Iliad : A Synopsis of the Iliad

A Synopsis of the Iliad

The Achaeans, under King Agamemnon had been fighting for nine years. Their chief objective was to retrieve Helen, the wife of Menelaus. She was kidnapped by Paris, a son of the king of Troy. But even after nine years of Achaean attacks, Troy remained intact.

During the course of various raids, Agamemnon acquired a woman. Chryseis, as part of his plunder and Achilles got a girl named Briseis.

It was customary for persons taken in battle to be returned if they were ransomed. But when Chryseis' father, Chryses who was a priest of Apollo sent the ransom money for his daughter, Agamemnon refused to accept it. He declared that he would rather have the girl than the money. Chryses was enraged. He called upon Apollo to help him. The god sent a plague upon the Greek camp. As a result the soldiers began to fall ill and die. Agamemnon became very anxious. He sent for Calchas the seer and asked for his advice. Calchas told him that Apollo had been enraged and the only way to stop the plague was to send back Chryseis without any ransom. So Agamemnon was compelled to send the girl back and the plague was stopped.

But that was not the end of the affair. Agamemnon was determined to have another girl at all costs. He, therefore, demanded that Achilles should give him his woman. Achilles boldly refused to do so. Agamemnon declared that he would take away the girl by force. Naturally Achilles felt insulted. He withdrew his men and his ships from the fighting force and the good luck of the Greeks was over.

As soon as the Trojans came to know that Achilles and his troop had left the fighting, they attacked the Greeks with redoubled vigour. At one stage of the battle, Agamemnon could not help proclaiming a truce, during which time the fate of Helen should be decided by a single combat between Menelaus and Paris.

In the duel, Menelaus took the upperhand. But Aphrodite, a goddess, assisted Paris. When she saw that Paris was getting the worst of the due, she spirited him back to Troy in a cloud and sent Helen in to distract him.

A few days later the fighting began again. This time the Greeks were drivern beyond their fortified trench and they had to take shelter in their ships.

Things looked so desperate that Agamemnon sent a delegation to Achilles. Achilles received the delegation with cool hospitality. He did not give an inch in his decision to stay away from the fighting.

Meanwhile Hector, the eldest son of the Trojan king Priam showed great valour in the battlefied. The Greeks were very helpless then. At this crucial juncture, Achilles' friend Patroclus begged his permission to aid the Greeks himself. Achilles gave him his blessing, his armour and an escort of the Myrmidons.

At first the Trojans thought that Achilles himself had returned to the battlefield. They began to retreat in dismay. Had not Apollo decided to interfere, the Greeks would have won the day. Apollo concealed himself in the mist, came up behind Patroclus and struck him between the shoulder blades. As a result, his helmet flew off, and his armour fell to the ground. Then a Trojan soldier hurt him. Hector came running and ran a spear through the lower part of his belly. Patroclus fell down on the ground. Before his death, Patroclus said that it was not Hector's valour but the will of Apollo that brought him to the earth.

A terrible battle around Patroclus' corpse began. Both sides wanted the body and the armour. In spite of the presence of many Greek warriors, Hector was able to strip off Patroclus' armotlr• However he was not able to get the body of the slain warrior.

When Achilles learned of the disaster, his grief knew no bounds .Nobody could console him. For hours he cursed himself, blamed himself and his anger against Agamemnon that had brought about his beloved friend's death. Then he decided to step forth on the battlefield. He had but one interest: to avenge the death of Patroclus and give him proper burial. He thought that he must find Hector for the latter had taken the armour. Thetis, Achilles' mother called upon Hephastus and asked him to provide new armour for her son. Accordingly, the lame god made a marvellous set of armour for Achilles. After receiving it, he put it on and galloped on the battle. He slaughtered numerous Trojan soldiers.

At that time, Hector was preparing to meet Achilles, Hector's parents tried to prevent him from leaving the safety of the Trojan walls. They knew with a sixth sense that if he left the city, he would never return. But Hector did not listen. In the duel that followed, Hector managed to dodge several throws of the javelin and spears. But this time the goddess. Athene, favoured Achilles and retrieved his weapons after he had thrown them.

Hector lost his javelin and ordered his brother, Deiphobus to bring him another. But Deiphobus had fled before the prowess of Achilles. Hector lost all hope and Achilles thrust the point of the javelin through his neck. Just before his death, Hector requested Achilles to let his kinsmen ransom his body so that it might get proper burial. But Achilles refused to do so.

When death enveloped Hector, Achilles removed the bloodstained arms from Hector's shoulders. Meanwhile other Greeks came running up and gathered round, Each of them stabbed Hector's corpse. Achilles, however, thought up a terrible thing to do to the corpse. Slitting the muscle at the back of Hector's ankle, he ran two ox hide thongs through and then tied the body to the back of his chariot. Several times around the walls of Troy, he drove, dragging the corpse, Only then, was his grief somewhat pacified and he decided to bury Patroclus, his loving friend.

After the death of Hector, bad luck befell the Trojans. To King Priam who understood that the end was near, it did not matter much. He only wanted to get back Hector's body. He went alone to Achilles' tent, accompanied only by a herald who drove the waggon bearing the great treasures of ransom gifts. Achilles cordially welcomed the aged king. He treated him with the respect he would have given his own father.

At Achilles' command Hector's body was anointed and clothed in costly cloak. He assured Priam that he would ask the Greeks not to fight for twelve days so that the Trojans (tould perform the funeral rites for Hector. Priam returned with his son's body only to hear the heart rending wailings of Hecabe, Helen, Andromache and the grief stricken Trojans.

At Priam's order, the Trojans gathered huge quantity of wood. It took them nine days. On the tenth day, "They carried out the gallant Hector with tears on their cheeks, laid his body on top of the pyre and set fire to the wood."

Later, the Trojans collected his bones, wrapped them in soft purple cloths and put them in a golden chest. They quickly lowered this chest into a hollow grave. They covered it with a layer of large stones closely set together. Then they went back to Troy and enjoyed a banquet in the palace of King Priam. Such were the funeral rites of Hector, the greatest Trojan hero.