Book 13: Little Ajax and Idomeneus get a moment to shine in battle
Poseidon Gets Involved
Zeus leaves the Trojans and Greeks to fight it out, with Homer saying that the king of the gods had faith that no other immortal would interfere ... (he has learned absolutely nothing in 13 books).
Poseidon is watching the battle from Samos, a small port in the Thracian territory. He comes out of the water and sits, pitying the Greeks and blaming Zeus for their troubles. In his frustration, the god of the sea gets up and walks three steps into the water, with the fourth landing him in his home at Aigai (an underwater palace, glittering with gold). When he arrives he goes to retrieve his horses, pops on his gold armour, and then drives along the waves. All the sea creatures are described as dancing in his path, with the sea parting for Poseidon to drive through.
Poseidon arrives at a cave between Tenedos and Imbros. Here, he leaves his horses to eat and then goes — without the horses or chariot — to the Greek ships (he couldn’t exactly show up with divine horses as that would be a huge giveaway to his identity). As the Trojans are being rallied by Hector, Poseidon takes on the form of Kalchas and goes to the Greek army.
He first goes to find Ajax squared and tells them that it is up to them to save the Greeks today. It’s their job to stand up against Hector because he’s a madman, and even though it will be difficult, they need to pursue Hector because Zeus spurs on the Trojan prince. Poseidon then hits them(??) with his staff, a motion that encourages them into war, making all their limbs light. Then Poseidon leaves.
Little Ajax speaks first and says (something like) “Look man, we both know that was not Kalchas — that was clearly a god”. He then tells Big Ajax that he’s eager for war, which Big Ajax agrees with. As they’re getting excited for battle, Poseidon moves on to encourage the remainder of the army.
First, the god of the sea goes to Teucer and Leitos, then on to Penelos, Deipyros and Thoas, and finally Meriones and Antilochus. Poseidon says to them (something along the lines of) “SHAME ON YOU!!! Never did I think that the Trojans would be on our ships!!” He says that as a general rule, he does not engage with weak men who hang back from the fighting, and so he must be really mad to entertain such interactions like this one.
More Fighting
The Greeks form strong battalions led by Big and Little Ajax.
Hector leads the Trojans in to attack the Greeks. The army is described as coming down on the Greeks HARD.
The prince of Troy is said to have stopped when faced with the Achaean battalions because he didn’t anticipate the Greeks putting up such a good fight. He turns and screams for the rest of the Trojans to stand with him and face the attack because he knows that Zeus is on their side. This is enough to encourage the army to fight.
Meriones throws his spear at Deiphobos, Priam’s son, and hits his shield, but the spear doesn’t go through it. Instead, Deiphobos walks away, annoyed. Meriones’s spear is broken because of this attack, and so he waltzes back to his ships to retrieve a new weapon.
Teucer kills Imbrios, the son of Mentor. We hear that Imbrios is only at the battle of Troy because he married a bastard child of Priam called Medesikaste, and apparently Priam liked him as if he were one of his own kids. Anyways, Teucer stabs him under the ear with a spear. The Greek then tries to strip him of his armour, but Hector throws a spear at him, which Teucer dodges. The spear goes flying past him and instead hits Amphimachos, son of Kteatos, straight in the chest. Seeing this, Hector comes in to take that guy’s armour, but as he tries, Ajax chucks his spear at the Trojan prince.
The spear fired by Ajax doesn’t hit Hector, but it does pound into his shield, causing him to be thrown back. As Hector recovers his balance, Stichios and Menestheus go in and drag Amphimachos back towards the ships.
Ajax squared start to strip Imbrios of his armour. Little Ajax is so mad that he hacks off Imbrios’ head and chucks it into the mass of Trojan fighters. The head rolls all the way to where Hector is standing, knocking against his feet.
Idomeneus & Meriones In The Camp
Poseidon has been watching this battle wage on, and he’s now mad that the Trojans killed his grandson. And so, he goes to the Greek ships and decides to spur them all on to fight this war for him.
Cut to Idomeneus now, and he is minding his own business as he walks back towards the battlefield after instructing the healers to take care of his injured friend. Along the way he encounters Poseidon in the form of Thoas. The disguised god of the sea basically calls Idomeneus out, saying (something along the lines of) “Remember when you said all those threats against the Trojans? Where’s that energy now??”
Idomeneus replies calmly (with something like) “Ya, ya I’ll get there. Big man upstairs wants us all to die anyways, so there’s no rush. But you keep rallying people up like you always do and I’ll follow along doing my own thing”.
Poseidon isn’t exactly happy about this response and threatens that anyone who fails to fight in the battles will never return home. Instead, their fate will be to die on the plains of Troy and become food for the dogs. Idomeneus shrugs, goes back to his tent, and picks up two spears.
As he’s leaving the tent, he runs into Meriones who was on his way to grab a new spear himself. Seeing Meriones causes Idomeneus to worry that his right hand man is injured, however Meriones explains that he’s only left the battle to replace a broken spear. Idomeneus offers for Meriones to use any of his spears as he’s taken them all from men he has killed in the war. Despite being flattered, Meriones says he too has many spoils from war and would prefer to just use one of his own.
Meriones takes the chance to tell Idomeneus that he doesn’t care if the other Greek soldiers are unaware of his skill in battle, but he does care that Idomeneus doesn’t seem to remember how hands-on he is. Idomeneus says he knows exactly how good Meriones is in battle, but doesn’t quite understand why he needs to speak of it. He claims that this is how children speak, bigging each other up in this way, and so instructs Meriones to go and grab a spear already so that they can go out into battle and fight.
Back on the field, Idomeneus and Meriones need to decide where is best to engage in fighting. Meriones asks Idomeneus to choose, and so Idomeneus takes a close look around them. He notices the Ajaxes and Teucer in the middle defending the ships, and claims they’re good enough to give Hector a hard time without their assistance. The Cretan concludes that it would be best for them to stand on the far left of the army and defend that particular area, so Meriones leads the way. The rest of Idomeneus’ men on the field see them moving and so follow closely behind.
More fighting ... again
Homer notes the severity of the battle as two sons of Kronos (Zeus and Poseidon) are fighting each other through these mortals. Zeus is said to be encouraging the Trojans despite knowing full well that the Greeks were going to win the war, acting in this way with the primary intention of honouring the deal he made with Thetis. Poseidon, on the other hand, just hated seeing the Greeks getting crushed and so continued to spur them on. Poseidon is also noted as being so terrified of Zeus’ wrath that he has an invisible disguise on, meaning that he comes out of the sea completely unnoticed by anyone at all.
On the battlefield, Idomeneus leads the Greeks against the Trojans. He kills Othryoneus (the guy who had asked to marry the Trojan princess Cassandra, however, didn’t have a bride price and so asked Priam if he could just fight in the war and win her hand that way) by stabbing him in the belly with his spear.
Idomeneus starts dragging Othryoneus’s body back to the Greek ships, but Asios sees him doing this and tries to stab him … but he misses. In retaliation, Idomeneus stabs Asios just under the chin and the spear goes clean through Asios’ flesh.
Antilochus stabs a man who is close behind Asios. He aims his spear at the guy’s belly, hits the mark, and the guy falls out of the chariot. Antilochus takes his horses.
Deiphobos runs into the scene to avenge Asios. He fires his spear at Idomeneus, but it turns out Idomeneus has a pretty impressive shield too (not as impressive as Big Ajax’s but still pretty decent) which blocks the attack. The spear hits the shield, the shield lets out a noisy vibration, and then the spear bounces off and ends up hitting Hypsenor in the liver. Deiphobos exclaims (something like) “Now Asios lies not unavenged!” Naturally, the Greeks are pretty upset by this. Antilochus runs over to Hypsenor and protects his body with his shield, giving Mekisteus (son of Echios) and Alastor time to go pick up Hypsenor’s body and bring it back to the ship.
Idomeneus faces off with Alkathoos (the son-in-law of Anchises and therefore Aeneas’ brother-in-law via his sister, Hippodameia) and Homer tells us Poseidon beat Alkathoos down through Idomeneus’ strength. Idomeneus stabs him in the middle of his chest.
The Cretan gets a little too cocky after this, calling out to Deiphobos (something along the lines of) “Why don’t you come out here and fight me!” As he taunts Deiphobos, Deiphobos’s heart is divided on whether to go in for the kill or not. He decides to not go in and fight Idomeneus, instead running off to find Aeneas to let him know that Idomeneus killed his brother-in-law.
Aeneas is FUMING when he finds out what Idomeneus has done. He marches right over to the Cretan but Idomeneus stands his ground. Idomeneus calls out for Askalaphos, Aphareus, Deipyros, Meriones and Antilochus to act as his back up, whereas Aeneas calls out to Paris, Deiphobos and Agenor to support him.
Aeneas is the first to fire at Idomeneus, but Idomeneus dodges it. The Cretan then hits this guy called Oinomaos in the belly and this man’s guts ooze onto the ground. Idomeneus could not strip the armour before the other Trojans start attacking him and, in the thick of the frenzy, Deiphobos aims his spear at Idomeneus … only to miss again! Instead, Deiphobos hits Askalaphos (son of Ares) in the shoulder, and he dies (fortunately, Ares is too busy sitting down so doesn’t realise that his son has been killed).
Deiphobos goes over to take Askalaphos’ helmet, but Meriones sees this and walks over to stab Deiphobos in the arm. The helmet drops from Deiphobos's hand, Meriones goes in to get his spear OUT OF Deiphobos arm (because it’s literally stuck in there), and then he returns back to the Greeks. Deiphobos’ brother, Polites, goes to collect Deiphobos and pops him in a chariot to take him safely back to Troy.
Aeneas now lunges after Aphareus, son of Kaletor, and stabs him in the throat.
Antilochus slashes Thoon’s neck, and runs over to try and get his armour — but the Trojans are too quick, surround him and start attacking. Luckily for Nestor’s son, the Trojans are unable to get through his strong armour. Adamas, son of Asios, stabs Antilochus' shield right in the middle, but Poseidon causes the Trojan’s spear to break. Adamas then shrinks back into the group of Trojans but Meriones sees this and throws his spear so it hits Adamas between the navel and the genitals. He dies.
Helenos then hits Deipyros in the temple with his sword and breaks the helmet to pieces. Deipyros dies.
Menelaus sees this and is NOT happy. While he charges at Helenos with his spear, Helenos pulls up his bow to defend himself. They both fire at one another at the same time: Menelaus gets hit in the chest, but the bow bounces off of his corslet. Unfortunately for Helenos, Menelaus’ spear goes straight through his hand. Helenos doesn’t die, but is severely injured.
Peisandros now goes to fight Menelaus. The son of Atreus initially throws his spear at the Trojan but misses, and so Peisandros stabs Menelaus’s shield (the spear breaks before it does any damage). Menelaus then takes out his sword and Peidandros pulls out his axe. They both attack each other, and Peisandros slices a bit of the horse hair off of Menelaus’s helmet, whereas Menelaus stabs the Trojan in the forehead and blood oozes over his eyes. Menelaus takes his armour, says this long-winded speech about how much the Trojans suck, and then hands the armour back to some other Greek soldier who then brings it back to the ships.
Harpalion now jumps in to face off with Menelaus. He stabs Menelaus’s shield but could not push the spear through. Realising that this was a dumb idea, Harpalion tries to retreat, but Meriones is watching him closely. Meriones fires an arrow with such force that the arrow goes into Harpalion’s ass and through to his bladder. Obviously he dies on the spot and his body is brought back to Troy.
Paris gets angry at this and so decides to fire an arrow at the Greeks himself. He hits this guy called Euchenor in the jaw, and Euchenor dies.
Hector, meanwhile, has no idea that any of this is going on. He’s still in the same place we last left him, by the ships of Big Ajax. There the Boeotians, Ionians, Lokrians, Phthians and Epeians try to hold the prince of Troy back — but even as a combined force, these men are still struggling. The Athenian men there were led by Menestheus, while the Epeians were led by Meges and Medon (Medon is actually the bastard son of Oileus making him Little Ajax’s half-brother).
Over to Big & Little Ajax, the pair are actually a good tag team considering Little Ajax’s men are known for their archery, whereas Big Ajax’s men are known for their close combat skills.
Thanks to Little Ajax’s men, the Trojans are getting rained on by arrows. The attack is so intense that the Trojans would have retreated had not Poulydamas intervened and spoken to Hector. He accuses the Trojan prince of being stubborn for not advising his men to leave the onslaught. Surely the best option would be to fall back and discuss an attack strategy?? Instead of listening, Hector says (something like) “One second — I have one last thing to do” and leaves. In his absence, a bunch of men go to huddle around Poulydamas.
Hector attempts to find Asios and Adamas, but quickly sees their bodies lying on the stern of the Greek boats. The prince of Troy ends up spotting Paris fighting off the Greeks, and so he walks over to chat with him. Hector yells his irritation at his brother, to which Paris replies with (something like) “Alright, you’re now blaming me for something that is NOT my fault!”.
Zeus continues to stir on many of the Trojans in battle, including Kebriones, Poulydamas, Phalkes, Orthaios, Polyphetes, Palmys, Askanios and Morys.
Ajax steps forward to scream at the Trojans to go away and stop bothering them.
Hector challenges what Ajax says, telling him that he will be killed along with every other Greek present. This threat rallies up the best of the Trojans, and they all move in to attack the Greeks. The Greeks fight back as best they can.
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Thumbnail Image: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255939
Terracotta kylix (drinking cup). Attributed to the Amasis Painter ca. 540 BCE. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 154
“Obverse, Poseidon, the god of the seas, among Greek warriors
Reverse, the stables of Poseidon. The subjects are drawn from book 13 of Homer's Iliad. Poseidon, seeing the Greeks hard-pressed, decided to help renew their valor. At his underwater palace, he ordered his chariot prepared so that he could ride to their aid. On one side of this cup, an atmosphere of feverish excitement reigns in the stables as grooms attempt to soothe four high-strung horses tethered to columns. Supernatural forces seem to have been unleashed: tiny figures race over the horses' backs and swing down from the architectural frieze above. On the other side of the cup, Poseidon, carrying a trident, urges on the Greek heroes.” (Copied from the Met Museum website).