Book 19: Achilles And Agamemnon Make Up
Thetis delivers the armour
With the new armour in tow, Thetis arrives at the Greek ships. She finds Achilles wrapped up in Patroclus’ arms crying his eyes out, his companions still surrounding them in mourning. Thetis goes to stand by Achilles and tells him that he must accept that Patroclus is dead … BUT, to lighten the mood, she has gifts from Hephaestus! She sets down the armour on the ground in front of Achilles and stands back to let it shine.
Achilles picks up the armour and looks at it, then turns to Thetis to say that he’s worried about Patroclus’ body. If he is not there to protect it, flies and worms may get to his open wounds and destroy the corpse. Thetis tells him not to worry because she won’t let that happen, then prompts him to call an assembly and make peace with Agamemnon. Once the pair have put aside their differences, Achilles should armour up and go fight.
When Achilles leaves, Thetis puts ambrosia and nectar into Patroclus’ nostrils to protect his flesh.
Achilles and Agamemnon make Ammends
Achilles walks along the beach and lets out a great cry to stir up the Greeks for an assembly. Everyone shows up — even Diomedes and Odysseus come limping over to the meeting, leaning on spears to support their injured bodies. A wounded Agamemnon waddles over and enters the meeting last (we’re reminded that Koon stabbed him — remember that? No?? Well I definitely discussed it in detail).
Once everyone gets settled, Achilles stands up to speak. He says that he and Agamemnon fought over a girl and now he wishes that Artemis had killed Briseis beside their ships because it’s all her fault that so many Greeks have fallen … which is absolutely not the case but alas, that is Achilles’ way of patching this argument up. He states that now is the time for him and Agamemnon to put their anger aside because he fears that the future generations will only remember their disagreement (little does he know!). Achilles wants this to be a thing of the past and says that if they can overcome this, he’s ready to go up against the Trojans in battle again. Of course, all the Greeks are pretty happy to hear this.
Agamemnon gets up and blames the goddess Delusion, the eldest daughter of Zeus, for confusing him AND Zeus in this scenario because if it was not for her, he would not have acted in such a way. He then brings up this totally pointless conversation that Zeus and Hera had after Herakles was born to prove that Delusion corrupted Zeus then, and now similarly she has gotten to Agamemnon in this situation. He closes his speech by saying that he has loads of gifts for Achilles and that he’ll have his men bring them from his ship over to the Myrmidon’s encampment.
Achilles tells Agamemnon that if he wishes to give him gifts that’s fine, but lets the king of Mycenae know that he doesn’t have to. Now is the time to go back into war — not give gifts!
Odysseus interjects and reminds Achilles that the men haven’t eaten, so right now may not be the best time to return to war. He suggests that Achilles tell all the men to eat first since there’s no way that they’ll be able to fight all day long without some fuel. He also suggests that if Agamemnon is adamant about the gifts, he should have his men bring them to the middle of the assembly so that the entire Greek army can see them. He further suggests that Agamemnon should swear an oath to Achilles saying he never slept with Briseis, and then to have Agamemnon “appease” Achilles with a meal in his shelter. Odysseus wraps this up by turning to Agamemnon and warning him not to act in this way again since he’s the one who started the argument in the first place.
Agamemnon says he’s pleased with what Odysseus has said and that he’s going to do everything he suggested. In addition, he asks Odysseus to choose which Greeks will go and get the gifts for Achilles from Agamemnon’s ships. In the meantime, Talthybios will get a boar ready for the feast and dedicate it to Zeus and Helios.
Achilles comes back into the conversation and tells Agamemnon to do all of this gift-giving-custom-thing another time. He agrees that everyone should eat and that that should be the main focus of the army, but also states that he will not eat because he’s still mourning Patroclus. Odysseus replies and basically says it’s fine if Achilles doesn’t eat, but everyone else has to … and so that’s what’s going to happen.
Odysseus goes with Meges, Meriones, Thoas, Lykomedes, and Melanippos to retrieve the gifts Agamemnon wants to give Achilles. The gifts are: 7 tripods, 20 shining cauldrons, 12 horses, 7 women (the 8th of whom was Briseis) and 10 talents of gold.
When these are brought back, Agamemnon sacrifices the boar (the one Talthybios was just instructed to go and get) and prays to Zeus, swearing that he never laid a hand on Briseis. He says that if this is falsely sworn then the gods should inflict him with many griefs.
Achilles then says that without Zeus’ delusions on Agamemnon, their argument would have never happened and many of the Greeks wouldn’t have fallen unjustly in battle (… right). He then prompts everyone to disperse from the meeting and eat dinner.
Briseis & Achilles continue to mourn Patroclus
The assembly breaks up and all the men return to their ships, with the Myrmidons taking all the presents for Achilles back with to their end of camp.
Once back at the ships, Briseis walks over to see the body of Patroclus. She erupts into mourning: she cries and her hands tear at her breasts, her throat, and her forehead. She then speaks directly to Patroclus, saying that when she was being taken from her town and watching her family get murdered by Achilles, Patroclus would not let her break down and be sad. It was Patroclus who comforted her, telling her that she would become Achilles’ wife and that he would take her back to Phthia to formalise the marriage in order to keep her safe. Patroclus was always kind to her, and that is why she now weeps for him. Around her, all the women join Briseis in her lament.
Meanwhile, the Greeks try to get Achilles to eat but he refuses. He states that he will only eat in the evening when the sun goes down. On this note, most of the men leave him in peace — all except Menelaos, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Nestor, Idomeneus, and Phoinix. The men stay with the intention of comforting Achilles in his time of sorrow.
Despite this, Homer tells us that — unfortunately — Achilles could not be comforted until his return to battle.
Achilles says he’s denying the food and drink in front of him because he longs for Patroclus. For Patroclus to die is worse than if Achilles had heard of his father’s death back home, or even worse than hearing of the death of his son Neoptolemos — this is because Achilles had planned a whole life with Patroclus, including having Patroclus bring Neoptolemos from Skyros (where the kid lives) to Phthia. And so Achilles mourns, knowing that he too will die and that his father, Peleus, will mourn in the same way that he is now.
Seeing all of this, Zeus takes pity on them and speaks to Athena. He says (something along the lines of) “Why have you abandoned the man of your choice!! Don’t you worry for Achilles!?” Zeus highlights that Achilles is literally fasting because he’s so sad, and of course this will make him weaker in battle. Therefore, he tells Athena to go to Achilles and distil nectar and ambrosia in his chest so he doesn’t feel the weakness of hunger.
Eager Athena takes on the guise of a hawk and flies down to where Achilles is. She settles close by as the Greeks are arming themselves for battle and drops some ambrosia and nectar into the breast of Achilles before swiftly flying off.
Homer describes the order with which Achilles puts on his shiny new armour, and then how he bridles his horses. Achilles cries out to the horses (something like) “Xanthos, Balios, Bay and Drapple, make sure you bring your charioteer back to the Greeks and not leave him DEAD like you did Patroclus!!!”
Then … mythology hits one of its whackiest points. The horses — yes Achilles’ horses — reply. Hera enchants the animals with voices, allowing them to comfort Achilles and assure him that he will make it back to the camps. HOWEVER, This speech ends on a super eerie note with the horses prophesising Achilles death (not in detail — they just says he’ll be killed).
Naturally, Achilles is pretty miffed that the horses have the audacity to speak of his own death at a time like this. He replies (something along the lines of) “Uhm excuse me?? I know this, there’s no need to bring it up right now because I’m not stopping until the Trojans have killed me”. And with that, he yells at the horses for them to go.
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