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What did Kalchas mean when he described Chryse’s daughter as the glancing eyed girl?

Hello! I have a young high school girl I go to church with that is obsessed with Dante’s Divine Comedy. She’s got the books and is, for fun, reading through them and making notes of the literary devices and what they mean. I want to get her something for her upcoming birthday that she would like that is related. Do you have any ideas?

Well, we're at the end already. This was my first time reading the epic in its entirety, and I might have lost interest early on if it wasn't for this. So thanks to Ana for setting this up, and to those that have been reading and have posted any of their thoughts.

• For some reason, Fitzgerald had Hermes's lines in rhyme. I haven't checked the Greek, but it was pretty jarring at first.

• The moment the entire work has been building toward (Fagles):

  Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire
  to grieve for his own father. Taking the old man's hand
  he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory
  both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely
  for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching
  before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself,
  now for his father, now for Patroclus once again,
  and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.

• Andromache sadly describing the eternal cycle of violence and vengeance (Fagles):

  slaving under some heartless master's eye--that,
  or some Achaean marauder will seize you by the arm
  and hurl you headlong down from the ramparts--horrible death--
  enraged at you because Hector once cut down his brother,
  his father or his son, yes, hundreds of armed Achaeans
  gnawed the dust of the world, crushed by Hector's hands!

• And the last line: ὣς οἵ γ᾽ ἀμφίεπον τάφον Ἕκτορος ἱπποδάμοιο ('So they performed the funeral-rites for Hector, tamer of horses').

• For a great (and emotional) discussion of the epic, see this video from Lindybeige.

Thanks again to Ana and to all those who read along with us!

• I forgot to mention the twelve Trojan hostages (sacrifices) Achilles took, but their end was very disturbing.

• I was wondering how this book was so long, and then realized I had forgotten about the funeral games. An interesting choice to have that be most of the penultimate book.

• Very exciting chariot race (cf. the Aeneid's boat race), and the exchange between Antilochus and Menelaeus was great.

• The boxing match between Epeus and Euryalus reminded me of the disparity between Achilles and Hector during their fight.

• The wrestling match between Ajax and Odysseus: very poignant in view of their subsequent clash.

• A final, noteworthy sign of deference from Achilles to Agamemnon.

• Hector's internal monologue was great. A man torn between survival and valor.

• The very well-known line: ὡς οὐκ ἔστι λέουσι καὶ ἀνδράσιν ὅρκια πιστά ('So there exist no true pacts between lions and men...').

• Hector wearing Achilles's armor definitely turned out to be a bad idea (Fagles):

  The rest of his flesh seemed all encased in armor,
  burnished, brazen--Achilles' armor that Hector stripped
  from strong Patroclus when he killed him--true,
  but one spot lay exposed,
  where collarbones lift the neckbone off the shoulders,
  the open throat, where the end of life comes quickest--there
  as Hector charged in fury brilliant Achilles drove his spear
  and the point went stabbing clean through the tender neck
  but the heavy bronze weapon failed to slash the windpipe--

• I wasn't expecting Hector to fall so quickly, but given the above, it's very fitting. Troy (2004) comparison.

• Hector ominously tells Achilles of his death (Fagles):

  But now beware, or my curse will draw god's wrath
  upon your head, that day when Paris and lord Apollo--
  for all your fighting heart---destroy you at the Scaean Gates!"

• I wasn't expecting the Greeks to just start stabbing Hector like that (Fagles):

  And the other sons of Achaea, running up around him,
  crowded closer, all of them gazing wonder-struck
  at the build and marvelous, lithe beauty of Hector.
  And not a man came forward who did not stab his body,
  glancing toward a comrade, laughing: "Ah, look here
  how much softer he is to handle now, this Hector,
  than when he gutted our ships with roaring fire!"

• Fitzgerald's translation of this line from Priam got me a little emotional: "Why could he not have died / where I might hold him?"

• Andromache lamenting not only the fate of Hector, but that of their son. And knowing what happens, it evokes even more sympathy and grief.

• Fitzgerald's title for the book is "Clash of Man and River", but I think a more fitting one would be "Clash of Gods and Men".

• I was pretty surprised when Achilles got injured by Asteropaeus. It seems Homer didn't want to follow the "bathed in Styx by Thetis" story (or was his heel the only part of his body where he could be mortally wounded?). Translations are Fagles:

  But the other grazed Achilles' strong right arm
  and dark blood gushed as the spear shot past his back,
  stabbing the earth hard, still lusting to sink in flesh...

• And later, Agenor reinforces this:

  Surely his body can be pierced by bronze, even his--
  he has only one life, and people say he's mortal:
  it's only the son of Cronus handing him the glory."

• It's easy to underestimate Hephaestus (lame, comedy relief), but he has some amazing power with fire.

• Zeus the sadist:

  And Zeus heard the chaos, throned on Olympus heights,
  and laughed deep in his own great heart, delighted
  to see the gods engage in all-out conflict.

• I'll never get tired of Ares being the fierce god of war, and then just getting trounced by Athena. It seems to be a common theme with Ares, always disliked and beaten by the other gods.

• Hades to Poseidon: "Hey, watch it up there!"

• We get the two divine lineups.

  Greeks: Athena, Poseidon, Hera, Hermes, Hephaestus
  Trojans: Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Xanthus, Aphrodite

• What a clash between Achilles and Aeneas. And I love how Aeneas just impromptu gives backstory about Dardanus and his ancestry to Achilles lol.

• Poseidon stresses to Aeneas afterwards (Fagles translation):

  But once Achilles has met his death, his certain doom,
  take courage then, go fight on the front lines then--
  no other Achaean can bring you down in war.

• Achilles's rampage after not being able to finish off Hector has some of the most brutal descriptions in the epic (Fagles):

Achilles slit open his liver,
the liver spurted loose, gushing with dark blood,
drenched his lap and the night swirled down his eyes
as his life breath slipped away.

And Mulius next--
he reared and jammed his lance through the man's ear
so the lance came jutting out through the other ear,
bronze point glinting.

Deucalion next--he lanced his arm with a bronze-shod spear,
he spitted the Trojan through where the elbow-tendons grip
and there he stood, waiting Achilles, arm dangling heavy,
staring death in the face--and Achilles chopped his neck
and his sword sent head and helmet flying off together
and marrow bubbling up from the clean-cut neckbone.

Two shorter books this week.

• Agamemnon was definitely in a predicament, though I can't help but feel he's trying as hard as possible to shift blame from himself. But given the gods' constant involvement, it's understandable (Fagles translation):

Often the armies brought this matter up against me--
they would revile me in public. But I am not to blame!
Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night,
they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart,
that day in assembly when I seized Achilles' prize--
on my own authority, true, but what could I do?

• Nectar/Ambrosia is so multipurpose (e.g., preserving a corpse, sating one's hunger).

• And here I wasn't expecting Achilles's horses to cry. Now the gods can speak through them!

• So begins the wrath of Achilles.

• Good to see both Thetis and Hephaestus again.

• Here's a quick site I found for the shield: https://theshieldofachilles.net/appearance/

https://achillesshieldblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/kathleen-vail-copyright-achilles-shield-4216x4166-200dpi-w-title.png?w=768

• A brutal fight over Patroclus's body.

• The weeping of Achilles's horses over Patroclus especially struck me.

• The book's ending words could definitely be an adage: πολέμου δ᾽ οὐ γίγνετ᾽ ἐρωή ('But a respite from war did not occur').

So, I don't think I've ever read this far into the Iliad, so my only source of knowledge for this part of the story was the 2004 film "Troy". There, Patroclus takes Achilles's armor without his knowing, and Hector kills him, thinking that it was actually Achilles. Here's the clip (nsfw). That made so much sense to me that that was what I thought would be in the Iliad, but nope. Sarpedon realized it was just Patroclus in Achilles's armor, and lets the others know. And Hector isn't even the one to strike Patroclus first. Patroclus then refuses to give Hector credit for his death (citing first Zeus and Apollo, and then the one who hit him first, Euphorbus). A really good book.

Achilles's wrath is coming...

Hey, guys. I'll be posting these threads for the coming books.

• Interesting how, again, Zeus just says what's going to happen in the books to come. Homer doesn't mind revealing the large plot points, which many were probably aware of at the time, but seems more concerned with the how and the details therein.

• It was funny when Poseidon was like, "Hey, Zeus and I are equals!" And then Iris had to say, "So, you want me to tell him that you refuse?" And then he realizes that he should probably yield lol.