Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > The Iliad > Status Update

"We will let our sorrows lie deep in our hearts awhile, for there is no profit in freezing lamentation. This is the way the gods have spun their threads for poor mortals! Our life is all sorrow, but they are untroubled themselves" (292).

"As a father laments while he burns the bones of his own son, newly wedded and now dead, to the grief of his bereaved parents, so Achilles lamented as he burnt the bones of Patroclos, stumbling up and down beside the pyre with sobbings and groanings" (267).

"What shall I do? If I retreat behind these walls, Polydamas will be the first to heap reproaches on me, for he advised me to lead the army back to the city on that dread night when Achilles rose up. I would not listen...my better part is to face him for life and death. Either I shall kill him and return in triumph, or I shall die with honor before the gate" (257-8).

"'Look here, Earthshaker: you could not call me a sane god if I were really to fight you for the sake of mortal men. Poor things, they are like the leaves of the forest...grow up full of fire & eat the kindly fruits of the earth, then wither away & perish. Come along, let the others fight & we will keep out of it.' So [Apollo] turned away, for he felt shy of coming to blows with his own father's brother" (252-3).

"On went Achilles: as a devouring conflagration rages through the valleys of a parched mountain height, and the thick forest blazes, while the wind rolls the flames to all sides in riotous confusion, so he stormed over the field like a fury, driving all before him, and killing until the earth was a river of blood" (244).

"Atreides, what good was it to us both, you and me, to take things to heart so, and to fall into a soul-devouring feud for a girl? I wish Artemis had shot her dead with an arrow on that day when I took Lyrnessos! Then all those brave men would have been saved who bit the dust in battle because I was angry! Hector and the Trojans got all the good there was...we must let bygones be bygones" (229).

"So the light rose from the head of Achilles...as he stepped from the wall & stood beside the moat. He did not mingle with his people, for he remembered his mother's strict command, but there he stood & shouted, & from far away Pallas Athena lifted up her voice; great was the confusion among the Trojans. The voice of Aiacides sounded loud & clear, like the...trumpet when fierce enemies beleaguer a city..." (220).

"...the shields all stood like a fence about Patroclos, and the spears stuck out. Aias was everywhere, keeping the men in hand; he would not let any one move back, or go out in front, but made them stand close round the body and lunge when they could. Such were the tactics of that prodigious man. The ground was red with blood, men were falling one after another among the assailants..." (208-9).

"My good man, why do you bandy words like this? You are wasting time. Taunts and jibes will not drive the Trojans away from the dead body. Many a man will fall before that! Words are potent in debate, deeds in war decide your fate. Then don't go on piling up words, but fight!" (198).