This section wasn't quite as exciting as the first, but was still entertaining. My favorite part of this story are the relationships that the gods have with the mortal characters. Some support the Trojans, others support the Greeks, and some even support both. At some points in the story it seems as if the gods are playing a game with each other to see which side wins, using the lives of the Greeks and Trojans as game pieces. Everything that happens, happens because the gods allow it and makes each person look helpless to the mercy of the gods.
Perhaps my favorite quote, came in the section The Slaying of Hector (end) when Achilles says to Hector, "Men and lions make no oath to each other, neither is there any agreement between wolves and sheep." This really shows how much hatred Achilles has for Hector and how little he thinks of him. At this point, Achilles is only fueled by vengeance and couldn't care less about what Hector has to say.
Another interesting part of the story was in The Rousing of Achilles when the horses of Achilles began crying at the death of Patroclus. Zeus noticed the horses crying and then felt bad saying, "It was not well that I gave you, immortal as you are, to a mortal man, for of all things that live and move upon the earth, surely man is the most miserable." I found this weird because Zeus was speaking about the horses like they were Patroclus', and I thought they were Achilles horses. Homer's Iliad was a great story and created a ton of imagery. Although I filled most of the reading with images from the movie "Troy," I felt like I would have been able to visualize each scene if I had not seen the movie.
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| (Achilles and Hector, by Rubens) |
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