Thursday, October 9, 2014

Books 7-9


This is the part of the story where the battle is in total chaos when Hektor and Paris finally returned. Hektor totally went up to the Achaean war line and challenged anyone who will fight him.  Menelaus comes forward but is stopped by Agamemnon, who tells him that he is mad to want to fight, which is kinda rude in my opinion.  Then the old man Nestor, who had considered fighting Hektor but decided against it cause he had totally done his share in fighting in war a long time ago, called nine of his "bravest" men to fight.  Nestor then took all the dudes' names, dumped their names in a helmet, and took out the name Aias, who was a son of King Telamon. 

Hektor and Aias threw pointy spears at each other, but were immediately stopped by the heralds of Zeus because it was totally dark cause it was night and the men had fought enough for the day and deserved to sleep and eat.  So Hektor and Aias agreed on continuing the fight the next day, and they were so nice because they gave each other gifts as a sign of total agreement.  Hector gave Aias a sword with its holder thing and belt, and Aias gave Hektor a war belt so I think it was a fair trade. 

After everyone went back to their tents or whatever, Nestor told the Achaeans to build a wall for protection from the Trojans and to take the next day to bury their dead cause those bodies were just rotting out there and who wants to deal with walking over heads and legs while trying to fight? Plus I guess they wanted to honor their comrades who helped in the war. When it was finally light out, Idaios went to the Acheans to request the day to bury their dead, promising that Paris would return all of his stolen stuff EXCEPT for the Helen.  This promise was shut down by Diomedes  who said that the Achaeans would not take this pitiful promise, and the men separated and went back to their camps.  Each group gathered their dead, pilled them all up high and then burned their bodies because no one could tell who was who amongst the blood and guts. 

After the Acheans’ wall was finished, the men made sacrifices to the gods and had their supper and la-de-dah.  The big Z looked down on the men, knowing that their wall would be destroyed once the Trojans invade the city, which whoo! go Trojans!

The next day after the stench of burned skin was gone, Zeus spoke to the other gods and told them to not help with the war.  This is because the big Z knew that the Trojans would win that day, but Hera of course joins in the war by convincing Agamemnon to cheer on his warriors and to pray to Zeus for like a chance to basically beat the Trojans.  Zeus agreed and then sent a bird into the battle, which is clearly a sign that the Greeks will not perish that day.  One of the Greeks, another minor dude named Teukros, killed so many Trojans with his bow and arrows that day, but no matter how hard he tried he could just not hit Hektor.  Hektor totally saw that and he hit Teukros, hurting him pretty badly.  Thankfully, the Trojans are once again defeating the Greeks and this is when the gods decided to interfere with the war even though the big Z told them not to.  Hera and Athene decided to drive a chariot into the battle but are stopped when Zeus threatened to hit their chariot with a thunderbolt which is Zeus clearly showing his power over the two goddesses, and like all of us so all the gods returned to Olympus. 

At last the two groups decided to call it quits for the night and go to bed. Hektor decided that the Trojans should camp outside of the Achaeans’ camp so that when they wake up the next morning they would be ready for war.  On the Achaean side, Agamemnon begded the Greeks to just give up and basically just go home.  Nestor, who was a totally wise dude, suggested that Agamemnon simply give back to Achilles what was they wanted.  Agamemnon then goes on for what seems like an eternity, listing off everything he would give to Achilles including Briseis.  The Greeks decided to send Odysseus, Phoinix, and Aias to talk to Achilles about this new plan.  When they finally got to Achilles, he was playing a small guitar thing and singing stories of past great warriors.  The men each went up to him and told him what Agamemnon had offered so that he would just come back and help them fight.  Each man was shut down by Achilles, even the adorable Phoinix who told Achilles the story of this dude Meleagros who was a warrior who refused to fight.  Achilles told them that he was still hurt by Agamemnon and would still not help the Greeks until they are basically defeated.  The men gave up and returned to their camp, totally bummed and sad.  Diomedes gathered the army, and promised they will still fight and win even without the awesome Achilles.   

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