COMMENTARY ON THE ILIAD: BOOK NINE, A CRUCIAL TURNING POINT IN THE POEM
(all quotations from the Iliad are from the translation of Richmond Lattimore, ©University of Chicago Press, 1951)
THE ASSEMBLY
     When book nine opens, the Greeks have suffered serious reverses.  In book seven, they had to fortify their camp with a wall.  By the end of book eight, Hektor and the Trojans were boldly encamped outside Troy, preparing to attack the Greeks and burn their ships the next day.  The Greeks were dispirited and, as Homer described them, gripped by panic and terror (9.1-3, 13).  The stage seems set for an offer of gifts to restore Achilleus’ honor, end his anger and allow him to return to the fight. Zeus has honored Achilleus, just as Thetis asked (1.508-510), by giving strength to the Trojans and demonstrating unmistakably that the Greeks need Achilleus.  Earlier, Athene had promised Achilleus (1.212-14) that he would eventually receive “three times as many gifts” to compensate for Agamemnon ’s insult.  In fact, Agamemnon makes a huge offer of compensation, but Achilleus rejects it.  He refuses to return to battle, and he shocks the warriors by the intensity of his rage.  Achilleus’ replies hint at the deeper reasons for his anger, and help to explain why it is so longlasting, so difficult to resolve, and a worthy subject for a great epic.
     Agamemnon calls the troops together in an assembly, and Homer uses a simile that cleverly underlines his lack of resolve:
“...Agamemnon stood up before them, shedding tears, like a spring dark-running that down the face of a rock impassable drips its dim water... (9.13-15).”
Agamemnon’s tears are compared to a spring running down the face of a rock, but the comparison also emphasizes, by contrast, what Agamemnon is not: he is anything but a rock in the face of adversity.  Ironically, Agamemnon repeats the words he used earlier (2.111-118/9.18-25) to test the soldiers by proposing to give up the fight and return home.  This time, however, he means it: Agamemnon is ready to abandon the war
     This assembly contrasts with the one in the first book, and it shows how this fragile institution can provide a forum for the warriors to debate decisions and reach compromises through discussion. Diomedes stands up to challenge Agamemnon’s proposal.  “I will be the first to fight with your folly,” he declares (9.32).  At the same time, he must be mindful of how quickly things spun out of control in the earlier assembly once Achilleus attacked Agamemnon for demanding compensation for Chryseis (1.122-29).  Diomedes carefully reminds Agamemnon of his right to speak in the assembly, and, anticipating that Agamemnon will not be pleased by his words, he urges him not to get angry (9.33).
     Even this may not be enough to prevent another deadly quarrel from breaking out, so Diomedes goes further.  He tells Agamemnon , “I was the first of the Danaans whose valour you slighted and said I was unwarlike and without courage.” (9.34-35)  He is reminding Agamemnon of what had happened when the truce between the Trojans and Greeks had been broken by the wounding of Menelaos .  Agamemnon had made the rounds of the troops, rallying them to fight (4.223-250).  When he reached Diomedes and his men (4.365), he found them unaware that the fighting had resumed, and he scolded him (4.370) for being slow to join the battle.  Although Diomedes’ friend, Sthenelos, answered sharply (4.404), Diomedes acknowledged Agamemnon’s right to talk tough in order to motivate them.  Now, Diomedes is asking Agamemnon to understand that it’s his turn to talk tough to prevent him from abandoning the war.
     Diomedes certainly does have harsh words for Agamemnon.  He tells him that Zeus gave him two kinds of gifts, “...with the sceptre he gave you honour beyond all, but he did not give you a heart, and of all power this is the greatest. (9.38-39)”  Simply put, he is saying that Zeus made him king, but denied him the courage to go with his rank.  Diomedes - unlike Achilleus in the first assembly - has done his best to prevent Agamemnon from reacting angrily, but his charge of cowardice or weakness is not likely to sit well with Agamemnon. Nestor steps in before Agamemnon has a chance to respond (9.51).  Nestor, too, has learned something from the earlier assembly.  There, he waited until the quarrel had gotten out of hand: tempers had flared, and Agamemnon and Achilleus had exchanged insults and taken public positions from which they could not back down without loss of face.  By the time Nestor tried to mediate between Achilleus and Agamemnon (1.254-84), it was far too late.
     Nestor uses all of his diplomatic skills to keep Agamemnon in line, and to bring him around to making an offer to Achilleus.  He doesn’t immediately agree with Diomedes’ harsh criticism of Agamemnon; to do so might anger him.  Instead, he first praises Diomedes’ strength and wisdom, and, while addressing Diomedes, he indirectly warns Agamemnon not to respond: “Not one man of all the Achaians will belittle your words nor speak against them. (9.55-56)”  He also indicates that more needs to be said, the first hint that they must somehow settle the quarrel and bring Achilleus back.  It will be Nestor’s job to persuade Agamemnon of this, and he begins by establishing his own credentials - his age and wisdom.  He does so first, by comparing himself with the younger Diomedes.  Only then does he name Agamemnon, “...there is none who can dishonour the thing I say, not even powerful Agamemnon. (9.61-62).”
     Once Nestor mentions Agamemnon, we might expect him to propose some resolution to the quarrel, but he is more cautious than that.  He merely warns of the dangers of quarrelling, “Out of all brotherhood, outlawed, homeless shall be that man who longs for the horror of fighting among his own people. (9.63-64).”  In part, Nestor is trying to head off any new quarrel at this assembly.  More important, he is reminding them of the terrible consequences of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilleus.  He suggests that they break up the assembly and have dinner, while the sentries take up positions on the ramparts surrounding the camp.  This simple piece of advice is a stark reminder of their dire situation: it is only because of Achilleus’ absence that the Greeks have been forced to defend their own camp with hastily built walls.
AGAMEMNON’S OFFER TO ACHILLEUS
     When Nestor finally addresses Agamemnon directly, he does not raise the prickly issue of Achilleus.  Instead, he tells Agamemnon to organize a banquet for the other leaders:
“...son of Atreus, take command, since you are our kingliest.  Divide a feast among the princes; it befits you, it is not unbecoming...All hospitality is for you; you are lord over many. (9.69-73)”
It may seem odd that Nestor suggests that Agamemnon host a banquet on a night that he describes ominously as the one “ that will break our army, or else will preserve it. (9.78).”  In fact, this is a clever way for Nestor to create a setting in which Agamemnon may be willing to reach a settlement with Achilleus.  First, it removes the discussion from the public assembly of all the warriors to the smaller, more private council of the chiefs, and it allows time for tempers to cool after Diomedes ’ initial speech.  Secondly, it restores Agamemnon to command.  Ultimately, Agamemnon will have to make the offer to Achilleus, and, to do so, he is going to have to get hold of himself and take the lead again.  Finally, Nestor is reminding Agamemnon that hosting a banquet is part of his power and authority as leader of the expedition and as the wealthiest of the Greek rulers.  By entertaining the other chiefs with food and wine, Agamemnon displays his power and uses his wealth to reinforce his authority.  This is a subtle way of hinting to Agamemnon that he has the wealth and power to make an offer to Achilleus that will not diminish his stature, but actually enhance it.  This offer will show that only Agamemnon is powerful enough to do what needs to be done to rescue the Greeks.
     Once the banquet ends, Nestor finally tackles the difficult task of proposing to Agamemnon that they act to end his quarrel with Achilleus.  It isn’t easy.  Nestor is always long-winded, but his opening words seem particularly roundabout.  He praises Agamemnon, acknowledges his authority, hints that he must listen as well...and, finally, he spits it out and reminds him that, against his advice, he had dishonored Achileus by taking Briseis (9.96-109).  Only indirectly does he refer to the consequences of this by saying that Agamemnon “dishonoured a great man, one whom the immortals honour (9.110-111).”  With this, Nestor acknowledges that the defeat of the Greeks on the battlefield was a way for the gods to honor Achilleus.  Even now, though, Nestor does not presume to tell Agamemnon what to do, unlike Achilleus in the first assembly.  Instead, he makes it a collective responsibility.  “Let us,” he says, “even now think how we can make this good and persuade him with words of supplication and with the gifts of friendship (9.111-13).”
     Agamemnon accepts Nestor’s judgment.  He recognizes Achilleus’ worth, concedes that Zeus has honored him, and admits that they have suffered badly on the battlefield (9.116-18).  Nonetheless, he remains evasive about his own responsibility for what happened.  Earlier (2.377-78) he had acknowledged that he was “the first to be angry” when they quarreled “for a girl’s sake.”  Here, though, he merely refers to his “madness” (9.115, 119), and it is this that leads him to propose an offer of gifts to Achilleus.
     Agamemnon’s offer is certainly impressive and it extends for nearly forty lines (9.121-156).  What’s more, Nestor - the voice of wisdom - puts his seal of approval on it by asserting that “none could scorn any longer these gifts you offer to Achilleus the king (9.164-65).”  Nonetheless, Achilleus will reject it, and we can begin to understand why by looking closely at the offer itself.  The huge offer is divided into three parts: think of it as large downpayment and an installment plan!  First, Agamemnon is ready to give gifts now (9.121-135) and to return Briseis, whom he swears he never slept with.  Secondly, Agamemnon promises Achilleus even more spoils when they sack Troy (9.135-140).  Finally, when they return home, Agamemnon will offer Achilleus a marriage to one of his own daughters, accompanied by a splendid dowry of seven castles (9.141-156).
     Is the package just too large?  It seems to emphasize how much wealth Agamemnon has, since he can afford to give so much of it away.  When, for example, he offers twelve racehorses (9.123), he can’t resist commenting on how much wealth those horses have won for him (9.124-27).  Next, he adds “seven women of Lesbos” to the offer, but, as he admits, he took these women when Achilleus “captured strong-founded Lesbos”.  That simply confirms Achilleus’ original complaint (1.163-68): Achilleus fights the hardest, but Agamemnon takes the best of the spoils.  In fact, coming so soon after Agamemnon’s fond description of his prize-winning horses, this description of the women of Lesbos makes one wonder if Agamemnon doesn’t regard warriors like Achilleus as just so many racehorses winning him prizes.
     The final installment of the offer underscores Agamemnon’s authority.  He will arrange a marriage for Achilleus to one of his daughters.  Would Achilleus wish to have Agamemnon as a father-in-law?  Would he wish to rule over seven castles once under Agamemnon’s authority?  There can be little doubt that Agamemnon sees his offer as affirming his own wealth and power, for he concludes by urging that Achilleus give up his anger, declaring:
“Let him give way...And let him yield place to me, inasmuch as I am the kinglier and inasmuch as I can call myself born the elder (9.160-61).”  Significantly, when Odysseus presents Agamemnon’s offer - word for word (9.264-299) - to Achilleus, he will be shrewd enough to leave out those lines.
THE AMBASSADORS AND THEIR APPEALS
     Nestor proposes the three men - the “ambassadors” -  to convey Agamemnon’s offer to Achilleus, and he chooses them carefully (9.165-70).  First, he names Phoinix, Achilleus’ tutor, whose personal ties to Achilleus will allow him to speak as a surrogate father, and make a deeply personal appeal based on his role as a mentor to Achilleus.  Secondly, he adds Aias , the greatest of the warriors - after Achilleus, for he can speak as a soldier, on behalf of the troops.  Finally, he completes the group with Odysseus whose reputation for wisdom and skillful speech suggests that he may be the most persuasive of the men.  All three are men whom Achilleus loves and respects, as his greeting makes clear (9.196-97): “Welcome.  You are my friends who have come, and greatly I need you, who even to this my anger are dearest of all the Achaians.”  When he asks his friend, Patroklos, to set out drinks for the men, he describes them as “the men that I love best.”  Despite his anger, Achilleus is glad to see his friends...until he learns what they have to say.
     Odysseus speaks first.  He does not begin with Agamemnon’s offer.  Instead, he describes the desperate situation the Greeks face (9.230-43), tempts Achilleus with his account of Hektor ’s pride, and urges him to act immediately before it is too late (9.247-51).  He reminds Achilleus of how his father, Peleus, advised him to hold down his anger and avoid quarrels (9.252-59).  Only then does Odysseus recite Agamemnon’s offer which he characterizes as “worthy recompense” (9.261).  Of course, he leaves out Agamemnon’s concluding words that Achilleus should give way to him.  Instead, he seems to concede that Achilleus’ hatred for Agamemnon may lead him to reject the gifts, and he repeats his earlier appeal for Achilleus to pity the other Achaians:
“But if the son of Atreus is too much hated in your heart, himself and his gifts, at least take pity on all the other Achaians who are afflicted along the host... (9. 300-01)
He promises Achilleus the honor of the other Achaians, and he dangles Hektor before him as a prize that would guarantee his honor (9.302-06)
     Odysseus’ references to Peleus’ advice to Achilleus prepare the way for the speech of Achilleus’ tutor, Phoinix.  Phoinix’s deeply personal appeal tries to touch Achilleus’ heart with tender memories of his childhood (9. 485-95) and his own role as a kind of surrogate father to Achilleus.  The centerpiece of his speech is the long story of Meleagros (9.529-99) and the war between the Aitolians and the Kouretes.  In keeping with his role as a mentor or guardian of Achilleus, he offers this story to provide instruction, citing the behavior of the heroes of old as a model for the younger warrior:
“Thus it was in the old days also, the deeds that we hear of from the great men...The heroes would take gifts; they would listen, and be persuaded (9.524-26).”
     As Phoinix tells it, the story of Meleagros is a complex one.  The goddess of the hunt, Artemis, became angry with Meleagros’ father, Oineus, who neglected to offer her a proper sacrifice (9.532-36).  As a result, Artemis sent a wild boar to devastate the fields and orchards of Oineus (9.538-42).  Meleagros, Oineus’ son, assembled many men to join the Aitolians in hunting the boar (9.543-46), and he succeeded in killing it (9.543).  Artemis, though, wasn’t finished with the Aitolians.  She stirred up a quarrel between the Aitolians and the Kouretes over the prize of the boar’s head and hide (9.545-47), and the Kouretes besieged Kalydon, the city of the Aitolians.  While Meleagros led the Aitolians, they had the edge (9.549-52), but, like Achilleus in the Iliad, he withdrew from the battle because of a quarrel.  He quarreled with his mother, Althaia, over the death of her brother, one of the Kouretes whom he had killed.  The elders of Kalydon, his father, his mother, his sisters and, finally, his friends all appealed unsuccessfully to him to return to the fight.  At last, he was persuaded by a desperate plea from his wife.  He rescued the Aitolians, but they were no longer willing to give him the gifts they had offered earlier.
     Achilleus is not persuaded by the example, and maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.  After all, Phoinix began the story by suggesting that the heroes of old would provide models for Achilleus to follow, because they “would take gifts...would listen, and be persuaded.”  Meleagros, however, did nothing of the sort.  He rejected the gifts and entreaties until it was almost too late.  In fact, the story of Meleagros and Phoinix’s whole speech are riddled with ironies and contradictions that undermine his point by showing how widespread anger is, and how difficult quarrels are to resolve.  Phoinix, himself, had a terrible quarrel with his father, because his mother persuaded him to sleep with his father’s young mistress (9.449-54), and the story of Meleagros is full of examples of human and divine anger.  There is even irony in Phoinix’s effort to persuade Achilleus to follow the example of the gods who listen to prayers (9.496-501), for Zeus has listened to Achilleus’ prayer to make the Greeks suffer from his absence.
     Achilleus dismisses Phoinix’s appeal, and, in response, Aias makes the last speech.  It is the short and direct speech of a soldier who represents the troops.  He calls Achilleus “savage” and “pitiless” (9. 629, 632) for ignoring the plight of his friends and forgetting their affection, and he reminds Achilleus that it is established practice to accept compensation to settle disputes. After Achilleus rejects this plea as well, Odysseus conveys his message to Agamemnon and the assembled chiefs in no uncertain terms: “That man will not quench his anger, but still more than ever is filled with rage.  He refuses you and refuses your presents. (9. 678-79).”
ACHILLEUS REJECTS THE OFFER
     It would be a mistake, though, to conclude - with Odysseus - that the speakers have had no effect on Achilleus.  In fact, he changed his plans after each speech, gradually softening his position.  After his long raging reply to Odysseus, he ended by asking Phoinix to stay the night “so that tomorrow he may come with us in our ships to the beloved land of our fathers, if he will (9. 427-29).”  In short, he was ready to leave the next day.  After Phoinix’ speech, Achilleus seemed less certain.  Again, he asked Phoinix to stay, but he said that “we shall decide tomorrow, as dawn shows, whether to go back home again or else to remain here. (9.618-19).”  Finally, once Aias spoke, Achilleus abandoned his plans to leave entirely.  Instead, he says, “I shall not think again of the bloody fighting until...Hektor the brilliant, comes all the way to the ships of the Myrmidons (Achilleus’ own men) (9. 650-52).”  Apparently, Achilleus has decided to stay at Troy, he simply won’t fight...yet.
     What explains the changes in Achilleus’ plans?  With each response, he shifted his view of honor itself.  In his reply to Odysseus, he dramatically rejected honor altogether, and it was this shocking stand that, momentarily, left them “stricken to silence in amazement at his words (9.430-31).”  After Phoinix’s speech, he concedes the importance of honor, but he spurns the honor that Agamemnon and the Achaians can offer.  Instead, he is content to be honored by Zeus (9.607-08).  Finally, when Aias argues for the value of compensation, Achilleus has come around to agree with him, “All that you have said seems spoken after my own mind.”  Still, he is simply unable to control his anger at Agamemnon.
     What is most radical - and most important - is Achilleus’ first reply in which he questions the value of honor itself.  What he is challenging is the heroic value system that considers honor an adequate price for one’s life:
“Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard.
We are all held in a single honour, the brave with the weaklings.
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much. (9.318-20)”
Here, he links honor with his life, but he makes this clearer in the crucial passage where he reveals the two fates that his mother has disclosed to him:
“...For not
worth the value of my life are all the possessions they fable
were won for Ilion...
...Of possessions
cattle and fat sheep are things to be had for the lifting,
and tripods can be won, and the tawny high heads of horses,
but a man’s life cannot come back again, it cannot be lifted
nor captured again by force, once it has crossed the teeth’s barrier.
For my mother Thetis the goddess of the silver feet tells me
I carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death.  Either,
if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans,
my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting;
but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers,
the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long life
left for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly. (9. 400-02, 405-16)”
For a moment at least, Achilleus is contemplating the choice of a long life without honor, instead of the honor that, for mortals, is a compensation for a short life.  What is he really seeking though?  Is this his way of striving towards the immortality that he believes is his due as the son of a goddess?  Although Achilleus seems to put aside this choice once he decides to remain at Troy, his comments about his two fates do provide an important clue as to what is driving his anger.  He is not merely raging against Agamemnon and questioning his place in the Greek hierarchy and the way honor is given out; he is asking why, as the son of a goddess and the greatest warrior, he should not be able to enjoy something more than honor, to be immortal and, by definition, like the gods.
SARPEDON AND THE HEROIC CODE
     The most powerful - and poignant - reply to Achilleus comes in the words of another mortal with a divine parent, Sarpedon , the son of Zeus .  In the heat of battle, he rallies his companion, Glaukos , with a clear statement of the heroic ideal.  First, he reminds him of the status, wealth and honor they enjoy, and exhorts him to fight bravely to show their followers that they deserve these honors:
“‘Glaukos, why is it you and I are honoured before others
with pride of place, the choice meats and the filled wine cups
in Lykia, and all men look on us as if we were immortals,
and we are appointed a great piece of land by the banks of Xanthos,
good land, orchard and vineyard, and ploughland for the planting of wheat?
Therefore it is our duty in the forefront of the Lykians
to take our stand, and bear our part of the blazing of battle,
so that a man of the close-armoured Lykians may say of us:
‘Indeed, these are no ignoble men who are lords of Lykia,
these kings of ours, who feed upon the fat sheep appointed
and drink the exquisite sweet wine, since indeed there is strength
of valour in them, since they fight in the forefront of the Lykians.’ (12.310-21)”
It makes an attractive contrast with the earlier demands of Agamemnon for compensation, or the complaints of Achilleus about unfair treatment.  Here, Sarpedon emphasizes the constant need for the warriors to demonstrate that they merit their positions.  What follows, though, lifts Sarpedon’s thoughts from the realm of status among men to the existential question of mortality.  Sarpedon allows himself a fleeting glimpse of immortality and dismisses it as impossible:
“Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle,
would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal,
so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremost
nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.
But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us
in their thousands, no man can turn aside nor escape them,
let us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others. (12.322-28)”
In short, if he could live forever, he would not risk his life for glory.  Given that he is mortal, however, the highest thing he can aspire to is a life with glory, and his choice gains particular poignancy when he is later slain by Patroklos before the eyes of his immortal father, Zeus.  For his part, Achilleus struggles against this acceptance of honor as a compensation for mortality, and it is this struggle that helps to explain the intensity of his anger in the last part of the poem as he rages across the battlefield to avenge his friend’s death and make his own inevitable.

ILIAD COMMENTARY: BOOK 16
ILIAD: PLOT SUMMARY
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