The Iliad of Homer

by Richmond Lattimore

  me pleasure. For you know surely how we are penned in our city,

  and wood is far to bring in from the hills, and the Trojans are frightened

  badly. Nine days we would keep him in our palace and mourn him,

  665 and bury him on the tenth day, and the people feast by him,

  and on the eleventh day we would make the grave-barrow for him,

  and on the twelfth day fight again; if so we must do.”

  Then in turn swift-footed brilliant Achilleus answered him:

  “Then all this, aged Priam, shall be done as you ask it.

  670 I will hold off our attack for as much time as you bid me.”

  So he spoke, and took the aged king by the right hand

  at the wrist, so that his heart might have no fear. Then these two,

  Priam and the herald who were both men of close counsel,

  slept in the place outside the house, in the porch’s shelter;

  675 but Achilleus slept in the inward corner of the strong-built shelter,

  and at his side lay Briseis of the fair coloring.

  Now the rest of the gods and men who were lords of chariots

  slept nightlong, with the easy bondage of slumber upon them,

  only sleep had not caught Hermes the kind god, who pondered

  680 now in his heart the problem of how to escort King Priam

  from the ships and not be seen by the devoted gate-wardens.

  He stood above his head and spoke a word to him, saying:

  “Aged sir, you can have no thought of evil from the way

  you sleep still among your enemies now Achilleus has left you

  685 unharmed. You have ransomed now your dear son and given much for him.

  But the sons you left behind would give three times as much ransom

  for you, who are alive, were Atreus’ son Agamemnon

  to recognize you, and all the other Achaians learn of you.”

  He spoke, and the old man was afraid, and wakened his herald,

  690 and lightly Hermes harnessed for them the mules and the horses

  and himself drove them through the encampment. And no man knew of them.

  But when they came to the crossing-place of the fair-running river,

  of whirling Xanthos, a stream whose father was Zeus the immortal,

  there Hermes left them and went away to the height of Olympos,

  695 and dawn, she of the yellow robe, scattered over all earth,

  and they drove their horses on to the city with lamentation

  and clamor, while the mules drew the body. Nor was any other

  aware of them at the first, no man, no fair-girdled woman,

  only Kassandra, a girl like Aphrodite the golden,

  700 who had gone up to the height of the Pergamos. She saw

  her dear father standing in the chariot, his herald and crier

  with him. She saw Hektor drawn by the mules on a litter.

  She cried out then in sorrow and spoke to the entire city:

  “Come, men of Troy and Trojan women; look upon Hektor

  705 if ever before you were joyful when you saw him come back living

  from battle; for he was a great joy to his city, and all his people.”

  She spoke, and there was no man left there in all the city

  nor woman, but all were held in sorrow passing endurance.

  They met Priam beside the gates as he brought the dead in.

  710 First among them were Hektor’s wife and his honored mother

  who tore their hair, and ran up beside the smooth-rolling wagon,

  and touched his head. And the multitude, wailing, stood there about them.

  And now and there in front of the gates they would have lamented

  all day till the sun went down and let fall their tears for Hektor,

  715 except that the old man spoke from the chariot to his people:

  “Give me way to get through with my mules; then afterward

  you may sate yourselves with mourning, when I have him inside the palace.”

  So he spoke, and they stood apart and made way for the wagon.

  And when they had brought him inside the renowned house, they laid him

  720 then on a carved bed, and seated beside him the singers

  who were to lead the melody in the dirge, and the singers

  chanted the song of sorrow, and the women were mourning beside them.

  Andromachē of the white arms led the lamentation

  of the women, and held in her arms the head of manslaughtering Hektor:

  725 “My husband, you were lost young from life, and have left me

  a widow in your house, and the boy is only a baby

  who was born to you and me, the unhappy. I think he will never

  come of age, for before then head to heel this city

  will be sacked, for you, its defender, are gone, you who guarded

  730 the city, and the grave wives, and the innocent children,

  wives who before long must go away in the hollow ships,

  and among them I shall also go, and you, my child, follow

  where I go, and there do much hard work that is unworthy

  of you, drudgery for a hard master; or else some Achaian

  735 will take you by hand and hurl you from the tower into horrible

  death, in anger because Hektor once killed his brother,

  or his father, or his son; there were so many Achaians

  whose teeth bit the vast earth, beaten down by the hands of Hektor.

  Your father was no merciful man in the horror of battle.

  740 Therefore your people are grieving for you all through their city,

  Hektor, and you left for your parents mourning and sorrow

  beyond words, but for me passing all others is left the bitterness

  and the pain, for you did not die in bed, and stretch your arms to me,

  nor tell me some last intimate word that I could remember

  745 always, all the nights and days of my weeping for you.”

  So she spoke in tears, and the women were mourning about her.

  Now Hekabē led out the thronging chant of their sorrow:

  “Hektor, of all my sons the dearest by far to my spirit;

  while you still lived for me you were dear to the gods, and even

  750 in the stage of death they cared about you still. There were others

  of my sons whom at times swift-footed Achilleus captured,

  and he would sell them as slaves far across the unresting salt water

  into Samos, and Imbros, and Lemnos in the gloom of the mists. You,

  when he had taken your life with the thin edge of the bronze sword,

  755 he dragged again and again around his beloved companion’s

  tomb, Patroklos’, whom you killed, but even so did not

  bring him back to life. Now you lie in the palace, handsome

  and fresh with dew, in the likeness of one whom he of the silver

  bow, Apollo, has attacked and killed with his gentle arrows.”

  760 So she spoke, in tears, and wakened the endless mourning.

  Third and last Helen led the song of sorrow among them:

  “Hektor, of all my lord’s brothers dearest by far to my spirit:

  my husband is Alexandros, like an immortal, who brought me

  here to Troy; and I should have died before I came with him;

  765 and here now is the twentieth year upon me since I came

  from the place where I was, forsaking the land of my fathers. In this time

  I have never heard a harsh saying from you, nor an insult.

  No, but when another, one of my lord’s brothers or sisters, a fair-robed

  wife of some brother, would say a harsh word to me in the palace,

  770 or my lord’s mother—but his father was gentle always, a father

  indeed—then you would speak and put them off and restrain them

/>   by your own gentleness of heart and your gentle words. Therefore

  I mourn for you in sorrow of heart and mourn myself also

  and my ill luck. There was no other in all the wide Troad

  775 who was kind to me, and my friend; all others shrank when they saw me.”

  So she spoke in tears, and the vast populace grieved with her.

  Now Priam the aged king spoke forth his word to his people:

  “Now, men of Troy, bring timber into the city, and let not

  your hearts fear a close ambush of the Argives. Achilleus

  780 promised me, as he sent me on my way from the black ships,

  that none should do us injury until the twelfth dawn comes.”

  He spoke, and they harnessed to the wagons their mules and their oxen

  and presently were gathered in front of the city. Nine days

  they spent bringing in an endless supply of timber. But when

  785 the tenth dawn had shone forth with her light upon mortals,

  they carried out bold Hektor, weeping, and set the body

  aloft a towering pyre for burning. And set fire to it.

  But when the young dawn showed again with her rosy fingers,

  the people gathered around the pyre of illustrious Hektor.

  790 But when all were gathered to one place and assembled together,

  first with gleaming wine they put out the pyre that was burning,

  all where the fury of the fire still was in force, and thereafter

  the brothers and companions of Hektor gathered the white bones

  up, mourning, as the tears swelled and ran down their cheeks. Then

  795 they laid what they had gathered up in a golden casket

  and wrapped this about with soft robes of purple, and presently

  put it away in the hollow of the grave, and over it

  piled huge stones laid close together. Lightly and quickly

  they piled up the grave-barrow, and on all sides were set watchmen

  800 for fear the strong-greaved Achaians might too soon set upon them.

  They piled up the grave-barrow and went away, and thereafter

  assembled in a fair gathering and held a glorious

  feast within the house of Priam, king under God’s hand.

  Such was their burial of Hektor, breaker of horses.

  Notes to the Iliad

  These notes, while not comprehensive, seek to illuminate points of mythology, social structure, material culture, and poetic convention that might lead readers to a fuller appreciation of the epic. The style and design of the poem as a whole have always been kept in mind. Thus, some passages that might have been clear enough without further annotation serve as prompts to the discussion of broader compositional trends. Brief identifications of many persons and places have been left to the glossary reprinted from the original edition. The line numbers match Lattimore’s, which in almost all cases exactly correspond to the numbering of verses in the Oxford Classical Text of D. B. Monro and T. W. Allen (3rd edition, 1919).

  The notes (as in the introduction) draw on the latest Homeric scholarship, to which the bibliography records my debt. I have relied heavily on the most recent full English commentary (Kirk et al., The Iliad: A Commentary [1985]), and to a lesser extent on the older notes by Leaf in A Companion to the Iliad for English Readers (1892), and in his The Iliad (1900). While making a conscious effort to avoid overlap with the existing companions by Willcock (A Companion to the Iliad [1976]), Postlethwaite (Homer’s Iliad [2000]), and Jones (Homer’s “Iliad” [2003]), and the notes by the late Bernard Knox to the Fagles translation (Homer: The Iliad [1990]), I have inevitably commented on many of the same passages, in what I hope is a complementary fashion. On several points, the ongoing German commentary by Latacz and others has been a help, as have commentaries on individual books (especially Macleod (Homer: Iliad, Book XXIV [1982]) and Chantraine and Goube (Iliade: Chant XXIII [1964]).

  Numbers pinpoint the starting line of the scene to be elucidated. Citations of more distant Iliad passages are by book and line number only; those to book and lines of the Odyssey are headed “Od.”

  BOOK ONE

  1 The opening word of the Iliad, “anger” (mênis), announces the theme of the poem. The word designates not just ordinary anger but the particularly destructive wrath possessed by a god: Achilleus is the only mortal whose emotion is so described.

  The Muse is asked to “sing” the story, a reminder both that long poems could be accompanied by music, and that the Muses (daughters of Memory) are the ultimate preservers of traditional lore and wisdom. Poets are their mouthpieces. This type of invocation became standard for epics and hymns to gods in ancient Greek and in later literary imitations.

  4 Heroes. Any warrior in Homeric epic can be designated with this word, not just outstanding protagonists of a story, since all are thought to be far beyond average in their abilities.

  5 Will of Zeus. Two possible references: before the events of the Iliad, Zeus had promised Earth (Gaia) to relieve the oppressive weight of people on her surface, and allowed the Trojan War to lessen the population (as the now lost epic Cypria narrated). Within the time frame of the Iliad, the fulfillment of Zeus’ will can refer to the carrying out of his plan (at Thetis’ request) to honor Achilleus by letting his comrades suffer in his absence.

  14 Heralds, suppliants, and kings all carry the skêptron (“scepter” or “staff”) as a token of their special status. The fillets, or ribbons, were pieces of wool attached as a further marker of protection by the god: participants in sacrifice or ritual meals also wore them.

  17 Greaves are shin protectors. The consistent use of the epithet “strong-greaved” for Greek warriors may refer to a distinctive form of armor they possessed, although in general both sides in the war appear similarly equipped.

  26 A first glimpse of Agamemnon’s character: harsh, arrogant, and selfish. Through-out the poem, character is developed largely through the speeches made by various figures.

  44 The typical scene (a mortal prays and a god answers) is made distinctive by the extended description of the god’s arrival, “as night comes down,” combining sound (the clanging of his arrows on his quiver) and sight (the blackness of night’s descent parallel to Apollo’s coming down from Olympos, the gods’ mountain home).

  53 A common pattern: nine days or years represent an unmarked stretch of time that is then contrasted with and fulfilled by a significant tenth day or year. The ten years of the war itself fit this template.

  59 In contrast to Agamemnon, Achilleus’ first words are reasonable and calm, seeking an explanation for events. Significantly, he is the first among the warriors and their leaders to question the status quo and seek to improve conditions.

  62 The division of work among religious specialists is noteworthy. Priests were closely associated with sacrifice (but not absolutely needed for carrying it out, since chieftains like Nestor and Agamemnon can do so on their own). Dream interpreters are less commonly mentioned, although we know of their existence throughout antiquity. Seers (like Kalchas in the Iliad) provide useful advice on everything from religious obligations to navigation and morality (cf. Theoklymenos in Odyssey 17). It is another deft touch of characterization that Achilleus instantly recognizes that any one of these specialists might be called for.

  81 The faulty king is literally dyspeptic, unable to “swallow down” his anger. Later Greek literature characterizes hubristic transgressors as those unable to “keep down” prosperity (Pindar, Solon), as if physical and ethical systems are interconnected.

  91 “Greatest of all the Achaians” is a formulaic phrase that properly designates Achilleus, but is applied to various other Greeks while he is out of the battle. Its employment for Agamemnon sounds ironic in Achilleus’ speech.

  106 The failure of Kalchas to ever foretell good may allude to the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia, which, according to other sources, the seer is said to have advise
d as the will of Artemis.

  118 Another ironic touch of characterization. No sooner does Agamemnon express his desire to keep the troops safe than he makes a move to grab another’s prize of honor: precisely the action that will lead to the destruction of his warriors.

  125 Achilleus mentions carrying out twenty-three earlier raids (9.328–29). Andromachē tells Hektor about one of these, in which Achilleus killed her father (6.414–16); the same raid yielded the war prize Chryseis (1.365–69).

  138 The three singled out—Aias, Odysseus, Achilleus—are those whose ships, drawn up onshore, mark the extreme ends and middle of the Greek camp (11.5–9).

  154 A list of the most common causes for counterraiding: theft of cattle or horses, and destruction of crops. Military action to recover a wife appears less glorious and less common. The epithet Achilleus hurls at Agamemnon (dog-faced) is the same that Helen applies to herself (3.180), perhaps significantly as the topic here is her husband and brother-in-law.

  186 The core of the dispute—might versus authority—is put by Agamemnon with two comparative adjectives: Achilleus may be karteros (“mightier”) but that is almost accidental, the gift of an unnamed god (1.177), whereas he himself is more powerful (pherteros), which, he implies, results from being honored by Zeus (1.175). Angered by Achilleus’ implication that a single warrior should profit as much as the expedition’s leader, Agamemnon seizes the opportunity to make good on his earlier threat (1.137–39) and thus scare off other potential competitors for power.

  188 A type-scene of decision making. Cf. the same phrase used to describe Diomedes hesitating about continuing the assault at 8.167. In Homeric psychology heroic action involves such internal contests; poetically, such moments foreshadow a course of action while holding out the possibility of alternative plots.

  203 The Greek word translated by “outrageousness” is hubris, an arrogant abuse of power stemming from excessive pride and self-centeredness, often in defiance of divine will.

  234 Achilleus’ description of the royal scepter as dead wood contrasted with its original flourishing state is clearly a negative characterization of Agamemnon’s regime. He identifies himself as “best of the Achaians” at 244 (contrast 1.91).

  247 Nestor’s long speeches are evidence of his honeyed, fluent rhetoric, not an old man’s talkativeness. His advice is taken seriously at all times (although Agamemnon begins to resist it here). The reminiscences of the ancient warrior of Pylos (a place famous in Mykenaian times) provide a glimpse into the world of a generation or two before the Trojan War. The battle recalled here was between the Lapiths, a tribe of men in Thessaly, and their neighbors the Centaurs, half men, half horses living around Mount Pelion. Theseus, king of Athens, intervened to aid his friend Peirithoös, whose wedding to Hippodameia was overrun by these lascivious beast-men. The couple’s son Polypoites is a chieftain of the Lapiths at Troy (2.738–44).