Homer Quotes

And Strife and Havoc plunged in the fight, and violent Death
now seizing a man alive with fresh wounds, now one unhurt,
now hauling a dead man through the slaughter by the heels,
the cloak on her back stained red with human blood.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 621-624. The Iliad is a story of the unremitting Strife, Havoc and Death that is found in war. This is metaphorically depicted in a scene on the shield fashioned by the god smith Hephaestus for Achilles. Homer personifies Strife, Havoc and Death, as they decide the destiny and fate of humans.

Ruin, eldest daughter of Zeus, she blinds us all.
that fatal madness – she with those delicate feet of hers,
never touching the earth, gliding over the heads of men
to trap us all. She entangles one man, now another.
Why, she and her frenzy blinded Zeus one time,
highest, greatest of men and gods, they say.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 106-111. Is Agamemnon attempting to apologize to Achilles for his dispute with him? Not really, instead he is blaming the goddess Ruin for manipulating him! She even succeeded in blinding Zeus on one occasion, he maintains. Has Agamemnon no free choice over his actions? That’s what he seems to say whenever he does something wrong – blame everything on fate and the gods, they control the actions of us humans!

The glory of armor lit the skies and the whole earth laughed,
rippling under the glitter of bronze, thunder resounding
under trampling feet of armies. And in their midst
the brilliant Achilles began to arm for battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 427-430. When Achilles steps onto the battlefield with his brilliant new shield and armor, he is clearly a changed man, the description in this passage setting him sharply apart from all the other soldiers. It speaks of the glory of his armor lighting up the skies.

Come, friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?
Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you.
And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am?
The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life
a deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you,
death and the strong force of fate are waiting.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 119-124. In this passage we see Achilles at his most cynical and unforgiving. Consumed with rage and the desire for revenge for Patroclus’s slaying, he believes that all enemies must die as he is fated to die – foreshadowing his own death. He cruelly mocks the plea to be spared from Priam’s son Lycaon, telling him that better men than him have died.
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