The Trojans push to the wall
Zeus weighs the day on his golden scales. The Greeks lose. Hector's army camps on the plain that night, fires lit, ready to attack at dawn.
Summary
Zeus calls the Olympians together at dawn and forbids any of them to interfere in today's fighting. He warns them in plain terms — anyone who disobeys will be hurled into Tartarus. The gods, including Hera and Athena, are silent. Zeus then takes himself to Mount Ida, overlooking the plain, and sits on it to watch the day.
The day goes badly for the Greeks. Hector, with Apollo's quiet help, kills champion after champion. Diomedes, with Nestor in the chariot beside him, has a moment of glory but is forced back when Zeus throws a thunderbolt to discourage him. The Greek line gives. The army is pushed back across the plain, behind the wall, and almost to the ships. Hera and Athena, watching, can hardly bear it; they begin to arm to disobey Zeus and rescue the Greeks. Zeus sees them from Ida and sends Iris to threaten them off. They unhitch their horses and weep.
Zeus weighs the day on golden scales — the Greeks' fate sinks; the Trojans' rises. Hector is now exultant. With darkness coming on, he addresses his men. Tonight, he says, instead of returning into the walls of Troy, we camp on the plain. We light fires, we keep watch on the Greek camp, and at dawn we attack the ships and finish them. Homer ends the book with the Trojan campfires twinkling on the plain like stars in a clear sky — a famous image, the army settled in for the kill.
- Book 1The poem's first day. Apollo's plague, Agamemnon's refusal, Achilles's withdrawal. The chain of bad decisions that the rest of the...
- Book 2Zeus's deceitful dream rouses the Greek army; Agamemnon's botched test nearly breaks it; Odysseus rallies the men. The book ends...
- Book 3The duel that should have ended the war. Paris and Menelaus fight; Aphrodite saves Paris just before he is killed. Helen, on the...
- Book 4The gods on Olympus argue. Athena tricks a Trojan archer into shooting Menelaus and breaking the truce. The first full day of...
- Book 5Diomedes's day of glory. Athena fills him with battle-fury and lets him see the gods on the field. He wounds Aphrodite, then Ares....
- Book 6The poem's most famous domestic scene. Hector returns to Troy and finds his wife Andromache on the wall with their infant son. She...
- Book 7Hector and Ajax fight to a draw and exchange gifts. The Greeks, that night, build a defensive wall around their camp. Poseidon...
- Book 8Zeus forbids the gods from interfering and weighs the day on golden scales. The Greeks lose. Hector pushes the army to the Greek...
- Book 9Agamemnon's great offer. Three captains — Odysseus, Phoenix, Ajax — go to Achilles's tent with restitution beyond anyone's memory....
- Book 10Sometimes called a later interpolation. A nighttime raid: Diomedes and Odysseus catch a Trojan spy, kill him, then go behind the...
- Book 11Agamemnon's day of glory. He kills men until midday, then is wounded in the arm. Diomedes wounded by Paris; Odysseus wounded; the...
- Book 12The Trojans reach the Greek wall and attack on foot. An omen warns them off; Hector dismisses it ("the only good omen is to fight...
- Book 13The fight is inside the Greek camp now. Zeus looks away; Poseidon, in disguise, walks the line and rallies the Greeks. Idomeneus...
- Book 14The most flagrant scene in the poem. Hera dresses up, borrows Aphrodite's magic belt under false pretenses, and seduces Zeus to...
- Book 15Zeus, awake and furious, sends Apollo to restore Hector. The line breaks. Apollo himself kicks down the Greek wall. Hector reaches...
- Book 16The middle of the poem. Patroclus puts on Achilles's armor, leads the Myrmidons out, drives the Trojans back from the ships, then...
- Book 17The whole afternoon spent fighting over the corpse. Hector strips Achilles's armor and dons it. The Greek captains, one by one...
- Book 18Achilles hears and collapses. Thetis rises from the sea. Hephaestus, on Olympus, forges him new armor — including the great...
- Book 19Achilles formally renounces the wrath in front of the assembled army. Agamemnon makes his own speech of restitution. The men eat...
- Book 20Zeus releases the Olympians to choose sides openly. The gods pour onto the field. Achilles meets Aeneas in single combat...
- Book 21The most surreal book in the poem. Achilles kills so many men in the river Scamander that the river-god himself rises to fight...
- Book 22Hector waits outside the walls. He sees Achilles coming and runs. They run three times around the city before Athena, in disguise...
- Book 23Patroclus is given his funeral. The pyre burns through the night. In the morning Achilles holds funeral games — chariot race...
- Book 24Twelve days after Hector's death. Priam goes alone, with Hermes guiding him, through the Greek camp to Achilles's tent. He kneels...