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Friday, Sept. 13

Achilles returns to battle, giving the advantage to the Greeks. Zeus allows the gods to help either side, to even the odds perhaps, but the Greeks are still winning. Apollo encourages the Trojan hero Aeneas to face Achilles, and they have a conversation.

Achilles questions what has motivated Aeneas to seek him out, assuming he hopes to win favor with Priam, and maybe even win the throne if Hector dies. Or maybe he hopes to be rewarded with land and gifts if he can kill Achilles. These would be typical rewards to a warrior for great deeds in battle, but Achilles mocks his bravery and ambition. He says Aeneas has no chance of winning. Aeneas responds with a lengthy recitation of his own ancestry, claiming he is a worthy adversary and Achilles’ equal, not some boy to be frightened by boasts. This is ancient warrior “trash talk.”

Aeneas follows up his talk with a spear cast which penetrates two of the five plates on Achilles’ shield (each of folded brass, tin, and gold) and gives him a bit of a scare. Achilles throws his own spear, which goes all the way through Aeneas’ shield so that he feels it quivering behind him. As Achilles charges, Aeneas throws a “mighty stone” at him — there seem to be lots of them on the battlefield. 

Poseidon sees that Aeneas is “on the brink of fate” — about to be killed — and notes that he is a righteous man who sacrifices to the gods, and more importantly, one who is destined to father a future race favored by Zeus, so he must be saved. With the blessings of Hera and Athena, who are helping the Greeks, Poseidon wraps Achilles in a fog and whisks Aeneas away from him into the sky and safety. Achilles complains about the interference of the gods, but moves on to kill other Trojans. Later, he is on the point of killing Hector before he is similarly saved by Apollo.

I think Zeus is showing the other gods that they cannot affect the outcome. Even with their aid, the Trojans cannot defeat Achilles, because he is favored by Zeus and fated to win glory before he dies.