The Iliad Glory Quotes

Mother! You gave me life, short as that life will be - Achilles in Homer's Iliad

Mother!
You gave me life, short as that life will be.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 416-417. Achilles’s short life and early death are emphasized in his meeting with his mother Thetis. This is the first foreshadowing in the poem of the great warrior’s premature demise. Achilles is pleading with his goddess mother to appeal to Zeus to grant him honor in his short time on earth. He wants Zeus to help the Trojan cause, so that Agamemnon will see how mad he was to disgrace and wrong Achilles.
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.

Sing to me now, you Muses who hold the halls of Olympus!
You are goddesses, you are everywhere, you know all things –
all we hear is the distant ring of glory, we know nothing –
who were the captains of Achaea? Who were the kings?
The mass of troops I could never tally, never name,
not even if I had ten tongues and ten mouths,
a tireless voice and the heart inside me bronze,
never unless you Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus
whose shield is rolling thunder, sing, sing in memory
all who gathered under Troy. Now I can only tell
the lords of the ships, the ships in all their numbers!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 573-583. Homer invokes the Muses to divinely inspire him to list the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy, commonly known as the "Catalogue of Ships." This enumeration of Greek contingents makes up a major part of Book 2. Homer lists 29 contingents under 46 captains and a total of 1,186 ships. In asking the Muses to help him describe the fighting forces, Homer uses a metaphor saying that he himself could never tally them all even if he had a heart of bronze.

They came in a hundred ships and Agamemnon led them on,
Atreus’ royal son, and marching in his companies
came the most and bravest fighting men by far.
And there in the midst, armed in gleaming bronze,
in all his glory, he towered high over all his fighters –
he was the greatest warlord, he led by far the largest army.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 667-672. Commanding a hundred ships, King Agamemnon leads the largest army and bravest fighting men in the expedition against Troy. He is portrayed as a larger-than-life, heroic and godlike figure. His bronze armor gleams and in all his glory he stands taller than all of his fighters.

What’s this? –
you, the son of Tydeus, that skilled breaker of horses?
Why cringing here? Gazing out on the passageways of battle!
That was never Tydeus’ way, shy behind the lines –
he’d grapple enemies, bolting ahead of comrades.
…Now there was a man, that Tydeus, that Aetolian.
But he bore a son who’s not the half of him in battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 430-434, 465-466. Agamemnon rebukes Diomedes for his timidity in the face of battle, when he finds him standing by in the combat car. In an effort to spur Diomedes on by appealing to his pride, Agamemnon mentions the heroic and glorious feats of Diomedes’s father Tydeus, adding that Diomedes is not half the man he was in battle.

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.

Now be men, my friends! Courage, come, take heart!
Dread what comrades say of you here in bloody combat!
When men dread that, more men come through alive –
when soldiers break and run, good-bye glory,
good-bye all defenses!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 610-614. Agamemnon shouts out commands to rally the Achaeans for war against the Trojans. He demands that they be courageous and reminds then that there is no glory for soldiers who break and run. Here he appeals to their pride in themselves as warriors in order to motivate them.
Hector tells Andromache he is no shrinking coward

All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman.
But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes
if I would shrink from battle now, a coward.
Nor does the spirit urge me on that way.
I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely,
always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers.
winning my father great glory, glory for myself.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 522-529. Hector’s reply to his wife Andromache when she begs him to remain home, be a husband to her, and not leave their child an orphan. Hector is touched by her plea, but won’t allow himself to be moved. What is more important to him, he makes clear to her, is winning great glory, not being a shrinking coward in battle and always to fight in the front ranks.

As a stallion full-fed at the manger, stalled too long,
breaking free of his tether gallops down the plain,
out for his favorite plunge in a river’s cool currents,
thundering in his pride – his head flung back, his mane
streaming over his shoulders, sure and sleek in his glory.
knees racing him on to the fields and stallion-haunts he loves –
so down from Pergamus heights came Paris, son of Priam,
glittering in his armor like the sun astride the skies,
exultant, laughing aloud, his fast feet sped him on.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 604-672. Paris, who has been scolded by his brother Hector for avoiding battle, now sets off for the battle lines. Here in this epic animal simile he is compared to a proud stallion, sure in his glory, breaking free of his tether and galloping on to the battlefield.

And someday one will say, one of the men to come
steering his oar-swept ship across the wine-dark sea
‘there’s the mound of a man who died in the old days,
one of the brave whom glorious Hector killed.’
So they will say, someday, and my fame will never die.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 101-105. Hector, who has challenged the best of the Achaeans to fight a duel with him, imagines one day a traveler arriving to the burial place of the Greek hero he will defeat. The defeated warrior’s bravery and his own fame and glory will be celebrated, says Hector.

Mother tells me,
the immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening feet,
that two fates bear me on to the day of death.
If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,
my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.
If I voyage back to the fatherland I love,
my pride, my glory dies…
true, but the life that’s left me will be long,
the stroke of death will not come on me quickly.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 497-505. Achilles has rejected the embassy of Achaean commanders come to persuade him back to the war effort, with promises of Agamemnon’s gifts and plunder. In this passage he talks about his fate. His mother and sea goddess Thetis has told him that if he returns home he will live a long life without glory or pride. If he joins in the siege of Troy he faces death but his glory never dies.

Ah my friend, if you and I could escape this fray
and live forever, never a trace of age, immortal,
I would never fight on the front lines again
or command you to the field where men win fame.
But now, as it is, the fates of death await us,
thousands poised to strike, and not a man alive
can flee them or escape – so in we go for attack!
Give our enemy glory or win it for ourselves!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 374-381. Sarpedon, an ally of the Trojans from Lycia, describes the heroic code to his comrade Glaucus. He speaks about how in battle leaders face death, but that is now glory is won – you give it to your enemy or win it for yourself.

They held tight as a working widow holds the scales,
painstakingly grips the beam and lifts the weight
and the wool together, balancing both sides even,
struggling to win a grim subsistence for her children.
So powerful armies drew their battle line dead even
till, at last, Zeus gave Hector the son of Priam
the greater glory – the first to storm the wall.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 502-508. As Lycians and Achaeans fight it out on the rampart, neither side of getting the better of the other, until Zeus decides to intervene to give Hector the greater glory – the first to storm the wall. The standoff between the forces is likened in an epic simile to a widow measuring out wool on a scales until the scales balance.

The rest of them fought on like a mass of whirling fire.
But Hector dear to Zeus had no idea, Hector
heard nothing of how his men, left of the ships,
were torn and mauled in the Argives’ rough response.
The glory might even have gone to them at any moment,
so intent was the god who grips and shakes the earth
as he surged his Argives on and the god surged too,
adding his own immortal force in their defense.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 13, lines 777-784. The support of the gods has suddenly flipped in favor of the Greeks. Hector is unaware of this and also the casualties that the Trojans troops are suffering elsewhere. Zeus had manipulated the battle to favor Hector and enable him to be the first Trojan to cross the Achaean fortifications. But Zeus has left the battlefield and Poseidon is urging on the Greeks, with glory almost within their reach. And poor Hector "dear to Zeus" hasn’t a clue. This is another case of dramatic irony that we find throughout The Iliad, showing that advantage in the Trojan war is a forever changing thing. It perpetually seesaws from one side to the other – often depending on the will and whim of the gods. Homer uses a simile to describe the Trojans still fighting on "like a mass of whirling fire" oblivious to the sudden shift in the battle.

You fill me with contempt –
what are you saying? With the forces poised to clash
you tell us to haul our oar-swept vessels out to sea?
Just so one more glory can crown these Trojans –
god help us, they have beaten us already –
and the scales of headlong death can drag us down.
Achaean troops will never hold the line, I tell you,
not while the long ships are being hauled to sea.
They’ll look left and right – where can they run? –
and fling their lust for battle to the winds. Then,
commander of armies, your plan will kill us all!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 14, lines 117-127. Odysseus attacks the weakness of Agamamnon’s leadership. He believes he is a terrible commander, because time and again he considers quitting the war. His troops will never hold the line while the ships are being hauled to sea and one more glory given to the Trojans, Odysseus warns. Odysseus expresses contempt for Agamemnon, whose plan he predicts will end up killing them all.

Even so, Patroclus, fight disaster off the ships,
fling yourself at the Trojans full force –
before they gut our hulls with leaping fire
and tear away the beloved day of our return.
But take this command to heart – obey it to the end.
So you can win great honor, great glory for me
in the eyes of all the Argive ranks, and they,
they’ll send her back, my lithe and lovely girl,
and top it off with troves of glittering gifts.
Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet
you must come back, Patroclus. Even if Zeus
the thundering lord of Hera lets you seize your glory,
you must not burn for war against these Trojans,
madmen lusting for battle – not without me –
you will only make my glory that much less.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 92-106. When Achilles lends his armor to Patroclus, he tells tells him that Patroclus can win great honor and glory for him and he will get back his "lithe and lovely girl" Briseis. But Achilles warns him that when he drives the Trojans away from the Greek ships, he must come back, even if Zeus allows him seize this glory. If Patroclus goes on to pursue battle against the Trojans without Achilles, that would make lessen Achilles’s glory, he tells Patrocles. The fact that Achilles is more interested in his own glory than his friend’s safety only serves to demonstrate Achilles’s major character flaw, excessive pride.

So you sprang at Cebriones, full fury, Patroclus,
as Hector sprang down from his chariot just across
and the two went tussling over the corpse as lions
up on the mountain ridges over a fresh-killed stag –
both ravenous, proud and savage – fight it out to the death.
So over the driver here and both claw-mad for battle,
Patroclus son of Menoetius, Hector ablaze for glory
strained to slash each other with ruthless bronze.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 878-885. Pride, honor and glory are at stake as Patroclus and Hector fight over the body of Hector’s charioteer Cebriones. They are compared to two lions fighting to the death over a freshly killed stag.

Hector! Now is your time to glory to the skies…
Now the victory is yours.
A gift of the Son of Cronus, Zeus – Apollo too –
they brought me down with all their deathless ease,
they are the ones who tore the armor off my back.
Even if twenty Hectors had charges against me
they’d all have died here, laid low by my spear.
No, deadly fate in league with Apollo killed me,
From the ranks of men, Euphorbus. You came third,
and all you could do was finish off my life.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 986-995. When Hector fatally stabs Patroclus with his spear, Patroclus calls into question the Trojan’s pride as a successful warrior in battle. He reminds Hector that he is only his third slayer, after being knocked down by Apollo and then wounded by Euphorbus. All Hector could do was finish off his life, he says. Hector’s victory and glory is a gift of Zeus and Apollo, he tells him.

Right through the front he plowed like a wild boar
ramping in power up on the high mountain ridges,
scattering dogs and reckless hunters at one charge
when he wheels at bay and drives them down the glades.
So now the son of noble Telamon, dauntless Ajax
scattered the massing Trojan packs at a charge,
all who bestrode Patroclus now, high with hopes
of dragging him back to Troy to win the glory.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 323-330. Here Great Ajax is likened to a wild board scattering dogs and hunters, in this epic simile. He is defending the corpse of Patroclus to prevent the Trojans winning the glory of dragging the body back to Troy.

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.

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.

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.

Thundering on,
on like oxen broad in the brow some field hand yokes
to crush white barley heaped on a well-laid threshing floor
and the grain is husked out fast by the bellowing oxen’s hoofs –
so as the great Achilles rampaged on, his sharp-hoofed stallions
trampled shields and corpses, axle under his chariot splashed
with blood, blood on the handrails sweeping round the car,
sprays of blood shooting up from the stallions’ hoofs
and churning, whirling rims – and the son of Peleus
charioteering on to seize his glory, bloody filty
splattering both strong arms, Achilles’ invincible arms.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 20, lines 559-569. Achilles is consumed with rage over the death of Patroclus and rejoins the fight and slaughters a huge number of Trojans. Amid the continuing bloodletting and mounting body count of Trojans, he is also driven by the desire to win glory for himself in battle.

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.

Ah for a young man
all looks fine and noble if he goes down in war,
hacked to pieces under a slashing bronze blade –
he lies there dead…but whatever death lays bare,
all wounds are marks of glory. When an old man’s killed
and the dogs go at the gray head and the gray beard
and mutilate the genitals – that is the cruelest sight
in all our wretched lives!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 83-90. King Priam talks about how noble it is for a young man to die in war and battle. While he lies there slashed to pieces, all his wounds are marks of glory. But the death of an old man is not an honorable thing, when he is killed and dogs mutilate his body, that is the cruelest sight of all. Priam is speaking to his son Hector, trying to dissuade him from fighting Achilles. He doesn’t want to lose Hector, but he also realizes that Hector’s willingness to die on the battlefield is his best chance for glory.

Friends – lords of the Argives. O my captains!
Now that the gods have let me kill this man
who caused us agonies, loss on crushing loss –
more than the rest of all their men combined –
…raise a song of triumph!
Down to the ships we march and bear this corpse on high –
we have won ourselves great glory. We have brought
magnificent Hector down, that man the Trojans
glorified in their city like a god!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 446-449, 461-465. Achilles says this of Hector after slaying him. He does acknowledge Hector as the strongest of the Trojan fighters who has killed many Achaeans. Achilles also gives the gods credit for helping him win the glory of killing magnificent Hector.
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