Delahoyde & Hughes Orpheus HOMER'S ILIAD: BOOK II

Questions for Book II:

• Are divine dreams true? That is, if your dream is from a god, can you believe it?
• Agamemnon receives word directly from Zeus that now is the time to attack Troy. He summons his chief officers and reports that he received word directly from Zeus that now it the time to attack Troy. He then marches out to speak to the troops and tells them what?
• What is Thersites' problem? Why, although he says some of the same things Achilles did a book ago, is he treated as he is, especially by Odysseus?

It's an odd dream theory, but apparently your divine revelations can be phony. Zeus, who has agreed to grant Achilles' mother's request that the Greeks start getting their butts handed to them, since Achilles is refusing to fight with them now, gives Agamemnon a false dream wherein the insistence, "attack at once, full force-- / now you can take the broad streets of Troy!" (2.33-34).

As Agamemnon prepares to make his public statement, the Greek army is astir. "Rumor" also "whipped them on" (2.110), signifying that Rumor is something beyond rational control and therefore a supernatural force. We sense that Agamemnon may be carrying out a standard battle test in giving a speech to the troops instead that the revelation indicated that they have been fighting long enough: Troy obviously will never fall and they should all go home. Apparently all the soldiers are supposed to insist, en masse, "no! no!" -- but Agamemnon's reverse psychology tactics backfire!

Athena visits Odysseus -- again signifying better judgment as a divine force -- and convinces him to reverse the retreat. Odysseus is successful, except for Thersites, a famous malcontent; he's mouthy and deformed and rails against Agamemnon. As with Hephaestos at the end of Book I, physical deformity is demeaned here, even though Odysseus seems to agree with some of Thersites' points about Agamemnon's greed. Anyway, Odysseus beats up Thersites.

We hear of an omen from before the war -- a snake devouring a brood of sparrows in a tree who was struck into stone by Zeus -- spuriously interpreted to mean that the Greek would have to fight for nine years before taking Troy in the tenth.

Agamemnon seems to have a moment of clarity in lamenting that there has been this falling out between him and Achilles over the "girl" (2.448). But it comes to nothing at this time.

A pile-up of epic similes conveys chaos effectively beyond what any single comparison could do (2.539ff). We then get the epic list of warriors for many pages.

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Iliad: Book III
Iliad Index
Orpheus: Greek Mythology