τὸν δ᾽ αὖτε προσέειπε θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη:

ὦ πάτερ ἀργικέραυνε κελαινεφὲς οἷον ἔειπες:

ἄνδρα θνητὸν ἐόντα πάλαι πεπρωμένον αἴσῃ

ἂψ ἐθέλεις θανάτοιο δυσηχέος ἐξαναλῦσαι;180

ἔρδ᾽: ἀτὰρ οὔ τοι πάντες ἐπαινέομεν θεοὶ ἄλλοι.

τὴν δ᾽ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη νεφεληγερέτα Ζεύς:

θάρσει Τριτογένεια φίλον τέκος: οὔ νύ τι θυμῷ

πρόφρονι μυθέομαι, ἐθέλω δέ τοι ἤπιος εἶναι:

ἔρξον ὅπῃ δή τοι νόος ἔπλετο, μὴ δ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἐρώει.185

ὣς εἰπὼν ὄτρυνε πάρος μεμαυῖαν Ἀθήνην:

βῆ δὲ κατ᾽ Οὐλύμποιο καρήνων ἀΐξασα.

Ἕκτορα δ᾽ ἀσπερχὲς κλονέων ἔφεπ᾽ ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς.

ὡς δ᾽ ὅτε νεβρὸν ὄρεσφι κύων ἐλάφοιο δίηται

ὄρσας ἐξ εὐνῆς διά τ᾽ ἄγκεα καὶ διὰ βήσσας:190

τὸν δ᾽ εἴ πέρ τε λάθῃσι καταπτήξας ὑπὸ θάμνῳ,

ἀλλά τ᾽ ἀνιχνεύων θέει ἔμπεδον ὄφρά κεν εὕρῃ:

ὣς Ἕκτωρ οὐ λῆθε ποδώκεα Πηλεΐωνα.

ὁσσάκι δ᾽ ὁρμήσειε πυλάων Δαρδανιάων

ἀντίον ἀΐξασθαι ἐϋδμήτους ὑπὸ πύργους,195

εἴ πως οἷ καθύπερθεν ἀλάλκοιεν βελέεσσι,

τοσσάκι μιν προπάροιθεν ἀποστρέψασκε παραφθὰς

πρὸς πεδίον: αὐτὸς δὲ ποτὶ πτόλιος πέτετ᾽ αἰεί.

ὡς δ᾽ ἐν ὀνείρῳ οὐ δύναται φεύγοντα διώκειν:

οὔτ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὃ τὸν δύναται ὑποφεύγειν οὔθ᾽ ὃ διώκειν:200

ὣς ὃ τὸν οὐ δύνατο μάρψαι ποσίν, οὐδ᾽ ὃς ἀλύξαι.

πῶς δέ κεν Ἕκτωρ κῆρας ὑπεξέφυγεν θανάτοιο,

εἰ μή οἱ πύματόν τε καὶ ὕστατον ἤντετ᾽ Ἀπόλλων

ἐγγύθεν, ὅς οἱ ἐπῶρσε μένος λαιψηρά τε γοῦνα;

λαοῖσιν δ᾽ ἀνένευε καρήατι δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς,205

οὐδ᾽ ἔα ἱέμεναι ἐπὶ Ἕκτορι πικρὰ βέλεμνα,

μή τις κῦδος ἄροιτο βαλών, ὃ δὲ δεύτερος ἔλθοι.

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε δὴ τὸ τέταρτον ἐπὶ κρουνοὺς ἀφίκοντο,

καὶ τότε δὴ χρύσεια πατὴρ ἐτίταινε τάλαντα,

ἐν δ᾽ ἐτίθει δύο κῆρε τανηλεγέος θανάτοιο,210

τὴν μὲν Ἀχιλλῆος, τὴν δ᾽ Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο,

ἕλκε δὲ μέσσα λαβών: ῥέπε δ᾽ Ἕκτορος αἴσιμον ἦμαρ,

ᾤχετο δ᾽ εἰς Ἀΐδαο, λίπεν δέ ἑ Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων.

Πηλεΐωνα δ᾽ ἵκανε θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη,

ἀγχοῦ δ᾽ ἱσταμένη ἔπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα:215

νῦν δὴ νῶι ἔολπα Διῒ φίλε φαίδιμ᾽ Ἀχιλλεῦ

οἴσεσθαι μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιοῖσι προτὶ νῆας

Ἕκτορα δῃώσαντε μάχης ἄατόν περ ἐόντα.

οὔ οἱ νῦν ἔτι γ᾽ ἔστι πεφυγμένον ἄμμε γενέσθαι,

οὐδ᾽ εἴ κεν μάλα πολλὰ πάθοι ἑκάεργος Ἀπόλλων220

προπροκυλινδόμενος πατρὸς Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο.

ἀλλὰ σὺ μὲν νῦν στῆθι καὶ ἄμπνυε, τόνδε δ᾽ ἐγώ τοι

οἰχομένη πεπιθήσω ἐναντίβιον μαχέσασθαι.

Athena objects to rescuing a man fated to die, and Zeus retracts the suggestion. Athena travels quickly to the battelfield. The poet compares Hector's inability to elude Achilles to that of a deer running from a hunting dog, and a man pursued in a dream. As Hector and Achilles pass the springs for the fourth time Zeus weighs both men's fates in a balance and Hector's sinks towards Hades. Athena urges Achilles to rest while she persuades Hector to stand and fight.

Zeus gives Athena permission to intervene (185), a signal to us that the gods are about to bring the chase to an end. First, another simile compares Achilles to a hound that has flushed a fawn from its lair.

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As he did in the earlier simile of Achilles as hawk and Hector as dove (139–42), the poet seems intent on portraying the contest as one-sided, with Hector being weaker and more vulnerable, confirmation that the end is approaching for him. Meanwhile, Achilles as relentless animal predator adds to the long catalog of dark personae he assumes in this part of the poem. If the death of Patroclus pulled our sympathy away from Hector and toward Achilles, the ensuing blood-soaked rampage and Hector’s monologue begin to reverse the process. Homer has been building toward Hector’s death scene since the beginning of Book 22, drawing us toward his flawed humanity and away from Achilles’ ever-expanding cosmic rage. Now the gods will orchestrate the final moments.

The deliberations of the gods have distanced us from the immediacy of the chase and Homer keeps us there, as we look down at Hector’s failed attempts to get back into the city or at least get some cover from Trojan archers on the walls, at Achilles warning off his own men from helping him, to make sure that he gets all the glory (kudos, 207). During this action Homer inserts the only simile about dreams in the entire poem:

As in a dream, when a man cannot catch another who flees;
he cannot escape nor can the other catch up;
So he [Achilles] could not run him down, nor he escape.

Iliad 22.199–201

The language here is both elliptical and somewhat repetitive, which caused a later commentator, Aristarchus, in one of the great critical lapses in the history of scholarship, to condemn the verses as “worthless” (εὐτελεῖς) Virgil, for one, disagreed, creating a brilliant variation at Aeneid 12.908–14. Coming where it does, during a desperate life-and-death chase, this simile has multiple and powerful effects. The slow-motion camera returns, perversely inviting us to admire the beauty of the runners. Such a dream is simultaneously about frustration—thus the repetitive language—and terror. And it is a common dream, one Homer knew his audience had probably experienced. Just as he moves us away from the scene visually, he taps into the deep recesses of our minds with a familiar nightmare.

Apollo has been helping Hector, giving him extra strength and speed. But now the matter moves to the highest cosmic level, as Zeus lifts his golden scales, with the fates of Hector and Achilles on either side. In three short clauses, it is all over:

                                    Hector’s day of death sank;
it moved toward Hades’ house; and Phoebus Apollo left him.

Iliad 22.212–13

An impressive image, but in fact it tells us nothing we did not already know. Zeus foretold Hector’s death as early as Book 15 (59–71). Major events are rarely confirmed only once in the Iliad. Rather, we are apt to see them from multiple perspectives as their implications unfold. Achilles’ own death is handled similarly. When Thetis goes to Achilles in the beginning of Book 24 to tell him to release the body of Hector, he agrees tersely (139–40). In its context, this gesture marks Achilles’ acceptance of his own mortality, a crucial event in the working out of the poem’s thematic resolution. But he first affirms that he will die one day soon in Book 18 (98), when Thetis comes to console him for Patroclus’s death, then repeats the admission in his grim speech to Lykaon in Book 21 (110–13). The first passage shows Achilles in his capacity as Thetis’s son, the second as brutal warrior, and the third in the depths of despair after Patroclus’s funeral. Each context adds a new shading to the admission and its effects on others. So here the cosmic scales reconfirm Hector’s fate, but the image also revisits and refines Zeus’s brief struggle (168–87) over whether to change fate and save Hector. Now the issue will not be decided based on Zeus’s relationships with other gods. It is out of his hands.

Athena wastes no time in joining the forces gathered against Hector, going to Achilles and glorying in the kudos they will both win by destroying the Trojan hero. We might ask why, when Hector is clearly doomed to die soon, with all the power of fate and divine will lined up against him, the poet has Athena pile on in this gleefully cruel way. The answer is that, having tested our allegiance to Hector by having him run from Achilles, Homer now wants to turn our sympathies back yet more firmly to him.

In these verses and those soon to come, Homer puts mortals in close contact with gods, always a potent moment in any tragic story. The motives of divinities who act in the world of death and change must always seem trivial to us, because the gods, however strongly they are gripped by the whim of the moment, have nothing important at stake. Athena’s exuberantly malicious treatment of Hector, whose selflessness and devotion have cost him so much, is hard to contemplate precisely because we know that she cannot care about anything for long. And every time that realization comes over us, we are precisely where any Greek tragic narrative wants us, pondering both the human pain and suffering that comes from confronting mortality and the supreme indifference of higher forces.

 

Further Reading

De Jong, I. J. F. 2012. Homer: Iliad Book XXII, 108–113. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nagler, M. 1974. Spontaneity and Tradition: The Oral Art of Homer, 182–183. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Redfield, J. 1975. Nature and Culture in the Iliad, 158–159. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Richardson, N. J. 1993. The Iliad: A Commentary, Vol. VI, 105–106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schein, S. 1984. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer’s Iliad, 94–95. Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

177: τὸν δ᾽: Zeus.

178: οἷον ἔειπες: “what sort of thing you speak of!” an exclamatory use of the indirect interrogative, which may be used in independent clasuses to express surprise. Compare this to Hera's words at the death of Sarpedon, 16.441–2.

179: πεπρωμένον αἴσῃ: “destined by fate,” i.e. to die. "Fated," is a common meaning of the pf. pass. > πόρω (“to give”). 

180: ἐξαναλῦσαι: “deliver from” + gen., aor. act. inf.

181: ἔρδ’: “do (it),” i.e. “go ahead,” = ἔρδ(ε), 2nd sg. imper. τοι: = σοι. dat. sg. ἐπαινέομεν: uncontracted 1st pl. fut.

183: θάρσει: = θάρσε-ε. 2nd sg. pres. imperative. οὔ νυ τι: “not at all,” adverbial acc.

183–184: θυμῷ / πρόφρονι: “with a sincere mind,” “in earnest,” “seriously,” dat. of manner equivalent to adverb. τοι: = σοι.

185: ἔρξον ὅπῃ δή τοι νόος ἔπλετο: “act in the way in which your mind is set” (de Jong). ἔρξον: aor. act. imper. > ἔρδω. δή: “precisely,” “exactly.” τοι: = σοι, “your,” the dative of the personal pronoun is often used in place of a possessive (Monro 143.1). ἔπλετο: “turned out to be,” “is.” μὴ δ᾽ ἔτ᾽ ἐρώει: “don’t rest any longer,” i.e., don’t hesitate. ἐρωέω means to draw back or rest from, leave, quit (war, drinking, etc.), normally with a genitive object (see LSJ s.v. ἐρωέω  I.2).

186: εἰπὼν ὄτρυνε: “by speaking such words he encouraged,” coincident use of the aorist participle, which means that the main verb and the participle describe the same action or different aspects of the same action (de Jong). μεμαυῖαν: "eager," fem. acc. sg. ptc. > μέμονα, reduplicated perfect with present sense. πάρος: “already.”

187: βῆ ἀΐξασα: “she went darting,” coincident participle (see line 186), with unaugmented root aor. > βαίνω and fem. sg. aor. ptc. > ἀΐσσω. κατ᾽: “down from,” + gen. place from which.

188: ἔφεπ᾽: = ἔφεπε, “kept following after,” 3rd sg. iterative impf. κλονέων ἔφεπ᾽: “kept in hand as he drove him on”: the phrase would naturally be used of an attack on a body of men: cp. 11.496 (Monro).

189: ὡς δ᾽ὅτε: “just as when,” introducing the third simile of the hunt (see 22.162). ὄρεσφι: “in the mountains” see 22.139. δίηται: subjunctive, either thematic aor. or athematic pres. > δίω. As often, the subjunctive appears in similes where the main action occurs repeatedly and indefinitely (Monro 289.2.a).

190: ὄρσας: nom. sg. aor. ptc. > ὄρνυμι. διά … διὰ: “through,” + acc. (Att. + gen.).

191: τὸν δ᾽: “this one,” i.e. the dog, the direct obj. in the subordinate clause is put into the main clause, in an instance of grammatical prolepsis (“him, even if the fawn manages to hide from (him)” (de Jong). εἴ πέρ: “even if,” concessive. τε … τ᾽: “both … and.” λάθῃσι: 3rd sg. aor. > λανθάνω.

192: ἀλλά: “yet.” ὄφρά κεν εὕρῃ: “until he finds it,” 3rd sg. aor. subj. > εὑρίσκω. The basic sense is temporal, but ὄφρά κεν also conveys purpose (Monro 287.1.b).

193: ὣς: “so,” closing the simile from 189. λῆθε: unaugmented epic impf. > λήθω (= λανθάνω).

194–195: “whenever he set about to make a dash straight for the Dardanian gate (to get) under (the protection of) its well-built towers” (de Jong). ὁρμήσειε: “set out for (+ gen.),” 3rd sg. aor. opt. in subordinate clause of repeated past action (ἄν + subj. in primary sequence) (Goodell 627, fn. 2). πυλάων Δαρδανιάων: gen. obj. of ὁρμήσειε (or ἀΐξασθαι, see 195 below) (Monro 151.c).

195: ἀΐξασθαι: “to dart,” either closely construed with ὁρμήσειε (“set out to dart”), or explanatory (epexegetical) infinitive of purpose (“set out for the gates, to dart beneath”). ὑπὸ: “to beneath,” + acc. place to which (Monro 283).

196: εἴ … ἀλάλκοιεν: “in the hope that they might defend.” In Homeric Greek conditional clauses with the optative may have the sense of a purpose clause. The difference from regular purpose clauses is that the subject hopes to achieve something, here with optative in secondary sequence in attraction to ὁρμήσειε (de Jong; see Monro 314). οἷ: “from him.” βελέεσσι: uncontracted dat. pl. of means (Goodell 526.a).

197: προπάροιθεν: “beforehand,” temporal, though a blended temporal and local force (“before and in front of”) is possible. ἀποστρέψασκε: “kept driving back.” -σκ- indicates iterative impf. (Monro 48–9). παραφθὰς: “getting ahead of,” both in time and place, nom. sg. aor. ptc. > παραφθάνω. 

198: ποτὶ πτόλιος: “on the city side,” an exceptional use of ποτὶ + gen. While Hector runs along the wagon track, Achilles runs nearer to the city and hence debars him from reaching the walls and gate (de Jong).  

199: ὣς δ᾽: “just as,” beginning a simile. This is the only Homeric simile to refer to dreaming. While Aristarchus athetized (proposed for deletion) these lines as “shabby,” they are among the most haunting in the Homeric epics (and imitated to great effect by Vergil at Aeneid 12.908–14) (de Jong). δύναται: “(one) is able,” understand τις.

200: ὃ … ὃ: “this one … that one,” demonstrative pronouns.  

201: ὣς: “so,” closing the simile from 199–200. ὃ … ὃς: “this one … that one” both with δύνατο.

202: κεν … ὑπεξέφυγεν … εἰ μή … ἤντετο: “could have escaped, if … were not drawing near,” a mixed contrary-to-fact condition (εἰ + impf. ind, ἄν/κε + aor. indic.) (Goodell 649). At this climactic point the singer gives up his usual reticence and steps forward qua narrator by inserting a rhetorical question, which adds pathos to the situation, as Hector is assisted by a god only temporarily (de Jong).

203: οἱ: “him,” dat. object of ἤντετ’ ἐγγύθεν. πύματόν τε καὶ ὕστατον: “for the last and final time,” i.e. “for the very last time,” both adverbial acc. (de Jong; see Goodell 540).

204: ὅς: “who,” i.e. Apollo, relative. οἱ: “his,” Hector’s. The dative of the personal pronoun is often used in place of a possessive (Monro 143.1). ἐπῶρσε: 3rd sg. aor. > ἐπόρνυμι.

205: λαοῖσιν: “to his people,” i.e. the Achaians. ἀνένευε: impf. > ἀνανεύω, Greeks indicated a negative by raising the chin. καρήατι: dat. sg. of means > κάρη. Achilles was between Hector and the walls, and the Greek army might therefore have attacked Hector on the other side, had not Achilles signed for them not to do so. This is mentioned as another reason why Hector escaped as he did: hence there should not be a full stop at the end of line 204 (Monro).

206: ἔα: = ἔαε, 3rd sg. impf. > ἐάω + inf. ἱέμεναι: “throw,” pres. inf. > ἵημι (Monro 85.2).

207: μή … ἄροιτο: “lest … win,” negative clause of purpose governing opt. (aor. opt. > ἄρνυμι) in secondary sequence after impf. ἔα (Monro 303.1). ὃ δὲ: “and he,” Achilles. ἔλθοι: continuing the negative purpose clause, with aor. opt. > ἔρχομαι in secondary sequence.

208: ὅτε δὴ: “just when.” δὴ implies exactness. τὸ τέταρτον: “the fourth time,” adv. acc. (Goodell 540).

209–212: these lines are a repetition of 8.69–72, except that Hector and Achilles are put for the Greeks and Trojans. The passage was known in later times as the ψυχοστασία, or “weighing of the souls” (Monro).

209: πατὴρ: Zeus

210: ἐν δ᾽: “and on them (the scales).” κῆρε θανάτοιο: “death-fates,” dual acc. κῆρε governing genitive.  

211: τὴν μὲν … τὴν δ’: “one fate … another fate,” specifying each of the two κῆρε above. 

212: ἕλκε δὲ μέσσα λαβών: “(Zeus) took the middle of the scales and raised them.” ἕλκω means not only “drag horizontally,” but also “draw up or down” (de Jong).

213: ᾤχετο εἰς Ἀΐδαο: “and tipped in the direction of the house of Hades,” impf. > οἴχομαι, εἰς + gen. meaning “to the house of” (Goodell 507.a). The heavier fate was the doomed one (Benner).

214: Πηλεΐωνα: “the son of Peleus,” i.e. Achilles, acc. of direction without preposition.

215: λίπεν: unaugmented aor. > λείπω. ἱσταμένη: pres. mid. ptc. > ἵστημι.

216: νῦν δὴ: “at this very moment,” “just now.” Διῒ: “to Zeus,” specifying dat. sg. with vocative φίλε (Goodell 527.b). ἔολπα: “I am confident,” intensive perfect > ἔλπω (Monro 61). νῷι: “that we,” dual 1st pl. acc. pronoun, acc. subj. of οἴσεσθαι (fut. dep. mid. inf. > φέρω).

217: Ἀχαιοῖσι: “for the Achaeans,” best taken as a dative of interest, in view of Achilles later words to the Greeks, “we have won,” though a dative of reference (“in the eyes of the Achaeans”) is also possible (de Jong).

218: δῃώσαντε: “killing,” dual nom. aor. act. ptc. περ ἐόντα: “though being,” concessive pres. ptc. > εἰμί, governed by Ἕκτορα and introducing acc. predicate ἄατον: “despite his insatiable lust for battle.”

219: οὔ … ἔτι γ᾽: “no longer,” “at any rate,” or “at least,” γε is restrictive and emphatic. οἱ … ἔστι: “is it possible for him,” impersonal ἔστι (= ἔξεστι) + dat. of reference (Goodell 523), with 3rd sg. personal pronoun (Monro 99). πεφυγμένον … γενέσθαι: lit. “become escaped,” i.e. “escape,” perfect periphrastic infinitive (pf. mid. ptc. + aor. inf. γίγνομαι), governed by οἱ … ἔστι, with ptc. πεφυγμένον shifting from dat. to acc., as often in Homer. The perfect periphrastic construction adds a note of finality (de Jong). See 6.488 for another example. ἄμμε: acc. 1st pl. personal pronoun, Att. ἡμᾶς.

220: οὐδ᾽εἴ: “not even if.” κεν … πάθοι: “would suffer,” potential aor. opt. > πάσχω. πολλὰ: “many troubles,” “many things.” μάλα πολλὰ πάθοι: “should give himself ever so much trouble” (Benner).

221: προπροκυλινδόμενος: “groveling before” + gen., i.e., coming as a suppliant making requests. 

222: στῆθι: “stop!” “stand still!” aor. act. imper. > ἵστημι. ἄμπνυε: “get your breath,” aor. imper. > ἀνα-πνέω, with apocope and assimilation. τοι: = σοι, dat. with adj. ἐναντί-βιον.

223: πεπιθήσω: “I will persuade him,” 1st sg. reduplicated future > πείθω, derived from repuplicated aor. step πεπιθ-. The reduplication may imply a causative force (“make him obey”) (de Jong).

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Suggested Citation

Thomas Van Nortwick and Geoffrey Steadman, Homer: Iliad 6 and 22. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-947822-11-5.https://dcc.dickinson.edu/homer-iliad/homer-iliad-xxii-177-223