The truce broken; full battle resumes

On Olympus the gods watch the broken duel and argue. Hera and Athena are determined Troy must fall. Zeus, who would prefer to leave the city standing, is overruled by his wife — exasperated, he gives in. Athena descends to the field disguised as a Trojan officer and finds the archer Pandarus, persuading him with promises of glory to shoot at Menelaus and end the truce.

Pandarus does. The arrow grazes Menelaus, drawing blood. Agamemnon panics, thinking his brother is mortally wounded, but the Greek physician Machaon treats the wound and Menelaus survives. The Greek captains see the truce broken and the army is moved up. The full battle begins.

The rest of the book is mostly Agamemnon walking the line, encouraging the captains. Then the killing begins. Homer establishes here the method he will use for the next twenty books: each casualty is named, often with a small biography — his father's name, his city, the detail of his life that has just been ended. "Antiphus, son of Thessalus, was killed by Ajax — he had come from the rich orchards of Phyleia." The sheer accumulation of these small named deaths is the poem's central effect. Each one is a complete person; each one is killed in three lines; the killing does not stop.