The Iliad Foreshadowing Quotes

Mother! You gave me life, short as that life will be - Achilles in Homer's Iliad

Mother!
You gave me life, short as that life will be.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 416-417. Achilles’s short life and early death are emphasized in his meeting with his mother Thetis. This is the first foreshadowing in the poem of the great warrior’s premature demise. Achilles is pleading with his goddess mother to appeal to Zeus to grant him honor in his short time on earth. He wants Zeus to help the Trojan cause, so that Agamemnon will see how mad he was to disgrace and wrong Achilles.

And Thetis answered, bursting into tears,
"O my son, my sorrow, why did I ever bear you?
All I bore was doom…
Would to god you could linger by your ships
without a grief in the world, without a torment!
Doomed to a short life, you have so little time.
And not only short, now, but filled with heartbreak too,
more than all other men alive – doomed twice over.
Ah to a cruel fate I bore you in our halls!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 491-499. A weeping Thetis tells her son Achilles that cruel fate has determined he will have a short life filled with heartbreak. His destiny is so bad that she laments the fact he had ever been born. As a mother she is understandably upset that she is fated to love her son.

in the tenth we'll take her broad streets - Odysseus

Calchas swiftly revealed the will of Zeus:
"Why struck dumb now, my long-hatred Achaeans?
Zeus who rules the world has shown us an awesome sign,
an event long in the future, late to come to birth
but the fame of that great work will never die.
As the snake devoured the sparrow with her brood,
eight and the mother made the ninth, she’d borne them all,
so we will fight in Troy that many years and then,
then in the tenth we’ll take her broad streets."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 381-389. Odysseus shows his credentials as a leader and hero by trying to rally the troops to fight, after they indicate their desire to return home. In this passage he quotes the prophesy by Calchas that the Achaean troops would fight in Troy for nine years and in the tenth they would be victorious by taking her streets. Before they reached Troy, the army witnessed a snake crawl up a tree to swallow eight baby sparrows and their mother in a nest, then turn to stone. Calchas interpreted this as a sign that Troy is fated to fall after the ninth year of battle. Odysseus’s speech succeeds in ralling the armies and Calchas’s interpretation turns out to be correct. The snake and the sparrows is one of the many epic similes used by Homer in the Iliad.

Hector with Andromache and child

Reckless one,
my Hector – your own fiery courage will destroy you!
Have you no pity for him, our helpless son? Or me,
and the destiny that weighs me down, your widow,
now so soon? Yes, soon they will kill you off,
all the Achaean forces massed for assault, and then,
bereft of you, better for me to sink beneath the earth.
What other warmth, what comfort’s left for me,
once you have met your doom? Nothing but torment!
I have lost my father. Mother’s gone as well.
…You, Hector – you are my father now, my noble mother,
a brother too, and you are my husband, young and warm
and strong!
Pity me, please! Take your stand on the rampart here,
before you orphan your son and make your wife a widow.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 482-491, 509-512. A very emotional Andromache pleads with her husband Hector to remain within the city walls. With the Greek forces massed for assault, she warns him that his fiery courage will lead to his destruction. She turns out to be correct, foreshadowing that Hector will die later in the war.

How his spirit leapt when he heard those horrors –
and buckling his gleaming armor round his body,
out he rushed to war.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 723-725. The Myrmidon warrior Phoenix tells Achilles the story of the great Aetolian warrior prince Meleager, that foreshadows Achilles’s return to battle. During the Aetolians war with the Curetes, Meleager left the battle to stay in bed with his wife Cleopatra. Eventually Cleopatra prevailed on him to rush back to war by "recounting all the griefs that fall to people whose city’s seized and plundered – the men slaughtered, citadel burned to rubble, enemies dragging the children, raping the sashed and lovely women." Achilles will also rush back to war when the grief falls close to home with the killing of his closest friend Patroclus by Hector.

Fight for your country – that is the best, the only omen!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, line 281. Hector shouts this when Zeus sends a bird sign and Polydamas interprets it as a bad omen, suggesting that they should not attack the Greeks beside their ships. But Trojan hero Hector refuses to put his trust in birds and uses love of country to encourage his men in battle. Polydamas’s grim warning turns out to be true and foreshadows that the Trojan charge will turn into a disaster for them.

And let Apollo drive Prince Hector back to battle,
breathe power back in his lungs, make him forget
the pains that rack his heart. Let him whip the Achaeans
in headlong panic rout and roll them back once more,
tumbling back on the oar-swept ships of Peleus’ son Achilles.
And he, he will launch his comrade Patroclus into action
and glorious Hector will cut him down with a spear
in front of Troy, once Patroclus has slaughtered
whole battalions of strong young fighting men
and among them all, my shining son Sarpedon.
But then – enraged for Patroclus –
brilliant Achilles will bring Prince Hector down.
And then, from that day on, I’ll turn the tide of war:
back the fighting goes, no stopping it, ever, all the way.
till Achaean armies seize the beetling heights of Troy
through Athena’s grand design.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 75-90. Zeus is speaking to his wife Hera, laying out the plan for the events to come. There is not much room for free will here, with each character’s fate predetermined and controlled by the gods. Apollo will drive Hector back to battle, this will launch Patroclus into action, Hector will slay him with a spear, an enraged Achilles will take Hector down, Zeus will turn the tide of war and the Greeks will seize Troy through Athena’s grand plan. A great deal of things are foreshadowed here.

So he pleaded,
lost in his own great innocence…
condemned to beg for his own death and brutal doom.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 53-55. This is foreshadowing of Patroclus’s death. Patroclus is asking to borrow Achilles armor, thinking that the Trojans may mistake him for Achilles and be filled with fear. They do think he is Achilles, leading to his death at the hands of Hector.

If only he had obeyed Achilles’ strict command
he might have escaped his doom, the stark night of death.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, Lines 803-804. The death of Patroclus is foreshadowed here. Achilles loaned Patroclus his armor so that it would inspire the Achaeans and demoralize the Trojans. But he ordered Patroclus to just drive back the Trojans and not pursue them, which Patroclus disobeys.

Patroclus never saw him coming,
moving across the deadly rout, shrouded in thick mist
and on he came against him and looming up behind him now –
slammed his broad shoulders and back with the god’s flat hand
and his eyes spun as Apollo knocked the helmet off his head
and under his horses’ hoofs it tumbled, clattering on
with its four forged horns and its hollow blank eyes
and its plumes were all smeared in the bloody dust.
Forbidden before this to defile its crest in dust,
it guarded the head and handsome brow of a god,
a man like a god, Achilles. But now the Father
gave it over to Hector to guard his head in war
since Hector’s death was closing on him quickly.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 917-929. Apollo knocks Achilles’s helmet off Patroclus and Zeus gives it to Hector to protect his head, as Hector’s death is said to be closing on him quickly. This foreshadows that Hector has not long to live, for while he escapes immediate death at the hands of Patroclus, he will soon be killed by Achilles in revenge for his friend’s slaying.

the vultures will eat your body raw!
Poor, doomed…
not for all his power could Achilles save you now.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 976-977. Hector taunts the dying Patroclus, telling him that his body will be food for the vultures and Achilles cannot save him now. This foreshadows the disrespect that Achilles will later show Hector – dragging Hector’s body behind his chariot after killing.

One more thing – take it to heart, I urge you –
you too, you won’t live long yourself, I swear.
Already I see them looming up beside you – death
and the strong force of fate, to bring you down
at the hands of Aeacus’ great royal son…
Achilles.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, Lines 996-1000. The dying Patroclus tells his attacker Hector that Hector himself will not live long, saying that he will die at the hands of Achilles, who will return to the battle.

Poor soldier. Never a thought of death weighs down
your spirit now, yet death is right beside you…
You don the deathless arms of a great fighter –
and all other fighters tremble before him, true,
but you, you killed his comrade, gentle, strong,
…never again will you return from battle, Hector.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 230-234, 238. Zeus wags his head in pity and mutters this to himself, as he sees Hector donning Achilles’s armor which he steals from the body of Patroclus. Anyone can don a hero’s armor, but that doesn’t bestow him with the qualities of that hero, as Hector will learn to his cost. Zeus, who gives Hector great power for the moment, knows that the armor is not rightfully his and foretells Hector’s doom.

Then let me die at once.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, line 113. A despairing Achilles says this to Thetis, when she tells him that his death will come hard on the heels of Hector’s.

Yes, my son, you’re right. No coward’s work,
to save your exhausted friends from headlong death.
But your own handsome war-gear lies in Trojan hands,
bronze and burnished – and Hector in that flashing helmet,
Hector glorifies in your armor, strapped across his back.
Not that he will glory in it long, I tell you:
his own destruction hovers near him now. Wait –
don’t fling yourself in the grind of battle yet,
not till you see me coming back with your own eyes.
Tomorrow I will return to you with the rising sun,
bearing splendid arms from Hephaestus, god of fire!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 152-162. There is a close relationship between Thetis and her son Achilles. When he vows to return to the war effort and confront Hector, the killer of his friend, Thestis shows how love and protectiveness. She tells him to stay out of the battle until the next dawn, when she will return with splendid new arms fashioned by the god Hephaestus. Hector may be glorifying in Achilles’s armor, but he won’t glory in it for long, she says – foreshadowing the Trojan warrior’s own death.

Look at us. Both doomed to stain red with our blood
the same plot of earth, a world away in Troy!
For not even I will voyage home again. Never.
No embrace in his halls from the old horseman Peleus
nor from mother, Thetis – this alien earth I stride
will hold me down at last.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 382-387. Achilles is speaking to the Myrmidons, foreshading his own death in Troy just like his friend Patroclus. He says that he will die without the embrace of his parents, his father Peleus and his mother the goddess Thetis.

But circling the other city camped a divided army
gleaming in battle-gear, and two plans split their ranks:
to plunder the city or share the riches with its people,
hoards the handsome citadel stored within its depths,
But the people were not surrendering, not at all.
They armed for a raid, hoping to break the siege –
loving wives and innocent children standing guard
on the ramparts, flanked by elders bent with age
as men marched out to war. Ares and Pallas led them.
both burnished gold, gold the attire they donned, and great,
magnificent in their armor – gods for all the world,
looming up in their brilliance, towering over troops.
And once they reached the perfect spot for attack,
…both armies battled it out along the river banks –
they raked each other with hurtling bronze-tipped spears.
And Strife and Havoc plunged in the fight, and violent Death
now seizing a man alive with fresh wounds, now one unhurt,
now hauling a dead man through the slaughter by the heels,
the cloak on her back stained red with human blood.
So they clashed and fought like living, breathing men
grappling each other’s corpses, dragging off the dead.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 593-605, 621-628. The second city featured on the massive shield of Achilles forged by Hephaestus is an extended metaphor for the embattled city of Troy, besieged by invading Achaeans. The scenes described foreshadow the Trojans leaving the city to fight the Achaeans between their shores and the city. Also foreshadowed is Achilles killing Hector and mistreating and dragging his body behind his chariot – "hauling a dead man through the slaughter by the heels." On the shield the god Ares and goddess Pallas Athena play a role in the fighting, he on the Trojan side and she supporting the Greeks.

And he forged a king’s estate where harvesters labored,
reaping the ripe grain, swinging their whetted scythes.
Some stalks fell in line with the reapers, row on row,
and others the sheaf-binders girded round with ropes,
three binders standing over the sheaves, behind them
boys gathering up the cut swaths, filling their arms,
supplying grain to the binders, endless bundles.
And there in the midst the king,
scepter in hand at the head of the reaping-rows,
stood tall in silence, rejoicing in his heart.
And off to the side, beneath a spreading oak,
the heralds were setting out the harvest feast,
they were dressing a great ox they had slaughtered,
while attendant women poured out barley, generous,
glistening handfuls strewn for the reapers’ midday meal.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 639-653. Achilles’s shield, fashioned by god of fire Hephaestus, features a king’s estate. Here rich harvests of grain are gathered by laborers while the king stands silently rejoicing at the endless bundles of grain. An ox is slaughtered for a celebratory feast and the women prepare a midday meal for the hungry reapers. The scene metaphorically represents a successful and prosperous Greek King Agamemnon and is foreshadowing of the Achaeans’ victory in the Trojan War.

mighty Achilles! But the day of death
already hovers near, and we are not to blame
but a great god is and the strong force of fate.
Not through our want of speed or any lack of care
did the Trojans strip the armor off Patroclus’ back.
It was all that matchless god, sleek-haired Leto’s son –
he killed him among the champions and handed Hector glory.
Our team could race with the rush of the West Wind,
the strongest, swiftest blast on earth, men say –
still you are doomed to die by force, Achilles,
cut down by a deathless god and mortal man.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 484-494. When Achilles reproaches his horses for allowing Patroclus to die, Hera gives his horse Roan Beauty (Xanthos) a voice to speak. The animal says that Patroclus fell in battle not through their fault but because of Apollo who handed Hector glory. The horse predicts that he, Achilles, is also fated to die by a god and a man. This references that he will be killed by Paris, assisted by the god Apollo.

Come, friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?
Even Patroclus died, a far, far better man than you.
And look, you see how handsome and powerful I am?
The son of a great man, the mother who gave me life
a deathless goddess. But even for me, I tell you,
death and the strong force of fate are waiting.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 119-124. In this passage we see Achilles at his most cynical and unforgiving. Consumed with rage and the desire for revenge for Patroclus’s slaying, he believes that all enemies must die as he is fated to die – foreshadowing his own death. He cruelly mocks the plea to be spared from Priam’s son Lycaon, telling him that better men than him have died.

Courage, Achilles! Why such fear, such terror?
Not with a pair like us to urge you on – gods-in-arms
sent down with Zeus’s blessings, I and Pallas Athena.
It’s not your fate to be swallowed by a river:
he’ll subside, and soon – you’ll see for yourself.
But we do have sound advice, if only you will yield.
Never rest your hands from the great leveler war,
not till you pack and cram the Trojan armies tight
in the famous walls of Troy – whoever flees your onset.
But once you’ve ripped away Prince Hector’s life,
back to the ships you go! We give you glory –
seize it in your hands!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 21, lines 325-336. The river god (Xanthus to the gods and Scamander to mortals) is attempting to drown Achilles in a river. But in this passage Poseidon assures him that it’s not his fate to die in a river. Achilles is told that he has the support of Poseidon and Athena, sent with the blessing of Zeus. The death of Hector at the hands of Achilles is foreshadowed by the sea god. Poseidon promises Achilles glory in the war, and tells him to seize it.

So the old man groaned
and seizing his gray hair tore it out by the roots
but he could not shake the fixed resolve of Hector.
And his mother wailed now, standing beside Priam.
weeping freely, loosing her robes with one hand
and holding out her bare breast with the other,
her words pouring forth in a flight of grief and tears:
"Hector, my child! Look – have some respect for this!
Pity your mother too, if I ever gave you the breast
to soothe your troubles, remember it now, dear boy –
beat back that savage man from safe inside the walls!
Don’t go forth, a champion pitted against him –
merciless, brutal man. If he kills you now,
how can I ever mourn you on your deathbed."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 90-103. Priam literally tears his hair out but cannot shake the resolve of his son Hector to go outside the walls of Troy to face Achilles. Hector’s mother Hecuba weeps and pleads with her son not to pit himself against this merciless and brutal champion. If Achilles kills him, she says that she will not be able to mourn him on his deathbed. This foreshadows how Hector’s corpse will be disrespected by Achilles. The love of two parents for their child comes through strongly in this passage.

I know you well – I see my fate before me.
Never a chance that I could win you over…
Iron inside your chest, that heart of yours.
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!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 22, lines 419-424. In his last dying breath, Hector foretells the death of Achilles at the Scaean gates, where he says that he will be destroyed by Paris and Apollo. He accuses Achilles for having a hard heart.

how long will you eat your heart out here in tears and torment?
All wiped from your mind, all thought of food and bed?
It’s a welcome thing to make love to a woman…
You don’t have long to live now, well I know:
already I see them looming up beside you – death
and the strong force of fate.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 156-161. Thetis finds Achilles still grieving for Patroclus. She wonders how long he is going to torment himself without food and sleep, suggesting that "it’s a welcome thing to make love to a woman" – there is a strong insinuation of a homosexual love relationship between the two men here. Thetis also reminds her son that she sees death and the strong force of fate looming up beside him.

O my husband…
cut off from life so young! You leave me a widow,
lost in the royal halls – and the boy only a baby,
the son we bore together, you and I so doomed.
I cannot think he will ever come to manhood.
Long before that the city will be sacked,
plundered top to bottom! Because you are dead,
her great guardian, you who always defended Troy,
who kept her loyal wives and helpless children safe,
all who will soon be carried off in the hollow ships
and I with them –
And you, my child, will follow me
to labor, somewhere, at harsh, degrading work,
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!
Your father, remember, was no man of mercy…
not in the horror of battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 852-869. These are the words of the grieving Andromache to her fallen husband Hector near the end of Homer’s epic poem. She laments that their baby boy, without the protection of his father, will end up in slavery or hurled from the ramparts by some Achaean marauder. This is foreshadowing of the terrible death of her son Astyanax, which will happen soon after the fall of Troy. According to Greek mythology he is thrown to his death. The fall of Troy is also foreshadowed, with Andromache prophesying that the city will soon be sacked and plundered.

Hector, dearest to me by far of all my sons…
and dear to the gods while we still shared this life –
and they cared about you still, I see, even after death.
Many the sons I had whom the swift runner Achilles
caught and shipped on the barren salt sea as slaves
to Sarnos, to Imbros, to Lemnos shrouded deep in mist!
But you, once he slashed away your life with his brazen spear
he dragged you time and again around his comrade’s tomb,
Patroclus whom you killed – not that he brought Patroclus
back to life by that. But I have you with me now…
fresh as the morning dew you lie in the royal halls
like one whom Apollo, lord of the silver bow,
has approached and shot to death with gentle shafts.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 880-892. Hecuba speaks to the body of her son Hector, eulogizing him and the other sons Achilles took from her, many of them shipped across the sea as slaves. Achilles dragged her son’s body around his comrade’s tomb, after Hector killed Patroclus. But the gods cared for Hector even in death, by allowing his body to return home, where he now lay "fresh as the morning dew" (simile). She says that Hector appears to have been shot by an arrow from Apollo – this foreshadows that Achilles will die from an arrow guided by Apollo.