Book 8: More fighting - but this time the Trojan’s come out on top
Zeus Bans The Gods From Intervening
It’s now dawn and the action focuses on Mount Olympus. Zeus makes a speech to the other gods, stating that if any one of them interferes with the fighting there will be serious trouble. In fact, Zeus is so serious about this that he threatens to whip the deities who choose to get involved … or send them down to Hades. Hearing this, all the gods are scared into silence.
Well, everyone except Athena. Athena says that Zeus doesn’t need to threaten them as everyone knows how strong he is, and they all agree not to get involved. In saying that, Athena does suggest that she should be allowed to put “good counsel” in the Greek men so that not all of them will die just because Zeus is kind of mad.
Now satisfied that the gods won’t get down into the fighting, Zeus puts on gold attire, goes to see his gold-dressed horses (with manes of gold, too), hops into the chariot and goes to Mount Ida. He decides to watch the fighting from there by himself.
The Trojans Start Winning
Back with the mortals, the battle begins and people start dying (no one specifically mentioned right now).
From Mount Ida, Zeus takes up his scales and weighs the Trojan deaths and Greek deaths against one another. The Greek side falls towards the earth indicating that the war was in the Trojan’s favour that day. The king of the gods sent out a sign through the sky to show the mortals which way the battle would sway.
Seeing this, the Greeks became so terrified that they decide not to stick around; it’s noted that Idonmeneus, Ajax squared and Agamemnon turn to go back to the camps. Only old man Nestor stays where he was, his horse (as a result) getting shot with an arrow by Paris. The arrow is described as hitting the horse where there is the most hair, and the arrow goes straight into its brain.
Hector sees that Nestor is now vulnerable and so moves in to finish the old man off. Had Diomedes not seen Hector barreling towards them, Nestor would have been killed.
Realising that he’s alone with Nestor, Diomedes cries out to Odysseus (something along the lines of) “WHERE ARE YOU RUNNING TO!? These men out here are going to stab you in the back and kill you! You may as well stay here and fight, not run like a coward!” But alas, despite Diomedes’ efforts, Odysseus takes no notice of him and continues to run to safety.
Diomedes goes to get Nestor and tells him that the Trojans he’s facing are way more powerful than he is. He has Nestor get into his chariot (we get a note here that the horses on Diomedes’ chariot are the ones he took from Aeneas) and instructs Sthenelos and Eurymedon to come onto the field to take away Nestor’s surviving horses.
The old king of Pylos gets into the chariot with Diomedes — Diomedes takes on the role of attacker, whereas Nestor acts as the driver. As they get closer to Hector, Diomedes throws an unspecified weapon (probably a spear) at the Trojan prince, but it hits his driver, Eniopeus, in the chest next to his nipple. As a result, he dies.
Hector only seems ever so slightly upset about his charioteer dying. Almost immediately he finds one to replace Eniopeus — a man named Archepyolemos.
Since Diomedes is on the battlefield and in fighting position, Homer tells us that there would have been a number of deaths by his hand had not Zeus thrown a lightning bolt in front of Diomedes’ chariot to remind him of his place. The horses get scared by this, which causes Nestor to let go of the reins.
Nestor looks towards Diomedes and points out that the lightning bolt is clearly Zeus. Diomedes begrudgingly agrees that he shouldn’t get involved, however expresses that if Hector attempts to say that Diomedes willingly ran from him, then Diomedes would rather the earth swallow him whole than return to the camp. Nestor replies with (something along the lines of) “Don’t worry, if Hector says that then no one is going to believe him because of everything you’ve already done here at Troy”. With that, the pair decide to return to the Greek ships.
As they’re riding away, Hector does exactly what Diomedes fears: he yells after the chariot that Diomedes is a coward for running. From the chariot, Diomedes hears this and seriously considered turning his horses back around to slaughter Hector for it. In fact, three times he thought about it, and each time Zeus literally let rip a massive thunderclap to warn him not to.
Seeing the various thunderclaps, Hector turns to the Trojan army and alerts them all to the obvious fact that Zeus is on their side. He also takes the chance to insult the Greek camp’s flimsy wall and further claims that he’s going to jump over the puny ditch they dug. Hector also instructs one of his men to bring fire so that they can burn all the Greek ships once they get there.
Cut to Hera overhearing this little speech and she is NOT happy. Homer describes her as sitting on her throne on Olympus, literally shaking with rage.
Left with no other choice, Hera yells for Poseidon. She encourages him to abandon the Trojans as it’s the Greeks who constantly honour him as a god. She ends her yelling by suggesting that the pair of them need to put Zeus in his place.
Realising what Hera’s just said, Poseidon turns to her and says (something like) “You want to fight Zeus ARE YOU NUTS!?!?!”
Agamemnon Gets Desperate
While the gods are bickering, the Trojans have now advanced to reach the ditch which is just outside the walls of the Greek camp. We are told that Zeus is actively aiding Hector in battle, and Homer says that the Trojans are so close to the Greek ships they could have burned them. However, Hera notices this and she infuses Agamemnon with the bravery to run and encourage the Greeks to fight for their ground.
Agamemnon gets to the middle of the camp and yells at the army. He says (something like) “The hell happened to all of you!?!?! A few days ago we were beating them back in their dozens and now we can’t face ONE MAN!? Not a single one of you wants to take on HECTOR!?” The son of Atreus then questions Zeus by saying that the Greeks have always tended to his temples and never missed making a sacrifice to him. In all his frustration, Agamemnon begs Zeus to help the Greeks.
Zeus sees Agamemnon weeping and takes pity on him. He sends an eagle as a sign to let the Greeks know that he has heard Agamemnon and he will not totally abandon them. The Greeks see the sign and suddenly get all their courage back.
More War!
All the Greeks now hop on their chariots to start fighting the Trojans. Unsurprisingly, Diomedes is the first to meet them, killing a chief of the Trojans, Agelaos. As Agelaos was turning, Diomedes’ spear hit him between the shoulders and it went straight through him, coming out the other side.
We then cut to Menelaus, Agamemnon, Idomeneus, Meriones, and Ajax squared gathering their strength. They’re joined by Eurypulos and Teucer/Teukros (both spellings are correct).
Teucer hides behind Big Ajax’s shield, and Homer describes him as being like a child running back to his mother every time he takes cover behind it. Despite the slightly insulting comment by Homer, Teucer kills a bunch of men: Orsilochos, Ormenos and Opheleste, Daitor and Chromios, Lykophontes, Amopaon and Melanippos.
Agamemnon sees this, waltzes over to say well done, and tells us that Teucer and Big Ajax are half brothers as both of them have the same father (Teucer even grew up in the same house as Big Ajax). Agamemnon also says that this is bringing great honour to their father, and when Agamemnon sacks Troy he promises to give Teucer a really nice gift and a hot lady on the side for good measure.
Teucer says that he’s thankful, however doesn’t feel as though he’s deserving of this promise since he has yet to hit Hector. He even demonstrates this by firing an arrow straight for the Trojan prince — but it misses! Instead, it hits a different son of Priam, named Gorythion (a bastard son, so his mother is not Hecuba), square in the chest. Teucer then lets rip another arrow straight for Hector, but this time Apollo bats it away so that it struck Archeptolemos, Hector’s charioteer, and kills him. He really can not catch a break.
Hector’s point of view shows that he, again, is briefly saddened that his new charioteer is dead. But have no fear! He calls to his brother Kebriones (who just happened to be close by) and has him now take up the reins. The third time’s the charm, right?
Despite just getting a new charioteer, Hector jumps from his chariot and zeros in on Teucer. As Teucer is setting up his bow and pulling it back, Hector launches the rock straight into Tecuer’s collarbone area. The rock hits him, and Teucer drops his bow. Big Ajax sees this and runs over to cover Teucer with his shield. While he’s holding down the fort, two men called Mekisteus and Alastor come behind the shield to take Teucer back to camp.
Zeus is now described as filling the Trojans with fury and — as a result — they begin to push back on the Greeks once more. The Trojans do this so effectively that they push the Greeks against their own ships. The Greeks start praying to the gods for a way out.
Hera sees the Trojan advances, takes pity on the Greeks, and immediately goes to find Athena. She says that the pair of them should feel shame for abandoning the Greeks, but Athena reminds her that Zeus is technically the one to blame for this. She states that Zeus has seemingly forgotten all the times that she helped his son Herakles all because Thetis came and hugged his knees. Athena basically works herself up as she speaks, to the point where Hera starts bridling the horses and Athena walks off to change back into Zeus’ war tunic.
Zeus sees Hera and Athena gearing up and he is MAD. He sends Iris to warn the pair that he will literally attack his own family to remind them of how serious his threats were (strangely enough, he does highlight that he’s not all that mad at Hera because he expected this behaviour from her).
Iris flies from Mount Ida over to Mount Olympus to deliver this message. She tells Hera that Zeus will hurl Athena from her chariot and have no problem causing her wounds. But not just any wounds: Zeus has said that the wounds he will inflict on Athena will be untreatable for ten years. And so, if she so goes off into battle against him right now … well, that’s what she’s risking. Iris leaves before hearing a response. Hera calls off the mission.
The gods have called a meeting, and so Zeus returns to Mount Olympus. Poseidon takes Zeus’ horses from his chariot while the king of the gods goes to sit on his throne. Athena and Hera don’t even make eye contact with him, still bitter about him threatening to hurl Athena from her chariot.
Zeus notices this passive-aggressive behaviour and so he speaks to them first. Athena and Hera sit together muttering, not replying to him or speaking loud enough for anyone else to hear.
While Athena begins to sulk, Hera’s anger gets the better of her. The queen of the gods says (something along the lines of) “WE ALREADY KNOW HOW STRONG YOU ARE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO PROVE IT!” But she does say that they will stay out of the fighting, so long as they can continue to put “good counsel” into the Greeks’ hearts.
The king of the gods warns his wife that the following day, she will see one of his sons killing many of the Greeks. Much the same as when he will have to watch Hector die by Achilles’ hand after Hector kills Patroclus. Zeus explains that that is how fate works, and so doesn’t care for her anger.
Nighttime is now falling over the mortals. Hector holds an assembly with the Trojans and, leaning on his super fancy golden spear, speaks to the army. The Trojan prince says that it’s dinnertime and that they should eat. He says that tomorrow he will know if he is destined to kill Diomedes (still a priority for the Trojans*) but hopes it is sooner rather than later.
The Trojans then make sacrifices to the gods. Homer tells us that after this sacrifice the Trojans lit a thousand fires, with fifty men sitting around each of them.
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Thumbnail Image: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251485
Marble head and torso of Athena. Roman 1st–2nd century CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 159
“The goddess Athena is rendered as a beautiful young woman. The lining of her helmet—which was pushed up on the top of her head—appears above her hair. The protective aegis (goatskin) with the Gorgon's head in the center is reduced to a kind of collar that permits the torso and garment to be articulated. The original Greek work was probably executed in bronze.” (Copied from the Met Museum website).