Sire of Gods and Men
From Iliad Books XX
In Book XX, Achilles1 is armed and ready to go. But Zeus has a problem. He sees that with Achilles leading the Akhaians2, the Trojans cannot stand, and that the Akhaians are likely to breach the wall of the city. Despite the fact that the Trojans are fated to lose to the Akhaians anyway, it isn’t time yet.
Although fate gets the blame, and Zeus clearly cares about the men who will die, it still looks like the gods are playing with people like they are toys. As immortals, do they not really comprehend what death is? Or does this have to do with accepting that death is part of life?
Zeus calls on various gods and goddesses to take sides with Greeks or Trojans, to keep Achilles from over-riding fate and defeating Troy before it is time. Zeus is often called sire of gods and men, and when we look at the gods and goddesses that take sides with the Akhaians or the Trojans, all but two of them are a wife or a daughter or a son of Zeus.
The two exceptions are children of Titans. Poseidon, who fights on the side of the Akhaians, is the brother of Zeus, a son of the same Titans, Chronos and Rhea who are the parents of Zeus. Xanthos, called Skamander by men, who fights on the side of the Trojans, is a nephew of Zeus. Xanthos is a river god and a son of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, who are full siblings of Chronos and Rhea.
Fighting for the Greeks are: Hera – wife of Zeus Hephaistos – son of Zeus by his wife Hera Athena – daughter of Zeus with no mother Hermes – son of Zeus by Maia (not specifically called a wife, that I could find) Poseidon – brother of Zeus; not a son. Fighting for the Trojans are: Leto – wife of Zeus (called that by Hermes) Apollo – son of Zeus by his wife Leto Artemis – son of Zeus by his wife Leto Ares – son of Zeus by his wife Hera Aphrodite – daughter of Zeus by Dione (not specifically called a wife, that I could find) Xanthos/Skamander – nephew of Zeus; not a son.
Achilles vs Aeneas: Fated to Live
Apollo gets things going by taking the form of Lykaon, a son of Priam, and goading Aeneas to fight with Achilles. Aeneas remembers how Achilles already beat him when he took Lyrnessos. [That’s where he took Briseis, too.]
Hera responds by calling to Athena and Poseidon to help. But Poseidon doesn’t actually want to get involved in the fighting unless Ares or Apollo fight or someone gets Achilles off the field altogether. So Poseidon, Ares, and Apollo leave the field.
Aeneas drives his spear directly into the shield of Achilles, which pierces only two of the five layers and then gets stuck in the third, gold layer. Achilles then throws his spear, which drives all the way through Aeneas’ shield, breaking it. But Aeneas ducked in time, and the spear cleared his back and stuck in the ground of the battlefield.
Achilles draws his sword and closes, with a wild warcry, while Aeneas picked up a huge boulder. It looks like either might kill the other. Or they might both die. But Poseidon, although on the side of the Greeks, takes Aeneas’ part.
His fate is to escape, to ensure that the great line of Dardanos may not unseeded perish from the world. For Zeus cared most for Dardanos, of all the sons he had by women, and now Zeus has turned against the family of Priam. Therefore Aeneas and his sons, and theirs, will be lords over Trojans born hereafter. Lines 302 - 308 of Book XX, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
But Hera and Athena will not be moved. If Aeneas is to be saved, Poseidon must do it without them. So Poseidon carries Aeneas off the field, and tells him he is not to fight Achilles, the only Akhaian able to kill him. He is to wait until Achilles is off the field.
Achilles vs the Warriors
Achilles accepts that the gods are on Aeneas’ side after all, and rouses the other Danaans to fight. Meanwhile, Hector rouses the Trojans, and looks like he’s planning to enter the field himself. Apollo tells him to hold back, instead of spurring him on as he did earlier with Aeneas.
In this phase of the fighting, we still get names and backgrounds of opponents and detailed descriptions of the deaths. But there are no descriptions of bodies being stripped or deliberately desecrated. Achilles clearly isn’t pausing to take the time. If anyone else is, we aren’t told about it.
Achilles kills:
Iphition, son of Otrynteus, raider of cities, and a naiad, from the fertile town of Hyde under snow-covered Tmolos, near Gygaie lake, where there was the trout-stream Hyllos and the Hermos river. Iphition’s body ends up being cut up by the sharp wheels of the advancing Greek war chariots.
Demoleon, another son of Antenor, who had already lost two other sons in this war.
Hippodamas, who jumped down from his car to run away, by spearing him in the back.
Polydoros, Priam’s youngest and dearest son, who had been forbidden to fight. He was showing off how fast he was by running across the front line and Achilles hit him in the back as he flashed by.
Achilles vs Hector: Too Soon For Either To Die
Seeing Polydoros fall, Hector cannot hold back any longer. He runs at Achilles, they exchange challenges / insults, and Hector throws his spear. Athena blows the spear back at Hector to save Achilles and it stuck in the ground. Apollo saves Hector by spiriting him away from the battlefield when Achilles goes in for the kill.
No Mercy
Denied victory over Hector, he continues on, not bothering to check if anyone is killed.
He gets Dryops in the neck. Checks Demoukhos, son of Philetor, with a spear-thrust at the knees, then swings his sword to kill him. Forces two sons of Bias, Laogonos and Dardanos, out of their chariot, one with a spear cast and one with a sword slash.
Now Tros, son of Alastor, embraces his knees and begs to be taken prisoner, but Achilles is all out of mercy, and kills him. I’m reminded when Dolon did the same thing in Book X and also got no mercy. Back then, Diomedes killed him in cold blood to prevent further spying. Here Achilles kills Tros in rage. So actually, Achilles is still raging. It’s just not at Agamemnon anymore.
Moulios dies with Achilles’ spear through his head; Ekheklos, son of Agenor, with his sword through his.
After Achilles disabled his arm with a spear in the elbow, Deukalion in the elbow, and he just stood and waited for his death, which Achilles gave him by severing his head with his sword.
We get one more detailed description of Achilles killing Rhigmos, son of Thracian Peires, as well as his chariot driver.
And after that, there is just slaughter. No names, no details, no descriptions. Just Achilles, killing men left and right, like a forest fire. And his horses and chariot wheels crushing men and shields like oxen threshing barley.3
A forest fire will rage through deep glens of a mountain, crackling dry from summer heat, and coppices blaze up in every quarter as wind whips the flame: So Akhilleus flashed to right and left like a wild god, trampling the men he killed, and black earth ran with blood. As when a countryman yokes oxen with broad brows to tread out barley on a well-bedded threshing floor, and quickly the grain is husked under the bellowing beast: the sharp-hooved horses of Akhilleus just so crushed dead men and shields. His axle-tree was splashed with blood, so was his chariot rail, with drops thrown up by wheels and horses’ hooves. And Peleus’ son kept riding for his glory, staining his powerful arms with mire and blood. Lines 490-503 of Book XX, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
Akhilleus
Argives, Greeks
Book XX, lines 490 - 503
ὡς δ᾽ ἀναμαιμάει βαθέ᾽ ἄγκεα θεσπιδαὲς πῦρ οὔρεος ἀζαλέοιο, βαθεῖα δὲ καίεται ὕλη, πάντῃ τε κλονέων ἄνεμος φλόγα εἰλυφάζει, ὣς ὅ γε πάντῃ θῦνε σὺν ἔγχεϊ δαίμονι ἶσος κτεινομένους ἐφέπων: ῥέε δ᾽ αἵματι γαῖα μέλαινα. 495ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε τις ζεύξῃ βόας ἄρσενας εὐρυμετώπους τριβέμεναι κρῖ λευκὸν ἐϋκτιμένῃ ἐν ἀλωῇ, ῥίμφά τε λέπτ᾽ ἐγένοντο βοῶν ὑπὸ πόσσ᾽ ἐριμύκων, ὣς ὑπ᾽ Ἀχιλλῆος μεγαθύμου μώνυχες ἵπποι στεῖβον ὁμοῦ νέκυάς τε καὶ ἀσπίδας: αἵματι δ᾽ ἄξων 500νέρθεν ἅπας πεπάλακτο καὶ ἄντυγες αἳ περὶ δίφρον, ἃς ἄρ᾽ ἀφ᾽ ἱππείων ὁπλέων ῥαθάμιγγες ἔβαλλον αἵ τ᾽ ἀπ᾽ ἐπισσώτρων: ὃ δὲ ἵετο κῦδος ἀρέσθαι Πηλεΐδης, λύθρῳ δὲ παλάσσετο χεῖρας ἀάπτους.