The Iliad Achilles Quotes

And the lord of the battle cry could not refuse
but dragged his heels like a lion leaving sheepfolds,
bone-weary from harrying hounds and field hands.
They’ll never let him tear the rich fat from the oxen,
all night long they stand their guard but the lion craves meat,
he lunges in and in but his charges gain him nothing,
thick-and-fast from their hardy hands the javelins
rain down in his face, and waves of roaring torches –
these the big cat fears, balking for all his rage,
and at dawn he slinks away, his spirits dashed.
And so the lord of the war cry left Patroclus,
resisting all the way.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 738-749. Menelaus reluctantly moves away from the corpse of Patroclus, leaving it prey for the Trojans, after Great Ajax calls to him to get news to Achilles that his great friend Patroclus is dead. Menelaus is compared to a raging but dispirited lion slinking away, exhausted by harrying hounds and field workers, in one of Homer’s famous epic similes.

My child –
why in tears? What sorrow has touched your heart?
Tell me, please. Don’t harbor it deep inside you.
Zeus has accomplished everything you wanted,
just as you raised your hands and prayed that day.
All the sons of Achaea are pinned against the ships
and all for want of you – they suffer shattering losses.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 84-90. Thetis says these words to her son Achilles, who is devastated at the killing of his friend Patroclus by the Trojans. She reminds him that he prayed to the gods that the Achaeans should suffer in the war without his participation. His prayer was granted, but it is a bitter irony that it ends with the death of his friend. Be careful what you pray for!

But now, since I shall not return to my fatherland…
nor did I bring one ray of hope to my Patroclus,
nor to the rest of all my steadfast comrades,
countless ranks struck down by mighty Hector –
No, no, here I sit by the ships…
a useless, dead weight on the good green earth.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 118-123. Achilles in despair, cries to his mother Thetis, that he could not save his friend Patroclus from his doom. He feels complicit through his inaction and refusal to fight, in the deaths of Patroclus and the other comrades at the hands of Hector.

If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage –
bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey,
that swarms in people’s chests and blinds like smoke.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 126-129. Achilles is struggling to process the death of his beloved friend Patroclus. He curses the anger that kept him from protecting his greatest friend. He wishes that conflict and anger could vanish from the lives of men and gods. A number of similes are used here, comparing the bigger gall of anger to smoke, and also strangely to the sweetness of honey.

Yes, my son, you’re right. No coward’s work,
to save your exhausted friends from headlong death.
But your own handsome war-gear lies in Trojan hands,
bronze and burnished – and Hector in that flashing helmet,
Hector glorifies in your armor, strapped across his back.
Not that he will glory in it long, I tell you:
his own destruction hovers near him now. Wait –
don’t fling yourself in the grind of battle yet,
not till you see me coming back with your own eyes.
Tomorrow I will return to you with the rising sun,
bearing splendid arms from Hephaestus, god of fire!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 152-162. There is a close relationship between Thetis and her son Achilles. When he vows to return to the war effort and confront Hector, the killer of his friend, Thestis shows how love and protectiveness. She tells him to stay out of the battle until the next dawn, when she will return with splendid new arms fashioned by the god Hephaestus. Hector may be glorifying in Achilles’s armor, but he won’t glory in it for long, she says – foreshadowing the Trojan warrior’s own death.

As smoke goes towering up the sky from out a town
cut off on a distant island under siege…
enemies battling round it, defenders all day long
trading desperate blows from their own city walls
but soon as the sun goes down the signal fires flash,
rows of beacons blazing into the air to alert their neighbors –
if only they’ll come in ships to save them from disaster –
so now from Achilles’ head the blaze shot up the sky.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 240-247. To terrify the Trojans, goddess Athena wraps Achilles’s head up in a golden cloud, so that a fiery light blazes out from him and shoots up to the sky. Homer’s epic simile likens this to a city under siege from an enemy, where defenders in the evening light signal fires, the beacons blazing into the air to alert neighbors and summon help.

So there he rose and loosed an enormous cry
and off in the distance Pallas shrieked out too
and drove unearthly panic through the Trojans.
Piercing loud as the trumpet’s battle cry that blasts
from murderous raiding armies ringed around some city –
so piercing now the cry that broke from Aeacides.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 251-256. Achilles, taking his stand in the trench built by the Greeks, lets loose a deafening battle cry that provokes panic in the Trojan troops. Homer in his epic simile says it is as loud as the trump’s battle cry from murderous armies surrouding a city. At the same time goddess Athena also shrieks out, adding to the Trojans’ panic.

The god of war is impartial:
he hands out death to the man who hands out death.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 359-360. Hector to Polydamas, who suggests at a Trojan war council that the army remain in the city to fight off any Achaean attack as the return of Achilles makes it too dangerous to battle in the open. Hector rejects this advice, saying he will never run and will stand up to Achilles. In this passage Hector refers to war god Ares as he rallies the Trojan soldiers. He tells them to collect their possessions from the battlefield, eat, and camp outside the Trojan walls for another night before they attack the next morning.

And Achilles led them now in a throbbing chant of sorrow,
laying his man-killing hands on his great friend’s chest,
convulsed with bursts of grief. Like a bearded lion
whose pride of cubs a deer-hunter has snatched away,
out of some thick woods, and back he comes, too late.
and his heart breaks but he courses after the hunter.
hot on his tracks down glen on twisting glen –
where can he find him? – gripped by piercing rage.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 367-374. Achilles mourns the death of his close friend Patroclus. Gripped by rage and in an epic simile compared to a lion whose pride of young have been snatched away by a hunter, he vows revenge against Hector.

Look at us. Both doomed to stain red with our blood
the same plot of earth, a world away in Troy!
For not even I will voyage home again. Never.
No embrace in his halls from the old horseman Peleus
nor from mother, Thetis – this alien earth I stride
will hold me down at last.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 382-387. Achilles is speaking to the Myrmidons, foreshading his own death in Troy just like his friend Patroclus. He says that he will die without the embrace of his parents, his father Peleus and his mother the goddess Thetis.

If it really was Achilles who reared beside the ships,
all the worse for him – if he wants his fill of war.
I for one, I’ll never run from his grim assault,
I’ll stand up to the man – see if he bears off glory
or I bear it off myself!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 355-359. Hector is aware of Achilles’s brilliance in battle, but that does not deter him from heroically charging forth. The greatest glory awaits one of the two heroes, he believes, and Hector chooses not to run from it but to stay and fight for it. Hector’s pride is one of his strengths that make him a great warrior, but it also a weakness that will lead to his downfall.

My child, leave your friend to lie there dead –
we must, though it breaks our hearts…
The will of the gods has crushed him once for all.
But here, Achilles, accept this glorious armor, look,
a gift from the god of fire – burnished bright, finer
than any mortal has ever borne across his back!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 9-14. At dawn Thetis finds her son Achilles sobbing on the ground and embracing the body of his beloved friend Patroclus and tries to rouse him. She presents him with the glorious shield and armor that Hephaestus has made for him.

Enough. Let bygones be bygones. Done is done.
Despite my anguish I will beat it down,
the fury mounting inside me, down by force.
Now, by god, I call a halt to all my anger –
it’s wrong to keep on raging, heart inflamed forever.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 74-78. Achilles at last makes his peace with Agamemnon, admitting that it is wrong for him to keep on raging. One has to wonder if he had really forgiven Agamemnon, as his return to battle is being driven by hatred for and the desire for revenge against Hector.

Often the armies brought this matter up against me –
they would revile me in public. But I am not to blame!
Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night,
they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart,
that day in assembly when I seized Achilles’ prize –
on my own authority, true, but what could I do?
A god impels all things to their fulfil1ment.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 99-105. Speaking with Achilles at an assembly of the Achaean army, Agamemnon says that the armies have oftened reviled him for seizing Briseis from Achilles. But he was not responsible, he claims, rather it was the god Zeus who drove him to do this madness. He argues that the fate of man is controlled by Zeus and the gods.

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!

when the sun goes down,
lay on a handsome feast – once we’ve avenged our shame.
Before then, for me at least, neither food nor drink
will travel down my throat, not with my friend dead,
there in my shelter, torn to shreds by the sharp bronze…
His feet turned to the door; stretched out for burial,
round him comrades mourning.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 247-253. Achilles has no taste for food and refuses to eat before going into battle, because he is mourning his dead friend Patroclus. He vows to only feast after they have avenged their shame.

Now fighting men will sicken of battle quickly:
the more dead husks the bronze strews on the ground
the sparser the harvest then, when Zeus almighty
tips his scales and the tide of battle turns –
the great steward on high who rules our mortal wars.
You want the men to grieve for the dead by starving?
Impossible. Too many falling, day after day – battalions!
When could we find a breathing space from fasting?
No. We must steel our hearts. Bury our dead,
with tears for the day they die, not one day more.
And all those left alive, after the hateful carnage,
remember food and drink – so all the more fiercely
we can fight our enemies, nonstop, no mercy,
durable as the bronze that wraps our bodies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 263-276. Odysseus says this to Achilles, in a bid to calm him. Achilles demands that the army go to war at once, but Odysseus persuades him to let the army eat and rest first as they are tired and hungry. Soldiers cannot grieve for the dead by starving and will fight more fiercely if fed, he insists. Achilles himself refuses to eat until he has killed Hector and avenged his friend Patroclus.

Seven tripods hauled from the tents, as promised,
twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen massive stallions.
They quickly brought out women, flawless, skilled in crafts,
seven, and Briseis in all her beauty made the eighth.
Then Odysseus weighed out ten full bars of gold.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 287-291. Agamemnon tries to make amends for taking Briseis from Achilles. Here she is used like a pawn between the two men, being measured in gifts of cauldrons, stallions, women and gold to assuage Achilles. Odysseus weighs out ten gold bars in payment to Achilles from Agamemnon.

Patroclus –
dearest joy of my heart, my harrowed, broken heart!
I left you alive that day I left these shelters,
now I come back to find you fallen, captain of armies!
So grief gives way to grief, my life one endless sorrow!
The husband to whom my father and noble mother gave me,
I saw him torn by the sharp bronze before our city,
and my three brothers – a single mother bore us:
my brothers, how I loved you! –
you all went down to death on the same day…
But you, Patroclus, you would not let me weep,
not when the swift Achilles cut my husband down,
not when he plundered the lordly Mynes’ city –
not even weep! No, again and again you vowed
you’d make me godlike Achilles’ lawful, wedded wife,
you would sail me west in your warships, home to Phthia
and there with the Myrmidons hold my marriage feast.
So now I mourn your death – I will never stop –
you were always kind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 338-356. Briseis speaks for the only time in The Iliad. She clearly had a close relationship with Patroclus, whose great kindness she pays a touching tribute to. Standing over the dead Greek warrior’s body, she reveals that he vowed to make her the wife of godlike (simile) Achilles. He also comforted her when her husband and three brothers whom she loved were cut down in war. Behind the ferocious warrior, there was a gentle heart.

Ah god, time and again, my doomed, my dearest friend,
you would set before us a seasoned meal yourself,
here in our tents, in your quick and expert way,
when Argive forces rushed to fight the Trojans,
stampeding those breakers of horses into rout.
But now you lie before me, hacked to pieces here
while the heart within me fasts from food and drink
though stores inside are full –
I’m sick with longing for you!
There is no more shattering blow that I could suffer.
Not even if I should learn of my own father’s death,
…or the death of my dear son, reared for me in Seyros,
if Prince Neoptolernus is still among the living.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 374-384, 388-389. Lamenting the loss of his dear friend Patroclus, a highly emotional Achilles is so sick that he doesn’t eat or drink. His deep love for his friend is expressed when he says that could not suffer a more devastating loss, not even if he learned of the death of his own father or dear son.

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.

then hoisted the massive shield flashing far and wide
like a full round moon – and gleaming bright as the light
that reaches sailors out at sea, the flare of a watchfire
burning strong in a lonely sheepfold up some mountain slope
when the gale-winds hurl the crew that fights against them
far over the fish-swarming sea, far from loved ones –
so the gleam from Achilles’ well-wrought blazoned shield
shot up and hit the skies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 442-449. Homer describes in an epic simile how much of a gleam the shield of Achilles lets off as it lights up the skies. It is as bright as the blazing light that sailors glimpse at sea from a watchfire burning in an isolated farm in the mountains.

mighty Achilles! But the day of death
already hovers near, and we are not to blame
but a great god is and the strong force of fate.
Not through our want of speed or any lack of care
did the Trojans strip the armor off Patroclus’ back.
It was all that matchless god, sleek-haired Leto’s son –
he killed him among the champions and handed Hector glory.
Our team could race with the rush of the West Wind,
the strongest, swiftest blast on earth, men say –
still you are doomed to die by force, Achilles,
cut down by a deathless god and mortal man.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 484-494. When Achilles reproaches his horses for allowing Patroclus to die, Hera gives his horse Roan Beauty (Xanthos) a voice to speak. The animal says that Patroclus fell in battle not through their fault but because of Apollo who handed Hector glory. The horse predicts that he, Achilles, is also fated to die by a god and a man. This references that he will be killed by Paris, assisted by the god Apollo.

If Achilles fights the Trojans – unopposed by us –
not for a moment will they hold his breakneck force.
Even before now they’d shake to see him coming.
Now, with his rage inflamed for his friend’s death,
I fear he’ll raze the walls against the will of fate.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 32-36. Zeus replies to Poseidon, who queries Zeus on why he is calling the gods to council on Olympus once again. Zeus is concerned that Achilles, if left unchecked by the gods, will raze the walls of Troy against the will of fate. Achilles is inflamed with rage over Patroclus’s death, Zeus says.
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