Book 1
· The Greeks were trying to get into Troy for 10 years
· Apollo shot arrows and made them all sick and die
· Agamemnon is told he has to give Chryse is back
· Agamemnon tells his people to go steal Brise is from Apollo
· Achilles tells Thetis (his mother) to go tell Zeus to help the Trojan cause because he is SALTY! His woman has been taken and he is shamed
· Achilles wants to prove that he is important and that Agamemnon should not cross him
· Thetis goes and asks Zeus to help the Trojans win
· Hera finds out Zeus is hatching a plan
· Hephaestus is worried about his mother with all the gods fighting too
· Hera has to go sleep with Zeus to calm things down
Book 2
· Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, telling him to arm the Greeks
· Reverse psychology-- all the Greeks run away (technically sail but)
· Athena is like Odysseus, what the heck?
· They line up and there is a description of who is in what boat
Book 3 and 4
· Hector is disgusted by the Greeks, the Greeks are laughing at Paris
· Paris is like, let’s fight it out for Helen (who this whole war is about anyway) and whoever wins is the better man
* “"Who on earth could blame them? Ah, no wonder / the men of Troy and Argives under anus have suffered / years of agony all for her. for such a woman.”
· Paris v Menelaus (if Menelaus wins, Helen goes back to the Greeks which is where she was before, if Paris wins, Trojans keep her)
· Helen weaves with red fabric (symbolic of bloodshed?) and calls herself a whore
· Helen points out Odysseus (short, stocky guy) and describes him as shorter than Agamemnon but really tricky
· Helen knows all the Greeks
· Helen stands on the wall with Priam and Priam asks who all the leaders are
· They pick stones and the larger one gets to throw a stone first
· They dress Paris
· They fight
* Menelaus drew his sword with silver studs / and hoisting the weapon high, brought it crashing down / on the helmet ridge but the blade smashed where it struck
· Menelaus grabs Paris who is being choked by the chinstraps: “the braided chin-strap holding his helmet tight / was gouging his soft throat-"
· Menelaus would have won but Aphrodite comes to save Paris
* She wraps him in swirls of mist and puts him in a bedroom
· Helen and Aphrodite duel
* Helen: “Never set foot again on Mount Olympus, never suffer for Paris, protect Paris. for eternity ... until he makes you his wedded wife-that or his slave.”
* “Aphrodite rounded on her in fury: / "Don't provoke me-wretched, headstrong girl! /Or in my immortal rage I may just toss you over, / hate you as I adore you now-with a vengeance.”
· Menelaus is just standing there and is shot but Hera saves him: “the tip of the weapon grazing the man's flesh, / and dark blood came spurting from the wound.”
· “My Argives, never relax your nerve, your fighting strength! Father Zeus, I swear, will never defend the Trojans"
· First kill: Antilochus kills a Trojan captain
· Fight fight fight
* Achaeans and Trojans mauling each other there like wolves, leaping, hurtling into each other. man throttling man.
* "Up and at them. you stallion-breaking Trojans! / Never give up your lust for war against these Argives”
* "no man who waded into that work could scorn it any longer, / anyone still not speared or stabbed by tearing bronze / who whirled into the: heart of all that slaughter not"
* A lot of people died: "That day ranks of Trojans, ranks of Achaean fighters / sprawled there side-by-side, facedown in the dust."
Book 5
· As the battle rages, Pandarus wounds the Greek/Achaean hero Diomedes.
· Diomedes prays to Athena for revenge, and the goddess endows him with superhuman strength and the ability to see who is a God
· Athena tells him not to try to fight any gods, except maybe Aphrodite?
· Diomedes fights like crazy, killing all Trojans he meets.
· Aphrodite comes to her son Aeneas's aid but Diomedes cuts her wrists, sending her back to Mount Olympus.
* Aphrodite’s mother, Dione, heals her, and Zeus tells Aphrodite that was probably enough warfare for her...
· With Aphrodite gone, Apollo goes to help Aeneas, but then Diomedes attacks him as well
* Achilles is half-God, so Diomedes has technically broken his agreement with Athena
· Apollo pushes Diomedes aside and saves Aeneas, but leaves a replica of Aeneas in his wake so people see what happened
· Ares, God of War, wakes up and joins the Trojan side which gives them the upper hand.
* Hector and Ares are a dynamic mortal-God duo that freak out the Greeks/Achaeans
· Odysseus is still locked in and kills a bunch of Trojans; Hector kills a bunch of Greeks
· Hera and Athena are like "let's go girls time to step in" and join the ranks of the Greek/chaean troops
* Athena tells Diomedes.to ignore her previous instruction about sparing the Gods
· Athena and Diomedes basically smash their chariot into Ares, wounding him to the point where he flees to Mount Olympus to complain to Zeus.
* Zeus said to Ares that he basically was asking for it
* Athena and Hera also call it quits
Book 6
· One of the Trojan people begs for Menelaus’s mercy and Agamemnon is not interested in mercy
* line 63, Agamemnon says, “So soft, dear brother, why? Why such concern for enemies?”
* Greeks normally strip them of their armor but do it later so they can keep killing
· Hector is told to go to Athena’s shrine and beg her to save the Trojans
* “Hector shouted out to his men in a piercing voice, "Gallant-hearted Trojans and far-famed allies! 130 Now be men, my friends, call up your battle-fury! Till Ican return to Troy and tell them all, the old counselors, all our wives, to pray to the gods and vow to offer them many splendid victims."
· Theano (Hector's mom) takes care of Hector, tries to give him wine, but Hector is like nooo I have to fight
· Hector tells his mom to go to Athena’s shrine instead of him to beg Athena
· “Athena refused to hear Theano’s prayers.”
· Helen calls herself a b*tch to Hector
· “Zeus planted a killing doom within us both, so even for generations still unborn we will live in song.” -Helen
· Hector is like, I got to go and help the Trojans!
· Andromache lost her parents and her brothers
· “tall Hector nodded, his helmet flashing: ‘All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman. But I would die of shame to face the men of Tray and the Trojan women trailing their long robes if I would shrink from battle now. a coward.’”
· Hector prays to Zeus that his son will be like him (strong, brave, ruling Troy)
· At some point Glocous trades his shield because he’s just that good of a fighter that he doesn't feel he needs it
Book 7
· Hector v Ajax
* They toss spears but nothing happens and then go to fight with swords
· Both sides pull them apart and the gods instill a truce
· Nestor (the oldest Trojan warrior) asks the Greeks for time to bury the dead
Book 8
· Zeus brings a storm and the Greeks go AHHH and retreat
· Hector is looking for Nestor but Diomedes takes them both and Hector chases
· The Greeks built a trench and a wall
· The Trojans are heading to the wall
· Hector drives the Greeks behind their fortifications, all the way to their ships
· Zeus tells the gods to stop interfering (scares Hera and Athena)
· That night, the Trojans, kind of cocky/over-confident, camp outside their city’s walls, and Hector orders his men to light hundreds of campfires so that they can see the Greeks if they try to escape
Book 9
· The Greeks need Achilles to come back in order to win; Odysseus is the most persuasive
· Ajax almost defeats Hector
· The tide turns and the Greeks are being driven to their ships
· They want to bribe Achilles and convince him to fight with them
· Agamemnon is like noooo I’m better than him
· Achilles wants glory and victory more than anything else. Still, when Odysseus tries to convince him, Achilles says no
· Achilles is like, Helen is not that special and I could have any woman
* Achilles is the only warrior that recognizes it’s stupid
* "Mother tells me, the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet, that two fates bear me on to the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, 500 my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies ... true, but the life that's left me will be long, the stroke of death will not come on me quickly.”
· Agamemnon wants to send a spy to the Trojan side (they send Odysseus and Diomedes)
· Meanwhile, the Trojans have their own spy (Dolon)
· Odysseus and Diomedes see Dolon running and race after him
· Dolon tells them Hector is holding counsel and that they don’t have guards because they’re cocky, Dolon tells them where everyone is sleeping
· Odysseus and Diomedes kill Dolon and steal horses
Book 11
· The next morning, Zeus freaks out the Greeks by massacring them
· Agamemnon, armed and dangerous, goes on yet another killing spree, making actual progress for the Greeks and getting them all the way back to the city’s gates
· Zeus sends Iris to tell Hector that he needs to wait until Agamemnon is wounded before attacking
· You guessed it: Agamemnon is then wounded (by a Trojan named Coon?) after he killed the guy's brother
* Of course he then kills the guy that injured him as well, but the injury was still bad enough that he had to tap out
· Hector recognizes that this is his time to shine and charges the Greeks, who sort of start to retreat then remember they need to NOT do that
· Diomedes hurls a spear at Hector who freaks out and reatreats
· Paris answers the Greek/Achaean army by shooting Diomedes (from there he disappears from the story-- not sure if he died)
· Trojans now encircle Odysseus who somehow beats them all off, only getting a wound in the chest so Ajax has to carry Odysseus back to camp
· Hector is still trying to slaughter the Greeks, who hold him off at first but they discover that Machaon (a healer) was injured by Paris and Nestor is trying to get him back to the tent
· Meanwhile, Achilles sees that this happened and sends his companion Patroclus to check on Machaon
· Nestor tells Patroclus basically that the Trojans have injured a lot of Greeks and they need Achilles or they will lose
* Nestor suggests that even if Achilles won't rejoin, that Patroclus could in Achilles's armor to catfish the Trojans into fear
Book 12
· Hector orders his men to storm the Greeks
· Just as the Trojans prepare to cross over the trenches, an eagle drops a snake into their army
* Polydamas interprets this as a warning, but Hector refuses to back down
· The Trojans, led by two soldiers named Glaucus and Sarpedon, now charge the Greeks who struggle to hold them back
· Sarpedon makes the first breach and Hector then shatters one of the gates entirely, allowing the Trojans to pour through the fortifications .
* The Greeks shrink back against their fleet of ships
Book 13
· Zeus leaves
· Poseidon wants to help the Greeks and with Zeus gone, he goes down to give them encouragement
* The Greeks rally AGAIN and drive Hector back
· Hector aims at Teucer who dodges the blow, but it instead hitsPoseidon’s grandson Amphimachus.
· As an act of vengeance, Poseidon gives Idomeneus with a raging power, so Idomeneus can help in leading a charge against the Trojans
* Both Ideomeneur and Meneleaus kill a lot of Trojans
· Hector fetches Paris and tries to regroup everyone, though a lot of them are dead
· An eagle appears whichis a good omen for the Greeks/Achaeans.
Book 14
· Agamemnon proposes giving up and just sailing home, which Odysseus says is cowardly and disgraceful and that Agamemnon is a disaster
· Poseidon encourages Agamemnon
· Hera spots Zeus looking down at Troy and plots to distract him so she can help the Greeks without him noticing
* She goes to see Aphrodite and tricks her into giving her an "enchanted breastband" that will make a man go crazy for a woman
* She visits the embodiment of Sleep and says he can marry one of her daughters (he wants Pasithea) if he puts Zeus to sleep
· Zeus sees Hera and is overcome with desire
* Zeus lists all the women he’d slept with but says he wants her even more
* Hera convinces him to go to his bedroom so no one can see
* Zeus wraps them in a cloud so no one can see them have sex
* Then Zeus is zonked out
· Hera then calls to Poseidon and tells him the coast is clear of Zeus, so it's time to help the Greeks
· Poseidon regroups them, and they charge the Trojans, wounding Hector and killing so many Trojans that they retreat
* “Knees of every Trojan shook with fear”
· Zeus wakes up and says “Uncontrollable Hera—you and your treachery” then threatens to hit her with anvils and torture her
* Hera is like nooo wasn’t me: “Earth, be my witness”
Book 15
· they threw a rock and hit Hector haha sucker
· Zeus is angry
Book 16 (turning point):
· Patroclus tells Achilles that it would be a good idea for him to fight with Achilles’s shield so they think it’s him
· Achilles is like, okay fine just don’t fight Hector
· Patroclus fights Hector anyway and dies
* “If only he had obeyed Achilles' strict command he might have escaped his doom, the stark night of death. But the will of Zeus will always overpower the will of men”
* “Patroclus never saw him coming, moving across the deadly rout, shrouded in thick mist and on he came against him and looming up behind him now”
Book 17
· Achilles goes crazy over Patroclus's death (throwing ashes, tearing his hair)
* Thetis, Achilles’s mom, soothes him
* Achilles calls himself a useless deadweight and that he is unequal to the gods: “If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey, that swarms in people's chests and blinds like smoke just like the anger Agamemnon king of men 130 has roused within me now”
· Achilles wants more revenge: “Let bygones be bygones. Done is done. Despite my anguish I will beat it down, the fury mounting inside me, down by force. But now I'll go and meet that murderer head-on, that Hector who destroyed the dearest life I know.”
· Iris tells Achilles all he needs to do is to stand in the battlefield and the Trojans will be scared
* True. Achilles yells and the Trojans’s chariots turn around and leave
· The Greeks bring Patroclus’s body back, which they clean and bathe
· Achilles is like, let’s fight but Odysseus is like, the troops are hungry and tired, we aren’t ready
* Achilles is like no I’m not eating or drinking, not at a time like this! "I'd drive our Argives into battle now, starving, famished, and only then, when the sun goes down, lay on a handsome feast- once we've avenged our shame."
* “You talk of food? I have no taste for food-what I really crave is slaughter and blood and the choking groans of men!"
· Odysseus says NO IT IS SNACK TIME and they eat a boar or pig
* Athena drops nectar and ambrosia into Achilles so he wouldn’t perish of hunger
· Achilles gets ready for fighting with a spear only he can hold
Book 20
· Apollo is trying to convince Aeneas (a Trojan) to fight Achilles
· Hera vs Zeus as usual
· Aeneas lines up vs Achilles but instead of fighting, they boast and trash talk
· Achilles throws his sword and strikes Aeneas’s shield and Aeneas gets scared
· Gods interfere to save Aeneas, pulling him out
· Achilles goes crazy on the Trojans
* “brains splattered”
* Swords in one ear and out the other
* split livers
* pulled out guts
Book 21
· Lycaon begs for forgiveness
· Achillesis like, “no, fool!”
· Achilles will let no Trojan go
· Achilles is navigating the river and is chased by a giant wave
· Achilles is like ahhhh I hate this I wish I was dead
· Hera tells Hesphetus to set everything on fire, shrinking the river
· Priam is standing on the walls and looks down at Troy. It’s a massacre
· Priam says to spread the gates
· Priam knows Achilles won’t stop
Book 22
· Apollo taunts Achilles: "You still don't know that I am immortal, do you?"
· Achilles is like, stop it meanie, then mid-stride, "You've blocked my way, you distant, deadly Archer. deadliest god of all"
· King Priam calls himself an old broken man and said his dogs would eat him if he died
· Hector was still fixated on his anger
· Hector knows Achilles will kill him but doesn’t want to hide so he runs around the Trojan walls
· Achilles throws his spear at Hector but misses, Athena sends it back to him
· Hector threw a spear and missed so he knew his time had come, that he is going to die but wants to with glory
* "in some great clash of arms that even men to come will hear of down the years!"
· Achilles is looking for one vulnerable place to strike since Hector has Achilles’s armor that he took from Patroclus
· Achilles goes for the throat
· Hector’s last words are begging Achilles to give his body to friends and family instead of letting the dogs devour him
* Achilles tells him to stop begging: “my fury would drive me now to hack your fleshaway and eat you raw”
* “The clogs and birds will rend you-blood and bone”
· All the Greeks come up and stab the body
· Hector’s mother, Hecuba, screams when she sees the body and his father is screaming too
* Sad times
* “Now you go down to the House of Death, the dark depths of the earth. and leave me here to waste away in grief. a widow lost in the royal halls-and the boy only a baby. the son we bore together, you and I so doomed”
Book 23
· Games (like the Olympics)
Book 24
· The games have ended
· Apollo warded off any corruption on Hector’s body but he is so upset and rides around with Hector’s body in his chariot
· Apollo is also upset and goes to Zeus and asks what is wrong with him
* Zeus is like “I loved Hector but there is no way Priam can sneak in there around Achilles”
· Zeus summons Thetis to Olympus to organize a deal: Zeus will send Priam to Achilles, Achilles will give the body for ransom
* Says the immortals have been feuding over Hector’s body
* Zeus will give Achilles safety if Thetis tells Achilles the gods are angry with him because he has Hector’s body and won’t give it up
* Zeus also tells Thetis to tell Priam to bring Achilles “gifts to melt his rage”
· Thetis tells Achilles that she knows he doesn’t have long to live and that the gods are angry he has Hector's body
* She suggests he take ransom for the dead
* Achilles is like okay sure
· Zeus sends Iris, the messenger goddess, to King Priam, who wants his son's body back to have a funeral
* Hermes will help get Hector’s body back
* Priam is told to go alone but don’t be afraid because Hermes will guide him
· Priam tells Hecuba he’s going to get their son back
* “you have a heart of iron!”
* Hecuba says she wants to eat Achilles raw (vengeful)
· While Priam is packing the wagon, his cowardly sons are trying to take the ransom materials
* “Get to your work! My vicious sons— my humiliations!”
· Priam prays to Zeus and Zeus hears the prayer
· Hermes disguises himself and helps Priam get to Achilles’s camps
* He tells Priam that no birds/dogs have eaten Hector and that his body has not decayed yet
* Priam is like YAY good
· Everyone is asleep except Achilles; Priam slips past everyone and kneels down to Achilles, praising him
* He kisses Achilles's hands – the same hands that killed his son
* “The majestic king of Troy slipped past the rest and kneeling down beside Achilles, clasped his knees and kissed his hands, those terrible, man-killing hands that had slaughtered Priam's many sons in battle.”
· Achilles sees Priam and is like oOoOoOo
· Priam prays to Achilles and basically is like “your dad gets to see you succeed and live but I fathered hero sons that are all DEAD. Hector is all I had left and you killed him while he protected Troy. I need him back, please accept my ransom and take pity on me.”
* "I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before; I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son"
· Lil crysesh: Priam “weeps freely for Hector” and Achilles cries for Patroclus/his father
* “Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire to grieve for his own father.”
· Achilles feels Priam’s pain and feels pity
* “the gods live free of sorrows”
· “When Zeus dispenses gifts from the jar of sorrows only, he makes a man an outcast”
· Achilles says: “you lorded over once, you excelled all men, old king, in sons and wealth. But then the gods of heaven brought this agony on you- 640 ceaseless battles round your walls, your armies slaughtered. You must bear up now. Enough of endless tears, the pain that breaks the spirit. Grief for your son will do no good at all. You will never bring him back to life sooner. you must suffer something worse.”
* Basically, he says Priam had everything one second and nothing the next
· Priam also begs Achilles not to destroy Troy
· Achilles is like, “slow your roll, pal. You’re not in the position to argue.”
· The maids oil and clean the body before they put the body in Priam’s wagon
· Achilles apologizes to Patroclus: “Feel no anger at me, Patroclus, if you learn even there in the House of Death-I let his father have Prince Hector back. He gave me worthy ransom”
· Achilles asks Priam how long it will take to bury him and that he will hold off the Greek army until then
* Priam asks for 12 days (9 to mourn, 3 to bury/burn)
· Cassandra (his daughter) sees Priam returning with Hector’s body and announces it to everyone; all the Trojans run out the gates to “greet” Hector then mourn him for a while
* Andromache (Hector’s girl) says, “Oh my husband ... cut off from life so young! You leave me a widow, lost in the royal halls-and the boy only a baby, the son we bore together, you and I so doomed. I cannot think he will ever come to manhood. Long before that the city will be sacked, plundered top to bottom! Because you are dead, her great guardian, you who always defended Troy.”
* They know the Greeks will destroy Troy now that Hector is gone
* “to me most of all you've left the horror, the heartbreak!”
· Hecuba (Hector’s mother) says, “Hector, dearest to me by far of all my sons. . . and dear to the gods while we still shared this life and they cared about you still, I see, even after death.”
* She knows the gods revered him because he was a true Homeric hero.
· Helen (Hector being her brother in law through Paris) says, “And so in the same breath I mourn for you and me, my doom-struck. harrowed heart! Now there is no one left. in the wide realm of Troy, no friend to treat me kindly all the countrymen cringe from me in loathing.”
* She also says that Hector never mocked her and always defended her: “never once did I hear from you a taunt, an insult. But if someone else in the royal halls would curse me, one of your brothers or sisters or brothers' wives trailing their long robes, even your own mother not your father, always kind as my own father why, you'd restrain them with words, Hector, you'd win them to my side”
· Bye Hectorrrrrr
* “At last, when young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once more, the people massed around illustrious Hector's pyre”
* “And so the Trojans buried Hector breaker of horses.”