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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
HOMER'S ILIAD:
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Questions for Book XIII:
Poseidon intervenes on behalf of the Greeks, in disguise as Calchas, but
with his godlike powers. Ajax recognizes the sense of a divinity in their
midst. The adrenaline is contagious and the Greeks rally.
Note the confluence of literal and metaphor: Hector is compared to a
boulder (12.164), and recently the heaving of boulders was literal
material.
Cassandra's fiancé is killed in battle.
The wounds are especially grisly in this book. One warrior is seen
"slashing away the whole vein / that runs the length of the back to reach
the neck-- / he severed it, sheared it clear" (13.632-634). It doesn't
matter that there is no such vein (except maybe in shrimps). Another guy
gets it "between the genitals and the navel--hideous wound, / the worst
the god of battles deals to wretched men" (13.657-658). Yet another is
hit "between the eyes, / the bridge of the nose, and bone cracked, blood
sprayed / and both eyes dropped at his feet to mix in the dust"
(13.708-710).
Iliad Index
Orpheus: Greek Mythology