Summary: Chapter I — The Trojan War
A father’s hands
Stained with dark streams flowing
From blood of a girl. . . .
(See Important Quotations Explained)
In her portrayal of the Trojan War, Hamilton borrows from Homer’s Iliad, Apollodorus,
Greek tragedies, and Virgil's Aeneid. The war has its roots in the wedding of King Peleus and the sea- nymph Thetis.
When the gods decide not to invite Eris, she is angered and introduces
Discord to the banquet hall in the form of a golden apple inscribed
with the words “For the Fairest.” The vain goddesses argue over
who deserves the apple, and the field is narrowed down to Athena,
Hera, and Aphrodite. Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, is selected
to judge. All three try to bribe Paris: Hera offers power, Athena
offers success in battle, and Aphrodite offers the most beautiful
woman in the world—Paris chooses Aphrodite.
Unfortunately, the most beautiful woman in the world,
Helen, is already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Visiting Menelaus, Paris,
with Aphrodite’s help, betrays his host’s hospitality and kidnaps
Helen back to Troy. All the Greek kings have at one time courted
Helen, so her mother has made them all swear to always support whomever
she might choose. When Helen is abducted, the only men who resist
conscription are Odysseus, who does not want to leave his home and
family, and Achilles, whose mother knows he is fated to die at Troy
and holds him back. In the end, however, they join the rest of the
Greeks and sail united against Troy. En route, the fleet angers
Artemis, who stops the winds from blowing. To appease her, the chief
of the Greeks, Agamemnon, is forced to sacrifice his own daughter,
Iphigenia.
The battle goes back and forth for nine years. The Trojans,
led by Priam’s son, Hector, finally gain an advantage when Agamemnon kidnaps
the daughter of the Trojan priest of Apollo. Achilles has warned
against this, and he is justified when Apollo’s fiery arrows nearly
destroy the Greek army. Calchas, a Greek prophet, convinces Agamemnon
to free the girl, but Agamemnon demands a replacement in the form
of Achilles’ prize female captive, Briseis. Furious, Achilles withdraws
his troops from battle. Without Achilles, the Greeks seem doomed.
The gods have been evenly split thus far: Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo
and Artemis on the side of the Trojans; Hera, Athena, and Poseidon
take the Greek side. But Thetis persuades the hitherto neutral Zeus
to help the Trojans. Menelaus defeats Paris in combat, however.
Aphrodite saves Paris’s life, and the armies agree to a truce. But
Hera is bent on war, so she makes a Trojan named Pandarus break
the truce. When the battle starts again, the great Greek warrior
Diomedes nearly kills the Trojan Aeneas, whom Apollo saves. Diomedes
even wounds Ares himself.
The Greeks hold their own until Zeus remembers his promise
to Thetis and comes down to the battlefield. The Trojans drive the Greeks
back toward their ships. That night, Agamemnon agrees to return
Briseis, but when Odysseus goes to ask Achilles to accept the apology,
he receives a flat refusal. The next day the Greeks lose again without
Achilles and are driven even closer to their ships. But then Hera
decides to seduce Zeus and give the Greeks an advantage. While the
two divinities are indisposed, the great Greek warrior Ajax nearly
kills Hector. Discovering the deception, Zeus angrily commands Poseidon
to abandon the Greeks, and the Trojans press forward. As the Greeks
near defeat, Achilles’s best friend, Patroclus, can restrain himself
no longer. He convinces Achilles to lend him his armor, thinking
that even if Achilles refuses to fight, he himself can help the
Greeks by pretending to be Achilles and thus frightening the Trojans.
Leading Achilles’ men, the Myrmidons, into battle, Patroclus fights
valiantly but is killed by Hector’s spear. Achilles grieves terribly
and decides to return to battle to avenge this death. Thetis, seeing
she can no longer hold her son back, gives him armor made by Hephaestus
himself.
The Trojans soon retreat inside their impenetrable walls
through the huge Scaean gates. Only Hector remains outside, clad
in Achilles’ own armor taken from Patroclus’s corpse. Hector and Achilles,
the two greatest warriors of the Trojan War, finally face one another.
When Hector sees that Athena stands by Achilles’ side while Apollo
has left his own, he runs away from Achilles. They circle around
and around the city of Troy until Athena disguises herself as Hector’s
brother and makes him stop. Achilles catches up with Hector, who
realizes the deception. They fight, and Achilles, aided by Athena,
kills Hector with his spear. Achilles is still so filled with rage
over Patroclus’s death that he drags Hector’s body over the ground,
mutilating it. He takes it back to the Greek camp and leaves it
beside Patroclus’s funeral pyre for dogs to devour. Such disrespect for
a great warrior greatly displeases the gods, who convince Priam to
visit Achilles and retrieve Hector’s body. Priam speaks to Achilles, who
sees the error of his ways. The Iliad ends with
Hector’s funeral.
Summary: Chapter II —The Fall of Troy
We stand at the same point of pain.
We too are slaves.
Our children are crying, calling to us with tears,
“Mother, I am all alone. . . ."
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The war itself does not end with Hector’s funeral, and
Virgil continues the account. Hector is replaced by Prince Memnon
of Ethiopia, a great warrior, and the Trojans have the upper hand
for a time. But Achilles soon kills Memnon as well, driving the
Trojans back to the Scaean gates. There, however, Paris kills Achilles
with Apollo’s help: Paris shoots an arrow and the god guides it
to Achilles’ heel, his one vulnerable spot. (Thetis tried to make
the infant Achilles invulnerable by dunking his body in the mystical
River Styx but forgot to submerge the heel by which she held him.)
The Greeks decide Achilles’ divine armor should be given to either
Odysseus or Ajax, the two greatest Greek warriors remaining. When
Odysseus is chosen, Ajax plots revenge, but Athena makes him go
crazy. Ajax massacres some cattle, then comes to his senses and,
mortified, kills himself.
