He is reliant on Odysseus, a crafty man beloved of Athena and the perfect counselor, to bring the troops back into line. It is Odysseus, and not Agamemnon, who answers and humiliates the unruly Thersites. He uses the scepter of Agamemnon in these scenes, symbolizing Odysseus' important role as a leader behind the leader.
But Odysseus never seeks to usurp Agamemnon's position. He is a great man, less overwhelming than some of the other heroes, but more balanced and less tainted by the weakness of pride. Here, as always, we see the theme of interaction of free will and fate. Although the gods initiate many of these events, Odysseus is not a pawn but a skilled agent. For the sake of Athena and his king, he pulls the troops back into line. Agamemnon's unsteadiness manifests itself again in his admission of regret over his conflict with Achilles.
Although he admits that he was the first to become angry, he is still too proud to truly make amends. This kind of admission is typical of how Agamemnon deals with wrongs he has committed.
Note that in Book 1, he sends Odysseus to make amends to Chryses rather than go and apologize himself. Although attempts will later be made to set things right, Agamemnon is never capable of the kind of full apology that would restore Achilles' honor. There are fine examples of Homeric simile in Book 2. In Homer, the beauty of a simile is not always based on perfect and thought-out similarity between the two things compared. When A is compared to B, Homer often continues talking about B with evocative language that does little to develop the similarity with A.
For example, Homer compares the armies of the Achaeans to milling bees. He then goes on to loving describe swarms of bees as they hover around flowers in springtime. At this point, Homer is no longer interested in developing the similarities between the troops and bees.
The simile is more ornamental, concerned with delivering the history of B, and the images Homer evokes are often those of the everyday.
We move from the terrible scene of army preparing for war to bees at springtime, and Homer is content to stay for a moment with the bees, developing that imagery for its own sake. These similes, together, often but not always present glimpses of a peaceful and harmonious world. Homer often uses them to provide powerful contrast to the brutality of the Trojan War, juxtaposing images of violence with images of peace. As the armies move to meet each other, Paris strides forward ahead of the Trojan ranks, by this move challenging the best of the Argives to face him in combat.
As soon as he does, Menelaus, thrilled at a chance for revenge, leaps down from his chariot. Paris loses heart and retreats back into the ranks.
Hector, who is also his brother, insults and condemns Paris, calling him a coward and implicitly blaming him for the war. He says that if the men of Troy were not cowards they would have stoned Paris years ago for his misdeeds. Paris, chastised, tells Hector that he will fight Menelaus and the winner shall have Helen; then the two sides will part in peace. Hector makes the announcement to the Argive forces and Menelaus agrees. They call for lambs for sacrifice and for Priam to come down as witness to seal the oath.
Iris, servant of Zeus, takes the shape of one of Hector's sisters and rushes to tell Helen what is happening. Filled with homesickness, Helen goes up to the top of the Scaean Gates, where, invited by Priam, she sits among the elder men of Troy.
Priam does not blame her for the war, but rather treats her with courtesy. Priam asks Helen questions about the different Argive fighters he sees. She tells him the names of Agamemnon, king of the armies; Odysseus, the great tactician and king of Ithaca; Ajax, enormous man and bulwark of the Achaeans; and Idomeneus, commander of the armies from Crete. Helen knows most of the great fighters' names, but look as she might she cannot find her two brothers, Castor and Polydeuces.
She wonders if they came or if they have already died. The speaker of the poem then tells us that the two men are long dead, buried in their homeland of Lacedaemon. A messenger arrives and asks Priam down to the plains to seal the men's oaths and witness their duel.
Priam goes down with Antenor, an elder and one of his advisors. Agamemnon makes the prayer and the oath, killing the lambs. Priam, unable to bear watching his son fight in a duel, goes back through the city gates with Antenor. Menelaus and Paris duel, and as Menelaus is about to finish off Paris, Aphrodite intercedes. She carries Paris away and drops him in his own bed within the gates of Troy.
She then goes to Helen and tells her to go back to bed, where Paris awaits her. Helen refuses, shamed now by her past actions and unwilling to go to bed with her cowardly husband. Furious, Aphrodite threatens to make her fate miserable if she does not obey. So she goes, although when she sees her husband she insults him, saying that it would be better if he had died. Paris shrugs her insults off and he and Helen make love. Down on the field, Menelaus looks in rage for Paris.
The speaker tells us that no Trojan would have hidden him then, their hatred of Paris was so great. Agamemnon cries out that clearly Menelaus was the winner, and that the Trojans must hand over Helen, under the terms of the oath. The Argive soldiers roar their assent. Homer's depiction of Helen is the most interesting part of this section. But that characterization is a far cry from what we see here. Although Helen's decision to leave with Paris has been the cause of the Trojan War, now she seems full of regret for what she has done.
Although Priam assures her that the war is the will of the gods, Helen is not convinced. She wishes that she had died, and sympathy for her is increased when Homer tells us that her brothers, for whom she searches among the ranks, are long dead.
She realizes that the death and destruction around her have in part been her fault, and she tries to resist Aphrodite when Aphrodite lures her back to Paris' bed. Resistance to the goddess is futile; when Aphrodite threatens Helen, Helen fearfully complies.
But Helen's self-loathing sticks with her. When she sees her husband Paris she greets him with contempt, and though he shrugs aside her insults, Homer does not show us her reaction to his defense of himself. Still, there are limits to Helen's change of heart. She ultimately lacks the initiative to kill herself or hand herself over to the Achaeans; Homer gives her personality and remorse, but he must stay within the confines of the myth.
No peaceful solution is possible. Priam's kindness is consistent with Homer's tremendously sympathetic depiction of the Trojans.
The old man does not blame Helen for the deaths of his people or the possible destruction of his city. He and the elders treat her better than she deserves. We also see a glimpse of Hector in this chapter, as he goads his cowardly brother to fight Menelaus in a duel. Hector, greatest of the Trojans, is a brave man. Hephaestus begs Hera not to struggle with Zeus and tells her to have patience because he will support her and the Greeks. The sun sets as Zeus and Hera go to sleep. Browse all BookRags Book Notes.
Copyrights The Iliad from BookRags. All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. Get The Iliad from Amazon. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Table of Contents.
Plot Summary. Major Characters. Topic Tracking: Divine Intervention. Topic Tracking: Nature Imagery. Topic Tracking: Rage. Book 1. Book 2. Book 3. Book 4. Agamemnon reviews his troops. Hektor and Andromache.
Combat of Hektor and Aias. Burial of the dead. Building the wall. The Trojans advance. Zeus stops the interference of Hera. Embassy to Achilles. Dolon episode. Achilles sends Patroklos to inquire. Battle about the Wall. Fighting at the ships. Beguilement of Zeus. Greeks advance. Retreat to the ships.
Fight over body of Patroklos. Shield of Achilles. Achilles' anger unleashed. Battle of the gods. Achilles fights the River. Death of Hektor. Funeral Games. Ransom of Hektor. Hera lost the judgement of Paris Athena lost the judgement of Paris Poseidon traditional friend of Troy, but denied payment by Laomedon after building the walls: but he helps Aeneas in Book 20 Hephaistos friend of Thetis Hermes fights Leto.
Achilles points out that no prizes are available. Agamemnon threatens to take another's prize, even Achilles'. He declares that the Achaians will some day long for his help and not have it. Odysseus takes Chryseis back home. He asks her to entreat Zeus to grant victory to the Trojans. Thetis promises to ask Zeus. Hephaistos plays the cupbearer, and the gods laugh at his antics.
The gods go to bed. He proposes a trial of the host. Rumour, sent by Zeus, stirs them to sail back home. Thersites abuses Agamemnon. Hera becomes livid when she discovers that Zeus is helping the Trojans, but her son Hephaestus persuades her not to plunge the gods into conflict over the mortals. Like other ancient epic poems, The Iliad presents its subject clearly from the outset.
Although the Trojan War as a whole figures prominently in the work, this larger conflict ultimately provides the text with background rather than subject matter. By the time Achilles and Agamemnon enter their quarrel, the Trojan War has been going on for nearly ten years. Instead, it scrutinizes the origins and the end of this wrath, thus narrowing the scope of the poem from a larger conflict between warring peoples to a smaller one between warring individuals.
But while the poem focuses most centrally on the rage of a mortal, it also concerns itself greatly with the motivations and actions of the gods. Even before Homer describes the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, he explains that Apollo was responsible for the conflict. In general, the gods in the poem participate in mortal affairs in two ways.
First, they act as external forces upon the course of events, as when Apollo sends the plague upon the Achaean army. Second, they represent internal forces acting on individuals, as when Athena, the goddess of wisdom, prevents Achilles from abandoning all reason and persuades him to cut Agamemnon with words and insults rather than his sword.
But while the gods serve a serious function in partially determining grave matters of peace and violence, life and death, they also serve one final function—that of comic relief. Their intrigues, double-dealings, and inane squabbles often appear humorously petty in comparison with the wholesale slaughter that pervades the mortal realm. The bickering between Zeus and Hera, for example, provides a much lighter parallel to the heated exchange between Agamemnon and Achilles.
Indeed, in their submission to base appetites and shallow grudges, the gods of The Iliad often seem more prone to human folly than the human characters themselves.
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