Book 11

Summary

The previous day of fighting (book 8) ended with the Achaeans forced back to their ships. Their appeal to Akhilleus was unavailing, but Agamemnon had been shamed (see 9.707ff.) into leading them back into the fray. A splendid arming scene heralds Agamemnon's initial success; after heavy fighting the Achaeans rout the Trojans and drive them back to the city. But this effort is doomed to failure, and the poet must already have in mind the superb ‘epic moment’ to which he works his way at the conclusion of book 12 when, spears in hand, Hektor burst through the gates of the Achaean wall. He has already hinted at this at 9.650–3:

οὐ γὰρ πρὶν πολέμοιο μεδήσομαι αἱματόεντος

πρὶν γ̕ υἱὸν Πριάμοιο δαΐφρονος, Ἕκτορα δῖον,

Μυρμιδόνων ἐπί τε κλισίας καί νῆας ἰκέσθαι

κτείνοντ̕ Ἀργείους, κατά τε σμῦξαι πυρι νῆας.

That does not come to pass in fact until we reach another fine moment at the end of the fifteenth book when Hektor cries “οἴσετε πῦρ” and lays hold of the ship of Protesilaos; for the Great Battle of the central Books of the Iliad is related in two roughly parallel episodes, 11–12 and 13–15, each beginning with Achaean success and ending in Achaean disaster.