Delahoyde & Hughes Orpheus HOMER'S ILIAD: BOOK XIX

Questions for Book XIX:

• How does Agamemnon justify his earlier alienation of Achilles in front of the Greeks when Achilles is about to return to the war?
• When Achilles, ready for battle, calls upon his horses to do better this time and bring back their charioteer (him) when the fighting is over -- not to leave him lying there as they did with Patroclus -- what is Xanthos' (a.k.a. Roan Beauty's) response (besides "okay")?

The notion seems to bug Achilles, and no wonder: he has to come to grips with this side of himself. So notice the Hamlet-like obsession with the nauseating physicality of death (19.30ff).

Achilles repeats a moment we've seen a couple times before in which he gets himself riled up and consciously tries to beat down his emotion (19.72ff). Again, that's not the way it works; this is no solution to rage-aholism.

Agamemnon has yet another story about the events of Book 1, with new dynamics of blame (19.100ff, 161f).

Odysseus advises eating, but Achilles is too consumed with wrath. It's still wrath; it's just to be directed elsewhere now. So he adds fasting to his list of extreme behaviors (19.249f).

Briseis, presumably a female ideal here, goes into the grief melodrama when she sees Patroclus dead (19.333f). Achilles notes the absurdity of fighting over "that blood-chilling horror, Helen" (19.387). Finally the arming the horses includes Achilles' address to them and Xanthos' response (19.483f). Achilles is a bit snippy, but he's now facing stage one of his final fate -- he's bound not to live long after Hector's death.

So even horses blame Fate! This throws some light on how we are to take Agamemnon's cheesy excuses. Homer shows the irresponsibility of blaming Fate and mocks this inclination, since it resides even in horses.

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Iliad: Book XX
Iliad Index
Orpheus: Greek Mythology