‘Husband, you were too young to die and leave me widowed in our home. Your son, the boy we luckless parents brought into the world, is but a little baby. And I have no hope that he will grow to manhood: Ilium will come tumbling to the ground before that can ever be. For you, her guardian, have perished, you that watched (730) over her, you that kept her cherished wives and little babies safe. They will be carried off soon in the hollow ships, and I with them.
‘And you, my child, will go with me to labour somewhere at degrading tasks under the eye of a merciless master; or some Greek will seize you by the arm and hurl you from the walls to an ugly death, venting his fury on you because Hector perhaps killed a brother of his, maybe, or else a father, or a son. Yes, at Hector’s hands many a Greek bit the dust of the broad earth; for your father was no gentle soul in the cruelty of battle.
(740) ’And that is why everyone in Ilium now laments him. Ah, Hector, you have brought untold tears and misery to your parents. But my grief is cruellest of all, because you did not die reaching out from our bed to me with your arms, or utter some memorable word I might have treasured night and day through my tears.’
So she spoke in tears, and the women took up the cry. Hecabe now led the women in a shrill lament:
Hecabe’s lament
’Hector, dearest to me of all my sons, you were dear to the (750) gods too while you were with me in the world; and even now you have met your destiny and died, it turns out they still care for you. Swift-footed Achilles took other sons of mine and sent them over the murmuring seas for sale in Samothrace or in Imbros or in misty Lemnos. And he took your life with his long spear; but though he dragged you many times round the grave-mound of Patroclus, the companion of his you killed, that did not bring Patroclus back to life. But you have come home to me fresh as the dew and lie in the palace like one whom Apollo lord of the silver bow has visited and put to death with his gentle shafts.’
(760) So she spoke in tears, and aroused unbridled grief. Helen then led them in a third lament:
Helen’s lament
’Hector, dearest to me of all my Trojan brothers, godlike Paris brought me here to Troy and married me -I wish I had perished first – but in all the nineteen years since I came away and left the land of my fathers, I never heard a single harsh or spiteful word from you. Others in the palace insulted me – your brothers, your sisters, your brothers’ (770) well-robed wives and your mother, though your father was the soul of kindness. But you calmed them down every time and stopped them out of the gentleness of your heart, with your gentle words. So these tears of sorrow I shed are both for you and for my luckless self. No one else is left in the wide realm of Troy to treat me kindly and befriend me. They all shudder at me.’
So she spoke in tears, and the vast multitude took up the cry. Now the old man Priam spoke to the people:
‘Trojans, bring firewood to the town and do not be afraid of (780) a Greek ambush. Achilles assured me, when he let me leave the black ships, that they would do us no harm till the dawn of the twelfth day from then.’
[Day 49 and 50] Cremation; burial
So he spoke, and they yoked mules and bullocks to their waggons and assembled speedily outside the town. Over nine days they gathered a huge supply of wood. When the dawn of the tenth day brought light to the world, they carried out daring Hector, weeping, laid his body on top of the pyre and lit it.
But when early-born, rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, the people flocked together round glorious Hector’s pyre. When (790) everyone had assembled and the gathering was complete, they first put out with sparkling wine whatever was still burning. Then Hector’s brothers and comrades-in-arms collected his white bones, lamenting and with many a tear running down their cheeks. They took the bones, wrapped them in soft purple clothing and put them in the golden coffin. This coffin they immediately lowered into a hollow grave which they covered with a close-set layer of large stones. They hurriedly piled up earth over it to mark the grave-mound, posting guards all round (800) in case the Greeks launched a premature attack. When they had piled up the mound, they returned into the city and reassembled for a magnificent funeral feast in the palace of Priam their Olympian-bred ruler.
Such were the funeral rites of horse-taming Hector.
Appendix 1: A Brief Glossary
For specific epithets applied to gods and the major heroes, see The Main Characters.
aegis: a sort of divine cloak which, when a god shakes it in the face of the enemy, causes panic. It is also used to protect Hector’s body. But it also means ‘storm-cloud’, which ZEUS is said to drive.
attendant: like the ancient ‘squire’, someone sent to accompany and help a warrior, often as his charioteer.
blood-price: murder and homicide could be settled if compensation was accepted by relatives. Otherwise, blood could be satisfied only by further blood.
body-armour: thôrêx, the cuirass or corselet protecting the body.
booty: booty gathered from raids was divided up by agreement among the whole army, the leader getting the lion’s share.
DELUSION/BLIND FOLLY: see Index under ‘DELUSION’, and ‘personification’ below.
Enyo: a personified deity of strife.
guest-friendship: a bond of friendship created between families, involving obligations and often sealed with an exchange of gifts.
herald: one who keeps order at meetings, makes announcements, acts as escort, carries messages, runs errands and serves at feasts and sacrifices.
honour: the Greek word (timê) means basically ‘evaluation’, the way you are assessed by those around you. Honour is commonly associated with material rewards.
incest: the children of URANUS, CRONUS and ZEUS, the first divine rulers of the world, intermarried at will. After all, the world of gods had to be populated somehow.
marriage: Homer talks sometimes of the bride-price – gifts from the suitor to the father – and sometimes of the dowry, a gift going with the bride to the husband.
personification: Greeks were in the habit of taking a common idea or thing and giving it human or even divine qualities. Thus a spear could ‘hunger’ to hit human flesh, a rock could be ‘shameless’. Likewise, powerful human forces like ‘panic’, ‘confusion’, ‘force’ and ‘delusion’, and natural features like ‘night’, ‘sleep’ and ‘rivers’, could be turned into gods.
sceptre: symbol of authority and power. The speaker in assembly holds it.
sickle-wielding: ZEUS’ father CRONUS came to power by slicing off the genitals of his father, URANUS, with a sickle.
Styx: river of the underworld by which gods swore.
supplication/entreaty: the act of pleading for help often involving kneeling before a person and touching their knees and/or chin. There was a strong moral pressure on the person supplicated to accede to the request. In the real-time story of the Iliad, no human accedes to a human supplication until Achilles accedes to Priam in the last Book.
Tartarus: an even lower region of the underworld than Hades.
value: there is no money in the Homeric world. Values are usually determined in terms of number of oxen or females.
Some general epithets
beaked: (of ships) : ships had high, curved prows with a ‘beak’ at the top.
girdled: refers to the belt round a woman’s robe, which could hang over the belt to form a sort of pocket (‘full-girdled’) .
horse-taming: horses are aristocratic animals, very expensive to keep.
long-haired: a sign of aristocracy.
master of the battle-cry: a healthy yell is very off-putting to opponents.
of the good ash spear: flexible ash was the best material for making spears.
See also under individual names, pp. lxvi ff.
Appendix 2: Omitted Fathers’ Names
See Notes on this Revision, 7.
Acamas son of Eussorus
Agelaus son of Phradmon
Alcimedon son of Laerces
Alcmaon son of Thestor
Amphimachus son of Cteatus
Amphius son of Selagius
Amyntor son of Ormenus
Aphareus son of Caletor
Apisaon son of Hippasus
Apisaon son of Phausius
Archelochus son of Antenor
Archeptolemus son of Iphitus
Ascanius son of Hippotion
Asius son of Hyrtacus
Astynous son of Protiaon
Axylus son of Teuthras
Bathycles son of Chalcon
Caletor son of Clytius
Cleitus son of Peisenor
Dardanus son of Bias
Demuchus son of Philetor
Diomede daughter of Phorbas
Diores son of Amarinceus
Echeclus son of Agenor
Echepolus son of Thalysius
Elephenor son of Chalcodon
Eniopeus son of Thebaeus
Epeigeus son of Agacles
Euryalus son of Mecisteus
Eurypylus son of Euaemon
Hippomachus son ofAntimachus
Hypsenor son of Dolopion
Hyrtius son of Gyrtias
Iphinous son of Dexius
Itymoneus son of Hypeirochus
Laodamas son of Antenor
Laodocus son of Antenor
Laogonus son of Bias
Laogonus son of Onetor
Leiocritus son of Arisbas
Leitus son of Alectryon
Lycomedes son of Creon
Lycophron son of Mastor
Maeon son of Haemon
Mecisteus son of Echius
Meges son of Phyleus
Melanippus son of Hicetaon
Menestheus son of Peteos
Menoetius son of Actor
Morys son of Hippotion
Mydon son of Atymnius
Peiros son of Imbrasus
Peisander son of Maemalus
Periboea daughter of Acessamenus
Perimus son of Megas
Periphas son of Epytus
Periphas son of Ochesius
Phaenops son of Asius
Phaestus son of Borus
Phorcys son of Phaenops
Podes son of Eëtion
Polymelus son of Argeas
Polyphontes son of Autophonus
Promachus son of Alegenor
Prothoenor son of Areilycus
Ptolemy son of Peiraeus
Rhesus son of Eloneus
Rhigmus son of Peiros
Scamandrius son of Strophius
Schedius son of Perimedes
Sphelus son of Bucolus
Sthenelaus son of Ithaemenes
Thestor son of Enops
Tlepolemus son of Damastor
Tros son of Alastor
Index
This is a select index, concentrating on the main characters, and themes. References are to Book and line number.
Achilles (see also ATHENE)
Agamemnon: insults Agamemnon 1.122, 149, 225; nearly kills Agamemnon 1.194; reconciled with Agamemnon 23.890; rejects gifts 9.308.
Andromache’s family: kills Andromache’s brothers 6.423; kills Eëtion but gives him burial 6.416.
Anger: 1.1, 422, 488, 2.689, 769, 4.513, 7.230, 9.646, 678, 10.106, 12.10, 14.50, 367, 16.30, 206, 17.710, 18.257, 24.395; effects of anger 19.61; renounces anger 16.60, 18.107, 19.67.
Battlefield: arms for battle 19.364; fight with River 21.213; his troops 2.681; kills his man 20.382, 400, 406, 417, 459, 462, 471 (Tros), 473, 476, 483, 487, 489; 21.20 (in the River), 21.116 (Lycaon), 181, 209, 210, 22.326 (Hector); prevented from taking on Hector 20.443, Agenor 21.596; takes on Aeneas 20.178.
Briseis: hands over Briseis 1.337; how he won Briseis 2.689, 16.57, 19.60 cf. 20.92, 191; feeling for Briseis 9.336, 342.
Capacities, feelings: as youth 9.438, 485; demands loyalty from Phoenix 9.613; desire/impatience for battle/death of Trojans 1.492, 13.746, 18.126, 19.68, 148, 200, 214, 422, 20.2, 362, 21.103, 133, 224; desire to control everything 1.287; feels outcast 9.648, 16.59; has destroyed pity 24.44 (cf. 24.207); helps only himself 11.762, 16.31; ignores friends 9.630, 642; inhuman/savage 21.314, 22.313, 346, 418, 24.40, 207; inspires respect/fear 1.331, 11.648, 24.435; insults horses (who reply) 19.400; loves fighting/quarrelling 1.177, 9.257, 19.214; mad passion 21.542, 24.114; may cheat destiny 20.29; preciousness of life 9.401; pride 9.255, 496, 629, 636, 699, 18.262, 19.214; protects what is his 1.300; rejects food 19.210, 306, cf. 23.44 (fed by ATHENE 19.352, cf. 24.129); son 19.326; speed 13.325; strength 1.280; touchy 11.649; unyielding 16.33, 204; used to take captives alive for ransom 6.427, 11.104, 21.35, 101, 22.45, 24.751; value to Greeks 1.283, 5.788, 6.99, 18.268, 19.61.
Death: accepts own death 18.90, 98, 115, 332, 19.329, 337, 421, 21.110, 22.365, 23.150, 244, 24.540; death predicted 1.352, 416, 505, 9.410 (cf. 20.337) , 17.197, 21.275, 23.80, 24.85, 131; double fate 9.410; to be buried with Patroclus 23.91, 126, 244.
Gifts: accepts gifts 19.140, 172, 278; feels cheated of rightful rewards 1.161, 9.316, 332, 367, 16.56, 18.444; hates Agamemnon’s gifts 9.378, 679; importance of gifts 9.515, 602, 19.140, 172; right to be angry before gifts offered 9.523.
Hector: feared Hector 7.230; Hector feared him 9.352; mutilates Hector 22.395, 23.24, 24.15, 51, 416; rejects burial conditions 22.261, 335, 348 (cf. 6.417); vows revenge on Hector 18.114, 336, 20.425, 452, 21.225, 22.271, 23.21, 181.
Honour: feels keenly about honour 1.353, 16.84, 90; determined to win glory 18.121, 20.502, 21.543, 22.393, cf. 24.110 (by returning Hector’s body) .
Parents: ancestry 21.187; appeals to THETIS to intercede with ZEUS 1.393, 407; as baby 9.485; divine mother 1.280, 20.206, 21.109, 24.59; kept informed by THETIS 16.37, 17.409, 18.9, 24.562; Peleus’ advice 9.253, 438, 11.784; pity for Peleus 18.331, 19.322, 24.538.
Patroclus: accepts responsibility for Patroclus’ death 18.82, 100; asks forgiveness from Patroclus 24.592; blood-price for Patroclus 21.28, 23.22; cannot forget Patroclus 22.390, 23.4, 24.1; cuts hair for Patroclus 23.144; does not want Patroclus to outshine him 16.90; fears for Patroclus’ safety 16.247, 18.6; ignorant of Patroclus’ death 17.402, 641; visited by spirit of Patroclus 23.65.
Priam: admires Priam 24.629; counsels Priam 24.518; pities Priam 24.516.
Walk-out: embassy 9.112, 11.609, 16.84, 18.448; leaves the fighting 1.306; return foretold 2.694, 8.474, cf. 9.702, 15.68; stays out of fighting 1.489, 2.688, 772, 4.512, 7.229, 10.106, 13.746 (cf. 14.139) , 14.367; watches fighting 11.599, 16.255; will return home 1.169, 9.356.
Aeneas
Battlefield: attacks Diomedes 5.225, Idomeneus 13.500, Achilles 20.160; his troops 2.819; kills his man 5.541, 13.541, 15.332, 17.343; runs from Menelaus and Antilochus 5.571; saved by APHRODITE from Diomedes 5.311; saved by APOLLO 5.344; saved by POSEIDON 20.325; urges Pandarus to take on Diomedes 5.171; urged on by APOLLO 17.323, 20.79.
Other: anger at Priam 13.460; as good as Hector 5.467, 6.78; escaped from Achilles earlier 20.90, 191; parentage 5.247, 313, 20.208; view of human speech 20.244.
Agamemnon
Achilles and his men: acknowledged by Achilles 23.890; acknowledges mistakes in dealing with Achilles 2.377, 9.115, 515, 19.90 (see also DELUSION); dishonours Achilles and others 1.356, 412, 507, 9.111, 647, 13.113, 16.274, 18.445; fondness for Menelaus 4.169, 10.124, 11.139; insults Odysseus 4.338, Diomedes 4.370.
Battlefield: arms 11.16; encouraged by POSEIDON 14.143; feat of arms 11.91; kills his man 5.38, 533, 6.33, 64, 11.92, 93, 101, 122, 246, 260; praises Teucer 8.281; prevents Menelaus challenging Hector 7.109; retreats 8.78, 11.273; reviews troops 4.223; storms weak points of Ilium 6.435; tells Menelaus to take no prisoners 6.55; tests Greeks 2.73; troops 2.569; volunteers to challenge Hector 7.162; wounded 11.252.
Capacities, feelings: authority (or lack of it) 1.231, 281, 9.38, 98; bullies the weak 1.11, 32, 106, 379; commands the most troops 1.281, 2.577; coward 1.225, 9.42; deceived by dream 2.36; demands compensation 1.118, 135, Briseis 1.184, obedience 1.185, 286, 9.158;
described by Helen 3.178; gloomy about expedition/recommends flight 2.114, 8.236, 9.17, 10.9, 91, 14.44, 75; greed 1.122, 2.226; mad 1.342; outrageous behaviour 1.203, 205, 214; outstanding 2.476, 578, 23.890; prefers Chryseis to Clytaemnestra 1.113; threatens others 1.138, 145, 2.391; yields to criticism 14.104.
Criticized: by Achilles 9.308, Diomedes 9.32, Nestor 9.105, Odysseus 14.83, POSEIDON 13.108, Thersites 2.225 (see also under Achilles) .
Deluded by BLIND FOLLY: 1.412, 2.111, 8.237, 9.18, 115, 119, 16.274, 19.88, 136, 270.
Ajax, son of Oïleus (from Locris, The Lesser)
argues with Idomeneus over horse-race 23.450; foot-race 23.754, 774; inspired by POSEIDON 13.6; kills his man 14.442, 520, 16.332; not as good as Ajax son of Telamon 2.529; retreats 8.79; rallies Greeks 12.268; stays close to Ajax son of Telamon 13.701; storms weak points of Ilium 6.435; troops 2.527, 13.712; volunteers to challenge Hector 7.164.
Ajax, son of Telamon (from Salamis, The Greater)
Battlefield: desire to fight in the light 17.645; helps Odysseus 11.485; inspired by POSEIDON 13.60; kills his man 4.473, 5.611, 6.5, 11.490, 12.379, 14.464, 511, 15.419, 516, 746, 17.298, 315; knocks out Hector 14.418; plans rescue of Patroclus’ body 17.629; protects Patroclus’ dead body 17.279; rallies Greeks 12.268, 366, 15.502, 560; retreats 5.626, 8.79, 11.544, 15.727, 16.102; storms weak points of Ilium 6.435; threatens Hector 13.810, 16.358; troops 2.557; wields the pike 15.676.