In order to understand the structure of the _Iliad_, we must keep fast
hold of the guiding clue which is supplied by the author in the first
line of his poem. The subject, he tells us, is the _Wrath of
Achilles_. The motive of the greatest of epics is _wrath_--blind,
unreasoning fury, which knows no law, and acknowledges no right.
Keeping this in view, we are able to explain what seems at first sight
to be a strange anomaly in the conduct of the story--the absence of the
hero from the scene of action during three-fourths of the narrative.
For Achilles is not less the hero of the _Iliad_ than Odysseus is the
hero of the _Odyssey_, and in both cases the character of the man
determines the structure of the poem. Odysseus is a man of middle age,
in the maturity of his splendid powers, with his judgment refined by
experience, and his passions cooled by time. From the moment when he
sets sail from Troy he remains faithful to the fixed desire of his
heart. All the malice of Poseidon, all the spells of Circe, all the
loveliness of Calypso, cannot shake him from his resolve to return to
his home in Ithaca, and live out his life in calm domestic happiness
and peace. Yet he is entirely free from the narrowness which commonly
belongs to a fixed idea. He knows the uncertainty which attaches to
all human hopes, and is as ready to enjoy the passing hour as the
youngest sailor of his crew. He has the hungry intellect, which would
fain take all knowledge into its compass, and the spirit of soaring
enterprise, which delights in discovery and daring adventure. But
above all he has the patient, constant human heart, faithful through
all turns of fortune to one sober ideal. It is this steadfastness of
purpose and sweet reasonableness in the hero which gives to the
narrative of the _Odyssey_ its smooth and pellucid flow, and makes it
the most delightful of all story-books.
Achilles, on the other hand, is the incarnation of the spirit of youth,
with its passionate pride, its acute sensibility, and its absorption in
self. He is like one of the great forces of nature--unreasoning,
elemental, mighty to create or destroy. His inaction is as tremendous
as his action. He is offended, and the Greeks, deprived of his aid,
are brought to the brink of ruin--his friend is slain by Hector, and
the current of his fury, thus directed into a new channel, sweeps the
whole Trojan army before it in havoc and rout.
This, then, is the plan of the _Iliad_--to describe the effects of
Achilles' anger, first on the Greeks, then on the Trojans. A brief
review of the story will show how the plan is worked out. In the ninth
year of the war, the Greeks have taken a small town in the
neighbourhood of Troy, and Agamemnon has received a maiden named
Chryseis as his share of the spoil. Chryses, the maiden's father,
comes to the Grecian camp to ransom his child, but he is rudely
repulsed by Agamemnon, and invokes the vengeance of Apollo, whose
priest he is, on the Greeks. Apollo sends a pestilence on the camp,
and Agamemnon is compelled in consequence to restore Chryseis, but he
recompenses himself by seizing another maiden, named Briseis, awarded
to Achilles as a prize at the capture of the same city. Achilles vows
vengeance on the whole Greek army for this outrage, and Thetis, his
mother, obtains a promise from Zeus, the supreme god of Olympus, that
her son's vow shall be fulfilled to the letter. Accordingly Zeus sends
a false dream to Agamemnon, bidding him lead the whole army against
Troy, with the assurance of a decisive victory. Agamemnon obeys the
summons in all good faith, and the two armies meet on the plain before
the city. But just as the general encounter is about to begin, Paris
offers to meet Menelaus in single combat, and a truce is made in order
that the duel may take place. They fight, and Menelaus is victorious,
but Paris is saved from death or capture by the intervention of
Aphrodite.
Menelaus now claims the fulfilment of the conditions of the truce--the
restoration of Helen with all her wealth. But before the point can be
debated, Pandarus, a Trojan, at the instigation of Athene, aims an
arrow at Menelaus, and wounds him in the side. This treacherous act
leads to an immediate renewal of hostilities, and in the battle which
follows the Trojans are reduced to such straits by the powers of
Diomede that Hector goes on a mission to the city, to institute a
solemn supplication in the temple of Athene, in the vain hope of
diverting her anger from the Trojans. Having accomplished his errand,
he returns to the field, bringing with him Paris, who, since his defeat
by Menelaus, has been dallying in Helen's bower; and then follows a
duel between Hector and Ajax, in which the Greek champion has the
advantage. At the suggestion of Nestor, the Greeks fortify their camp
with a moat and rampart; and this brings us to the end of the seventh
book.
Hitherto the Greeks have had a decided advantage in battle with the
Trojans, and nothing has been done to carry out the promise which Zeus
made to Thetis. But now the father of gods and men begins to take
decisive measures to fulfil his pledge; the gods are forbidden to
interfere between the rival armies, and in the next day's battle the
Greeks are driven back in panic to their camp, while the Trojans,
contrary to their custom, keep the field all night, intending to attack
the Greek stronghold in full force next day. So despondent are the
Greeks that an embassy is sent with an offer of magnificent gifts to
Achilles, if he will lay aside his anger and come to the help of his
distressed countrymen. Achilles refuses all compromise, and the rest
of the night is occupied by the bold raid undertaken by Diomede and
Odysseus on the Thracian camp.
At the opening of the eleventh book our attention is concentrated on
the valorous exploits of Agamemnon, who is at length compelled to
retire by a severe wound in the arm; Diomede is pierced through the
foot by an arrow from the bow of Paris, and Odysseus, Machaon, and
Eurypylus are also disabled. Patroclus is sent by Achilles to inquire
of Nestor concerning the fortunes of the Greeks, and Nestor then makes
the suggestion which marks the turning-point in the first act of the
great epic drama: if, he says, Achilles will not go to the field
himself, at least let him send Patroclus to lead the Myrmidons[1]
against the Trojans. Nothing comes of the proposal for the present,
but it is to bear fatal fruit both for Patroclus and Achilles in the
near future. The Greeks are again driven behind their defences, and a
furious struggle ensues, at the end of which the gates of the camp are
demolished, and the Trojans, led by Hector, are on the point of setting
fire to the ships.
[1] The followers of Achilles
At this moment the attention of Zeus is withdrawn from the battle, and
Poseidon seizes the opportunity to interfere in favour of the Greeks.
By his influence the scale is turned again, Hector receives fearful
injuries from a huge stone hurled by Ajax, and the Trojans are driven
headlong across the plain. Zeus is lulled to sleep by the contrivance
of Hera, and when he awakens it is to find his whole scheme of
vengeance on the point of being frustrated. In great anger he sends a
peremptory message to Poseidon to withdraw from the battle, and lays
his commands on Apollo, who brings back Hector, healed and whole, to
the field, and leads the Trojans once more to the assault of the camp.
In spite of the desperate valour of Ajax, the Greeks are driven back to
their ships, and the Trojans bring torches, with the intention of
burning the whole fleet.
Then at last Achilles, yielding to the earnest entreaty of Patroclus,
sends him to the aid of the Greeks, equipped in his own armour, and
leading the whole force of the Myrmidons. Patroclus easily drives the
Trojans back from the camp, and slays Sarpedon, one of the bravest
warriors among the allies of Troy; but he himself falls by Hector's
hand, and the armour of Achilles passes into the possession of his
slayer. A tremendous struggle ensues over the body of Patroclus, which
is only ended by the appearance of Achilles himself, who comes,
attended by strange prodigies, to the wall, and, by the mere terror of
his presence, scares the Trojans from the field, and saves his friend's
body from outrage.
The rest of the story may be briefly told. By the intercession of
Thetis, Hephæstus, the divine smith, makes a splendid suit of armour
for Achilles, and, after a solemn scene of reconciliation with
Agamemnon, Achilles leads the Greeks to battle. The whole torrent of
his fury is now turned upon the Trojans, and, after a wholesale
massacre of lesser victims, he meets Hector in single combat, slays
him, and drags his body behind his chariot to the camp. The funeral
obsequies of Patroclus are celebrated with great pomp, and then
Achilles, who is possessed by a demon of rage and grief, continues for
a space of twelve days to wreak his vengeance on the lifeless body of
Hector, which he drags repeatedly behind his car round the tomb of
Patroclus. The gods interpose to make an end of this senseless fury,
and Hector's body, which has been miraculously preserved from harm, is
restored to Priam, who comes in the night, under the conduct of Hermes,
and redeems the corpse with a heavy ransom. With the burial of Hector
the poem reaches its conclusion.
Such, in the briefest and baldest outline, is the story of the _Iliad_.
Space does not allow us to discuss the various objections which have
been raised against some of the details of the narrative, still less to
enumerate the reconstructions and mutilations to which the great epic
has been subjected in the dissecting-room of criticism. Where opinion
is still so much divided, we may be allowed to state our conviction
that the _Iliad_, though wanting the structural perfection of the
_Odyssey_, is one poem, and the work of one master mind.