Book 11

AbstractAgamemnon’s arming scene prefaces the battle narrative of book 11. Similes illustrate the massed fighting: the troops are mown down like corn. Agamemnon and the Greek leaders are compared to lions and boars, the Trojans to (less heroic) dogs and cattle. Agamemnon’s brutality is motivated by his desire for poinē (revenge): he and the other Greek leaders reject the supplications and apoina (ransom) offered by their Trojan victims. The pathos of the slaughter of young Trojans is increased by brief obituaries and personal details. Assured by Zeus of success until nightfall, Hector enters battle when Agamemnon departs. When other Greek leaders are wounded and retreat, Achilles sends Patroclus to Nestor, who plants in Patroclus’s mind the idea that he could be the hero of the hour, as Nestor was in the para-narrative he tells him about his own role in the Pylian wars. Authorial comment indicates foreshadowing of Patroclus’s death.