diomedes intervenes and saves his life.  Hector pursues them, boasting about how he will kill them.  Hera overhears this and she is not happy.  She tries to convince Poseidon to join in a rebellion against Zeus’s earlier orders, but Poseidon is not having it.  So Hera settles for inspiring Agamemnon to give his troops one of his charming motivational speeches:

“You Argives! What a shameful bunch of men!
Splendid to look at, but a sour disgrace!
What’s happened to our sworn oaths, when we claimed
we were the best, the bravest? Idle boasters!”

The speech goes on, with tears flowing down Agamemnon’s cheeks.  Zeus pities him and grants his request that the Achaeans be able to leave in safety.  I feel like Zeus is sort of playing both sides here.  But anyway, he sends a sign: an eagle carrying a fawn in its talons, which the eagle drops on the Achaeans’ altar to Zeus.  The Achaeans are rejuvenated, but despite all this there’s not a whole lot of change.  The upper hand goes to the Achaeans, and then back to the Trojans.

Now, Athena and Hera crack.  Despite Zeus’s warnings, they are ready to head down to intervene on behalf of the Achaean’s.  As they head out, the all-seeing Zeus (oh lord, now I’m doing epithets!) catches wind of their plan and sends Iris (the messenger goddess) to warn them to stop.  Iris goes to Hera and Athena and relays the message:

“Where are you rushing off? Have you lost your wits?
The son of Cronos has forbidden anyone
to assist the Argives. And he’s made this threat—
which he intends to carry out—he’ll maim
your swift horses in their traces, throw you both
out of the chariot, smash it in pieces.
Ten revolving years won’t be sufficient
to cure the wounds his lightning will inflict,
so that you’ll understand, bright-eyed goddess,                            
what it means to fight against your father.                                                 
With Hera’s he’s not so angry or upset.
For no matter what he says, she undermines it.
But as for you, you shameless schemer,
are you daring to fight Zeus with one large spear?”

I think Zeus and Hera need some marriage counselling.  Also, isn’t Athena supposed to be Zeus’s favorite child?  He has a funny way of showing it.  In any case, the warning does the trick.  Athena and Hera decide not to risk Zeus’s wrath and go back to Mt. Olympus.  When Zeus returns he needles and mocks Athena and Hera and oh my word these gods are awful.  He also tells them that Hector will not rest until he has stirred Achilles to return to battle.

Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, the Trojans are pretty confident.  Hector gives a long speech, ending with this:

“I wish I were as sure
I were immortal, ageless for all time,
that I’d be worshiped as Athena  is,              
and Apollo, too, as I am that this day
will bring destruction to the Argives!”

The Trojans cheer and then they light some fires to make sure that the Greeks don’t try to escape in the night.  They are in high spirits, which can only mean bad things are about to happen to them.

Reading Notes

It took me a while to get through this book.  I’m not sure why because it was not a boring one.  I think the gods just annoy me.

I did read one little fascinating tidbit.  Throughout the text, I keep seeing the phrase “his/her words had wings” in reference to something that a character says to another character.  In fact, it seems to me to be one of the most common of the “tics” throughout the work so far.  I tried to infer some kind of meaning but the context was not always the same.  I thought perhaps it meant the words “arrived” at the character quickly, and that the words were acted on quickly, but that did not always seem applicable and, for that matter, made only tenuous sense at best.

Stumped, I turned to Professor Google.  Apparently, classicists think this was an Ancient Greek idiom of some kind and there is disagreement over the idiom’s meaning.  Some think it means absolutely nothing (filler, like some of the epithets.)  Some think it is just the equivalent of “He/She said.”  Others think it denotes speed in some sense, depending on context.  Some translate it as “His/Her words had wings” (like my translation).  Others say “winged words” and others vary throughout the work.  Pretty interesting stuff.

More tomorrow!

-Lily