THE ILIAD - HOMER
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Narrative begins nine years after the start of the war, as the Achaeans sack a Trojan-allied town
and capture two maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Achaean army,
takes Chryseis as his prize. Achilles claims Briseis. Chryses who serves as a priest of the god Apollo, begs
Agamemnon to return his daughter and offers to pay an enormous ransom. When Agamemnon refuses,
Apollo sends a plague upon the Greek camp, causing the death of many soldiers. After ten days of
suffering, Calchas, a powerful seer, reveals the plague as a vengeful and strategic move by Chryses and
Apollo. Agamemnon flies into a rage and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles gives him
Briseis as compensation. Agamemnon’s demand humiliates the proud Achilles. The men argue, and
Achilles threatens to withdraw from battle and take his people, the Myrmidons, back home. Achilles stands
poised to draw his sword and kill the Achaean commander when the goddess Athena, sent by Hera, the
queen of the gods, appears to him and checks his anger. Ever since his quarrel with Agamemnon, Achilles
has refused to participate in battle.
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Zeus is reluctant to help the Trojans, for his wife, Hera, favors the Greeks, but he finally agrees.
Hera becomes livid when she discovers that Zeus is helping the Trojans but is convinced not to interfere
with battles amongst mortals.
To help the Trojans, Zeus sends a false dream to Agamemnon in which a figure in the form of Nestor
persuades Agamemnon that he can take Troy if he launches a full-scale assault on the city’s walls. The next
day, Agamemnon gathers his troops for attack, but, to test their courage, he lies and tells them that he has
decided to give up the war and return to Greece. To his dismay, they eagerly run to their ships. When Hera
sees the Achaeans fleeing, she alerts Athena, who inspires Odysseus, the most eloquent of the Achaeans, to
call the men back. He reminds them of the prophecy that the soothsayer Calchas gave - a water snake had
slithered to shore and devoured a nest of nine sparrows, and Calchas interpreted the sign to mean that nine
years would pass before the Achaeans would finally take Troy.
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The Trojans army marches from the gate to meet with the Achaeans. Alexander (Paris) came
forward as champion on the Trojan side. Menelaos, saw this as an opportunity to take revenge and came
forward. Seeing Menelaos, Alexander quailed and shrank in fear of his life. Hektor then scolded at Paris
severely as a coward. Paris then agreed to deal with Menelaos and asked Hektor to present the term to
Manelaos—let the one who is victorious and prove to be the better man takes the woman and all she has,
but let the rest swear to a solemn covenant of peace. Gladly, Hektor presented the term and Manelaos
agreed, with the condition that Priam himself came to swear the covenant. The Trojans and Achaeans,
wearied of war, were glad when they hear this, and immediately put down their arms.
Iris, disguised as Helen’s sister-in-law, went to Helen. Helen was embroidering on the purple linen
the struggles between Trojans and Achaeans that Ares had made them fight for her sake (note here
micronarrative in the embroidery—like Achilles’ shield). Iris urged Helen to go see the dual. Once
heard of this, Helen’s heart yearned after her former husband, her city and her parents. Helen then joined
Priam and the city’s elders. The elders spoke to each other that though she is so beautiful, they want to
Achaeans to take her and go. Priam asked Helen to sit in front of him, and told her that she was not to
blame but the gods. After Agamemnon made a sacrifice to Zeus but it was not accepted. Paris and
Menelaos put on their armor. The fought for a while and as Menelaos was about to murder him, Aphrodite
snatched him up in time, hid him in a cloud of darkness and took him to his bed. Then she went to Helen,
disguised as an old lady, and told Helen that Paris was waiting for her. Helen, mad, recognized that it was
the goddess so she confronted Aphrodite, telling her to be a wife of Paris herself. After Helen scolded at
Paris for his cowardice but Paris excused himself then made love to her. Meanwhile no one in the field
knew where Paris went
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Meanwhile, the gods engaged in their own duels. Zeus argued that Menelaus had won the duel and
that the war should end as the mortals had agreed. Athena convinced the archer Pandarus to take aim at
Menelaus. Foolishly hoping to win honor and gratitude from Trojans, Pandarus fired (pray to Apollo, the
famous archer), but Athena, who wanted merely to give the Achaeans a pretext for fighting, deflected the
arrow so that it only wounded Menelaus. Apollo told the Trojans that Achilles is not fighting, and
encouraged them to push on, while Athena went urging the Achaeans. The efforts toward a truce have
failed utterly.
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Diomedes, leading the Achaeans and helped by Athena and Hera, kills many famous Trojan
warriors. Ares, Apollo, and Aphrodite help Aeneas and Hektor, who lead the Trojans. The Greeks are
dominant in this scroll with Trojans trying to recover. Diomedes at first backs down from fighting Ares
although he wounds Aphrodite. However, with Athena’s encouragement, Diomedes attaches Ares. The
gods and goddesses themselves take sides. A main theme is the lineage connections that heroes have with
Zeus and the other gods and goddesses. Their fates are affected by which divine powers intervene on their
behalf. Yet their kleos is earned through their own choices to charge to the front in battle. In this sense,
death or being saved by divine intervention, either way kleos is achieved. Also note the theme of anger.
Diomedes is described like a lion – so fierce that even gods consider him a daimon. Also note the restraint
that even angry warriors have when it comes to confronting the gods. Diomedes, though angry, heeds
Athena’s instructions not to fight any other gods except to wound Aphrodite. This is seen in the Greeks’
retreating when Hektor charges toward them with Ares and Enyo by his side.
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Five major events happen in this scroll: (1) Menelaos is about to spare the life of Adrastos but is
rebuked by Agamemnon. They kill the captive, and this shows that heroes are capable of lacking any mercy
whatsoever. (2) Diomedes and Glaukos bond in friendship and exchange gifts even though they are on
opposing sides. This shows how lineage and friendships of ancestors carry into the warriors’ contemporary
relationships. Also touches upon gift exchange and its symbolism. (3) Hektor is advised by his brother
Helenus the augur to instruct his mother and Trojan matrons to go pray to Athena for her help in protecting
Troy. Athena does not answer their prayers. (4) Hektor visits his wife Andromache and his baby son for the
last time, and Andromache begs him to stay. He is grieved by her lamentation more than anything else
about the war. Hektor is all of mother, father, brother, and dear husband to Andromache. (5) Hektor urges
his reckless brother Alexander to fight his own battle, and expresses disappointment at Alexander’s lack of
judgment and sensibility. He has a brief conversation with Helen also. Helen talks about the theme song of
the Iliad. She references the macronarrative. Important to note is Hektor’s comment to Andromache that
a man’s fate is sealed from birth, and when time comes, whether he chooses to be hero or coward, he must
come to his end either way. This scroll is full of tension between peace (Diomedes and Glaukos) and war
(Trojans and Greeks), love (Hektor and Andromache) and rage (Diomedes against Trojans; Agamemnon
against all Trojans, even the unborn), nostos (returning home to wife and kids) and kleos (giving to
society’s need for heroes and defending one’s people).
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Zeus meets with Apollo and Athena. They agree that Hektor should challenge one of the Greeks
to a fight. Everyone is seated and Hektor asks for one person to fight him. No one rises up to the
challenge, and Hektor becomes mad. Menelaos was going to get up but King Agamemnon stopped him.
Nestor the orator then gets up and speaks of Greek heroes past and rebukes the Greeks for not standing up
to Hektor. Finally 9 people get up, and they cast lots. The lot fell on Ajax. Ajax arms himself and faces
Hektor. They throw their spears and then fell upon on another. They pierce each others’ shields and Hektor
suffers a neck wound, and as they continued to fight heralds from both sides came and told them to stop
fighting because night was falling. They parted while exchanging gifts. King Agamemnon sacrificed a bull
and they feasted. Nestor suggested that they cease fighting the next day and collect their dead and burn
them, and to construct a high wall as well as a deep trench in defense against the Trojans.
In Troy, people are in disagreement over whether they should give up Helen. Paris disagrees and said that
he would give up the wealth that came with her. King Priam decides that they should go down to the
Greeks and ask for a ceasefire in order to bury the dead. The next day Idaeus went to the Trojans to deliver
the terms: that they would return the treasure, but not Helen, and to ask for a ceasefire. The Trojans don’t
agree to the treasure, but do agree to the ceasefire. Everyone collected their dead, and the Greeks made a
pyre, then a common tomb, and a high wall. Poseidon was unhappy upon seeing this wall, because the
Greeks haven’t taken the gods into counsel and was afraid the wall itself would have greater kleos than he
would. Zeus reprimanded him saying that Poseidon can destroy the wall when the Greeks go home. The
Greeks again laid out a banquet, but Zeus showed his displeasure with some thunder and they made
offerings to him.
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Zeus calls a council of all the gods again, and warns them not to cross his will. The others agree,
but Athena once again pleads on behalf of the Greeks. Zeus then sat down on his throne at Ida. The Greeks
and Trojans meet in battle. At noon, Zeus took the balance of fates, and the Greek side fell. Nestor
horseman of Gerene was having trouble because one of his horses was struck. Diomedes was the only one
left to help him. They mounted Diomedes’ chariot. Diomedes struck Hektor’s attendant Eniopeus. Hektor
finds a new driver. Zeus flames a thunderbolt and it frightens Diomedes’ horses. Nestor advises Diomedes
to turn back his horses. While turning, Hektor mocks Diomedes.
While Hektor boasts upon realizing that Zeus was in the Trojans’ favor, Hera is angry and asks
Poseidon why he doesn’t do anything. Hera puts it in the mind of Agamemnon to encourage the Greeks so
that the ships would not be burned. Agamemnon shouts encouragement to the Greeks and prays to Zeus.
Zeus pities them and ruled that hey would not die, and sends an eagle with a young fawn in its talons. The
Greeks take this sign as positive and ride out again on the offensive and kill many people. Teucer the
archer especially had many hits. He keeps on aiming at Hektor but the gods save him. Hektor hurls a stone
at Teucer and hits him at the collar-bone. The Trojans again drive the Greeks to the trench. Athena is angry
that Zeus should favor Thetis. She and Hera were set to go out when Zeus sends Iris to stop them. She
warns the goddesses that Zeus would lame their horses. Zeus tells them that the tides will not turn until
Hektor forces Achilles to fight after the death of Patroklos. Night falls, and Hektor orders that watch fires
be built so that the Greeks don’t escape by sea. They made offerings, but the gods did not partake in them.
Iliad Scroll 9
Agamemnon, with tears, says that the war is lost and suggests sailing back (IX v.12~). Then
Diomedes says that he will fight until Troy falls (32~). Then Nestor suggest a feast for Agamemnons
councilors (65~), and during the feast, he says that Agamemnon should try to bring Achilles back to the
war (96~). Agamemnon says he will offer many gifts as well as Briseis (115~), and also offer his daughters
(135~). Nestor suggests him to send Phoenix, Ajax, Odysseus, Odios, and Eurybates to go to Achilles’ tent
(163~). Achilles, in his tent, is playing on a lyre next to Patroklos, and Odysseus and Ajax come in.
Achilles treats them well with foods and drinks. Odysseus then persuades Achilles to come back to the
battle, and he lists all the gifts that Agamemnon offers (225~306). Achilles tells him the wrongdoing of
Agamemnon and says he won’t be bribed by anything (307~409), then also says Thetis’ foretelling that he
will die if he choose to fight (410~). Pheonix then says to Achilles how and why he became a friend to
Achilles and how important Achilles is for him, and urges him to accept Agamemnon’s offer (430~526).
He then says a story (micronarrative) about the Curetes and Aetolians fighting each other for the head and
skin of a boar sent by Artemis, and ends the story by again urging Achilles to come back (I think you
should read this micronarrative)(527~605). Achilles answers no to him, and ask him not to serve
Agamemnon (606~619). Ajax blames Achilles in hostile manner (620~643), but Achilles still remains
adamant in his decision. The envoys, except Pheonix sleeping in Achilles’ tent, come back to
Agamemnon’s tent and Odysseus delivers Achilles’ rejection ( 669~691). Then Diomedes tells that they
should prepare to defend the ships in whatever possible ways without Ackilles, and other chieftains agree to
his suggestion (692~713).
Iliad Scroll 10
Agamemnon and Menelaos is unable to sleep cause they are concerned. Agamemnon talk to
Menelaos and order him to call Ajax and Idomeneus while he goes to wake up sleeping Nestor in his tent.
After Agamemnon shows his anxiety and expresses that he want to wake others up as well, Nestor wakes
up and go out to wake others up (87~). Nestor wakes up Diomedes and tell him to wake Ajax up. At the
council where chiefs of the Achaeans called to be, Nestor suggests to send a scout to the Trojan camp , and
Diomedes volunteers (203~226). Several others also volunteered and Agamemnon let Diomedes to choose
who to go with, and Diomedes pick Odysseus (227~253). They pray to Pallas Athena and set out
(254~295). In the Trojan camp, Hektor also seek for a scout, and Dolon, son of Eumedes, volunteers, but
asks Hektor to make an oath to give him a chariot and Achilles’ horse (299~331). But Diomedes catches
him alive by throwing a spear and purposely miss him thus Dolon will stop with fear (332~381). Dolon beg
for life and Odysseus promises his life and ask him some informations, and Dolon answers them all
(382~446). Then Diomedes kills him and Odysseus offer Dolon’s belongings to Athena (447~464). They
then go to camps of Thrace, which they know from Dolon, that they are unprotected, and Odysseus free the
horses and Diomedes slaughters many Thracians until Athena come to him and tell him to run away before
Apollo wake up other Trojans (465~514). Achaeans welcome two warriors and Nestor asks where the
horses from, and Odysseus tells him what happened (526~563). Then two warriors take a ritual bath
(564~579)
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The next morning, Zeus rains blood upon the Achaean lines, filling them with panic; they suffer a
massacre during the first part of the day. But, by afternoon, they have begun to make progress.
Agamemnon, splendidly armed, cuts down man after man and beats the Trojans back to the city’s gates.
Zeus sends Iris to tell Hector that he must wait until Agamemnon is wounded and then begin his attack.
Agamemnon soon receives his wound at the hands of Coon, Antenor’s son, just after killing Coon’s
brother. The injured Agamemnon continues fighting and kills Coon, but his pain eventually forces him
from the field.
Hector recognizes his cue and charges the Achaean line, driving it back. The Achaeans panic and stand
poised to retreat, but the words of Odysseus and Diomedes imbue them with fresh courage. Diomedes then
hurls a spear that hits Hector’s helmet. This brush with death stuns Hector and forces him to retreat. Paris
answers the Achaeans’ act by wounding Diomedes with an arrow, thus sidelining the great warrior for the
rest of the epic. Trojans now encircle Odysseus, left to fight alone. He beats them all off, but not before a
man named Socus gives him a wound through the ribs. Great Ajax carries Odysseus back to camp before
the Trojans can harm him further.
Hector resumes his assault on another part of the Achaean line. The Greeks initially hold him off, but they
panic when the healer Machaon receives wounds at Paris’s hands. Hector and his men force Ajax to retreat
as Nestor conveys Machaon back to his tent. Meanwhile, behind the lines, Achilles sees the injured
Machaon fly by in a chariot and sends his companion Patroclus to inquire into Machaon’s status. Nestor
tells Patroclus about all of the wounds that the Trojans have inflicted upon the Achaean commanders. He
begs Patroclus to persuade Achilles to rejoin the battle—or at least enter the battle himself disguised in
Achilles’ armor. This ruse would at least give the Achaeans the benefit of Achilles’ terrifying aura.
Patroclus agrees to appeal to Achilles and dresses the wound of a man named Eurypylus, who has been
injured fighting alongside Ajax.
Summary:
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We learn that the Achaean fortifications are doomed to be destroyed by the gods when Troy falls.
They continue to hold for now, however, and the trench dug in front of them blocks the Trojan chariots.
Undaunted, Hector, acting on the advice of the young commander Polydamas, orders his men to disembark
from their chariots and storm the ramparts. Just as the Trojans prepare to cross the trenches, an eagle flies
to the left-hand side of the Trojan line and drops a serpent in the soldiers’ midst. Polydamas interprets this
event as a sign that their charge will fail, but Hector refuses to retreat. The Trojans Glaucus and Sarpedon
now charge the ramparts, and Menestheus, aided by Great Ajax and Teucer, struggles to hold them back.
Sarpedon makes the first breach, and Hector follows by shattering one of the gates with a boulder. The
Trojans pour through the fortifications as the Achaeans, terrified, shrink back against the ships.
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Zeus, happy with the war’s progress, takes his leave of the battlefield. Poseidon, eager to help the
Achaeans and realizing that Zeus has gone, visits Little Ajax and Great Ajax in the form of Calchas and
gives them confidence to resist the Trojan assault. He also rouses the rest of the Achaeans, who have
withdrawn in tears to the sides of the ships. Their spirits restored, the Achaeans again stand up to the
Trojans, and the two Aeantes (the plural of Ajax) prove successful in driving Hector back. When Hector
throws his lance at Teucer, Teucer dodges out of the way, and the weapon pierces and kills Poseidon’s
grandson Amphimachus. As an act of vengeance, Poseidon imbues Idomeneus with a raging power.
Idomeneus then joins Meriones in leading a charge against the Trojans at the Achaeans’ left wing.
Idomeneus cuts down a number of Trojan soldiers but hopes most of all to kill the warrior Deiphobus.
Finding him on the battlefield, he taunts the Trojan, who summons Aeneas and other comrades to his
assistance. In the long skirmish that ensues, Deiphobus is wounded, and Menelaus cuts down several
Trojans.
Meanwhile, on the right, Hector continues his assault, but the Trojans who accompany him, having been
mercilessly battered by the two Aeantes, have lost their vigor. Some have returned to the Trojan side of the
fortifications, while those who remain fight from scattered positions. Polydamas persuades Hector to
regroup his forces. Hector fetches Paris and tries to gather his comrades from the left end of the line—only
to find them all wounded or dead. Great Ajax insults Hector, and an eagle appears on Ajax’s right, a
favorable omen for the Achaeans.
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Nestor leaves the wounded Machaon in his tent and goes to meet the other wounded Achaean
commanders out by the ships. The men scan the battlefield and realize the terrible extent of their losses.
Agamemnon proposes giving up and setting sail for home. Odysseus wheels on him and declares this
notion cowardly and disgraceful. Diomedes urges them all to the line to rally their troops. As they set out,
Poseidon encourages Agamemnon and gives added strength to the Achaean army.
Hera spots Zeus on Mount Ida, overlooking Troy, and devises a plan to distract him so that she may help
the Achaeans behind his back. She visits Aphrodite and tricks her into giving her an enchanted breastband
into which the powers of Love and Longing are woven, forceful enough to make the sanest man go mad.
She then visits the embodiment of Sleep, and by promising him one of her daughters in marriage, persuades
him to lull Zeus to sleep. Sleep follows her to the peak of Mount Ida; disguised as a bird, he hides in a tree.
Zeus sees Hera, and the enchanted band seizes him with passion. He makes love to Hera and, as planned,
soon falls asleep. Hera then calls to Poseidon, telling him that he now has free reign to steer the Achaeans
to victory. Poseidon regroups them, and they charge the Trojans. In the ensuing scuffle, Great Ajax knocks
Hector to the ground with a boulder, and the Trojans must carry the hero back to Troy. With Hector gone,
the Achaeans soon trounce their enemies, and Trojans die in great numbers as the army flees back to the
city.
Summary:
Scroll 15
Zeus wakes and sees the havoc that Hera and Poseidon have wreaked while he dozed in his
enchanted sleep. Hera tries to blame Poseidon, but Zeus comforts her by making clear that he has no
personal interest in a Trojan victory over the Achaeans. He tells her that he will again come to their aid, but
that Troy is still fated to fall and that Hector will die after he kills Patroclus. He then asks Hera to summon
Iris and Apollo. Iris goes to order Poseidon to leave the battlefield, which Poseidon reluctantly agrees to do,
while Apollo seeks out Hector and fills him and his comrades with fresh strength. Hector leads a charge
against the Achaeans, and while their leaders initially hold their ground, they retreat in terror when Apollo
himself enters the battle. Apollo covers over the trench in front of the Greek fortifications, allowing the
Trojans to beat down the ramparts once again.
The armies fight all the way to the ships and very nearly into the Greek camp. At the base of the ships,
furious hand-to-hand fighting breaks out. Great Ajax and Hector again tangle. The archer Teucer fells
several Trojans, but Zeus snaps his bowstring when he takes aim at Hector. Ajax encourages his troops
from the decks of the ships, but Hector rallies the Trojans, and inch by inch the Trojans advance until
Hector is close enough to touch a ship.
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Meanwhile, Patroclus goes to Achilles’ tent and begs to be allowed to wear Achilles’ armor if
Achilles still refuses to rejoin the battle himself. Achilles declines to fight but agrees to the exchange of
armor, with the understanding that Patroclus will fight only long enough to save the ships. As Patroclus
arms himself, the first ship goes up in flames. Achilles sends his Myrmidon soldiers, who have not been
fighting during their commander’s absence, out to accompany Patroclus. He then prays to Zeus that
Patroclus may return with both himself and the ships unharmed. The poet reveals, however, that Zeus will
grant only one of these prayers.
With the appearance of Patroclus in Achilles’ armor the battle quickly turns, and the Trojans retreat from
the Achaean ships. At first, the line holds together, but when Hector retreats, the rest of the Trojans become
trapped in the trenches. Patroclus now slaughters every Trojan he encounters. Zeus considers saving his son
Sarpedon, but Hera persuades him that the other gods would either look down upon him for it or try to save
their own mortal offspring in turn. Zeus resigns himself to Sarpedon’s mortality. Patroclus soon spears
Sarpedon, and both sides fight over his armor. Hector returns briefly to the front in an attempt to retrieve
the armor.
Zeus decides to kill Patroclus for slaying Sarpedon, but first he lets him rout the Trojans. Zeus then imbues
Hector with a temporary cowardice, and Hector leads the retreat. Patroclus, disobeying Achilles, pursues
the Trojans all the way to the gates of Troy. Homer explains that the city might have fallen at this moment
had Apollo not intervened and driven Patroclus back from the gates. Apollo persuades Hector to charge
Patroclus, but Patroclus kills Cebriones, the driver of Hector’s chariot. Trojans and Achaeans fight for
Cebriones’ armor. Amid the chaos, Apollo sneaks up behind Patroclus and wounds him, and Hector easily
finishes him off. Hector taunts the fallen man, but with his dying words Patroclus foretells Hector’s own
death.
Scroll 17
There is nothing alive more agonized than man of all that breathe and crawl across the earth. (See
Important Quotations Explained) A fight breaks out over Patroclus’s body. Euphorbus, the Trojan who first
speared him, tries to strip him of Achilles’ armor but is killed by Menelaus. Hector, spurred on by Apollo,
sees Euphorbus’s fall and comes to help. Menelaus enlists the help of Great Ajax, who forces Hector to
back down and prevents the body from being removed or desecrated. He arrives too late to save the armor,
however, which Hector dons himself. Glaucus rebukes Hector for leaving Patroclus’s body behind and
suggests that they might have traded it for Sarpedon’s. Hector reenters the fray, promising to give half of
the war’s spoils to any Trojan who drags Patroclus’s corpse away. Aware of Hector’s impending doom and
perhaps pitying it, Zeus temporarily gives Hector great power. Ajax and Menelaus summon more Achaeans
to help them, and they soon force the Trojans, including mighty Hector, to run for the city’s walls. Aeneas,
invigorated by Apollo, rallies the fleeing men to return to the fight, but after much effort they remain
unable to take the corpse. Achilles’ charioteer, Automedon, becomes involved in the fighting as Zeus
imbues his team with fresh strength. Hector tries to kill Automedon so that he can steal the chariot, but
Automedon dodges Hector’s spear and brings a Trojan down in the process. He strips the Trojan of his
armor, claiming that in doing so he eases the grief of Patroclus’s spirit, though this present victim could
hardly compare to the great Patroclus. Athena, disguised as Phoenix, gives fresh strength to Menelaus,
while Apollo, himself disguised as a Trojan, lends encouragement to Hector. Menelaus sends Antilochus
for help from Achilles, who still doesn’t know of Patroclus’s death. Zeus begins moving the battle in the
Trojans’ favor but relents long enough for Menelaus and Meriones to carry away Patroclus’s body.
Scroll 18
When Antilochus brings word to Achilles of Patroclus’s death, Achilles loses control of himself.
He weeps and beats the ground with his fists and covers his face with dirt. He utters a “terrible, wrenching
cry” so profound that Thetis hears him and comes with her water-nymph sisters from the ocean to learn
what troubles her son (18.39). Achilles tells her of the tragedy and insists that he shall avenge himself on
Hector, despite his knowledge that, should he choose to live the life of a warrior, he is fated to die young.
Thetis responds that since Hector now wears Achilles’ armor, she will have the divine metalsmith
Hephaestus make him a new set, if Achilles will delay exacting his revenge for one day.
Thetis departs, and Iris, sent by Hera, comes to tell Achilles that he must go outside and make an
appearance on the battlefield. This appearance alone will scare the Trojans into abandoning the fight for
Patroclus’s body. Achilles leaves his tent, accompanied by Athena, and lets loose an enormous cry that
does indeed send the Trojans fleeing. That night, each army holds an assembly to plan its next move. In the
Trojan camp, Polydamas urges his comrades to retreat to the city now that Achilles has decided to return to
battle. Hector dismisses the idea as cowardly and insists on repeating the previous day’s assault. His
foolhardy plan wins the support of the Trojans, for Athena has robbed them of their wits. Meanwhile, in the
Achaean camp, the men begin their mourning for Patroclus. Achilles has men clean Patroclus’s wounds to
prepare him for burial, though he vows not to bury him until he has slain Hector. Thetis goes to
Hephaestus’s mansion and begs him to make Achilles a new set of armor. Hephaestus forges a breastplate,
a helmet, and an extraordinary shield embossed with the images of constellations, pastures, dancing
children, and cities of men.
Iliad Scroll 19
In this scroll, Thetis has just brought Achilles the newly-made armor from Hephaistos, and he is
still weeping by the body of Patroklôs. She encourages him to make amends with Agamemnon and prepare
to fight. Agamemnon accepts Achilles’ apology and tells a micronarrative of how the goddess Atê
[meaning derangement] can cause men to lose reason, much as Agamemnon himself was in taking away
Achilles’ prize. Atê played a part in Hera’s trick of causing Heraklês to lose the throne to his cousin
Eurystheus by having Zeus swear to crown the boy who was born on a certain day. Agamemnon blames
his actions on that temporary loss of reason and offers the presents he had promised Achilles previously.
Achilles is impatient and wants to begin fighting the Trojans immediately, but Odysseus is able to convince
him to allow the Achaeans to eat and also helps to mediate a peaceful settlement between Agamemnon and
Achilles.
Briseis laments over the body of Patroklôs, while Achilles fasts in sorrow, but Zeus has Athena fill
his body with nectar and ambrosia so that he does not go hungry nor lose strength. Achilles then dons his
armor and scolds his horses for not bringing Patroklôs’ body back, but one of the horses answers (Hera
gave it the gift of speech) with a foretelling of Achilles’ death, that he will fall to a man and a god.
Achilles knows this already, and heads off for the front.
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The narrator addresses Achilles as he enters the battle “Thus, then, did the Achaeans arm by their
ships round you, O son of Peleus”. Zeus calls a counsel of the gods and declares that he will now sit out of
the battle, but the others gods may join in as they wish, so the break-up is as follows: Achaeans – Hera,
Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Hephaistos; Trojans – Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Xanthos, Aphrodite.
While the gods matched themselves up with each other, Achilles focused on tracking down Hektor, which
Apollo tried to thwart by setting Aeneas against Achilles. Aeneas is reluctant to fight Achilles, but Apollo
uses Aeneas’ lineage as a son of an Olympian goddess (Aphrodite) as opposed to Achilles’ lineage of a
“goddess of inferior rank” (Thetis). Hera wants the gods to rally to Achilles, but Poseidon calms her by
telling her to wait until Apollo directly fights against Achilles, at which point the gods will come to
Achilles’ aid.
Achilles meets Aeneas at the forefront of the battle and taunts him, reminding him of how he beat
him before. Aeneas retorts with a jibe about his better lineage and tells a whole micronarrative about his
forefathers. Aeneas throws his spear which pierces through 2 of the 7 layers of Achilles’ shield, and then
Achilles throws his spear, but Aeneas ducks. Meanwhile, Achilles’ hefts a large rock and is about to kill
Aeneas, but Poseidon feels sorry for Aeneas and whisks him away. Hektor then rallies the troops and
declares that he will fight Achilles, but Apollo tries to dissuade him from doing so, telling him to hide
between the crowds for protection. Achilles then begins a killing spree to take out anyone who is in the
way between him and Hektor.
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After having killed a bunch of Trojans randomly, Achilles comes upon the river Xanthos
(Skramandros – mortal name for the river) which the Trojans are trying to ford in order to escape. Achilles
jumps in and kills many men with his sword and then takes twelve youths captive for sacrifice to Patroklus
later. The river gets mad with Achilles, because he is polluting it with blood and guts and corpses. The river
then has his grandson (yes, the river had a son with a woman), Asteropaeus, try to fight Achilles. Achilles
kills him and then insults his lineage, saying something to the effect that his immortal parents >
Asteropaeus’ parents, thus Achilles > Asteropaeus. Xanthos then asks Achilles to stop killing people in its
water, Achilles agrees but says he will still kill the Trojans elsewhere. The river takes pity on the Trojans
and tries to attack Achilles (like LOTR style with the wraiths). Achilles tries to outrun the river but the
river comes pretty close to overcoming Achilles with floodwaters. Achilles cries out to Zeus for help.
Athena and Poseidon reassure him that the river won’t get him. Hera sends Hephaestus to go
and boil and burn the river with his fire (coming from a bellow). So Hephaestus boils the river into
submission and the river promises to stop interfering and trying to save the Trojans. Then the rest of the
gods fight. Ares attacks Athena, but she knocks him with a big rock and he falls and gets all messed up.
Aphrodite tries to help Ares up, and Athena shoves Aphrodite and she falls down too. Poseidon goads
Apollo to fight but Apollo pretty much says it’s not worth fighting over mortals. Artemis and Hera go at it,
and Hera beats the crap out of Artemis, who runs off crying to her daddy Zeus. And then all the Gods go to
Olympus, either happy for kicking butt or sad.Meanwhile the Trojans retreat behind the walls as Achilles
and the Achaeans chase after them. Apollo saves them by telling the guardsmen to open the gates and by
disguising himself as a hero to distract Achilles’ attention from the people rushing to the gate.
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Achilles then realizes he’s been tricked and runs back across the plain to the city. Priam sees
him first and notes that he looks like “Orion’s Hound,” a star that shines most brightly at harvest time.
Then Priam sees that Hektor is still outside the gates, pondering whether to fight Achille’s or not. Priam
goes into a long lament telling Hektor to go inside and hide and protect the Trojan people some more.
Without Hektor they have no one. Priam says that if Hektor dies they will destroy all of Illion and Priam
will suffer a most horrible death (an aged man being torn apart by his own hounds.).
Hektor’s mother also implores him to come in. She appeals with all these memories of maternal
love. However Hektor says that he must face Achilles because he cannot bear to come into the city and face
his comrades. He was too proud and did listen to Polydamas to retreat when Achilles first showed up at the
trenches the night before. Now that Achilles has kicked everyone’ butt, Hektor can’t handle the shame of
having cost his people so many deaths because of his blind bloodlust and pride.
While he still perplexed so, Achilles comes running up and starts chasing Hektor. They run
around the city three times and are described as resembling a chariot race. However, they are racing for
Hektor’s life. They run around the city three times and are in a stalemate but Athena disguises herself as
Hektor’s brother and persuades him to go fight Achilles with her. However, when they begin to fight
Athena disappears. Achilles and Hektor exchange spear tosses but both miss. Athena returns Achille’s
spear to him, but Hektor must resort to pouncing on Achilles with his sword. Achilles easily stabs Hektor in
the throat. Hektor lies dying and begs to have his body returned to his parents after it has been despoiled of
armor. Here comes the famous part: Achilles, who shows the great extent of his rage says that he will feed
Hektor to the dogs near the ship, but that he would rather cut Hektor into pieces and eat his flesh raw. The
Achaeans then surround Hektor’s body as Achilles is stripping it and they begin to stab him and mutilate
his body. Achilles pokes holes in Hektor’s heels (ironically right at the ACHILLES TENDONS) and then
strings these holes with ropes which he attaches to his chariot. He starts to drag Hektor.
Story shifts to the people at the walls and Priam and his wife Hecuba. They lament and cry and
tear at themselves. Its really tragic and you all should read it for yourselves. Summary doesn’t begin to
describe the emotion in this scroll. Andromache is at her loom and doesn’t know anything but she hears the
wailing of Hecuba. She rushes out to find out what happens and once she does goes into a long lament. She
curses herself and Hektor and their sad fate as a couple. She worries for their son Astyanax, who is now
fatherless and stripped of his place in society. She describes Hektor as the only defense of the Trojans. And
she laments and laments. Exactly what Professor Nagy describes in one of the earlier lectures about the
lament.
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At the Achaean camp, Achilles and the Myrmidons continue their mourning for Patroclus.
Achilles finally begins to accept food, but he still refuses to wash until he has buried Patroclus. That night,
his dead companion appears to him in a dream, begging Achilles to hold his funeral soon so that his soul
can enter the land of the dead. The next day, after an elaborate ceremony in which he sacrifices the
Achaeans’ twelve Trojan captives, Achilles prays for assistance from the winds and lights Patroclus’s
funeral pyre.
The day after, following the burial of Patroclus’s bones, Achilles holds a series of competitions in
Patroclus’s honor. Marvelous prizes are offered, and both the commanders and the soldiers compete. The
events include boxing, wrestling, archery, and a chariot race, which Diomedes wins with some help from
Athena. Afterward, Achilles considers stripping the prize from the second-place finisher, Antilochus, to
give as consolation to the last-place finisher, whom Athena has robbed of victory so that Diomedes would
win. But Antilochus becomes furious at the idea of having his prize taken from him. Menelaus then adds to
the argument, declaring that Antilochus committed a foul during the race. After some heated words, the
men reconcile with one another.
Summary:
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Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles— as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly
old age! (See Important Quotations Explained) Achilles continues mourning Patroclus and abusing
Hector’s body, dragging it around his dead companion’s tomb. Apollo, meanwhile, protects Hector’s
corpse from damage and rot and staves off dogs and scavengers. Finally, on the twelfth day after Hector’s
death, Apollo persuades Zeus that Achilles must let Hector’s body be ransomed. Zeus sends Thetis to bring
the news to Achilles, while Iris goes to Priam to instruct him to initiate the ransom. Hecuba fears that
Achilles will kill her husband, but Zeus reassures her by sending an eagle as a good omen. Priam sets out
with his driver, Idaeus, and a chariot full of treasure. Zeus sends Hermes, disguised as a benevolent
Myrmidon soldier, to guide Priam through the Achaean camp. When the chariot arrives at Achilles’ tent,
Hermes reveals himself and then leaves Priam alone with Achilles. Priam tearfully supplicates Achilles,
begging for Hector’s body. He asks Achilles to think of his own father, Peleus, and the love between them.
Achilles weeps for his father and for Patroclus. He accepts the ransom and agrees to give the corpse back.
That night, Priam sleeps in Achilles’ tent, but Hermes comes to him in the middle of the night and rouses
him, warning him that he must not sleep among the enemy. Priam and Idaeus wake, place Hector in their
chariot, and slip out of the camp unnoticed. All of the women in Troy, from Andromache to Helen, cry out
in grief when they first see Hector’s body. For nine days the Trojans prepare Hector’s funeral pyre—
Achilles has given them a reprieve from battle. The Trojans light Hector’s pyre on the tenth day.
THE ODYSSEY
Scroll 1
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had
plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.
The narrator of the Odyssey invokes the Muse, asking for inspiration as he prepares to tell the
story of Odysseus. The story begins ten years after the end of the Trojan War, the subject of the Iliad. All of
the Greek heroes except Odysseus have returned home. Odysseus languishes on the remote island Ogygia
with the goddess Calypso, who has fallen in love with him and refuses to let him leave. Meanwhile, a mob
of suitors is devouring his estate in Ithaca and courting his wife, Penelope, in hopes of taking over his
kingdom. His son, Telemachus, an infant when Odysseus left but now a young man, is helpless to stop
them. He has resigned himself to the likelihood that his father is dead.
With the consent of Zeus, Athena travels to Ithaca to speak with Telemachus. Assuming the form
of Odysseus’s old friend Mentor, Athena predicts that Odysseus is still alive and that he will soon return to
Ithaca. She advises Telemachus to call together the suitors and announce their banishment from his father’s
estate. She then tells him that he must make a journey to Pylos and Sparta to ask for any news of his father.
After this conversation, Telemachus encounters Penelope in the suitors’ quarters, upset over a song that the
court bard is singing. Like Homer with the Iliad, the bard sings of the sufferings experienced by the Greeks
on their return from Troy, and his song makes the bereaved Penelope more miserable than she already is.
To Penelope’s surprise, Telemachus rebukes her. He reminds her that Odysseus isn’t the only Greek to not
return from Troy and that, if she doesn’t like the music in the men’s quarters, she should retire to her own
chamber and let him look after her interests among the suitors. He then gives the suitors notice that he will
hold an assembly the next day at which they will be ordered to leave his father’s estate. Antinous and
Eurymachus, two particularly defiant suitors, rebuke Telemachus and ask the identity of the visitor with
whom he has just been speaking. Although Telemachus suspects that his visitor was a goddess in disguise,
he tells them only that the man was a friend of his father.
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When the assembly meets the next day, Aegyptius, a wise Ithacan elder, speaks first. He praises
Telemachus for stepping into his father’s shoes, noting that this occasion marks the first time that the
assembly has been called since Odysseus left. Telemachus then gives an impassioned speech in which he
laments the loss of both his father and his father’s home—his mother’s suitors, the sons of Ithaca’s elders,
have taken it over. He rebukes them for consuming his father’s oxen and sheep as they pursue their
courtship day in and day out when any decent man would simply go to Penelope’s father, Icarius, and ask
him for her hand in marriage.
Antinous blames the impasse on Penelope, who, he says, seduces every suitor but will commit to
none of them. He reminds the suitors of a ruse that she concocted to put off remarrying: Penelope
maintained that she would choose a husband as soon as she finished weaving a burial shroud for her elderly
father-in-law, Laertes. But each night, she carefully undid the knitting that she had completed during the
day, so that the shroud would never be finished. If Penelope can make no decision, Antinous declares, then
she should be sent back to Icarius so that he can choose a new husband for her. The dutiful Telemachus
refuses to throw his mother out and calls upon the gods to punish the suitors. At that moment, a pair of
eagles, locked in combat, appears overhead. The soothsayer Halitherses interprets their struggle as a portent
of Odysseus’s imminent return and warns the suitors that they will face a massacre if they don’t leave. The
suitors balk at such foolishness, and the meeting ends in deadlock.
As Telemachus is preparing for his trip to Pylos and Sparta, Athena visits him again, this time
disguised as Mentor, another old friend of Odysseus. She encourages him and predicts that his journey will
be fruitful. She then sets out to town and, assuming the disguise of Telemachus himself, collects a loyal
crew to man his ship. Telemachus himself tells none of the household servants of his trip for fear that his
departure will upset his mother. He tells only Eurycleia, his wise and aged nurse. She pleads with him not
to take to the open sea as his father did, but he puts her fears to rest by saying that he knows that a god is at
his side.
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At Pylos, Telemachus and Mentor (Athena in disguise) witness an impressive religious ceremony
in which dozens of bulls are sacrificed to Poseidon, the god of the sea. Although Telemachus has little
experience with public speaking, Mentor gives him the encouragement that he needs to approach Nestor,
the city’s king, and ask him about Odysseus. Nestor, however, has no information about the Greek hero. He
recounts that after the fall of Troy a falling-out occurred between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two
Greek brothers who had led the expedition. Menelaus set sail for Greece immediately, while Agamemnon
decided to wait a day and continue sacrificing on the shores of Troy. Nestor went with Menelaus, while
Odysseus stayed with Agamemnon, and he has heard no news of Odysseus. He says that he can only pray
that Athena will show Telemachus the kindness that she showed Odysseus. He adds that he has heard that
suitors have taken over the prince’s house in Ithaca and that he hopes that Telemachus will achieve the
renown in defense of his father that Orestes, son of Agamemnon, won in defense of his father.
Telemachus then asks Nestor about Agamemnon’s fate. Nestor explains that Agamemnon returned from
Troy to find that Aegisthus, a base coward who remained behind while the Greeks fought in Troy, had
seduced and married his wife, Clytemnestra. With her approval, Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon. He
would have then taken over Agamemnon’s kingdom had not Orestes, who was in exile in Athens, returned
and killed Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Nestor holds the courage of Orestes up as an example for
Telemachus. He sends his own son Pisistratus along to accompany Telemachus to Sparta, and the two set
out by land the next day. Athena, who reveals her divinity by shedding the form of Mentor and changing
into an eagle before the entire court of Pylos, stays behind to protect Telemachus’s ship and its crew.
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In Sparta, the king and queen, Menelaus and Helen, are celebrating the separate marriages of their
son and daughter. They happily greet Pisistratus and Telemachus, the latter of whom they soon recognize
as the son of Odysseus because of the clear family resemblance. As they all feast, the king and queen
recount with melancholy the many examples of Odysseus’s cunning at Troy. Helen recalls how Odysseus
dressed as a beggar to infiltrate the city’s walls. Menelaus tells the famous story of the Trojan horse,
Odysseus’s masterful gambit that allowed the Greeks to sneak into Troy and slaughter the Trojans. The
following day, Menelaus recounts his own return from Troy. He says that, stranded in Egypt, he was forced
to capture Proteus, the divine Old Man of the Sea. Proteus told him the way back to Sparta and then
informed him of the fates of Agamemnon and Ajax, another Greek hero, who survived Troy only to perish
back in Greece. Proteus also told him news of Odysseus—that he was still alive but was imprisoned by
Calypso on her island. Buoyed by this report, Telemachus and Pisistratus return to Pylos to set sail for
Ithaca.
Meanwhile, the suitors at Odysseus’s house learn of Telemachus’s voyage and prepare to ambush
him upon his return. The herald Medon overhears their plans and reports them to Penelope. She becomes
distraught when she reflects that she may soon lose her son in addition to her husband, but Athena sends a
phantom in the form of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, to reassure her. Iphthime tells her not to worry, for the
goddess will protect Telemachus.
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All the gods except Poseidon gather again on Mount Olympus to discuss Odysseus’s fate.
Athena’s speech in support of the hero prevails on Zeus to intervene. Hermes, messenger of the gods, is
sent to Calypso’s island to tell her that Odysseus must at last be allowed to leave so he can return home. In
reply, Calypso delivers an impassioned indictment of the male gods and their double standards. She
complains that they are allowed to take mortal lovers while the affairs of the female gods must always be
frustrated. In the end, she submits to the supreme will of Zeus. By now, Odysseus alone remains of the
contingent that he led at Troy; his crew and the other boats in his force were all destroyed during his
journeys. Calypso helps him build a new boat and stocks it with provisions from her island. With sadness,
she watches as the object of her love sails away.
After eighteen days at sea, Odysseus spots Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, his next
destination appointed by the gods. Just then, Poseidon, returning from a trip to the land of the Ethiopians,
spots him and realizes what the other gods have done in his absence. Poseidon stirs up a storm, which
nearly drags Odysseus under the sea, but the goddess Ino comes to his rescue. She gives him a veil that
keeps him safe after his ship is wrecked. Athena too comes to his rescue as he is tossed back and forth, now
out to the deep sea, now against the jagged rocks of the coast. Finally, a river up the coast of the island
answers Odysseus’s prayers and allows him to swim into its waters. He throws his protective veil back into
the water as Ino had commanded him to do and walks inland to rest in the safe cover of a forest.
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That night, Athena appears in a dream to the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, disguised as her friend.
She encourages the young princess to go to the river the next day to wash her clothes so that she will appear
more fetching to the many men courting her. The next morning, Nausicaa goes to the river, and while she
and her handmaidens are naked, playing ball as their clothes dry on the ground, Odysseus wakes in the
forest and encounters them. Naked himself, he humbly yet winningly pleads for their assistance, never
revealing his identity. Nausicaa leaves him alone to wash the dirt and brine from his body, and Athena
makes him look especially handsome, so that when Nausicaa sees him again she begins to fall in love with
him. Afraid of causing a scene if she walks into the city with a strange man at her side, Nausicaa gives
Odysseus directions to the palace and advice on how to approach Arete, queen of the Phaeacians, when he
meets her. With a prayer to Athena for hospitality from the Phaeacians, Odysseus sets out for the palace.
Scroll 7
On his way to the palace of Alcinous, the king of the Phaeacians, Odysseus is stopped by a young
girl who is Athena in disguise. She offers to guide him to the king’s house and shrouds him in a protective
mist that keeps the Phaeacians, a kind but somewhat xenophobic people, from harassing him. She also
advises him to direct his plea for help to Arete, the wise and strong queen who will know how to get him
home. Once Athena has delivered Odysseus to the palace, she departs from Scheria to her beloved city of
Athens.
Odysseus finds the palace residents holding a festival in honor of Poseidon. He is struck by the
splendor of the palace and the king’s opulence. As soon as he sees the queen, he throws himself at her feet,
and the mist about him dissipates. At first, the king wonders if this wayward traveler might be a god, but
without revealing his identity, Odysseus puts the king’s suspicions to rest by declaring that he is indeed a
mortal. He then explains his predicament, and the king and queen gladly promise to see him off the next
day in a Phaeacian ship.
Later that evening, when the king and queen are alone with Odysseus, the wise Arete recognizes
the clothes that he is wearing as ones that she herself had made for her daughter Nausicaa. Suspicious, she
interrogates Odysseus further. While still withholding his name, Odysseus responds by recounting the story
of his journey from Calypso’s island and his encounter with Nausicaa that morning, which involved her
giving him a set of clothes to wear. To absolve the princess for not accompanying him to the palace,
Odysseus claims that it was his idea to come alone. Alcinous is so impressed with his visitor that he offers
Odysseus his daughter’s hand in marriage.
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The next day, Alcinous calls an assembly of his Phaeacian counselors. Athena, back from Athens,
ensures attendance by spreading word that the topic of discussion will be the godlike visitor who recently
appeared on the island. At the assembly, Alcinous proposes providing a ship for his visitor so that the man
can return to his homeland. The measure is approved, and Alcinous invites the counselors to his palace for
a feast and celebration of games in honor of his guest. There, a blind bard named Demodocus sings of the
quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at Troy. Everyone listens with pleasure except Odysseus, who
weeps at the painful memories that the story recalls. The king notices Odysseus’s grief and ends the feast so
that the games can begin.
The games include the standard lineup of boxing, wrestling, racing, and throwing of the discus. At
one point, Odysseus is asked to participate. Still overcome by his many hardships, he declines. One of the
young athletes, Broadsea, then insults him, which goads his pride to action. Odysseus easily wins the discus
toss and then challenges the Phaeacian athletes to any other form of competition they choose. The
discussion becomes heated, but Alcinous diffuses the situation by insisting that Odysseus join them in
another feast, at which the Phaeacian youth entertain him and prove their preeminence in song and dance.
Demodocus performs again, this time a light song about a tryst between Ares and Aphrodite. Afterward,
Alcinous and each of the young Phaeacian men, including Broadsea, give Odysseus gifts to take with him
on his journey home. At dinner that night, Odysseus asks Demodocus to sing of the Trojan horse and the
sack of Troy, but as he listens to the accomplished minstrel he again breaks down. King Alcinous again
notices and stops the music. He asks Odysseus at last to tell him who he is, where he is from, and where he
is going.
Book 9
Reluctantly, Odysseus tells the Phaeacians the sorry tale of his wanderings. From Troy, the winds
sweep him and his men to Ismarus, city of the Cicones. The men plunder the land and, carried away by
greed, stay until the reinforced ranks of the Cicones turn on them and attack. Odysseus and his crew finally
escape, having lost six men per ship. A storm sent by Zeus sweeps them along for nine days before
bringing them to the land of the Lotus-eaters, where the natives give some of Odysseus’s men the
intoxicating fruit of the lotus. As soon as they eat this fruit, they lose all thoughts of home and long for
nothing more than to stay there eating more fruit. Only by dragging his men back to the ship and locking
them up can Odysseus get them off the island.
Odysseus and his men then sail through the murky night to the land of the Cyclopes, a rough and
uncivilized race of one-eyed giants. After making a meal of wild goats captured on an island offshore, they
cross to the mainland. There they immediately come upon a cave full of sheep and crates of milk and
cheese. The men advise Odysseus to snatch some of the food and hurry off, but, to his and his crew’s
detriment, he decides to linger. The cave’s inhabitant soon returns—it is the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son
of Poseidon. Polyphemus makes a show of hospitality at first, but he soon turns hostile. He devours two of
Odysseus’s men on the spot and imprisons Odysseus and the rest in his cave for future meals.
Odysseus wants to take his sword to Polyphemus right then, but he knows that only Polyphemus is
strong enough to move the rock that he has placed across the door of his cave. Odysseus thus devises and
executes a plan. The next day, while Polyphemus is outside pasturing his sheep, Odysseus finds a wooden
staff in the cave and hardens it in the fire. When Polyphemus returns, Odysseus gets him drunk on wine
that he brought along from the ship. Feeling jovial, Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name. Odysseus replies
that his name is “Nobody” (9.410). As soon as Polyphemus collapses with intoxication, Odysseus and a
select group of his men drive the red-hot staff into his eye. Polyphemus wakes with a shriek, and his
neighbors come to see what is wrong, but they leave as soon as he calls out, “Nobody’s killing me” (9.455).
When morning comes, Odysseus and his men escape from the cave, unseen by the blind Polyphemus, by
clinging to the bellies of the monster’s sheep as they go out to graze. Safe on board their ships and with
Polyphemus’s flock on board as well, Odysseus calls to land and reveals his true identity. With his former
prisoners now out of reach, the blind giant lifts up a prayer to his father, Poseidon, calling for vengeance on
Odysseus.
Scroll 10
The Achaeans sail from the land of the Cyclopes to the home of Aeolus, ruler of the winds. Aeolus
presents Odysseus with a bag containing all of the winds, and he stirs up a westerly wind to guide Odysseus
and his crew home. Within ten days, they are in sight of Ithaca, but Odysseus’s shipmates, who think that
Aeolus has secretly given Odysseus a fortune in gold and silver, tear the bag open. The winds escape and
stir up a storm that brings Odysseus and his men back to Aeolia. This time, however, Aeolus refuses to help
them, certain that the gods hate Odysseus and wish to do him harm.
Lacking wind, the Achaeans row to the land of the Laestrygonians, a race of powerful giants whose king,
Antiphates, and unnamed queen turn Odysseus’s scouts into dinner. Odysseus and his remaining men flee
toward their ships, but the Laestrygonians pelt the ships with boulders and sink them as they sit in the
harbor. Only Odysseus’s ship escapes.
From there, Odysseus and his men travel to Aeaea, home of the beautiful witch-goddess Circe.
Circe drugs a band of Odysseus’s men and turns them into pigs. When Odysseus goes to rescue them,
Hermes approaches him in the form of a young man. He tells Odysseus to eat an herb called moly to protect
himself from Circe’s drug and then lunge at her when she tries to strike him with her sword. Odysseus
follows Hermes’ instructions, overpowering Circe and forcing her to change his men back to their human
forms. Odysseus soon becomes Circe’s lover, and he and his men live with her in luxury for a year. When
his men finally persuade him to continue the voyage homeward, Odysseus asks Circe for the way back to
Ithaca. She replies he must sail to Hades, the realm of the dead, to speak with the spirit of Tiresias, a blind
prophet who will tell him how to get home. The next morning, Odysseus rouses his men for the imminent
departure. He discovers, however, that the youngest man in his crew, Elpenor, had gotten drunk the
previous night, slept on the roof, and, when he heard the men shouting and marching in the morning, fell
from the roof and broke his neck. Odysseus explains to his men the course that they must take, which they
are displeased to learn is rather meandering.
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Odysseus travels to the River of Ocean in the land of the Cimmerians. There he pours libations
and performs sacrifices as Circe earlier instructs him to do to attract the souls of the dead. The first to
appear is that of Elpenor, the crewman who broke his neck falling from Circe’s roof. He begs Odysseus to
return to Circe’s island and give his body a proper burial. Odysseus then speaks with the Theban prophet
Tiresias, who reveals that Poseidon is punishing the Achaeans for blinding his son Polyphemus. He
foretells Odysseus’s fate—that he will return home, reclaim his wife and palace from the wretched suitors,
and then make another trip to a distant land to appease Poseidon. He warns Odysseus not to touch the
flocks of the Sun when he reaches the land of Thrinacia; otherwise, he won’t return home without suffering
much more hardship and losing all of his crew. When Tiresias departs, Odysseus calls other spirits toward
him. He speaks with his mother, Anticleia, who updates him on the affairs of Ithaca and relates how she
died of grief waiting for his return. He then meets the spirits of various famous men and heroes and hears
the stories of their lives and deaths.
Odysseus now cuts short the tale and asks his Phaeacian hosts to allow him to sleep, but the king
and queen urge him to continue, asking if he met any of the Greeks who fell at Troy in Hades. He relates
his encounters there: he meets Agamemnon, who tells him of his murder at the hands of his wife,
Clytemnestra. Next he meets Achilles, who asks about his son, Neoptolemus. Odysseus then tries to speak
with Ajax, an Achaean who killed himself after he lost a contest with Odysseus over the arms of Achilles,
but Ajax refuses to speak and slips away. He sees Heracles, King Minos, the hunter Orion, and others. He
witnesses the punishment of Sisyphus, struggling eternally to push a boulder over a hill only to have it roll
back down whenever it reaches the top. He then sees Tantalus, agonized by hunger and thirst. Tantalus sits
in a pool of water overhung by bunches of grapes, but whenever he reaches for the grapes, they rise out of
grasp, and whenever he bends down to drink, the water sinks out of reach. Odysseus soon finds himself
mobbed by souls wishing to ask about their relatives in the world above. He becomes frightened, runs back
to his ship, and immediately sails away.
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Odysseus returns to Aeaea, where he buries Elpenor and spends one last night with Circe. She
describes the obstacles that he will face on his voyage home and tells him how to negotiate them. As he sets
sail, Odysseus passes Circe’s counsel on to his men. They approach the island of the lovely Sirens, and
Odysseus, as instructed by Circe, plugs his men’s ears with beeswax and has them bind him to the mast of
the ship. He alone hears their song flowing forth from the island, promising to reveal the future. The Sirens’
song is so seductive that Odysseus begs to be released from his fetters, but his faithful men only bind him
tighter.
Once they have passed the Sirens’ island, Odysseus and his men must navigate the straits between
Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a six-headed monster who, when ships pass, swallows one sailor for each
head. Charybdis is an enormous whirlpool that threatens to swallow the entire ship. As instructed by Circe,
Odysseus holds his course tight against the cliffs of Scylla’s lair. As he and his men stare at Charybdis on
the other side of the strait, the heads of Scylla swoop down and gobble up six of the sailors. Odysseus next
comes to Thrinacia, the island of the Sun. He wants to avoid it entirely, but the outspoken Eurylochus
persuades him to let his beleaguered crew rest there. A storm keeps them beached for a month, and at first
the crew is content to survive on its provisions in the ship. When these run out, however, Eurylochus
persuades the other crew members to disobey Odysseus and slaughter the cattle of the Sun. They do so one
afternoon as Odysseus sleeps; when the Sun finds out, he asks Zeus to punish Odysseus and his men.
Shortly after the Achaeans set sail from Thrinacia, Zeus kicks up another storm, which destroys the ship
and sends the entire crew to its death beneath the waves. As had been predicted, only Odysseus survives,
and he just barely. The storm sweeps him all the way back to Charybdis, which he narrowly escapes for the
second time. Afloat on the broken timbers of his ship, he eventually reaches Ogygia, Calypso’s island.
Odysseus here breaks from his story, stating to the Phaeacians that he sees no reason to repeat to them his
account of his experience on Ogygia.
Scroll 13
The account of his wanderings now finished, Odysseus looks forward to leaving Scheria. The next
day, Alcinous loads his gifts on board the ship that will carry Odysseus to Ithaca. Odysseus sets sail as soon
as the sun goes down. He sleeps the whole night, while the Phaeacian crew commands the ship. He remains
asleep even when the ship lands the next morning. The crew gently carries him and his gifts to shore and
then sails for home. When Poseidon spots Odysseus in Ithaca, he becomes enraged at the Phaeacians for
assisting his nemesis. He complains to Zeus, who allows him to punish the Phaeacians. Just as their ship is
pulling into harbor at Scheria, the prophecy mentioned at the end of Book 8 is fulfilled: the ship suddenly
turns to stone and sinks to the bottom of the sea. The onlookers ashore immediately recognize the
consummation of the prophecy and resolve to abandon their custom of helping wayward travelers.
Back in Ithaca, Odysseus wakes to find a country that he doesn’t recognize, for Athena has
shrouded it in mist to conceal its true form while she plans his next move. At first, he curses the
Phaeacians, whom he thinks have duped him and left him in some unknown land. But Athena, disguised as
a shepherd, meets him and tells him that he is indeed in Ithaca. With characteristic cunning, Odysseus acts
to conceal his identity from her until she reveals hers. Delighted by Odysseus’s tricks, Athena announces
that it is time for Odysseus to use his wits to punish the suitors. She tells him to hide out in the hut of his
swineherd, Eumaeus. She informs him that Telemachus has gone in search of news of him and gives him
the appearance of an old vagabond so that no one will recognize him.
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Odysseus finds Eumaeus outside his hut. Although Eumaeus doesn’t recognize the withered
traveler as his master, he invites him inside. There Odysseus has a hearty meal of pork and listens as
Eumaeus heaps praise upon the memory of his former master, whom he fears is lost for good, and scorn
upon the behavior of his new masters, the vile suitors. Odysseus predicts that Eumaeus will see his master
again quite soon, but Eumaeus will hear none of it—he has encountered too many vagabonds looking for a
handout from Penelope in return for fabricated news of Odysseus. Still, Eumaeus takes a liking to his guest.
He puts him up for the night and even lets him borrow a cloak to keep out the cold. When Eumaeus asks
Odysseus about his origins, Odysseus lies that he is from Crete. He fought with Odysseus at Troy and made
it home safely, he claims, but a trip that he made later to Egypt went awry, and he was reduced to poverty.
It was during this trip, he says, that he heard that Odysseus was still alive.
Scroll 15
Athena travels to Sparta, where she finds Telemachus and Pisistratus, Nestor’s son, asleep in
Menelaus’s palace. She appears to Telemachus in a dream and tells him that he must hurry home to Ithaca
before the suitors succeed in winning his mother’s hand. She also warns him of the ambush that they have
set and explains how to avoid it. Finally, she instructs him to head first for the home of the swineherd
Eumaeus, who will convey the news of his safe return to Penelope.
The next day, Telemachus announces his departure and accepts gifts from Menelaus and Helen. As
Telemachus pulls away from the palace in his chariot, an eagle carrying a goose stolen from a pen swoops
down beside him. Helen interprets the incident as an omen that Odysseus is about to swoop down on his
home and exact revenge on the suitors. Once at Pylos, Telemachus has Pisistratus drop him off at his ship,
insisting that he has no time to spare to visit Nestor again. The ship is about to set off when Theoclymenus,
a famous prophet’s descendant who is fleeing prosecution for a crime of manslaughter that he committed in
Argos, approaches Telemachus and asks to come aboard. Telemachus welcomes him and offers him
hospitality when they get to Ithaca.
In the hut of Eumaeus, Odysseus tests the limit of his hospitality by offering to leave in the
morning, a false gesture that he hopes will prompt Eumaeus to offer to let him stay longer. He urges the old
man not to go out of his way and says that he will earn his keep working for the suitors, but Eumaeus will
have none of it. To get mixed up with those suitors, he warns, would be suicide. Odysseus and the
swineherd then swap stories. Eumaeus explains how he first came to Ithaca: the son of a king, he was stolen
from his house by Phoenician pirates with the help of a maid that his father employed. The pirates took him
all over the seas until Laertes, Odysseus’s father, bought him in Ithaca. There, Laertes’ wife brought him up
alongside her own daughter, the youngest born.
The next morning, Telemachus reaches the shores of Ithaca. He disembarks while the crew heads
to the city by ship. He entrusts Theoclymenus to a loyal crewman, Piraeus. As they part, they see a hawk
fly by carrying a dove in its talons, which Theoclymenus interprets as a favorable sign of the strength of
Odysseus’s house and line.
Scroll 16
When Telemachus reaches Eumaeus’s hut, he finds the swineherd talking with a stranger
(Odysseus in disguise). Eumaeus recounts Odysseus’s story and suggests that the stranger stay with
Telemachus at the palace. But Telemachus is afraid of what the suitors might do to them. Eumaeus thus
goes to the palace alone to tell Penelope that her son has returned.
When father and son are alone in the hut, Athena appears to Odysseus and calls him outside.
When Odysseus reenters the hut, his old-man disguise is gone, and he stands in the pristine glory of his
heroic person. At first, Telemachus cannot believe his eyes, but then the two embrace and weep. Odysseus
recounts his trip with the Phaeacians and then begins plotting the overthrow of the suitors. He formulates a
plan to launch a surprise attack from within the palace: Odysseus will enter disguised as a beggar and
Telemachus will hide the palace’s surplus arms where the suitors cannot easily reach them. The two of
them will then seize the arms and slaughter the suitors.
Before Eumaeus can give Penelope news of Telemachus’s return, the messenger from the ship
arrives and informs the entire palace that Telemachus has returned. The suitors, dejected that their plot has
failed, huddle outside to plan their next move. Antinous recommends putting Telemachus to death before
he can call an assembly at which the suitors’ dirty schemes can be aired, but Amphinomus, one of the more
thoughtful and well-behaved suitors, persuades the others to wait for a sign from the gods before doing
anything so rash. Penelope later finds Antinous in the palace and denounces him for the plot against her
son, the details of which Medon had overheard and revealed to her in Book 4. Eurymachus succeeds in
calming Penelope down with his lies and false concern for the safety of Telemachus.
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Telemachus leaves Odysseus at Eumaeus’s hut and heads to his palace, where he receives a tearful
welcome from Penelope and the nurse Eurycleia. In the palace hall he meets Theoclymenus and Piraeus.
He tells Piraeus not to bring his gifts from Menelaus to the palace; he fears that the suitors will steal them if
they kill him. When he sits down to eat with Penelope, Telemachus tells her what little news he received of
Odysseus in Pylos and Sparta, but he doesn’t reveal that he has seen Odysseus with his own eyes in
Eumaeus’s hut. Theoclymenus then speaks up and swears that Odysseus is in Ithaca at this very moment.
Meanwhile, Eumaeus and Odysseus set out toward town in Telemachus’s footsteps. On the way
they meet Melanthius, a base subordinate of the suitors, who heaps scorn on Eumaeus and kicks his beggar
companion. Odysseus receives a similar welcome at the palace. The suitors give him food with great
reluctance, and Antinous goes out of his way to insult him. When Odysseus answers insult with insult,
Antinous gives him a blow with a stool that disgusts even the other suitors. Report of this cruelty reaches
Penelope, who asks to have the beggar brought to her so that she can question him about Odysseus.
Odysseus, however, doesn’t want the suitors to see him heading toward the queen’s room. Eumaeus
announces that he must return to his hut and hogs, leaving Odysseus alone with Telemachus and the suitors.
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Another beggar, Arnaeus (nicknamed Irus), saunters into the palace. For a beggar, he is rather
brash: he insults Odysseus and challenges him to a boxing match. He thinks that he will make quick work
of the old man, but Athena gives Odysseus extra strength and stature. Irus soon regrets challenging the old
man and tries to escape, but by now the suitors have taken notice and are egging on the fight for the sake of
their own entertainment. It ends quickly as Odysseus floors Irus and stops just short of killing him.
The suitors congratulate Odysseus. One in particular, the moderate Amphinomus, toasts him and gives him
food. Odysseus, fully aware of the bloodshed to come and overcome by pity for Amphinomus, pulls the
man aside. He predicts to Amphinomus that Odysseus will soon be home and gives him a thinly veiled
warning to abandon the palace and return to his own land. But Amphinomus doesn’t depart, despite being
“fraught with grave forebodings,” for Athena has bound him to death at the hands of Telemachus (18.176).
Athena now puts it into Penelope’s head to make an appearance before her suitors. The goddess gives her
extra stature and beauty to inflame their hearts. When Penelope speaks to the suitors, she leads them on by
telling them that Odysseus had instructed her to take a new husband if he should fail to return before
Telemachus began growing facial hair. She then tricks them, to the silent delight of Odysseus, into bringing
her gifts by claiming that any suitor worth his salt would try to win her hand by giving things to her instead
of taking what’s rightfully hers. The suitors shower her with presents, and, as they celebrate, Odysseus
instructs the maidservants to go to Penelope. The maidservant Melantho, Melanthius’s sister, insults him as
an inferior being and a drunk; Odysseus then scares them off with threats. Hoping to make Odysseus even
more angry at the suitors, Athena now inspires Eurymachus to insult him. When Odysseus responds with
insults of his own, Eurymachus throws a stool at him but misses, hitting a servant instead. Just as a riot is
about to break out, Telemachus steps in and diffuses the situation, to the consternation of the suitors.
Book 19
When the suitors retire for the night, Telemachus and Odysseus remove the arms as planned.
Athena lights the room for them so that they can see as they work. Telemachus tells Eurycleia that they are
storing the arms to keep them from being damaged. After they have safely disposed of the arms,
Telemachus retires and Odysseus is joined by Penelope. She has come from the women’s quarters to
question her curious visitor. She knows that he has claimed to have met Odysseus, and she tests his honesty
by asking him to describe her husband. Odysseus describes the Greek hero—himself, capturing each detail
so perfectly that it reduces Penelope to tears. He then tells the story of how he met Odysseus and eventually
came to Ithaca. In many respects, this story parallels those that he told to Athena and Eumaeus in Books 13
and 14, respectively, though it is identical to neither. He tells Penelope that, essentially, Odysseus had a
long ordeal but is alive and freely traveling the seas, and predicts that Odysseus will be back within the
month.
Penelope offers the beggar a bed to sleep in, but he is used to the floor, he says, and declines. Only
reluctantly does he allow Eurycleia to wash his feet. As she is putting them in a basin of water, she notices
a scar on one of his feet. She immediately recognizes it as the scar that Odysseus received when he went
boar hunting with his grandfather Autolycus. She throws her arms around Odysseus, but he silences her
while Athena keeps Penelope distracted so that Odysseus’s secret will not be carried any further. The
faithful Eurycleia recovers herself and promises to keep his secret. Before she retires, Penelope describes to
Odysseus a dream that she has had in which an eagle swoops down upon her twenty pet geese and kills
them all; it then perches on her roof and, in a human voice, says that he is her husband who has just put her
lovers to death. Penelope declares that she has no idea what this dream means. Rising to the challenge,
Odysseus explains it to her. But Penelope decides that she is going to choose a new husband nevertheless:
she will marry the first man who can shoot an arrow through the holes of twelve axes set in a line.
Scroll 20
Penelope and Odysseus both have trouble sleeping that night. Odysseus worries that he and
Telemachus will never be able to conquer so many suitors, but Athena reassures him that through the gods
all things are possible. Tormented by the loss of her husband and her commitment to remarry, Penelope
wakes and prays for Artemis to kill her. Her distress wakes Odysseus, who asks Zeus for a good omen.
Zeus responds with a clap of thunder, and, at once, a maid in an adjacent room is heard cursing the suitors.
As the palace springs to life the next day, Odysseus and Telemachus meet, in succession, the
swineherd Eumaeus, the foul Melanthius, and Philoetius, a kindly and loyal herdsman who says that he has
not yet given up hope of Odysseus’s return. The suitors enter, once again plotting Telemachus’s murder.
Amphinomus convinces them to call it off, however, when a portent of doom appears in the form of an
eagle carrying a dove in its talons. But Athena keeps the suitors antagonistic all through dinner to prevent
Odysseus’s anger from losing its edge. Ctesippus, a wealthy and arrogant suitor, throws a cow’s hoof at
Odysseus, in response to which Telemachus threatens to run him through with his sword. The suitors laugh
and laugh, failing to notice that they and the walls of the room are covered in blood and that their faces
have assumed a foreign, ghostly look—all of which Theoclymenus interprets as portents of inescapable
doom.
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Penelope gets Odysseus’s bow out of the storeroom and announces that she will marry the suitor
who can string it and then shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes. Telemachus sets up the axes and
then tries his own hand at the bow, but fails in his attempt to string it. The suitors warm and grease the bow
to make it supple, but one by one they all try and fail. Meanwhile, Odysseus follows Eumaeus and
Philoetius outside. He assures himself of their loyalty and then reveals his identity to them by means of the
scar on his foot. He promises to treat them as Telemachus’s brothers if they fight by his side against the
suitors. When Odysseus returns, Eurymachus has the bow. He feels disgraced that he cannot string it,
because he knows that this failure proves his inferiority to Odysseus. Antinous suggests that they adjourn
until the next day, when they can sacrifice to Apollo, the archer god, before trying again. Odysseus, still
disguised, then asks for the bow. All of the suitors complain, fearing that he will succeed. Antinous
ridicules Odysseus, saying that the wine has gone to his head and that he will bring disaster upon himself,
just like the legendary drunken Centaur Eurytion. Telemachus takes control and orders Eumaeus to give
Odysseus the bow. Needless to say, Odysseus easily strings it and sends the first arrow he grabs whistling
through all twelve axes.
Scroll 22
Before the suitors realize what is happening, Odysseus shoots a second arrow through the throat of
Antinous. The suitors are confused and believe this shooting to be an accident. Odysseus finally reveals
himself, and the suitors become terrified. They have no way out, since Philoetius has locked the front door
and Eumaeus has locked the doors to the women’s quarters. Eurymachus tries to calm Odysseus down,
insisting that Antinous was the only bad apple among them, but Odysseus announces that he will spare
none of them. Eurymachus then charges Odysseus, but he is cut down by another arrow. Amphinomus is
the next to fall, at the spear of Telemachus.
Telemachus gets more shields and swords from the storeroom to arm Eumaeus and Philoetius, but he
forgets to lock it on his way out. Melanthius soon reaches the storeroom and gets out fresh arms for the
suitors. He isn’t so lucky on his second trip to the storeroom, however, as Eumaeus and Philoetius find him
there, tie him up, and lock him in.
A full battle now rages in the palace hall. Athena appears disguised as Mentor and encourages
Odysseus but doesn’t participate immediately, preferring instead to test Odysseus’s strength. Volleys of
spears are exchanged, and Odysseus and his men kill several suitors while receiving only superficial
wounds themselves. Finally, Athena joins the battle, which then ends swiftly. Odysseus spares only the
minstrel Phemius and the herald Medon, unwilling participants in the suitors’ profligacy. The priest Leodes
begs unsuccessfully for mercy.
Odysseus has Eurycleia come out. She openly rejoices to see the suitors dead, but Odysseus
checks her impropriety. She rounds up the disloyal servant women, who are first made to clear the corpses
from the hall and wash the blood from the furniture; they are then sent outside and executed. Odysseus tells
Telemachus to cut them down with a sword, but Telemachus decides to hang them—a more disgraceful
death. Last of all, the traitor Melanthius is tortured and killed. After the bloodbath, Odysseus has the house
fumigated.
Scroll 23
Eurycleia goes upstairs to call Penelope, who has slept through the entire fight. Penelope doesn’t
believe anything that Eurycleia says, and she remains in disbelief even when she comes downstairs and
sees her husband with her own eyes. Telemachus rebukes her for not greeting Odysseus more lovingly after
his long absence, but Odysseus has other problems to worry about. He has just killed all of the noble young
men of Ithaca—their parents will surely be greatly distressed. He decides that he and his family will need to
lay low at their farm for a while. In the meantime, a minstrel strikes up a happy song so that no passersby
will suspect what has taken place in the palace. Penelope remains wary, afraid that a god is playing a trick
on her. She orders Eurycleia to move her bridal bed, and Odysseus suddenly flares up at her that their bed
is immovable, explaining how it is built from the trunk of an olive tree around which the house had been
constructed. Hearing him recount these details, she knows that this man must be her husband. They get
reacquainted and, afterward, Odysseus gives his wife a brief account of his wanderings. He also tells her
about the trip that he must make to fulfill the prophecy of Tiresias in Book 11. The next day, he leaves with
Telemachus for Laertes’ orchard. He gives Penelope instructions not to leave her room or receive any
visitors. Athena cloaks Odysseus and Telemachus in darkness so that no one will see them as they walk
through the town.
Scroll 24
The scene changes abruptly. Hermes leads the souls of the suitors, crying like bats, into Hades.
Agamemnon and Achilles argue over who had the better death. Agamemnon describes Achilles’ funeral in
detail. They see the suitors coming in and ask how so many noble young men met their end. The suitor
Amphimedon, whom Agamemnon knew in life, gives a brief account of their ruin, pinning most of the
blame on Penelope and her indecision. Agamemnon contrasts the constancy of Penelope with the treachery
of Clytemnestra.
Back in Ithaca, Odysseus travels to Laertes’ farm. He sends his servants into the house so that he can be
alone with his father in the gardens. Odysseus finds that Laertes has aged prematurely out of grief for his
son and wife. He doesn’t recognize Odysseus, and Odysseus doesn’t immediately reveal himself,
pretending instead that he is someone who once knew and befriended Odysseus. But when Laertes begins
to cry at the memory of Odysseus, Odysseus throws his arms around Laertes and kisses him. He proves his
identity with the scar and with his memories of the fruit trees that Laertes gave him when he was a little
boy. He tells Laertes how he has avenged himself upon the suitors.
Laertes and Odysseus have lunch together. Dolius, the father of Melanthius and Melantho, joins
them. While they eat, the goddess Rumor flies through the city spreading the news of the massacre at the
palace. The parents of the suitors hold an assembly at which they assess how to respond. Halitherses, the
elder prophet, argues that the suitors merely got what they deserved for their wickedness, but Eupithes,
Antinous’s father, encourages the parents to seek revenge on Odysseus. Their small army tracks Odysseus
to Laertes’ house, but Athena, disguised again as Mentor, decides to put a stop to the violence. Antinous’s
father is the only one killed, felled by one of Laertes’ spears. Athena makes the Ithacans forget the
massacre of their children and recognize Odysseus as king. Peace is thus restored.
AESCHLYUS – AGAMEMNON
A Watchman, atop the roof of the palace in the Greek city of Argos, complains that he has spent
so much time in this perch that he knows the night sky by heart. He is waiting for a beacon that will signal
the fall of Troy, which has been besieged for ten years by a Greek army led by Agamemnon, the king of
Argos. Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, governs Argos in her husband's absence, and, while the
Watchman says that she has "male strength of heart.”
The beacon flares, signaling Troy's fall, and the Watchman leaps up and cries out with joy at the
news, and rushes inside to tell the Queen. The Chorus, an assembly of Argos' oldest and wisest male
citizens, comes onstage and discusses the history of the Trojan War. They recount how Agamemnon and
his brother Menelaus, the king of Sparta, gathered a huge fleet and army to recapture Helen, Menelaus'
wife, who was stolen by Paris, a Prince of Troy; and they discuss how the Greeks and Trojans have spent
ten years wearing themselves out in battle.
Clytemnestra joins them, and the Chorus demands to know why she has ordered sacrifices to all
the gods and celebrations throughout the city. Before she answers, they recall the terrible story of how the
Greek fleet, on its way to Troy, was trapped in Aulis by unfavorable winds, and how Agamemnon learned
that the winds were sent by Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. In order to appease her and sail on to Troy,
Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia; the Chorus describes in detail her pitiful cries
for mercy as her father's men cut her throat.
When the Chorus finishes recounting the story of Iphigenia, they again ask Clytemnestra to
explain her sacrifices. She tells them that Troy has fallen to the Greeks. They wonder whether she has
dreamed this, or perhaps heard a rumor. The Queen dismisses these suggestions with contempt, saying that
she is not foolish enough to believe dreams or hearsay, and tells the Chorus how a system of beacons,
stretching across the Greek islands, has carried the news from Troy to Argos. She pictures the slaughter
inside the walls of Troy, and hopes that the Greeks will commit no offenses against the gods that would
hinder a safe journey home.
The Chorus gives thanks to Zeus for the victory and says that Troy deserved destruction as
punishment for the crime of Paris; Helen's eloping with the Trojan prince brought doom upon his city. Then
they think of the terrible cost of the war: "The god of war, money changer of dead bodies, / held the balance
of his spear in the fighting, / and from the corpse-fires at Ilium / sent their dearest the dust / heavy and bitter
with tears shed / packing smooth the urns with / ashes that once were men". Meanwhile, all is not well at
home; the losses suffered in the war have made the citizens of Argos grumble, and the Chorus worries that
the heroes of the battles outside Troy may be made to pay for their triumph: "the gods fail not to mark /
those who have killed many”. They wonder whether it is better not to be humble since the gods often
punish mortals who rise too high. The Chorus debates whether to believe the news that the beacons have
transmitted. "Perhaps the gods have sent some lie to us," some worry, while others argue that Clytemnestra
is celebrating too soon. One of the Chorus members sees a Herald arriving from the beach, and they agree
that this man's news will reveal what has truly transpired in Troy.
The Herald expresses his relief at returning to Argos after ten years abroad, saying that he never
dared to hope that he would see his home again. He greets the Chorus and hails all the gods and monuments
of his native city, announcing that Agamemnon is returning in triumph, after defeating Troy and avenging
Paris' crime. The Chorus tells him to rejoice, and adds that the city has grown fearful in the absence of its
young warriors. The Herald insists that however much they have suffered, the warriors suffered more. He
goes on to describe the trials they endured during the siege of Troy: the cramped ships that carried them
there, the terrible weather, the deaths of countless men. Now they have triumphed, and their deeds will be
heralded forever. Both the army and the city are eternally blessed.
Clytemnestra steps forward, and notes that she heard the news first and ordered sacrifices in spite
of old men's doubts. Now she orders the Herald to return to Agamemnon and to tell him to return quickly
because she (who has been faithful all these years) yearns for his strong presence in their house. The Herald
notes that her speech sounds noble and fitting for the wife of the King. Before he leaves, the Chorus asks
about the fate of Menelaus, Agamemnon's brother, and the Herald becomes displeased: He proceeds to tell
them how the Greek fleet endured a powerful storm when they departed Troy that battered their fleet and
sank many ships. Somehow, Agamemnon's ship escaped harm, but when the storm had passed Menelaus
had disappeared. He may have survived, and may even be safe somewhere, believing Agamemnon to be
lost.
After delivering the unhappy news about Menelaus, the Herald departs. The Chorus speaks of
Helen again, discussing how appropriate her name (which means "death") is, since she has brought so much
destruction and suffering on those around her- -in Greece, which lost so many lives attempting to recapture
her, and in Troy, which was destroyed in fighting to keep her. They reflect on the idea that virtuous
families often suffer despite their goodness, but conclude that the opposite is true: "only the act of evil /
breeds others to follow . . . houses clear in their right are given children in all loveliness.” Inflated human
pride leads to suffering and death, not righteousness.
Now Agamemnon arrives, riding in a chariot with Cassandra beside him. The Chorus hails him,
and confesses to having doubted his wisdom in making war on Troy; now he has triumphed and they owe
him praise. Agamemnon gives thanks to the gods for their part in his victory at Troy, and tells the Chorus
that he hears their words--that the most loyal man serves obediently even if he disagrees with the ruler. He
promises to see to "the business of the city and the gods" by keeping honest leaders in power and ending
corruption.
Clytemnestra comes forward, now, and greets the King, declaring her passionate love for him and
describing the sufferings of a wife who waits at home while her husband wages war. Every day brought a
new rumor of his death or injury: "Had Agamemnon taken all / the wounds the tale whereof was carried
home to me, / he had been cut full of gashes like fishing net". Meanwhile, fearing revolution at home, she
sent their son Orestes away to stay with friends in another city. Now her suffering and solitude are over,
and she can rejoice in his homecoming. She has asked her maidens to prepare a bright purple carpet for
Agamemnon so that his feet need not touch the earth as he enters the palace.
Agamemnon rebukes his wife for laying the carpet before him saying that, were he to walk on it,
he would display unseemly pride and incur the wrath of the gods: "Such state becomes the gods," he tells
her, "and none beside. / I am a mortal, a man; I cannot trample upon / these tinted splendors without fear
thrown in my path". Agamemnon finally consents and enters his palace on the carpet, demanding proper
care and attention for Cassandra, the Trojan princess he has taken as his slave and concubine. Clytemnestra
comments that the purple dye with which the carpet is colored comes from the sea, "ever of itself renewed".
She follows Agamemnon inside, expressing her joy at having him home again.
Outside the palace, the Chorus senses a sudden foreboding, despite Agamemnon's homecoming
and the apparent restoration of order to Argos. For some reason, they are unable to articulate their fears: "I
murmur deep in darkness / sore at heart; my hope is gone now," they lament. Clytemnestra re-emerges and
orders Cassandra to participate in the sacrifices of thanksgiving, telling her that she should not be too
unhappy with her fate since she will have kind masters. Cassandra offers no reply, and the Chorus echoes
the Queen's orders. When the Trojan princess remains silent, the Chorus suggests that perhaps she does not
speak the language, but Clytemnestra declares that she is merely lost in "the passion of her own wild
thoughts," and adds that she will waste no more time with the girl. She retires within, leaving Cassandra
alone with the Chorus. They express pity for the girl, and tell her gently to leave the chariot.
Cassandra speaks for the first time, crying out to Apollo. She asks him why he torments her and to
what city he has brought her. The Chorus tells her she is in the house of the Atreidae, the home of
Agamemnon's family. Cassandra calls it "a house that God hates . . . the shambles for men's butchery, the
dripping floor". She recalls past crimes committed here, then prophecies vaguely about future acts of
violence. The Chorus does not comprehend her message, but she continues to declare that destruction will
fall upon this place, and bemoans the fate that destroyed Troy and brought her here.
The Chorus induces her to tell her story. Apollo fell in love with her and granted her the gift of
prophecy; she promised to bear him a child. When she broke her word, he punished her by making it so that
nobody would heed her warnings. After explaining this, she prophecies that she and Agamemnon will die
at the hands of a woman, "a woman-lioness, who goes to bed / with the wolf.” Eventually, a son will
emerge to kill the murderess and avenge his father's death.. After delivering this prophecy, Cassandra
declares that she is resigned to die. Everyone else in her native city has perished, and it is time for her to
join them. The Chorus praises her bravery, even as they fail to understand her prophecy, and she moves to
enter the palace. Aegisthus was seeking revenge from the sins of Agamemnon's father Atreus by punishing
his son. This man battled for the kingship of Argos against Aegisthus' father, Thyestes. When Atreus
learned that Thyestes had been having sexual relations with his wife Aerope, he cooked Thyestes' children
alive and fed them to him unknowingly at a banquet. Discovering what had happened, Thyestes fled with
the infant Aegisthus, who avenged Atreus' crimes by plotting the murder of his son Agamemnon.
Suddenly, Agamemnon’s voice is heard from inside, crying out in agony that he is mortally
wounded. Another cry comes, followed by silence. The Chorus anxiously debates what to do. Some
advocate sending messengers to rally the citizens of Argos, while others insist that they should enter
immediately and take the murderers "with the blood still running from their blades.” The doors fly open,
revealing Clytemnestra standing triumphantly over the bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Without a
hint of shame, the Queen describes how she killed Agamemnon with an ax, after using heavy robes to trap
him in his bath. She tells the Chorus that he was evil and deserved to die. They declare that she will be
driven out of Argos and shunned by all men for her crime. She rebuffs their reproach by pointing out their
hypocrisy; none of them protested when Agamemnon killed her innocent daughter, Iphigenia. The murder
of her husband is justified, she insists, because it avenges his crime. Now Agamemnon can lie dead
alongside Cassandra, who shared his bed. The Chorus laments the murder, blaming Agamemnon's death on
Helen of Troy. Clytemnestra tells them that Iphigenia, his child, will greet him next. The Chorus bemoans
the stain left on the family and city by their ancestral curse, but the Queen insists that her murder has put an
end to the cycle of vengeance and violence.
AESCHLYUS – LIBATION BEARERS
Orestes returns from years of exile to visit the grave of Agamemnon, his father, who was
murdered by his mother, Clytemnestra. He is accompanied by Pylades, who remains silent until much later
in the play. He opens the play with an invocation to "Cthonic Hermes", who acts as a messenger between
the Olympian gods and the Underworld. He asks Hermes to stand by him and "guard the fathers' power."
Orestes has come to give proper mourning to Agamemnon, as he was not present for his burial. Orestes
offers a lock of his hair to Inachus, the river-god of Argos. This is in thanks for his nurture, as river gods
were worshipped as givers of life. He then lays second lock on his father's tomb, as an offering and token of
grief.
As he is laying down these locks, Orestes catches sight of a group of black- robed women, the
chorus, moving towards the grave. He wonders whether they are mourning some new sorrow of the house,
or whether they have also come to do honor to Agamemnon. Orestes recognizes Electra, his sister, among
the women, conspicuous by her bitter mourning. Orestes calls Pylades to hide with him, so that they may
observe the women in secret. The chorus of women then sings that they have been sent from the palace to
bring libations to the dead. They are beating their breasts and tearing their cheeks and clothing. They
explain that they have come as a result of a terrible dream that queen Clytamnestra had the night before.
The dream interpreters said that the dream came from the dead king, who rages against his murderer. The
queen then bid the slave women go to the grave and give libations, in hopes of abating his anger. But the
women are afraid to speak for her, as there is no redemption for a house once blood has been spilt.
They say that, while some worship success more than the gods, they will pay for their crimes in
the end. Once blood has been spilt, it will not seep into the ground, but clots and seethes like an infection in
the minds of the guilty. Blood cannot so easily be washed from a polluted hand. As slaves, they must obey
their masters, but the women weep behind their veils.
Electra makes her first speech of the play. She holds up the libation cup, but she does not know
what to say. She cannot bring Agamemnon love from her mother, who was his murderer. Perhaps she
should pour silently, and then turn back to the house without looking back, like one who throws out waste.
She asks the serving women to join her, saying that although they are slaves, she and they share a common
hatred for the house. The leader of the chorus says that her loyalty lies with the king; "I revere your father's
death-mound like an altar." The leader then tells Electra to speak a blessing for those who love her. Electra
is confused, as she has no loved ones in the house. The leader says, "All those who hate Aigisthos." Electra
still does not recognize that there is anyone else on her side besides the serving women. Then the leader
reminds her of Orestes, her brother in exile. The chorus continues to teach Electra what to say, for she is
"unseasoned" and cannot think of the words. The leader tells her to invoke some evil against the murderers,
calling for "the one who murders in return." Electra questions whether this is a righteous thing for her to
ask of the gods. The chorus says that it cannot be unrighteous to pay back an enemy, evil for evil.
Electra begins to pray. She asks Hermes to help her, to tell the spirits of the underworld to hear her
prayers. She asks for the Earth herself to listen, she who brings things to life and takes them away again.
She pours a libation to her father, and calls to Orestes to come to her aid. She says that she has been
reduced to slave-status, about to be married off by her mother. She prays that she can be more chaste and
innocent than her mother. For her enemies, she prays that some avenger will come to kill the killers in
return, with justice. After this interlude to pray for evil for her enemies, she returns to her prayer for
blessings, and pours the libations for the serving women to sing over. The chorus then joins in the libations,
praying to Agamemnon that he protect them and Electra from evil but not Clytamnestra, who should feel
his wrath. They then cry out again for some man to deliver the house from iniquity, someone born to do it
and who will wield his sword as in war (in other words, Orestes).
Electra discovers a lock of hair on Agamemnon's grave. The chorus becomes agitated, asking whose it is.
Electra says that it is identical to her own. She knows that it is Orestes's hair, for she can see his curls, and
assumes that he sent it in order to honor their father. The chorus says that it is all the more cause for grief,
as it must be a sign that Orestes will never return.
Electra gives a long, emotional speech, torn by the hope that the lock of hair might actually belong
to her brother. She wishes the lock of hair could speak and tell her where it came from. She then finds a
second sign, a set of footprints that match her own in proportions. Her mind is reeling with shock and
anticipation. Suddenly, Orestes enters and tells Electra to thank heaven for fulfilling her prayers. She asks
how so, what prayer has been answered? He says that she sees her wish come true, and that he is Orestes.
She disbelieves him, saying it must be a trick, or that he is mocking her. He says that he shares her distress,
and if he were to mock her, he would be mocking himself. When she continues to doubt, Orestes calls her a
slow learner. He challenges her to hold up the lock of hair to his head and see how it matches, and also
provides the third token of a piece of weaving he has that she made herself. Electra finally gives in to her
hope and rejoices. She implores him to save their father's house. She says that four aspects of her love now
belong to Orestes: that which should go to Agamemnon, who is dead, that which should go to
Clytamnestra, who murdered Agamemnon, that which should go to Iphigineia, who was killed by
Agamemnon, and that which naturally would go to Orestes as her brother. She hopes that Might, Justice,
and Zeus himself will help him in his quest.
Both children are now miserable exiles. Orestes reminds Zeus in his prayer to watch over him and
Electra that Agamemnon always made good sacrifices to the gods. If he and Electra were to die, who else
would pay him homage with such rich feasts? He pleads with Zeus to tend to the root of the house, so that it
may flourish again and serve him. The leader of the chorus interrupts Orestes's prayer and reminds the
children to speak softly, lest someone should hear and report them to 'the masters'. The leader wishes she
could see them covered with pitch and burning alive. Orestes continues his speech, now telling how Apollo
will never fail him. He says that Apollo spoke to him, warning that if he did not hunt down his father's
murderers, he would suffer immense pain. The unappeased dead "take root beneath the soil" and plague the
lives of men. One who failed to avenge the death of his kin would be covered in leprous boils and a
cancerous skin. The Furies would pursue him with burning eyes, pleading for revenge. Such a man will
wander as an exile, polluted by death and unable to approach any alter. He would be a pariah, reviled till
death. Orestes finds such oracles persuasive, but, even if Apollo could not persuade him, he would still
have the drive to avenge his father's death. Other impulses come to play, like sorrow for his father's death
and the poverty he must undergo as an exiled prince. He also hates how his countrymen, who fought so
bravely at Troy, should be ruled by "two women", i.e., Clytamnestra and Aigisthos. Or, Orestes says, if
Aigisthos is not weak like a woman, then he will soon get the chance to prove it.
The Chorus, Orestes, and Electra switch off saying prayers. The Chorus begins by calling for the
powers of destiny to press on now. Revenge must be paid and "the one who acts must suffer." Orestes
speaks next, making a prayer to Agamemnon. He asks what words can reach him now, what light can
oppose his darkness. The chorus replies, saying that the rage of the dead inflames the sons still living.
Electra joins in, saying that she and Orestes are one in their misery. No one can escape doom. The chorus
says that there is hope for this mournful song to turn to joy, and for them to sing a song of triumph. Orestes
and Electra then dwell on what could have happened to prevent their present misery. If only, Orestes says,
Agamemnon had died a glorious death at Troy. Then he and Electra could have basked in his glory and
been the envy of all. The leader of the chorus picks up on this idea, saying that Agamemnon could have
ruled among the kings of the dead. Electra wishes instead that the murderers had been slain first so that
Agamemnon would never had been killed.
The chorus puts an end to this musing, saying The time for the children to take victory is now.
Inspired by this, Orestes calls for Zeus to force up destruction from the earth. The chorus grows more
excited, foreseeing its triumphant cries when "the man is stabbed, the woman dies." Their hatred is rising to
a furious pitch. Electra joins in now, crying, "Zeus, crush their skulls! Kill! Kill!" The chorus justifies these
murderous cries by saying that "it is the law." Blood must be paid for with blood. Electra reminds them that
she, too, deserves pity. Clytamnestra leashed her like a dog in a cell, leaving her to weep in vain. The
chorus tells Orestes and Electra to burn with fury, but to make their hearts stand firm. This anger must be
turned to a purpose: revenge. Hearing this, Orestes and Electra call out to their father to help them battle
their enemies.
Orestes opens by asking that his father should give him power over the house. Electra asks that
Agamemnon help her escape after she brings destruction upon Aigisthos. They both promise something in
return for these favors. Orestes says that he will establish funeral feasts for his father, whereas otherwise he
would receive no such honors since he died an ignoble death. Electra promises to pour out her bridal wine
upon his tomb, which she will revere above all other shrines. The children both remind Agamemnon of his
sufferings. Orestes tells him to remember the bath in which he died.
The chorus then describes Clytamnestra's terrifying dream. They tell that she dreamed she bore a
snake, and wrapped it like a baby. Then she tried to feed it from her breast, but the snake bit her, and blood
curdled the milk. She awoke with a scream, and sent the libations in the hope that they would appease
whoever sent the vision. Orestes interprets the dream, saying that he will be the snake, saying that just as
she bred this violent sign, so she will die by violence.
Oretes lays out a cunning plan, one to match that by which Agamemnon died. He will send Electra
inside, and she will keep the secret. He will go the gates as a stranger and speak in Parnassian, the dialect of
Delphi. He might have to wait at the doors, as no one might welcome him, but this will attract the attention
of others, who will wonder at how Aigisthos keeps people waiting. Once he crosses the threshold, he will
find Aigisthos. Before he can ask who Orestes is, Orestes will kill him.
The chorus talks about other famous death of children by their parents and vice versa. Having
recalled these pitiless acts, it is time soon to tell of a loveless marriage, a curse to the house. Soon we will
hear of the cunning plots of a wife against her wise warrior lord. The chorus says that it honors the home
that is stranger to passion, and the woman who will never step out of bounds. The chorus says that the
sword is at the lungs, and Justice will drive it deep. Those who trample upon the laws of Zeus underfoot
will themselves be stamped out. Fate is sharpening her sword, and the brooding Furies are bringing the son
into the house, to wipe clean the blood from the house.
Orestes is pounding at the palace door, calling for the slave to open up and asking if there is a man
inside the house. The porter finally comes to the door and asks where Orestes has come from and who he
is. Orestes orders the porter to announce him to the masters of the house, saying that he comes bearing
news. At first he asks for the mistress of the house, but then corrects himself, saying that the master would
be better, for then no words need be minced. Clytamnestra then emerges from the palace, and graciously
addresses Orestes and Pylades. She says, "we have all that you might expect in a house like ours," and
offers them warm baths and beds. If, however, the travelers have arrived not seeking comfort, but in order
to do political business, then it is the men's concern and she will communicate it to them.
Orestes lies about his origins to his mother in order to gain her trust. He says that he comes from
Delphi, and that he encountered a stranger named Stophios on his way to Argos. This man made him
promise to bring news to the palace that Orestes was dead. Orestes says that he does not know whether he
is addressing the right person, but the parents ought to know the fate of their child. Clytamnestra cries out
that this story spells out her ruin, for the curse of the house is still at work. She laments that the curse has
stripped her bare of all that she loves, now taking Orestes down. She had tried so hard to keep him clear of
death, as he was the only hope of curing the Furies's evil revel in the palace. Orestes says that he regrets not
bringing happier news to such prosperous hosts. Clytamnestra assures Orestes that he will be no less
welcome in the house, despite his message. He is a true friend. She announces that she will commune with
the master of the house in order to discuss the news.
Orestes's nurse Cilissa enters in tears, and the chorus asks her where she is going. The nurse
describes how Clytamnestra ordered her to fetch Aigisthos, feigning sadness while laughing inside at the
news. For the house, this message spells ruin. Aigisthos will certainly rejoice when he hears of Orestes's
death. The nurse laments the grief she has had to suffer over the years, saying that this new sorrow is by far
the worst. She reared Orestes from birth, pacing back and forth throughout the night to quiet his crying.
One must tend carefully to a baby, as it has no speech to ask for what it wants. The nurse is shocked that
the chorus seems to rejoice over the news. The chorus suggests that she should not give up hope for Orestes
yet. The nurse remains confused, but the chorus tells her to get on with it.
Once the nurse leaves, the chorus makes a prayer to Zeus, asking him to safeguard Justice.
Aigisthos enters the stage, saying that he comes at the summons of a messenger. He has heard the
news of Orestes's death, and calls it far from welcome. The house is still festering from the wounds of the
last bloody murder, and this new burden might bring the place down. He asks the chorus how he can know
that the news is true. Aigisthos announces that he will see the stranger himself and put them to the test. For,
no one would be able to deceive Aigisthos, whose mind is quick of sight. The chorus chants in anxious
anticipation, wondering what the outcome of the battle will be. Before the servant can return, the main door
opens and we see Orestes standing over the body of Aigisthos. Disgusted over Clytamnestra's sorrow for
Aigisthos, Orestes drags her over to his body and prepares to kill her. She stops him by asking whether he
has no respect for the breast that fed him as a baby. Orestes hesitates, asking Pylades what he should do.
How can he kill his own mother?
Pylades reminds him of Apollo's commands, saying that one should make all men enemies before
one offends the gods. Convinced, Orestes turns back to Clytamnestra. He speaks contemptuously to her,
saying that she will die next to the man whom she favored over Agamemnon. Clytamnestra shrieks, seeing
murder in her son's eyes. She warns him of her curse, and then recognizes him as the snake from her dream.
Orestes pronounces that she has killed in an outrageous manner, and now she will suffer the same outrage
now. He pulls her over the threshold and they disappear behind the palace door.
The chorus celebrates Orestes's victory, calling him the double lion. The house is now free of
grief, free of those who stained it with murder. Orestes came home with a lust for secret combat, but dike
(Greek for Justice) steered his arm in open combat. Apollo willed it so, and descended to earth in order to
heal the house's wounds. The light is breaking now, and the house can rise up again, having lain shattered
for too long. The palace gates open, and we see Orestes standing over the bodies of Clytamnestra and
Aigisthos. Orestes addresses the chorus, telling them to behold the former tyrants. Together they conspired
to kill his father, and now together they lie dead. Orestes can finally lament for his father. The chorus perks
up at this, assuring Orestes that he has done the right thing, and pleading with him not to speak evil things.
Orestes cannot hear them now, however, as he is possessed by a vision of the Furies. He now has his
mothers curse so he goes crazy.
AESCHLYUS – EUMENIDES
After slaying his mother Clytaemnestra, Orestes has fled away from his city of Argos because he
is tormented by the avenging Furies. The god Apollo supported Orestes' actions, encouraging him to punish
her for murdering his father Agamemnon. It is a terrible sin to kill one's own mother. The furies torment
Orestes, swarming around his head and clouding his thoughts. He then fled in pain far away from Argos
and has begun a journey to reach the Oracle of Apollo in the city of Delphi. There, he hoped to discover
why Apollo betrayed him, having assured him initially that he would endure no punishment for murdering
Clytaemnestra, because he was avenging the more terrible death of his father.
Going within the temple, the Pythia hopes that this will be her one of her best sessions of
prophesizing. She abruptly returns, excited and in a panic, crying aloud that she has seen an awful scene
within the temple. She laments, "Things terrible to tell and for the eyes to see/terrible drove me out again
from [Apollo's] house/so that I have no strength and cannot stand on springing/ feet, but run with my hands'
help and my legs have no speed" Lines 34-37. The frightened woman, who is unaware that Orestes has
returned to Delphi, describes exactly what she saw within the temple. First, there was a man with bloody
hands "postured in the suppliant's seat," which is a location where one may ask for forgiveness. In front of
him is a group of monstrous women, and from their "eyes drips the foul ooze" sleeping upon chairs; these
are the same Furies that have tormented Orestes since he murdered his own mother Clytaemnestra.
Obviously, the Furies have chased him all the way to Delphi. The Pythia is confused, insisting that she can
do nothing to deal with this situation. Instead, she states that Apollo himself must come. Waiting for
Apollo, Orestes is not angry or defiant, but instead he is seeking answers and forgiveness, even though his
hands are stained with his mother's blood.
Apollo addresses Orestes, declaring that he will not allow Orestes to be punished by the
avenging Furies. This god of prophesy adds that he will even protect Orestes, proclaiming that he has even
put the Furies to sleep. Apollo instructs the man to flee away from Delphi, noting that the Furies will
continue to torment him. In order to resolve the situation, Apollo tells him to go to the temple of Pallas
Athena on top of the Acropolis in Athens. He insructs Orestes to embrace the statue of Athena in the
temple there, and there he will then be judged for his crime of murdering his mother by Athena. Apollo
tells Orestes not to worry, since it was Apollo "who made you strike your mother down."
Apollo reminds Orestes not to be afraid, and he asks Hermes to accompany Orestes and
watch over him as he makes the journey from Apollo's temple in Delphi to Athena's temple in Athens.
These three figures leave the temple of Apollo, and at once the angry ghost of Clytaemnestra appears and
tries to wake up the Furies. Clytaemnestra wants death for her son, in order that her death be avenged, just
as Agamemnon's death was avenged by the murder of Clytaemnestra. One murder begets another. The
Furies suggest think that humans have control over the gods' actions since "man's way" crosses the "place
of the ways of god." Angered, the Furies continue to complain, insisting that they will never give up until
Orestes is dead.
At this moment, Apollo reappears, ordering the Furies to leave his temple, or he will
shoot them with his bow and arrow. Just as the Furies show little respect toward him, Apollo does not show
much respect toward these goddesses either. The Furies respond that although Apollo is a god after all, they
cannot obey him, declaring that the "motherblood" forces them to torment Orestes until he dies. Apollo
says that they can do whatever they want, but he is forced to protect Orestes similarly for different reasons,
Rather than trying to destroy, these newer gods such as Apollo want to heal and forgive. The Chorus of
Furies and Apollo leave the temple at Delphi, going separately to Athena's temple at Athens to have her
settle their dispute over the fate of Orestes.
Meanwhile, Orestes has arrived at the Acropolis hill at Athens. Just as Apollo instructed him to
do, the young man goes within and kneels on the floor, embracing the statue of Athena. He explains that it
was Apollo who advised him to go to her for assistance so that she can make a judgment in his "trial." The
Chorus of Furies arrives and frantically begin searching for Orestes, calling themselves "hounds after the
bleeding fawn." Seeing him, they become very excited and declare that he must give them the "red blood"
of his body for them to suck out of him. They mention that the god of the Underworld, Hades is very great
because he punishes men for their crimes on earth after they die. He calls out for Athena to assist him in
dealing with these Furies, declaring that she will save him.
The Furies do not forgive, but instead they punish anyone who does not respect the gods' laws,
referring to the law against matricide in this situation. Yet Apollo already said that Zeus abolished the laws
against murdering blood relatives. Again, this is a conflict between the old world and the new world, as the
Furies adhere to older, harsher laws that existed before Zeus was born. Although Orestes is forgiven and
protected by the younger gods, the Furies still recognize the old gods as the authority in the world. They do
not realize that the world has changed, refusing to surrender their harsh, primal perception of justice.
The Furies do not realize that there are in fact many people who don't fear them any longer.
Apollo treats them with extreme disapproval, for he portrays them to be savage and even uncivilized
because of their thirst for blood and their enjoyment of harsh penalties, such as decapitation. Orestes
doesn't fear the Furies any more either, for Apollo has given him confidence after making a promise to
protect him. The young man is confident that Athena will understand his point of view and decide that the
Furies are wrong in their ways of thinking, because they don't recognize that the world had changed from
the way it used to be.
As Orestes and the Furies confront each other, Athena arrives at the temple dressed in full battle
armor. They are creatures of the ancient past. However, Athena declares that their argument shall be heard
because her temple is the "place of the just" and she shall see that justice is served. The Furies tell her that
they torment murderers, indicating that Orestes is a man whom they currently pursue because he killed his
mother, Clytaemenstra. Athena asks if there was a reason why he killed her, or if maybe he was afraid of
someone else's anger, referring perhaps to the restless spirit of Agamemnon. The Furies respond that his
reasons for murdering are irrelevant, because the bare fact remains that he committed matricide. Athena
dismisses this, suggesting that the Furies do not deliver justice in actuality and instead just want everybody
to think that they do. Instead, they are shallow creatures that fail to rationalize their actions. Rather than
thinking about the exact circumstances surrounding a crime, such as in the situation with Orestes, the
Furies exact a false sense of justice.
These creatures respond by saying simply that she can then make the final decision in their
disagreement then, and they will respect it. If Athena decides that Orestes is guilty, then they will continue
to torment him, but if she decides that he is innocent from crime then they will leave him alone. Agreeing
on this, Athena asks Orestes to describe his point of view, giving him a chance to defend himself.
The god Apollo instructed Orestes that he was obligated to kill Clytaemnestra, or else he would suffer
himself. The fact that he killed this woman is clear and evident, but what remains to be seen is whether or
not Orestes should be punished for this act, as the Furies insist he must be. He chose to avenge his father,
and now he asks Athena to decide what should happen next. Should the Furies torment him to the death, or
should the Furies leave him alone? Orestes states that, as the Furies have said, he too will accept any
decision that Athena shall make, whether it is for better or worse.
These men will then make a decision after hearing the evidence, and a court shall thus exist from
that point forward there on the Acropolis hill high above the city of Athens. Athena urges the Furies and
Orestes to go and prepare their respective arguments before she returns, so that the trial can begin when the
jury arrives, leaving the temple to go down into the city in search of the most devout citizens to serve as
jurors. Rather than using her divine wisdom to solve this disagreement, Athena instead turns to humans for
justice. After Athena leaves, the Chorus of Furies laments that if Orestes is found to be not guilty and
suffers no punishment, then people everywhere will start murdering their parents because they think that
they can get away with it just like Orestes has done. If Orestes is found not to be guilty, then the Furies say
they will unleash death against all men, in order to prevent this lawlessness from becoming widespread.
Men will no longer fear the Furies' wrath if Orestes is found innocent; they insist that fear is necessary in a
city to maintain order. If there is no fear of consequences, then men will begin committing more crimes,
and society will fall apart.
Athena returns to her temple at the Acropolis in Athens, accompanied by twelve jurors who will
make a decision after hearing the disagreement between the Chorus of Furies and Orestes. Athena orders
her Herald to sound the trumpet and announce that the court session will begin. This way, all Athenian
citizens will know what is going on. Athena is establishing a court that will try other cases in the future as
well. She wants everyone in Athens to watch what she is doing, so that they will be able to properly resolve
future disagreements between other groups of people. First the furies interrogate Orestes and he later calls
upon Apollo to stand in his defense. Apollo says that what Orestes did was just and that even Zeus
supported it.
Athena next asks if the Chorus of Furies or Apollo have any other arguments to add, but both sides
rest their cases and wait to hear the jury's decision. The goddess of wisdom turns to these twelve men,
reminding them about the holiness of the Acropolis where they stand. She encourages them to make the
best decision based upon the evidence that they have heard, and not to make a poor decision. If a poor
decision is made, that will be unjust and the court will become foul and meaningless. Next she asks the jury
of twelve men to cast their votes about whether or not Orestes is guilty for the crime of killing a blood
relative. The Furies warn as the voting occurs that they will destroy Athens if the jury rules against them.
Apollo reassures the jury not to be afraid of the Furies because the king of the gods, Zeus, will protect them
all from any danger. The Furies reply that regardless, they will return to Athens and destroy the
countryside. Apollo reprimands them, accusing them of having no respect for any gods at all; they have no
humility and instead worry about their own selfish anger.
A surprising event has occurred! The jury of twelve men has cast an even number of votes. Six
jurors have voted for Orestes to be guilty, but six jurors have voted for Orestes to be not guilty. The final,
deciding vote is left up to Athena, who is the overseer of this trial. Because she understands Apollo's
argument, and because she herself is living proof that a mother is not really necessary to have a child,
Athena has cast a vote of "not guilty." Athena was born herself from the head of Zeus without any woman's
assistance, thus she would naturally tend to favor the men rather than the side of these avenging women.
Athena sympathizes with Orestes because she feels far greater loyalty towards her father than she does for
any wife of his. Orestes thanks Athena, Apollo, and Zeus alike for aiding him against the Furies, stating
that he wishes to return to his home city of Argos immediately, where he will rule as his father's successor.
He promises that Argos shall forever be an ally of Athens in protecting it against any enemy that may wish
to attack it, adding that even after he is dead, any ruler or person who does aide Athens in times of need
will be cursed until they fulfill this promise. He returns to Argos and reestablishes order after Aegisthus
and Clytaemnestra's many years of tyrannical rule over the
The furies naturally are extremely upset. The goddess of wisdom assures them again, stating that
these Furies are not dishonored and that they are truly goddesses. She asks the Furies to share her throne,
her "pride of worship," assuring them that many people will respect them if they accept her offerAthena is
calm and rational. She doesn't get angry after observing their reaction, warning the Furies that if they leave
Athens and go to some other land, they inevitably will regret that they rejected her offer, for Athens is
destined to become a great city in the future. Again, she describes her offer for the Furies to join her in
becoming protectors of Athens, striking fear into the hearts of enemies and giving strength to the Athenian
citizens. Athena assures them that together, they will assure loyalty from all of the citizens in Athens, and
in return Athens will become the greatest city. At long last, the Furies excitedly accept this offer, casting
away their dark powers in favor of this new responsibility. Athena urges them to cast a positive spell over
the city, filled with goodness instead of death, " After the Furies accept this offer, Athena announces that
the Furies will be creatures of darkness no more. Instead, they will be creatures of goodness, called the
"Eumenides." Now called the Eumenides, "The Benevolent Ones," the Furies promise to protect the
goodness of mankind. Athens shall never have civil wars because they shall not allow it, urging all citizens
of Athens to unify under their rule.
Athena has also established a court of justice in Athens to deal with accused criminals, rather than
having one man judging them to be guilty or innocent. Now there are to be public trials decided by a large
jury of men. In spite of the sadness that began when Agamemnon came home from Troy, the tale of Orestes
ends with promises of a bright future for Athens and all of Hellas. It reasserts faith in the gods and carries a
new hope to the Athenian populace.
EURIPIDES – BACCHAE
Pentheus appears on stage and does not see the old men, lost in his own thoughts, enraged as he is
by the recent news of the runaway women. He considers the bacchic rites to be simply a thin veil to cover
licentious, depraved and drunken behavior. As king he has already ordered the arrest and imprisonment of
all the maenads, but his campaign to bring the maenads back to civilization has been made harder by the
recent arrival of a foreign Dionysian wizard with long hair, wine-flushed cheeks and a large group of
female followers. As Pentheus is growling about what he will do with this enchanter's hair—once he
manages to catch him—he sees his grandfather and Tiresias dressed in bacchic style and launches into a
admonishing tirade against them and their foolishness. Tiresias argues back, explaining that if Demeter, an
esteemed god, is the god of solid nourishment, that is, food, then Dionysus is the god of liquid nourishment,
that is, wine. Dionysus's gift releases pain, brings sleep and gives joy, he explains. Further, Tiresias
continues to argue that the story concerning Zeus sewing Dionysus into his thigh rests on mistaken
interpretations and a confused etymology. The old, blind seer ends his response to Pentheus by concluding
that Dionysus was a powerful god, master of frenzy, inspiration, panic and prophecy, and so deserves
respect on account of his ecstatic power. In reply Pentheus spitefully threatens to destroy Tiresias's
religious objects and sacrificial stores. The two old men hurry away, hoping that Pentheus does not bring
calamity upon the family through his unremitting rejection of Dionysus, but knowing that he will.
A servant leads the disguised Dionysus into the palace courtyard and presents him to a very
pleased Pentheus. The servant tells Pentheus of the remarkably easy arrest of the Stranger (Pentheus), who
did not even attempt to flee but gently offered up his own hands to the guard. Not only did the Stranger
exhibit a remarkable coolness at the face of authority but he even smiled at the servant. In fact the Stranger
was so well behaved that the servant felt ashamed and was compelled to tell the stranger that he was only
working on orders from his master. The servant also tells Pentheus that his other prisoners, the Theban
women who were driven mad by Dionysus, had all mysteriously escaped to the mountains to continue their
singing and dancing. Those who saw them escape say that the chains came miraculously undone by
themselves and the doors unbarred themselves. This last miracle and the Stranger's impeccable behavior
impressed the servant, and he tries to hint to Pentheus that the king's behavior might be wrong. But the
eager Pentheus is all too happy with his new prisoner and does not pay attention to the many signs of
Dionysus's divinity. The aggressive king concentrates on interrogating the prisoner and flaunting his power
over him.
Pentheus begins by asking the Stranger where he comes from and on whose authority he now
introduces these rites to Thebes. The Stranger tells the king that Dionysus himself initiated him. Pentheus
then tries to scornfully insult and pervert the myth of Dionysus's birth and powers. The Stranger remains
untouched by anger and states clearly that the god himself instructed him on various bacchic rites. The
arrogant king immediately wants to know, and thus mock, these rites but his jibes are brushed away by the
calm Dionysus who merely says, "it is not lawful for you to hear—though it is worth knowing." As
Pentheus has been impious, continues the Stranger, he is not allowed to know what the rites consist of or
what the god's true nature is. Pentheus is enraged when he is denied access to this information and he
persists in using other rhetorical tools in the hope of tricking the Stranger, all to no avail. The only thing
Pentheus learns is that he is unable to learn anything and has only exposed his own anger and futility. As in
earlier scenes, when faced by a foe, Pentheus resorts to crude physical acts: arrest, imprison, and destroy.
Pentheus ends their first encounter by promising to cut off Dionysus' hair, destroy his possessions, and lock
him up for good. The Stranger calmly states that his god will free him and then chain and punish Pentheus.
Pentheus screams that Dionysus to be chained in the dark palace stables at once.
There is a flash of white light and the chorus hears the divine voice of the god Dionysus offstage
answering their prayers for justice from the scene before. Dionysus calls on the spirit of the earthquake to
shake the palace and the chorus watches the columns of Pentheus' palace collapse. The god summons fire
next and the flames on his mother Semele's tomb flare up. The chorus is stunned and flings itself on the
ground in mounting hysteria. Dionysus then enters in his disguised form as the Stranger and the chorus'
leader and asks the women to rise. The women greet their leader as though he were the god himself and in
that moment they unconsciously recognize the twin-position of Dionysus. However they soon revert to
addressing their leader as a mortal and ask him how he was set free from the palace stables and the grip of
Pentheus. The Stranger, barely bothering to hide his supernatural powers replies that he freed himself.
When the chorus mentions knots and chains, Dionysus replies that he used the powers of illusion to trick
Pentheus into thinking he was binding him but what the king bound was in fact a bull. The Stranger says
that at this point the god Dionysus shook up the palace with an earthquake and started a fire at Semele's
tomb.
The audience now begins to hear about the miracles from inside the palace. Once the fire flared
up, Pentheus assumed that the whole palace was up in flames and ran around ordering his servants to put
out the fire with water. During this confusion Pentheus suddenly remembered his prisoner and ran back to
try and seize him. But instead of stabbing the Stranger with his sword, Pentheus is again tricked into
piercing shadows on the wall. Finally the Stranger lists the other humiliations Dionysus subjects Pentheus
to, such as breaking the palace completely. As the stranger walked out of the ruins he saw Pentheus
collapse exhausted to the ground. As he finishes telling his story to the chorus, the Stranger hears Pentheus'
footsteps. The harassed Pentheus enters, ready for battle and carnage, still unwilling to acknowledge the
divinity and power of Dionysus. Dionysus asks him to stay calm and reminds him that no matter how many
reinforcements arrive, how high the walls, god will triumph. Pentheus continues to hanker for action and is
interrupted by a messenger, a cowherd who saw the bacchants at Mt. Cithaeron and who has come to tell
his king, Pentheus. The cowherd first asks if he may speak honestly and without fear of punishment for
what he says may go against what Pentheus believes. Pentheus reassures him, eager to learn more about the
rites he is forbidden to know.
The cowherd saw the three bands of women, including Semele's sisters, sleeping peacefully and
decently in the open air. They showed no signs of drunken misbehavior and wantonness. As the sun came
up they heard the sound of cattle nearby and sprung up in joy, letting down their hair. They pulled up their
fawnskins, donned garlands and played with forest creatures—some even suckled wolf cubs. When they
pierced rocks, milk, honey and wine leapt out. The cowherd tells Pentheus that had he been there he would
have been convinced of Dionysus's divinity. The excited cowherds got a little ambitious however and
decided to try and capture Pentheus's mother Agaue and bring her back to the palace. As they try and
ambush Agaue they are discovered by the women. The furious maenads attacked the men and the herds
with their bare hands. The cowherds got away, but the unfortunate cattle were torn to bits at the hands of
the frenzied women. The cowherd ends his story with another plea that the king receive the new, powerful
god, and his gifts, into Thebes. But once again Pentheus ignores the supernatural signs in this story and
focuses on the unruliness and madness of the maenads. He is shocked that mere women can yield such
power and he decides to capture and kill all of them.
Dionysus steps in at this point and begins to tempt and ensnare Pentheus's imagination. The
stranger promises to show Pentheus the rites of the maenads and the king is fascinated. Dionysus further
argues that the king must go in disguise and thus avoid the same fate as the cattle. Pentheus is suspicious
for a moment but soon capitulates. Dionysus begins to describe each item of the disguise the king must
wear: long hair, long skirts, a thyrsus and a fawnskin. Pentheus is thrilled at the opportunity of being able to
see first hand all he has imagined and suspected thus far. Dionysus further argues that this covert action is
better than spilling blood. Pentheus is ensnared.
It is the god Dionysus who now overtly controls the conversation and manipulates Pentheus as he
would a puppet. The transvestite Pentheus, stung by a little Dionysian madness, sees everything double and
hallucinates, believing that the Stranger is a bull. They converse in couplets, mostly about what Pentheus is
wearing and how he looks. The foolish king is very pleased with his costume and asks Dionysus whether he
walks and stands like his mother. Dionysus humors the vain and ridiculous king, even tucking in a stray
curl. Just as a director would correct an actor, or a parent a child, Dionysus arranges Pentheus's hair, skirt
and posture. The god pretends to serve the king but begins to allude that a special fate awaits him. Pentheus
is excited about his mission and cannot wait to catch the maenads. With each line, Pentheus's pathetic sense
of self- importance grows, as does the violence in Dionysus's warnings. The scene ends with a speedy,
dramatic exchange between the two in half-lines, where Dionysus declares that Pentheus will be brought
back to Thebes in a special state and at the hands of his mother. Dionysus hustles Pentheus out and declares
himself the winner of this contest.
Account of Pentheus's death, an account delivered to
the chorus. The chorus women had called for Pentheus's blood in their last ode, and that is what they got.
The mourning messenger enters the palace courtyard and tells the chorus that his master, Pentheus, is dead.
The chorus rejoices at the news, shocking the messenger with its bloodthirstiness, and asks him to give an
in-depth explanation of the death. The messenger begins his tale. The three men climbed up the hill and
found themselves in a valley looking onto a glen enclosed by cliffs. The women were sitting within the glen
and under some fir trees, mending their robes and garlands. Pentheus could not see the throng of women
and got impatient for a better view. He tells the Stranger that he cannot see anything and that he wants to
climb the cliffs and perch on a tree and thus catch the women in all their shamefulness. In response, the
Stranger amazingly lowers a tall fir tree with his hands and puts Pentheus on the tip of the tree. The
Stranger then slowly straightens the tree. The moment the tree is straightened, Pentheus is exposed to the
maenads and the Stranger disappears. A voice from the heavens declares Pentheus an enemy and
commands his furious bacchants to destroy him. As in scene III the divine voice is accompanied by a fiery
glow in the heavens and followed by an eerie silence. Led by Agaue, whose mouth is frothing and whose
eyes are rolling, the bacchants reach the tree and try to stone the king with rocks and branches. But
Pentheus, stuck on a tree, was too high for their missiles. They try to tear out the roots of the tree but do not
have a lever strong enough. Finally they form a circle round the tree and use their hands to shake and drag
the tree down. Pentheus falls to the ground, helpless. He makes one last effort to save himself and piteously
cries out to his mother to recognize him and forgive his errors. But the queen, driven mad by the bacchic
rites, does not respond and instead grasps her son's arm and pulls it out if its socket. All the other maenads
tear apart his body and scatter the pieces all over the hillside. The crazed mother then seizes her son's
decapitated head, as if it is a trophy, and begins to walk towards Thebes thanking Dionysus, whom she
refers to as her "fellow hunter." The messenger hastily ends his tale here for he wants to leave before the
tragic woman returns.
To maintain the urgency
of the moment, the chorus launches into a brief song, first triumphant over Pentheus's death and then
acknowledging the horror of a mother ripping up her son. Agaue, still possessed by the god, triumphantly
enters the palace gates with the head of her son in her arms, thinking it a lion's head. She converses with the
chorus rapidly, unable to contain her excitement at the result of her "happy hunting." The chorus echoes her
deluded words sadly, but still humoring her madness. The queen is "overjoyed…at achieving great and
manifest things" and wishes to share her joy with her father and her son, Pentheus, and asks that they be
summoned. She even calls for her son to come and nail the head of her hunt to the wall of the palace.
Cadmus enters the palace, bringing with him the rest of Pentheus's remains. He is full of sadness for his
daughter and bemoans the destruction of his lineage at the hands of Bromios.
Agaue greets her father happily and continues to boast about her hunt. The father gently brings his
daughter's mind back to the present moment and to what she holds in her hands through a series of
questions. First he asks her to look at the sky and see if it appears as it always does. The queen replies that
the sky is brighter for it seems to have a holy glow. Cadmus then suggests that perhaps there is an
excitement inside her that colors what is outside. Once Agaue begins to understand this difference, she
comes out of her trance. Cadmus then asks her whom she married and to whom she gave birth. Once she
takes his name, Cadmus asks her to tell him what she is holding. She first replies a lion, but then declares
"what I see is grief, deep grief, and misery for me!" She does not, however, remember why she holds the
head of her son and has to be told by her father, thus intensifying the tragedy of the situation.
At this point a large chunk of the text is missing. The scene picks up with the two still lamenting their fate
and examining the reasons for Pentheus's death. Cadmus remembers his grandson fondly and talks of how
Pentheus had to pay for the sins of the entire family, for they denied Dionysus at the time of his birth. Once
again there is an ellipsis in the text and the scene continues with Dionysus on stage, in his divine form, on
the roof of the palace. Dionysus proclaims the future of the family: Agaue will be banished from Thebes
while Cadmus and his wife will turn into serpents and invade Greek lands with barbarian hordes. Finally
however the god Ares will rescue Cadmus and his wife and send them to the land of the blessed. Cadmus
and Agaue lament their fates and exchange tearful final goodbyes.
PHILOSTRARUS – HEROIKES
The Vinedresser and the Phoenician Meet - These two characters meet and engage in conversation; the
vinedresser is curious about the Ionian style of clothing that the Phoenician wears; he claims all of
Phoenicia wears this type of clothing now. Phoenician asks for a good sign, as he is about to set sail into
the Aegean; the vinedresser says that he should be fine, for Phoenicians are renowned for their nautical
prowess—he also takes a jab at the Phoenician’s desire for moneymaking, however he retorts the
vinedresser by asking whether he does not, too, seek money for his wares. Vinedressers says that although
he does indeed need to hire help, he does not engage with merchants, and does not know what a drachma
is—instead he barters with others. The Phoenician responds by identifying this barter system as “the
golden marketplace… which belongs to heroes rather than humans”—practically, it’s a barter marketplace
described previously by Hesiod. The vinedresser generously offers the Phoenician any nuts, figs, grapes, or
other snacks he wants.
Noting the vinedresser’s wise generosity, the Phoenicians asks him if he practices philosophy, to which
he replies in the affirmative, claiming he studies with Protesilaos, husband to Laodameia, who died at Troy
but came to life due to his love for Laodameia. The Phoenician has heard this before, but counters that
Protesilaos is said to have died again and persuaded his wife to follow him—the vinedresser agrees, but
says that he is back and does not talk about how he returned, claiming that he hides some secret of the
Fates. They enter the vineyard to discuss details about the hero and his fallen fellow warriors. The
Phoenician praises the sweet scent and beauty of the cultivated land, and asks about the uncultivated land
and walkways around them—the vinedresser remarks that the walkways are sacred because the hero
exercises on them. He recounts how he once lived in the city and became educated, but could not support
himself and was in a dire situation. He came to the farm to seek Protesilaos’ advice, but as first he spurned
him, telling him to “change his dress”. Later the vinedresser understood this meant to change his way of
life, and he did so, and since then Protesilaos has blessed him with bountiful vegetation and a healthy crop.
The Phoenician concludes with the realization that the dream he had during his voyage, of welcoming the
Achaeans from Homer’s catalogue of ships aboard his own vessel, truly means that he will continue his
voyage with the knowledge and experiences of heroes, taken from the conversation he is having with the
vinedresser.
The next 25 pages are a discussion between the vinedresser and the Phoenician about Homer, the fact
that he actually existed and drew from the Muses and the gods to write his poetry, and more about the
heroes. The important context is all included in the above introduction—a passage from this piece will be
easy to identify, as it is a conversation between the Phoenician and the Vinedresser about heroes and heroic
myth. After Homer, they go on to discuss Achilles as well. They talk a lot about chain of information, and
how someone is able to come upon knowing certain things—Achilles’ horses are brought up, as well as the
hero cult of Achilles, the relationship between Achilles and Helen. This can be connected easily to all
kinds of general things in the course. The piece closes with the vinedresser bidding the Phoenician to pour
libations to Protesilaos and set sail if the wind is with him; if it is against him, he is welcomed to return to
the vineyard and hear more heroic stories.
SOPHACLES - OEDIPUS AT COLONUS TYRANNOS
Oedipus steps out of the royal palace of Thebes and is greeted by a procession of priests, who are
in turn surrounded by the impoverished and sorrowful citizens of Thebes. The citizens carry branches
wrapped in wool, which they offer to the gods as gifts. Thebes has been struck by a plague, the citizens are
dying, and no one knows how to put an end to it. Oedipus asks a priest why the citizens have gathered
around the palace. The priest responds that the city is dying and asks the king to save Thebes. Oedipus
replies that he sees and understands the terrible fate of Thebes, and that no one is more sorrowful than he.
He has sent Creon, his brother-in-law and fellow ruler, to the Delphic oracle to find out how to stop the
plague. Just then, Creon arrives, and Oedipus asks what the oracle has said. Creon asks Oedipus if he wants
to hear the news in private, but Oedipus insists that all the citizens hear. Creon then tells what he has
learned from the god Apollo, who spoke through the oracle: the murderer of Laius, who ruled Thebes
before Oedipus, is in Thebes. He must be driven out in order for the plague to end. Creon goes on to tell the
story of Laius’s murder. On their way to consult an oracle, Laius and all but one of his fellow travelers
were killed by thieves. Oedipus asks why the Thebans made no attempt to find the murderers, and Creon
reminds him that Thebes was then more concerned with the curse of the Sphinx. Hearing this, Oedipus
resolves to solve the mystery of Laius’s murder.
The Chorus enters, calling on the gods Apollo, Athena, and Artemis to save Thebes. Apparently, it
has not heard Creon’s news about Laius’s murderer. It bemoans the state of Thebes, and finally invokes
Dionysus, whose mother was a Theban. Oedipus returns and tells the Chorus that he will end the plague
himself. He asks if anyone knows who killed Laius, promising that the informant will be rewarded and the
murderer will receive no harsher punishment than exile. No one responds, and Oedipus furiously curses
Laius’s murderer and anyone who is protecting him. Oedipus curses himself, proclaiming that should he
discover the murderer to be a member of his own family, that person should be struck by the same exile and
harsh treatment that he has just wished on the murderer. Oedipus castigates the citizens of Thebes for
letting the murderer go unknown so long. The Leader of the Chorus suggests that Oedipus call for Tiresias,
a great prophet, and Oedipus responds that he has already done so.
A boy leads in the blind prophet Tiresias. Oedipus begs him to reveal who Laius’s murderer is, but
Tiresias answers only that he knows the truth but wishes he did not. Puzzled at first, then angry, Oedipus
insists that Tiresias tell Thebes what he knows. Provoked by the anger and insults of Oedipus, Tiresias
begins to hint at his knowledge. Finally, when Oedipus furiously accuses Tiresias of the murder, Tiresias
tells Oedipus that Oedipus himself is the curse. Oedipus dares Tiresias to say it again, and so Tiresias calls
Oedipus the murderer. The king criticizes Tiresias’s powers wildly and insults his blindness, but Tiresias
only responds that the insults will eventually be turned on Oedipus by all of Thebes. Driven into a fury by
the accusation, Oedipus proceeds to concoct a story that Creon and Tiresias are conspiring to overthrow
him. Leader of the Chorus asks Oedipus to calm down, but Tiresias only taunts Oedipus further, saying that
the king does not even know who his parents are. This statement both infuriates and intrigues Oedipus, who
asks for the truth of his parentage. Tiresias answers only in riddles, saying that the murderer of Laius will
turn out to be both brother and father to his children, both son and husband to his mother. The characters
exit and the Chorus takes the stage, confused and unsure whom to believe. They resolve that they will not
believe any of these accusations against Oedipus unless they are shown proof. Creon enters, soon followed
by Oedipus. Oedipus accuses Creon of trying to overthrow him, since it was he who recommended that
Tiresias come. Creon asks Oedipus to be rational, but Oedipus says that he wants Creon murdered. Both
Creon and the leader of the Chorus try to get Oedipus to understand that he’s concocting fantasies, but
Oedipus is resolute in his conclusions and his fury.
Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta, enters and convinces Oedipus that he should neither kill nor exile Creon,
though the reluctant king remains convinced that Creon is guilty. Creon leaves, and the Chorus reassures
Oedipus that it will always be loyal to him. Oedipus explains to Jocasta how Tiresias condemned him, and
Jocasta responds that all prophets are false. As proof, she offers the fact that the Delphic oracle told Laius
he would be murdered by his son, while actually his son was cast out of Thebes as a baby and Laius was
murdered by a band of thieves. Her narrative of his murder, however, sounds familiar to Oedipus, and he
asks to hear more.
Jocasta tells him that Laius was killed at a three-way crossroads, just before Oedipus arrived in
Thebes. Oedipus, stunned, tells his wife that he may be the one who murdered Laius. He tells Jocasta that,
long ago, when he was the prince of Corinth, he heard at a banquet that he was not really the son of the
king and queen, and so went to the Oracle of Delphi, which did not answer him but did tell him he would
murder his father and sleep with his mother. Hearing this, Oedipus fled from home, never to return. It was
then, on the journey that would take him to Thebes, that Oedipus was confronted and harassed by a group
of travelers, whom he killed in self-defense, at the very crossroads where Laius was killed. Hoping that he
will not be identified as Laius’s murderer, Oedipus sends for the shepherd who was the only man to survive
the attack. Oedipus and Jocasta leave the stage, and the Chorus enters, announcing that the world is ruled
by destiny and denouncing prideful men who would defy the gods. At the same time, the Chorus worries
that if all the prophecies and oracles are wrong—if a proud man can, in fact, triumph—then the gods may
not rule the world after all. Jocasta enters from the palace to offer a branch wrapped in wool to Apollo.
A messenger enters, looking for Oedipus. He tells Jocasta that he has come from Corinth to tell
Oedipus that his father, Polybus, is dead, and that Corinth wants Oedipus to come and rule there. Jocasta
rejoices, convinced that since Polybus is dead from natural causes, the prophecy that Oedipus will murder
his father is false. Oedipus arrives, hears the messenger’s news, and rejoices with Jocasta; king and queen
concur that prophecies are worthless and the world is ruled by chance. However, Oedipus still fears the part
of the prophecy that said he would sleep with his mother. The messenger says he can rid himself of that
worry, because Polybus and his wife, Merope, are not really Oedipus’s natural parents. The messenger
explains that he used to be a shepherd years ago. One day, he found a baby on Mount Cithaeron, near
Thebes. The baby had its ankles pinned together, and the former shepherd set them free. That baby was
Oedipus, who still walks with a limp because of the injury to his ankles so long ago. When Oedipus
inquires who left him in the woods on the mountain, the messenger replies that another shepherd, Laius’s
servant, gave him baby Oedipus. At this, Jocasta turns sharply, seeming to sense some horrible revelation
on the horizon.
Oedipus wants to find this shepherd, so he can find out who his natural parents are. Jocasta begs
him to abandon his search immediately, but Oedipus is insistent. After screaming and pleading some more
to no avail, Jocasta finally flees back into the palace. Oedipus dismisses her concerns as snobbish fears that
he may be born of poor parents, and Oedipus and the Chorus rejoice at the possibility that they may soon
know who his parents truly are. The other shepherd, who turns out to be the same shepherd who witnessed
Laius’s murder, comes onto the stage. The messenger identifies him as the man who gave him the young
Oedipus. Oedipus interrogates the new arrival, asking who gave him the baby, but the shepherd refuses to
talk. Finally, after Oedipus threatens him with torture, the shepherd answers that the baby came from the
house of Laius. Questioned further, he answers that it was Laius’s child, and that Jocasta gave it to him to
destroy because of a prophecy that the child would kill his parents. But instead, the shepherd gave him to
the other shepherd, so that he might be raised as a prince in Corinth. Realizing who he is and who his
parents are, Oedipus screams that he sees the truth, and flees back into the palace. The shepherd and the
messenger slowly exit the stage.
The Chorus enters and cries that even Oedipus, greatest of men, was brought low by destiny, for
he unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother. The messenger enters again to tell the Chorus
what has happened in the palace. Jocasta is dead, by suicide. She locked herself in her bedroom, crying for
Laius and weeping for her monstrous fate. Oedipus came to the door in a fury, asking for a sword and
cursing Jocasta. He finally hurled himself at the bedroom door and burst through it, where he saw Jocasta
hanging from a noose. Seeing this, Oedipus sobbed and embraced Jocasta. He then took the gold pins that
held her robes and, with them, stabbed out his eyes. He kept raking the pins down his eyes, crying that he
could not bear to see the world now that he had learned the truth. Just as the messenger finishes the story,
Oedipus emerges from the palace. With blood streaming from his blind eyes, he fumes and rants at his fate,
and at the infinite darkness that embraces him. He claims that though Apollo ordained his destiny, it was he
alone who pierced his own eyes. He asks that he be banished from Thebes. The Chorus shrinks away from
Oedipus as he curses his birth, his marriage, his life, and in turn all births, marriages, and lives.
Creon enters, and the Chorus expresses hope that he can restore order. Creon forgives Oedipus for
his past accusations of treason and asks that Oedipus be sent inside so that the public display of shame
might stop. Creon agrees to exile Oedipus from the city, but tells him that he will only do so if every detail
is approved by the gods. Oedipus embraces the hope of exile, since he believes that, for some reason, the
gods want to keep him alive. He says that his two sons are men and can take care of themselves, but asks
that Creon take care of his girls, whom he would like to see one final time.
The girls, Antigone and Ismene, come forth, crying. Oedipus embraces them and says he weeps
for them, since they will be excluded from society, and no man will want to marry the offspring of an
incestuous marriage. He turns to Creon and asks him to promise that he will take care of them. He reaches
out to Creon, but Creon will not touch his hand. Oedipus asks his daughters to pray that they may have a
better life than his. Creon then puts an end to the farewell, saying that Oedipus has wept shamefully long
enough. Creon orders the guards to take Antigone and Ismene away from Oedipus, and tells Oedipus that
his power has ended. Everyone exists, and the Chorus comes onstage once more. Oedipus, greatest of men,
has fallen, they say, and so all life is miserable, and only death can bring peace.
SOPHACLES - OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
After years of wandering in exile from Thebes, Oedipus arrives in a grove outside Athens. Blind
and frail, he walks with the help of his daughter Antigone. Neither she nor Oedipus knows the place where
they have come to rest, but they have heard they are on the outskirts of Athens, and the grove in which they
sit bears the marks of holy ground. A citizen of Colonus approaches and insists that the ground is forbidden
to mortals and that Oedipus and Antigone must leave. Oedipus inquires which gods preside over the grove
and learns that the reigning gods are the Eumenides, or the goddesses of fate. In response to this news,
Oedipus claims that he must not move, and he sends the citizen to fetch Theseus, the king of Athens and its
environs. Oedipus then tells Antigone that, earlier in his life, when Apollo’s oracle prophesied his doom,
the god declared that Oedipus would die on this ground.
The Chorus enters, cursing the strangers who would dare set foot on the holy ground of Colonus.
The Chorus convinces Antigone and Oedipus to move to an outcropping of rock at the side of the grove,
and then interrogates Oedipus about his origins. When Oedipus reluctantly identifies himself, the Chorus
cries out in horror, begging Oedipus to leave Colonus at once. Oedipus argues that he was not responsible
for his horrible acts, and says that the city may benefit greatly if it does not drive him away. Oedipus
expresses his arguments with such force that the Chorus fills with awe and agrees to await Theseus’s
pronouncement on the matter.
The next person to enter the grove is not Theseus but Ismene, Oedipus’s second daughter. Oedipus
and the two girls embrace. Oedipus thanks Ismene for having journeyed to gather news from the oracles,
while her sister has stayed with him as his guide. Ismene bears terrible news: back in their home of Thebes,
Eteocles, the younger son of Oedipus, has overthrown Polynices, his elder son. Polynices now amasses
troops in Argos for an attack upon his brother and Creon, who is ruling along with Eteocles. The oracle has
predicted that Oedipus’s burial place will bring good fortune to the city in which it is located. Both sons, as
well as Creon, know of this prophecy, and Creon is currently en route to Colonus to try to take Oedipus
into custody and thus claim the right to bury him in his kingdom. Oedipus swears he will never give his
support to either of his sons, for they did nothing to prevent his exile years ago. The Chorus tells Oedipus
that he must appease the spirits whom he offended when he trespassed on the sacred ground, and Ismene
says that she will go and perform the requisite libation and prayer.
The Chorus gathers around Oedipus, relentlessly denouncing his crimes and insisting that he
recount his tragic life story. Oedipus reluctantly tells of killing his father and marrying his mother, both
crimes that he insists he undertook unknowingly. Theseus now enters, saying that he knows Oedipus’s
story and pities his fate. Oedipus thanks Theseus for not making him repeat his story yet again, and tells
him that his body will prove a great boon to the city. Oedipus requests that Theseus provide him with
proper burial in Colonus, and Theseus agrees. Oedipus then warns him that Thebes will attack Athens for
the right to his body, and Theseus asks why Oedipus doesn’t return home to die, if Thebes so desires his
presence. In reply, Oedipus launches into a lament on the cruelty of his exile, the fragility of the bonds of
friendship and love, and the untrustworthiness of all but the eternal gods, who promise protection to the city
that buries him. Theseus swears that he will protect Oedipus from the Thebans and never betray him.
Theseus exits, and the Chorus comes forth to praise Colonus.
Antigone sees Creon and his guards approaching. Creon notices the family’s fear and insists that
he comes only to bring Oedipus home and give him rest. He tells Oedipus that his pitiful wanderings bring
shame upon Thebes, but Oedipus disbelieves this statement, arguing that Creon willingly sent him away.
He tells that he knows why he is being courted—for the sake of the blessing the gods have promised to the
possessors of his body. Oedipus tells Creon that he has no desire to return to Thebes but only to enter into
the peace of death. He tries to send Creon away, but Creon refuses to relent, and orders his guards to seize
Antigone and Ismene. Although the Chorus condemns Creon, it is powerless to stop him.
Creon then threatens to seize Oedipus and carry him back to Thebes. Just as he lays his hands on
Oedipus, however, Theseus enters and asks the cause of the commotion. Oedipus explains what has
happened, and Theseus sends his soldiers to retrieve Antigone and Ismene. He curses Creon, saying that he
has shamed Thebes with his bullying behavior, but Creon justifies his actions as recourse for the hideous
crimes of Oedipus. Hearing this, Oedipus again argues that he is not responsible for his fate; the gods thrust
it on him. Theseus orders his men to keep watch over Creon as he goes to find Oedipus’s daughters. Creon
promises that although he may find himself overpowered now, he will have his revenge once he has
amassed his troops back in Thebes. All but Oedipus and the Chorus leave the stage. As he exits, Theseus
promises that Oedipus will get his daughters back.
Theseus returns, leading Antigone and Ismene, whom Oedipus embraces. He thanks Theseus for
rescuing his daughters, but Theseus demurs from describing his valiant struggle to save the girls, stating
that he prefers to prove himself through actions rather than words. Yet he does report that a man has
recently arrived from Argos. Theseus saw the stranger praying on the altar of Poseidon, and rumor has it
that the stranger wishes to speak with Oedipus.
Oedipus pleads with Theseus to drive the stranger out of Athens, realizing that it is his son
Polynices, but Theseus and Antigone convince Oedipus to hear what his son has to say. They insist that one
should listen to reason rather than bear old grudges. Although Oedipus disagrees in principle, he consents
to listen to Polynices if Theseus promises to protect Oedipus from possible abduction. Theseus gives
Oedipus his word and exits. The Chorus gathers around Oedipus and sings that to never be born is best, but
that if one must be born, a short life is preferable to a long one, for life is unbearable and only death brings
peace.
Polynices cries out in pity at the family’s fate and swears that he regrets allowing Oedipus to be
sent away from Thebes. He tells of how his brother, Eteocles, bribed the men of Thebes to turn against him,
and how he now plans to regain his throne by force, sending seven armies against the seven doors of
Thebes. Oedipus refuses to answer his son, but the Chorus pleads for him to speak. He responds that he
wishes he had never set eyes upon Polynices, and that it is quite fitting that Polynices now suffers the same
exile and sorrow to which he condemned his father. Eteocles and Polynices will each die by the other’s
hand, he says, for that is the curse Oedipus put on them when they exiled him from Thebes. Polynices,
realizing that he’ll never win his father’s support, turns to his sisters, whom he asks only for a proper burial
if he is killed in battle. Antigone asks her brother to call off the war, but Polynices argues that his sense of
honor prevents him from such a gesture. Antigone embraces Polynices, saying that he is condemning
himself to death, but he declares that his life rests in the hands of the gods. He prays for the safety of his
sisters, then departs for Thebes.
Terrible thunder crashes, and the Chorus cries out in horror. Oedipus declares that his time of
death has come and sends for Theseus. Awed by the blackening heavens, the Chorus murmurs in confusion.
When Theseus appears, Oedipus informs him that the thunder signals his death, and that Theseus must
carry out certain rites to assure divine protection of his city. Oedipus will lead Theseus to the place where
he will die. No one but the king shall ever know that location—upon his death, each king will pass the
information on to his son. In this way, Theseus’s heirs will always rule over a blessed city. Oedipus then
strides off. The Chorus comes forward to pray for peace and an honorable burial for Oedipus. A messenger
then enters to tell the Chorus what has happened. Oedipus led his friend and daughters to the edge of a
steep descent, and then sent Antigone and Ismene to perform his final libations. When they returned, they
dressed Oedipus in linen, the proper clothing for the dead. The daughters began weeping, and Oedipus
swore that his infinite love would repay all the hardship they had suffered for him. Oedipus and his
daughters embraced, sobbing, until a voice called out from the skies, ordering Oedipus to proceed in his
task. Oedipus made Theseus promise that he would look after his daughters. He then sent the girls away,
taking Theseus with him to the place where he was meant to die. When Antigone and Ismene returned,
Theseus stood shielding his eyes, and Oedipus had disappeared. Theseus then bent down to kiss the ground
and pray to the gods.
Just as the messenger finishes his story, Antigone and Ismene come onstage, chanting a dirge.
Antigone wails that they will cry for Oedipus for as long as they live. Not knowing where to turn, Antigone
says the girls will have to wander alone forever. Theseus enters, asking the daughters to stop their weeping.
They beg to see their father’s tomb, but the king insists that Oedipus has forbidden it. They cease their
pleas, but ask for safe passage back to Thebes so that they may prevent a war between their brothers.
Theseus grants them this, and the Chorus tells the girls to desist from crying, for all events in life occur
according to the will of the gods. Theseus and the Chorus exit toward Athens; Antigone and Ismene head
for Thebes.
PLATO - APOLOGY
The Apology of Socrates is Plato’s account of Socrates’ defense before an Athenian jury and
Athenians citizens, his recommendation for his own sentence, and his response after being sentenced to
death. Socrates is brought to trial before the citizens of Athens, accused of not recognizing the gods that are
recognized by the state, inventing new deities, and corrupting the youth of Athens. He apologizes that his
defense speech will be plain and straightforward, as he hasn’t mastered the art of rhetoric employed by so
many politicians. Socrates first denies previous complaints against him: that he gives physical explanations
of divine matters and that he charges a fee for teaching rhetoric. He challenges anyone to testify that he has
ever made any positive claims about the heavens or earth or that he has charged a fee for his teaching.
Socrates surmises that his reputation may have come from a prophecy by the Oracle at Delphi,
which proclaimed he was the wisest of all men. Socrates has always admitted he knows nothing, so he was
puzzled by this prophecy. To test this, Socrates first examined the supposedly wise politicians of Athens
and discovered that they were full of hot air and in fact knew nothing. Next he questioned the poets, only to
find that they were less able than others to explain their own works, leading Socrates to infer that it is not
wisdom but divine inspiration that guides their writing. Then he questioned the craftsmen, who are very
skillful but similar to the politicians in thinking they know all sorts of things they don’t know. Through all
this questioning, Socrates earned many enemies but also concluded that he is wiser than everyone else
because at least he knows that he knows nothing. Socrates calls forth Meletus, his chief accuser, and
questions him about the charges he has laid. Socrates uses a fair bit of bullying and baiting and suggests
Meletus is confused about the teaching of virtue and that he contradicts himself in accusing Socrates both
of atheism and of inventing new gods.
Socrates persists in his practice, even though his life is in danger, because he feels he has a duty to
Apollo. If he fears death, he would be presuming to know what happens after death. Since he cannot know,
it is foolish to fear it, and he shouldn’t avoid acting justly because he’s afraid of dying. The people of
Athens, not Socrates, should fear a death sentence, since they’ll be giving up Socrates’ valuable service.
Socrates compares himself to a gadfly, who stings the lazy horse that is Athens, provoking it into action.
Socrates has stayed away from politics at the warning of an inner voice that keeps him from heading into
danger, a voice he calls a “supernatural sign.” A man like himself would never have lasted in politics, and
so he would have been prevented from offering his services to Athens.
In closing, Socrates points out that the youth he has supposedly corrupted, including Plato, are
upright men who still stand by him. Not even the parents or family of these people claim Socrates is a
corrupting influence. The jury finds him guilty by a vote of 280 to 221, and Socrates is surprised only that
the vote is so close. When asked to suggest a penalty for himself, Socrates first claims that if the
punishment were just he would be celebrated as a hero. More soberly, he rejects prison or exile, preferring
death. He refuses to give up philosophizing, saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates
warns the jury that they are mistaken in thinking that they can silence true and just criticism. They should
try to live better, not kill off their critics.
PLATO - PHAEDO
Socrates had been condemned to commit suicide by drinking hemlock, and a number of his friends
and fellow philosophers had gathered to spend his last hours with him. Phaedo explains that among those
present with him were Crito and two Pythagorean philosophers, Simmias and Cebes. Plato was ill and was
not present.
In Phaedo’s account, Socrates explains to his friends that a true philosopher should look forward to death.
The purpose of the philosophical life is to free the soul from the needs of the body. Since the moment of
death is the final separation of soul and body, a philosopher should see it as the realization of his aim.
Unlike the body, the soul is immortal, so it will survive death. Socrates provides four arguments for
believing the soul is immortal.
Argument from Opposites
Observation that everything comes to be from out of its opposite. Since life and death are opposites, we can
reason analogously that, just as the living become dead, so the dead must become living. Life and death are
in a perpetual cycle such that death cannot be a permanent end.
Theory of Recollection
Assertion that learning is essentially an act of recollecting things we knew before we were born but then
forgot. True knowledge, argues Socrates, is knowledge of the eternal and unchanging forms that underlie
perceptible reality. For example, we are able to perceive that two sticks are equal in length but unequal in
width only because we have an innate understanding of the Form of Equality. That is, we have an innate
understanding of what it means for something to be equal even though no two things we encounter in
experience are themselves perfectly equal. Since we can grasp this Form of Equality even though we never
encounter it in experience, our grasping of it must be a recollection of immortal knowledge we had and
forgot prior to birth. This argument implies that the soul must have existed prior to birth, which in turn
implies that the soul’s life extends beyond that of the body’s.
Argument from Affinity
Distinguishes between those things that are immaterial, invisible, and immortal, and those things that are
material, visible, and perishable. The soul belongs to the former category and the body to the latter. The
soul, then, is immortal, although this immortality may take very different forms. A soul that is not properly
detached from the body will become a ghost that will long to return to the flesh, while the philosopher’s
detached soul will dwell free in the heavens. Both Simmias and Cebes raise objections to these arguments.
Simmias suggests that the soul may be immaterial and invisible in the same way as the attunement of an
instrument. The attunement of the instrument can exist only as long as the instrument itself does. Cebes
accepts that the soul may survive death, but he suggests that Socrates has proved only that the soul lives
longer than the body, not that it is immortal. Socrates responds to Simmias first, pointing out that his
objection conflicts with the Theory of Recollection. The soul is not like the attunement of an instrument
because the soul existed before the body did.
Theory of Forms
A Form, unlike qualities in this world, is perfectly itself and does not admit its opposite. For example, the
Form of Beauty does not possess any ugliness at all. In contrast, a beautiful person might be beautiful
compared to other people but would not seem beautiful compared to a god and thus is not perfectly
beautiful. The Form of Beauty, on the other hand, is always and absolutely beautiful. The soul is what
animates us: we are alive because we have a soul. That concept suggests that the soul is intimately
connected to the Form of Life. Since the Form of Life does not in any way include its opposite—death—
the soul cannot in any way be tainted by death. Thus, Socrates concludes, the soul must be immortal.
Socrates illustrates his conception of the soul by means of a compelling myth that describes the earth we
know as a poor shadow of the “true earth” above us in the heavens. Then he has a bath, says his last goodbyes, drinks the poisonous hemlock, and dies peacefully.
Conclusion
Socrates believes souls return from the world of the dead and that "what we recollect now we must have
learned at some time before," and that "learning is recollection" or recovery of knowledge formerly known
but temporarily forgotten after birth. Socrates proves the immortality of the soul by claiming that absolute
forms do not coexist with their opposites: the soul confers life, the opposite of life is death, thus the soul
will not admit death and is therefore immortal. Souls are imperishable, but nonetheless must be cared for in
life and for all time--the only escape from evil is becoming good.