The Iliad Athena Quotes

Pallas Athena! the terrible blazing of those eyes,
and his winged words went flying: "Why, why now?
Child of Zeus with the shield of thunder, why come now?
To witness the outrage Agamemnon just committed?
1 tell you this, and so help me it’s the truth –
he’ll soon pay for his arrogance with his life!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 235-240. Achilles asks the goddess Athena why she has appeared to him. Achilles is in a rage because of Agamemnon’s disrespect to him, by threatening to take away his war prize Briseis.

Her gray eyes clear, the goddess Athena answered,
"Down from the skies I come to check your rage
if only you will yield.
The white-armed goddess Hera sped me down:
she loves you both, she cares for you both alike.
Stop this fighting, now. Don’t lay hand to sword.
Lash him with threats of the price that he will face."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 241-246. Achilles considers attacking Agamemnon, but goddess Athena is sent down from heaven by Hera to calm their favored hero. Athena asks Achilles to stay his anger, and demands self control and obedience from him.
Athena pleads with Odysseus to persuade men to stay and fight

Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus,
great tactician – what, is this the way?
All you Argives flying home to your fatherland,
tumbling into your oar-swept ships? Leaving Priam
and all the men of Troy a trophy to glory over,
Helen of Argos, Helen for whom so many Argives
lost their lives in Troy, far from native land!
No, don’t give up now. Range the Achaean ranks,
with your winning words hold back each man you find –
don’t let them haul their rolling ships to sea!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 201-210. As the Achaeans prepare to sail for home, Athena tells Odysseus to hold the men back from readying the ships. She pleads with him not to give Priam and the Trojans the glory of keeping Helen, for whom many Achaeans have died in Troy. She inspires him to appeal to the men to stay and fight the Trojans, in spite of their fears.

and down their ranks the fiery-eyed Athena bore
her awesome shield of storm, ageless, deathless –
a hundred golden tassels, all of them braided tight
and each worth a hundred oxen, float along the front.
Her shield of lightning dazzling, swirling around her,
headlong on Athena swept through the Argive armies,
driving soldiers harder, lashing the fighting-fury
in each Achaean’s heart – no stopping them now,
mad for war and struggle. Now, suddenly,
battle thrilled them more than the journey home,
than sailing hollow ships to their dear native land.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 528-538. Goddess of war and wisdom Athena loves a good battle and in this instance she is providing the Achaeans with the courage to keep fighting. War is hell – even when glorified in Homer’s Iliad – but it is also intoxicating and gives an adrenalin rush to the participants. This passage tells us that after Athena’s encouragement, battle provides more of a thrill to the Achaean soldiers than the prospect of going home.

Down the goddess swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks
and dove like a star the son of Cronus flings.
Cronus with all his turning, twisting ways –
a sign to men at sea or a massive army marching,
blazing on with a stream of sparks showering in its wake.
Like a shooting star Athena flashed across the earth,
plunging down in the midst of both camped forces.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 86-92. In this wonderful epic simile the goddess of wisdom Athena is said to sweep down from Olympus to the armies like a shooting star. Zeus has ordered her down to the battlefield in order to provoke the Trojans into breaking the truce.

Picture a woman dyeing ivory blood red…
a Carian or Maeonian staining a horse’s cheekpiece,
and it’s stored away in a vault and troops of riders
long to sport the ornament, true, but there it lies
as a king’s splendor, kept and prized twice over –
his team’s adornment, his driver’s pride and glory.
So now, Menelaus, the fresh blood went staining down
your sturdy thighs, your shins and well-turned ankles.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 160-167. Menelaus is wounded by an arrow shot by the renowned archer Pandarus, who is urged on by Athena. In an extended simile, Homer uses the imagery of a woman using blood red dye to stain a horse’s cheekpiece, to paint a picture of the dark blood coming from the wound in Menelaus’s groin.

Then Pallas Athena granted Tydeus’ son Diomedes
strength and daring – so the fighter would shine forth
and tower over the Argives and win himself great glory.
She set the man ablaze, his shield and helmet flaming
with tireless fire like the star that flames at harvest.
bathed in the Ocean, rising up to outshine all other stars.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 1-6. The fierce Greek warrior and leader Diomedes is described in an epic simile as being like fire and blazing like a star, as goddess Athena gives him strength and daring to win great glory for himself.

Meriones killed Phereclus – son of Tecton,
son of the blacksmith Harmon – the fighter’s hands
had the skill to craft all kinds of complex work
since Pallas Athena loved him most, her protege
who had built Paris his steady, balanced ships,
trim launchers of death, freighted with death
for all of Troy and now for the shipwright too:
what could the man know of all the gods’ decrees?

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 64-71. The Greek captain from Crete Meriones kills the Trojan shipbuilder Phereclus. A protege of goddess Athena and much loved by her, Phereclus was a target for the Greeks because he built Paris’s ship, including the boat he used to kidnap Helen.

I’ve lifted the mist from off your eyes
that’s blurred them up to now –
so you can tell a god from man on sight.
So now if a god comes up to test your mettle,
you must not fight the immortal powers head-on,
all but one of the deathless gods, that is –
if Aphrodite daughter of Zeus slips into battle,
she’s the one to stab with your sharp bronze spear!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 140-147. Athena tells Diomedes that a mist veils the eyes of mortals which prevents them from distinguishing gods in battle. She lifts the mist from his eyes, so he can tell a god on sight. Then she warns him that he is to fight only one god, Aprodite, and stab her with his bronze spear.

Then Athena, child of Zeus whose shield is thunder,
letting fall her supple robe at the Father’s threshold –
rich brocade, stitched with her own hands’ labor –
donned the battle-shirt of the lord of lightning,
buckled her breastplate geared for wrenching war
and over her shoulders slung her shield, all tassels
flaring terror –
…Then over her brows Athena placed her golden helmet
fronted with four knobs and forked with twin horns,
engraved with the fighting men of a hundred towns.
Then onto the flaming chariot Pallas set her feet
and seized her spear.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 841-847, 851-855. Athena dresses for battle to intervene on the Achaeans’ behalf, along with Hera, having been given permission to do so by Zeus. Her stunning outfit is befitting for her status as a warrior goddess.

Hector, you go back to the city, tell our mother
to gather all the older noble women together
in gray-eyed Athena’s shrine on the city’s crest,
unlock the doors of the goddess’ sacred chamber –
and take a robe, the largest, loveliest robe
that she can find throughout the royal halls,
a gift that far and away she prizes most herself,
and spread it out across the sleek-haired goddess’ knees.
Then promise to sacrifice twelve heifers in her shrine,
yearlings never broken, if only she’ll pity Troy,
the Trojan wives and all our helpless children,
if only she’ll hold Diomedes back from the holy city.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 102-113. Helenus, a son of Priam and also a seers, tells his brother Hector how to save Troy from Diomedes’s onslaught. Hector is urged to go back to the city to organize a Trojan sacrifice of twelve heifers to Athena so that the goddess will pity Troy and hold Diomedes back.

Go back and tell him all,
all I say – out in the open too – so other Achaeans
can wheel on him in anger
…He cheated me, did me damage, wrong! But never again,
he’ll never rob me blind with his twisting words again!
Once is enough for him. Die and be damned for all I care!
Zeus who rules the world has ripped his wits away.
His gifts, I loathe his gifts…
I wouldn’t give you a splinter for that man!
Not if he gave me ten times as much, twenty times over, all
he possesses now, and all that could pour in from the world’s end –
not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand
…and dust in the earth – no, not even then could Agamemnon
bring my fighting spirit round until he pays me back,
pays full measure for all his heartbreaking outrage!
His daughter…I will marry no daughter of Agamemnon.
Not if she rivaled Aphrodite in all her golden glory,
not if she matched the crafts of dear-eyed Athena,
not even then would I make her my wife! No.
let her father pitch on some other Argive.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 450-478. Despite the best efforts of Odysseus to lure Achilles back to the battle, the Greek warrior is still seething with anger at Agamemnon and refuses to budge. He point black refuses the king’s offer of gifts and a daughter in marriage – not if she rivaled goddesses Aphrodite or Athena would he wed her. He says that Zeus has ripped Agamemnon’s wits away.

Is that an order? Pick my own comrade?
Then how could I pass up royal Odysseus here?
His heart’s so game, his fighting edge so keen,
the best of us all in every combat mission –
Athena loves the man. With him at my side
we’d go through fire and make it back alive –
no one excels the mastermind of battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 10, lines 283-289. This is Achaean warrior Diomedes speaking when Agamemnon asks him to choose his comrade to join the battle with him. He immediately opts for Odysseus. As well as Odysseus being a great fighter, Diomedes knows that goddess Athena loves him and is likely to protect them both.

And let Apollo drive Prince Hector back to battle,
breathe power back in his lungs, make him forget
the pains that rack his heart. Let him whip the Achaeans
in headlong panic rout and roll them back once more,
tumbling back on the oar-swept ships of Peleus’ son Achilles.
And he, he will launch his comrade Patroclus into action
and glorious Hector will cut him down with a spear
in front of Troy, once Patroclus has slaughtered
whole battalions of strong young fighting men
and among them all, my shining son Sarpedon.
But then – enraged for Patroclus –
brilliant Achilles will bring Prince Hector down.
And then, from that day on, I’ll turn the tide of war:
back the fighting goes, no stopping it, ever, all the way.
till Achaean armies seize the beetling heights of Troy
through Athena’s grand design.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 75-90. Zeus is speaking to his wife Hera, laying out the plan for the events to come. There is not much room for free will here, with each character’s fate predetermined and controlled by the gods. Apollo will drive Hector back to battle, this will launch Patroclus into action, Hector will slay him with a spear, an enraged Achilles will take Hector down, Zeus will turn the tide of war and the Greeks will seize Troy through Athena’s grand plan. A great deal of things are foreshadowed here.

So now, I tell you, drop this anger for your son.
By now some fighter better than he, a stronger hand
has gone down in his own blood, or soon will go.
It is no small labor to rescue all mankind,
every mother’s son.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 167-171. When an angry Ares claims the right to avenge his son Ascalaphus, the Greek fighter killed by Deiphobus, Athena warns him about Zeus’s wrath and advises him that his attempts are useless. The father of the gods would only come to batter them on Olympus, she says.

Still, this time I will yield, for all my outrage…
but I tell you this, and there’s anger in my threat:
if ever – against my will and Athena queen of armies,
Hera and Hermes, and the god of fire Hephaestus –
if Zeus ever spares the towering heights of Troy,
if he ever refuses to take her walls by force
and give the Argive troops resounding triumph,
let Zeus know this full well –
the breach between us both will never heal!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 251-259. To avoid further conflict between the gods, Poseidon reluctantly agrees to Zeus’s request to stay out of the Trojan War. But he also tells messenger goddess Iris to warn Zeus not to spare the walls of Troy or refuse victory to the Achaeans.

Yes, down like a lurid rainbow Zeus sends arching
down to mortal men from the high skies, a sign of war
or blizzard to freeze the summer’s warmth and put a halt
to men’s work on the face of the earth and harry flocks –
so shrouded round in a lurid cloud came Pallas now
and dove in the Argive ranks to fire up each man.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 624-629. Goddess Athena moves to fire up and encourage the Achaean soldiers in battle. In Homer’s epic simile, she is said to descend from heaven like the colored rainbow Zeus sends as a sign of war or blizzard.

And the first one she roused was Atreus’ son
powerful Menelaus – he stood right at hand –
she took the build and tireless voice of Phoenix:
"Yours is the shame, Atrides. You will hang your head
if under the walls of Troy the dogs in all their frenzy
drag and maul the proud Achilles’ steadfast friend.
Hold on, full force – spur all our men to battle."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 630-636. When Patroclus is killed in battle, Menelaus has to decide whether to leave his body and fall back, or fight to protect the body. Goddess Athena takes Phoenix’s form and meets Menelaus to convince him to save Patroclus’s body from the Trojans and continue fighting to preserve his honor.

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.

But circling the other city camped a divided army
gleaming in battle-gear, and two plans split their ranks:
to plunder the city or share the riches with its people,
hoards the handsome citadel stored within its depths,
But the people were not surrendering, not at all.
They armed for a raid, hoping to break the siege –
loving wives and innocent children standing guard
on the ramparts, flanked by elders bent with age
as men marched out to war. Ares and Pallas led them.
both burnished gold, gold the attire they donned, and great,
magnificent in their armor – gods for all the world,
looming up in their brilliance, towering over troops.
And once they reached the perfect spot for attack,
…both armies battled it out along the river banks –
they raked each other with hurtling bronze-tipped spears.
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.
So they clashed and fought like living, breathing men
grappling each other’s corpses, dragging off the dead.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 593-605, 621-628. The second city featured on the massive shield of Achilles forged by Hephaestus is an extended metaphor for the embattled city of Troy, besieged by invading Achaeans. The scenes described foreshadow the Trojans leaving the city to fight the Achaeans between their shores and the city. Also foreshadowed is Achilles killing Hector and mistreating and dragging his body behind his chariot – "hauling a dead man through the slaughter by the heels." On the shield the god Ares and goddess Pallas Athena play a role in the fighting, he on the Trojan side and she supporting the Greeks.

Courage, Achilles! Why such fear, such terror?
Not with a pair like us to urge you on – gods-in-arms
sent down with Zeus’s blessings, I and Pallas Athena.
It’s not your fate to be swallowed by a river:
he’ll subside, and soon – you’ll see for yourself.
But we do have sound advice, if only you will yield.
Never rest your hands from the great leveler war,
not till you pack and cram the Trojan armies tight
in the famous walls of Troy – whoever flees your onset.
But once you’ve ripped away Prince Hector’s life,
back to the ships you go! We give you glory –
seize it in your hands!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 325-336. The river god (Xanthus to the gods and Scamander to mortals) is attempting to drown Achilles in a river. But in this passage Poseidon assures him that it’s not his fate to die in a river. Achilles is told that he has the support of Poseidon and Athena, sent with the blessing of Zeus. The death of Hector at the hands of Achilles is foreshadowed by the sea god. Poseidon promises Achilles glory in the war, and tells him to seize it.
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