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.
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