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Book Four
Book Four opens on Mount Olympus, where the gods take their ease quaffing nectar and gazing down on Troy. Zeus (zyoos) now takes it in mind to irritate his queen Hera (HEER-uh). Observing aloud how she and Athena (a-THEE-nuh) are always coming to the aid of the Greek cause, while Aphrodite (a-fro-DY-tee) is just as quick to exert herself on behalf of the Trojans, he wonders how the war should end. As Menelaus (meh-neh-LAY-us) has clearly won the single combat, might it not be consistent with the will of the gods that he take Helen home without further bloodshed?
Hera rises to the bait. Acknowledging her husband's superior power to do as he pleases, she warns that the other gods won't be happy to see all of her efforts wasted. Her argument seems to be that Zeus might be supreme but the other Olympians have their rights and privileges. Zeus bridles, demanding to know what the Trojans ever did to provoke her bloodlust. He himself certainly has no cause to hate Priam's (PRY-amz) people, who have always been scrupulous in their sacrifices. Still, he'll let Hera have her way — on the condition that she keep her peace when the roles are reversed and it is Zeus who intends to destroy some city. Hera is delighted and instantly offers up three cities as candidates for destruction.
Athena is straightaway dispatched to make the Trojans break the truce. Disguising herself as a Trojan, she seeks out the archer Pandarus (PAN-dah-rus) and tempts him with visions of glory. If he were to bring down Menelaus with an arrow, he'd be a hero to the Trojans. Pandarus readily succumbs to this persuasion. With a prayer to Apollo, god of archery, he lets fly at Menelaus. But Athena with godly alacrity is there to protect Menelaus as the arrow nears its mark. What would have been a fatal hit is deflected into the Greek captain's belt. Still, the arrow pierces through the twisted leather, and a layer of bronze armor as well, to draw copious blood.
Agamemnon recoils at the sight and launches into a speech about the disgrace he will suffer if his brother dies and he has to abandon the siege. But Menelaus has already noticed with relief that most of the arrowhead, including the deadly barb, is safely outside the wound. He tells his brother not to alarm the troops. A healer is summoned, who removes the arrow and applies an unguent acquired from the centaur Chiron (KY-ron).
And now Agamemnon goes about rousing his army to face the oncoming Trojans, inciting their outrage that the Trojans are the ones who have broken the truce and deserve to be cut down and left to the vultures while their wives and children are carried off. He does not hesitate to accuse even his captains of malingering, if that's what it takes to provoke their fighting fury. He suggests that Odysseus (oh-DISS-yoos) is always first in line for the banquet but content to bring up the rear in the coming battle. The infuriated Odysseus responds that his general has only to watch to realize his error. This causes a smiling Agamemnon to willingly retract his words.
Similar taunts to Diomedes (dy-uh-MEE-deez) evoke a different result. The captain's right-hand man Sthenelus (STHEN-uh-lus) responds in indignation, but Diomedes tells him to be silent, that Agamemnon has every right to goad his fighting men. And now the Greek army surges forward, like wave upon wave of ocean breakers beating down on a rocky coast. Homer contrasts their strange silence as they advance with the cacophonous shouts of the Trojans. And then the armies meet in a huge clash of bronze on bronze.
Antilochus (an-TIL-uh-kus) is the first of the Greeks to down a Trojan. His spear pierces the man's helmet and catches him full in the forehead. Another Greek rushes forward to strip his armor for a prize, but he bares his own ribs as he's bending to drag away the corpse. Trojan Antenor (an-TEE-nor) stabs him to death. Odysseus, enraged to see one of his own go down, drives his spear into a Trojan, in one temple and out the other. Down he goes in a clatter of armor as he hits the ground.
The Trojans, even their leader Hector, begin to give ground. But Apollo, who has been watching from a nearby mountaintop, goads them onward with angry shouts, while Athena urges on the Greeks. Diores (dy-OR-eez) goes down and grovels in the dust, desperately reaching out to his comrades. A Thracian (THRAY-shun) chief allied with Troy has shattered his leg bones with a boulder and now finishes him off with his sword. His guts come streaming out upon the ground. But the Thracian, too, is brought down before he can exult. The Greeks rush in to strip his armor, but his Thracian cohorts rally to protect his corpse. There they lie side by side, Greek and Thracian, where scores of others will soon join them in the bloody dust.
Note:
Diomedes — Agamemnon's goading of Diomedes invokes details from the myth of the Seven against Thebes (theebz). Diomedes' father, Tydeus (TY-dyoos), had come to Agamemnon's court seeking allies for Polyneices (po-li-NY-seez), the son of Oedipus (EE-di-pus) of Thebes, whose brother had taken his rightful throne. Bad omens sent him away unsuccessful, but he had proceeded to Thebes all the same. Leaving his small band outside, he had entered the city alone to demand that the Thebans restore the throne to Polyneices. Not only had he entered the lion's den alone, but now Tydeus challenged the Thebans to contests of strength at which he beat one and all. The outraged Thebans resolved to ambush him outside the city, but Tydeus killed all but one of the fifty men sent to do the job: he let one man run home to tell what happened.
This much is revealed in Agamemnon's challenge to Diomedes to prove himself as brave as his father. Diomedes' charioteer retorts that Tydeus and the other six champions in the Seven against Thebes had died in the subsequent attempt to storm the city. It was their sons — including Diomedes and the charioteer himself — who had ultimately taken Thebes.







Book Four
Book Four opens on Mount Olympus, where the gods take their ease quaffing nectar and gazing down on Troy. Zeus (zyoos) now takes it in mind to irritate his queen Hera (HEER-uh). Observing aloud how she and Athena (a-THEE-nuh) are always coming to the aid of the Greek cause, while Aphrodite (a-fro-DY-tee) is just as quick to exert herself on behalf of the Trojans, he wonders how the war should end. As Menelaus (meh-neh-LAY-us) has clearly won the single combat, might it not be consistent with the will of the gods that he take Helen home without further bloodshed?
Hera rises to the bait. Acknowledging her husband's superior power to do as he pleases, she warns that the other gods won't be happy to see all of her efforts wasted. Her argument seems to be that Zeus might be supreme but the other Olympians have their rights and privileges. Zeus bridles, demanding to know what the Trojans ever did to provoke her bloodlust. He himself certainly has no cause to hate Priam's (PRY-amz) people, who have always been scrupulous in their sacrifices. Still, he'll let Hera have her way — on the condition that she keep her peace when the roles are reversed and it is Zeus who intends to destroy some city. Hera is delighted and instantly offers up three cities as candidates for destruction.
Athena is straightaway dispatched to make the Trojans break the truce. Disguising herself as a Trojan, she seeks out the archer Pandarus (PAN-dah-rus) and tempts him with visions of glory. If he were to bring down Menelaus with an arrow, he'd be a hero to the Trojans. Pandarus readily succumbs to this persuasion. With a prayer to Apollo, god of archery, he lets fly at Menelaus. But Athena with godly alacrity is there to protect Menelaus as the arrow nears its mark. What would have been a fatal hit is deflected into the Greek captain's belt. Still, the arrow pierces through the twisted leather, and a layer of bronze armor as well, to draw copious blood.
Agamemnon recoils at the sight and launches into a speech about the disgrace he will suffer if his brother dies and he has to abandon the siege. But Menelaus has already noticed with relief that most of the arrowhead, including the deadly barb, is safely outside the wound. He tells his brother not to alarm the troops. A healer is summoned, who removes the arrow and applies an unguent acquired from the centaur Chiron (KY-ron).
And now Agamemnon goes about rousing his army to face the oncoming Trojans, inciting their outrage that the Trojans are the ones who have broken the truce and deserve to be cut down and left to the vultures while their wives and children are carried off. He does not hesitate to accuse even his captains of malingering, if that's what it takes to provoke their fighting fury. He suggests that Odysseus (oh-DISS-yoos) is always first in line for the banquet but content to bring up the rear in the coming battle. The infuriated Odysseus responds that his general has only to watch to realize his error. This causes a smiling Agamemnon to willingly retract his words.
Similar taunts to Diomedes (dy-uh-MEE-deez) evoke a different result. The captain's right-hand man Sthenelus (STHEN-uh-lus) responds in indignation, but Diomedes tells him to be silent, that Agamemnon has every right to goad his fighting men. And now the Greek army surges forward, like wave upon wave of ocean breakers beating down on a rocky coast. Homer contrasts their strange silence as they advance with the cacophonous shouts of the Trojans. And then the armies meet in a huge clash of bronze on bronze.
Antilochus (an-TIL-uh-kus) is the first of the Greeks to down a Trojan. His spear pierces the man's helmet and catches him full in the forehead. Another Greek rushes forward to strip his armor for a prize, but he bares his own ribs as he's bending to drag away the corpse. Trojan Antenor (an-TEE-nor) stabs him to death. Odysseus, enraged to see one of his own go down, drives his spear into a Trojan, in one temple and out the other. Down he goes in a clatter of armor as he hits the ground.
The Trojans, even their leader Hector, begin to give ground. But Apollo, who has been watching from a nearby mountaintop, goads them onward with angry shouts, while Athena urges on the Greeks. Diores (dy-OR-eez) goes down and grovels in the dust, desperately reaching out to his comrades. A Thracian (THRAY-shun) chief allied with Troy has shattered his leg bones with a boulder and now finishes him off with his sword. His guts come streaming out upon the ground. But the Thracian, too, is brought down before he can exult. The Greeks rush in to strip his armor, but his Thracian cohorts rally to protect his corpse. There they lie side by side, Greek and Thracian, where scores of others will soon join them in the bloody dust.
Note:
Diomedes — Agamemnon's goading of Diomedes invokes details from the myth of the Seven against Thebes (theebz). Diomedes' father, Tydeus (TY-dyoos), had come to Agamemnon's court seeking allies for Polyneices (po-li-NY-seez), the son of Oedipus (EE-di-pus) of Thebes, whose brother had taken his rightful throne. Bad omens sent him away unsuccessful, but he had proceeded to Thebes all the same. Leaving his small band outside, he had entered the city alone to demand that the Thebans restore the throne to Polyneices. Not only had he entered the lion's den alone, but now Tydeus challenged the Thebans to contests of strength at which he beat one and all. The outraged Thebans resolved to ambush him outside the city, but Tydeus killed all but one of the fifty men sent to do the job: he let one man run home to tell what happened.
This much is revealed in Agamemnon's challenge to Diomedes to prove himself as brave as his father. Diomedes' charioteer retorts that Tydeus and the other six champions in the Seven against Thebes had died in the subsequent attempt to storm the city. It was their sons — including Diomedes and the charioteer himself — who had ultimately taken Thebes.