Book 12: The Trojans attack the greeks at the walls
The Trojans Figure Out The Best Way To Attack
As Patroclus is helping Eurypylos, the Greeks and the Trojans continued to fight on the battlefield.
Homer tells us that since the Greeks did not honour the gods as they were constructing the ditch outside the camp walls, the fortification is doomed to fall. He says that so long as Hector is still alive, the city of Troy is not defeated and so long as Achilles remains angry, the walls will stand — however, as soon as one of these ceases to be true, the fortifications will fail. Homer tells us that Apollo and Poseidon will be the gods to oversee this, letting loose the strength of rivers upon it. Apollo — with Zeus’s help — will turn the mouths of the rivers together for nine days to bash against the wall and Poseidon will guide the waters to ensure everything is destroyed. Once the wall is reduced to rumble, the waters will calm.
The Trojans, with the help of Zeus, push the Greeks back to the ships. Hector is noted as constantly rallying up the troops to keep them encouraged in battle and continue adding pressure to the Greek soldiers. However, when the Trojan horses reach the ditch, they get scared of its vast size and refuse to cross it into Greek territory (this is also because there were large, pointy sticks coming out of the ditch which are probably worth mentioning).
Seeing this reaction, Poulydamas comes to stand by Hector and claims that the army’s best bet is to leave the horses on one side of the ditch and instead attack on foot. He suggests that the most logical route to success is to have Hector lead the troops in carrying out this mission. Obviously, this pleases Hector.
Hector then orders the army to dismount from their chariots and assemble on the ground. The soldiers are split into five groups, each one assigned a leader, and ordered to attack the Greeks in this formation. The largest of these groups is by Hector and Poulydamas (Kebriones also leads as a third in command). Paris then leads the next group with Agenor and Alkathoos, and the third group is led by Helenos, along with Deiphobos and Asios. Aeneas leads the fourth group with Akamas and Archelochos by his side, and the final group is led by Sarpedon, Glaukos and Asteropaios.
All were ready to attack as Hector commanded … well, all apart from Asios, son of Hyrtakos. Asios refuses to leave his horses, and so decides to lead his men around the side of the Greek ships. He believed that he is able push into the camps this way, but as he approaches the gates, he sees Polypoites and Leonteus. These two watchmen tell the rest of the Greek soldiers about the attack, and those who are near this portion of the wall begin pounding the Trojans with rocks. Asios has a moment where he looks up to the sky, beats his breast and says (something like) “Zeus — you tricked me! I didn’t think the Greeks could stand their ground!!!” Unfortunately for Asios, Zeus doesn’t care one bit. The Greek Polypoites kills Damasos by stabbing him in the head so deep that his brain splatters out. He then kills Pylon and Ormenos. Leonteus then gets rid of Hippomachos and Antiphates, then Menon, and finally Orestes and Iamenos. To summarise, this mini-Trojan attack was a total failure on Asios’ part.
The Bird Sign
We cut back to Hector and the gang to see a bird sign appear to them: an eagle carrying a gigantic snake in its talons. The snake is bloody but still alive, and to pry itself from the eagle’s grasp, the snake reaches its head up to strike the bird. The eagle reacts in pain, dropping its bloodied prey from its grasp, and then leaves. The Trojans shivered watching the snake fall.
Poulydamas comes to stand by Hector and tells him how the sign should be interpreted. He suggests that the Greeks are the snake and the Trojans are the eagle, meaning that they, too, think that they will defeat their prey today, but will ultimately fail. Hearing this, Hector retaliates and says that Poulydamas’ interpretation is, quite frankly, bogus. If Poulydamas assumes that Hector is going to trust a stupid bird over the knowledge that the king of the gods is actively helping them, then he’s nuts. With that, Hector leads the army towards the Greek ships and up to the gates of the camp.
The Greeks Go on the Defence … but it doesn’t end well
Both Big and Little Ajax are walking along the top of their camp wall, urging the Greek soldiers to continue their defence. The Greeks are raining rocks down on the Trojans beneath them, and, to be fair to the Trojans, they do manage to fire a fair few back at the exposed Greeks.
Zeus now gets involved to infuse his son Sarpedon with an intense hunger for war. Sarpedon goes to speak to Glaukos, saying that it’s their job to stand up in the battle and gain great glory and reputation. Glaukos nods and joins the son of Zeus in leading the Lykians against the Greeks.
The Greek soldier Menestheus shivers in fear when he sees the Lykians approaching. He frantically looks around for help, sees Ajax squared and Teucer doing their thing in the corner, and tries to yell to them for help. Unfortunately, Menestheus’s voice wasn’t loud enough to reach them over the clamour of war. In a fit of panic, he turns to a man named Thootes and instructs him to run to the Ajaxes and ask them to come and assist with the Lykian attack. But if they can’t fully give up their fighting position, then Thootes is ordered to at least have Big Ajax come with Teucer and leave Little Ajax where he is.
Thootes runs over to the Ajaxes and relays exactly what we just heard. Big Ajax calls to Little Ajax and tells him that he’s dipping out to help Menestheus, so Little Ajax will be left with Lykomedes to defend the walls. Big Ajax leaves, taking Teukros and Pandion with him.
Once they reach their new station, Big Ajax is the first to sink his teeth into the killing, attacking Sarpedon’s comrade, Epikles. Ajax throws a giant rock at the Lykian and it hits Epikles in the head, shattering his skull. Teucer hits Glaukos as he sees the Lykian attempting to scale the wall, and in response, Glaukos retreats back down to the ground. Sarpedon notices Glaukos’ retreat but remains where he is fighting.
Sarpedon kills Alkmaon by stabbing him with his spear. Seeing this, Ajax and Teucer take aim at Sarpedon, but Zeus brushes off any attempts to kill his son. Sarpedon gets flustered by the onslaught, and so turns round to his men and yells (something like) “UH, HELLO — I CAN’T DO THIS ALL ALONE!?!? WHERE IS MY BACK UP!?!” In response, the Lykians start pushing forward which causes the Greeks to adopt a harsher defence.
Homer tells us that neither side was strong enough to overcome the other during this back-and-forth fighting.
Hector is the first to push through the walls. He takes a huge stone and chucks it against the gate (which has a tiny useless “pin bolt” lock on it), breaking the lock and causing the gates to fly open in front of the Trojan soldiers. He instructs the Trojans to enter the camp however they can and set fire to the Greek ships. Seeing this, the Greeks scatter in terror.
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Thumbnail Image: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251473
Marble relief fragment with scenes from the Trojan War
Roman 1st half of 1st century CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 171
“The tabulae iliacae are a series of tablets covered with minuscule relief scenes from the Trojan War, which were evidently inspired by illustrated manuscripts of Homer's epic poem The Iliad. This piece is signed on the back by a Greek artist named Theodoros, to whose workshop all of the surviving examples can be ascribed. He was probably active in Italy, and the tablets show that Homer was as popular with Romans as with Greeks, despite the fact that Virgil's Aeneid, designed to rival the Homeric poems and published by 19 B.C., quickly became the classic work of Latin epic.” (Copied from the Met Museum website).