The Iliad, Book 19

Summary, Book 19

Book 19 begins with Thetis returning to Achilles.  She gently tells him that he has to move on from Patroclus’s death, and she gives him the armour that Hephaestus fashioned for him.  Achilles loves it.  But in the midst of his joy over the armour, he takes the time to worry that flies might get into Patroclus’s corpse and “breed worms in him, defile his corpse, now that the life in him is gone.  If so, all his flesh will fester.” Um… EW!  Losing a loved one is tragic, and a terrible thing to work through.  But the state of their flesh is not high on my list of things that I think about.

If I were Thetis, I would be seriously freaked out.  But she doesn’t show it.  Instead she promises that she will protect his body so that he can call an assembly of Achaean warriors and reconcile with them, Agamemnon in particular.  He does so and all of the major Achaean warriors show up, including Odysseus, Dionysus and Agamemnon.  They’re all ready to hash things out.

Achilles starts. Oh, isn’t this heartwarming:

“Son of Atreus, has it been good for us,
for you and me, to continue squabbling
in a heart-rending quarrel full of grief
for both of us, over some girl? I wish                                          
she’d been killed by Artemis’ arrow
right beside my ships, the day I got her
as my prize, after we destroyed Lyrnessus.                                                 
Fewer Achaeans would have sunk their teeth
into this wide earth at enemy hands,
if I’d not been so angry.” 

Honestly.  I don’t expect feminism from a classical text.  But for the love of Zeus… really?

Anyway, he announces the end of his anger and the Achaeans rejoice.  Agamemnon, who really should just shut up and be grateful that this painfully adolescent drama is behind him, decides that he needs to explain the root of his capriciousness in the beginning of the story.  He does so, in shockingly long-winded fashion.  To summarize, he blames Zeus, Fate and the Furies for, “[c]asting a savage blindness on [his] heart…”  He also blames Zeus’s daughter, Ate, the goddess of mischief and folly.  He takes about ten hours off the lives of the Achaeans, explaining the history of Ate and Zeus and all that, but when it is mercifully over he says that he will present Achilles with many gifts.

Achilles is pretty blasé about the gifts, saying in so many words, “Yeah, you can give me gifts or not but right now is war time, not gift time.”  He is laser focused.  Odysseus seems to see the potential for more drama so he cuts in and insists on the gifts.  He takes a group of guys to Agamemnon’s hut and they come back with lots of goodies: gold, horses, cauldrons (?) and several girls, including Briseis.  Agamemnon once again swears that he did not lay a finger on Briseis.  But it’s sort of moot.  I cannot even convey how little Achilles now cares about Briseis now, after all that sulking and moping.  He is bursting at the seams to go back into battle and avenge his friend.

Briseis, “looking like golden Aphrodite”, sees that Patroclus is dead and freaking flips out. She throws herself across his body and wails:

  “Patroclus,
you who brought the utmost joy to my sad heart,
I left you here alive, when I went off,                                           
taken from these huts. But now, at my return,
I find you dead, you, the people’s leader.
Again for me, as always, evil follows evil.                                                   
I saw the husband I was given to
by my father and my noble mother killed
by sharp bronze before our city. My brothers,
three of them, whom my own mother bore,
whom I loved, have all met their fatal day.
But when swift Achilles killed my husband,
you wouldn’t let me weep. You told me then                              
you’d make me lord Achilles’ wedded wife,
he’d take me in his ships back to Phthia,
for a marriage feast among the Myrmidons.
You were always gentle. That’s the reason
I’ll never stop this grieving for your death.”

First of all, Patroclus seems to inspire a lot of intense emotion for someone who did not have a terribly distinctive personality in the course of the Iliad.  Second, Briseis has quite a tragic history.  Third, I wonder if she was in love with Patroclus.  The three of them had quite a warped little relationship.

As a side note, the other women join in the lamentations, crying for Patroclus, “although each of them had her own private sorrow.”  I wonder what that little throwaway line refers to.  That they also have tragic pasts?  That they also had relationships with Patroclus that went deeper than just knowing who he was?  I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Achilles sends most of the people away, although Odysseus, Dionysus, Agamemnon, Nestor, Menelaus, and a few others stick around.  Achilles is still pretty broken up and he rants a bit more about Patroclus:

I could suffer nothing worse than this,
not even if I learned my father’s died—
he must be shedding gentle tears in Phthia,
missing a son like me, while I stay here
among strange people, fighting Trojans
over Helen, whom I detest, or if I heard
my dear son had died, who’s being raised for me
on Scyros, if, in fact, he’s still alive,
godlike Neoptolemus.

So he is more upset about this than he would be about the loss of his father or son?  (P.S., Achilles has a son?)  Also, I laughed out loud at the Helen thing.  I feel ya, Achilles.

Zeus sees all this and feels sorry for Achilles.  He sends Athena down to insert nectar and ambrosia in Achilles’s chest (?) so he won’t be hungry despite refusing to eat.  Zeus basically says to Athena: “Why are you neglecting one of your favorite warriors?” Um, maybe because you threatened to beat the crap out of any god who intervened?

The Achaean troops return to battle, and Achilles gets his armour on and talks to his horses.  (All right, it’s official.  He’s losing it):

 “Xanthus, Balius,                                       
you famous children of Podarge, this time
make sure you bring your charioteer back safely
to the Danaan army, once we’ve had enough
of battle. Don’t leave him out there slaughtered,
as you did Patroclus.”  

Frighteningly enough, the horses reply (thanks to Hera, who gives one of them the power of speech.)  They resent Achilles’s rebuke:

 “Mighty Achilles,                                
on this occasion we will bring you safely back.
But the day you’ll die is fast approaching.
We won’t be the cause, but some mighty god                                        
and a strong fate. It was not our laziness
or lack of speed which helped the Trojans
strip that armour from Patroclus’ shoulders.
A powerful god born to Leto killed him
among those fighting at the battle front,
then gave Hector glory.

I like this horse.  He has sass.  “It wasn't our fault, and we’ll bring you back again, but your clock is ticking, bro.”  Achilles is all, “Why you gotta go there?”

“Xanthus,
why do you prophesy my death? There is no need.                               
I know well enough I’m fated to die here,
far from my loving parents. No matter.
I will not stop till I have driven the Trojans
to the limit of what they can endure in war.”  

With that, Achilles lets out a war cry and charges to the front.

Reading Notes

I thought Achilles had improved, but he still sucks.  At first I found his grief over Patroclus’s death moving, and I thought it would inspire him to be a better hero.  Instead, it’s more of the same.  He is self-centered and reckless.  I mean, he was going to go into battle without eating and mocked Agamemnon for suggesting that the soldiers, you know, have some food before going into an intense, violent battle.

It’s interesting that Agamemnon taking Briseis caused the situation they are all in, and yet Achilles is never even mentioned as having glanced in her direction once she is given back.  He doesn't care about gifts, girls or glory anymore.  It’s all about vengeance.

We’ll see how this all plays out on the battlefield!

-Lily