The Iliad Heroism Quotes

Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles - Home quote, The Iliad

Rage – Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 1-8. The opening lines describe the ferocity of the Trojan War and the rage of Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior and hero to fight in that war. We learn about the conflict within the Greek camp between Achilles and King Agamemnon. While some of the most powerful heroes of the time took part in the Trojan war, it claimed the lives of many of these mighty heroes. We also learn about higher forces at play and shaping the lives of humans and influencing events – the will of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, who seems to control fate.

And the matchless runner reassured him: "Courage!
Out with it now, Calchas. Reveal the will of god,
whatever you may know. And I swear by Apollo
dear to Zeus, the power you pray to, Calchas,
when you reveal god’s will to the Argives – no one,
not while I am alive and see the light on earth, no one
will lay his heavy hands on you by the hollow ships.
None among all the armies. Not even if you mean
Agamemnon here who now claims to be, by far,
the best of the Achaeans."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 99-108. Achilles moves to reassure Calchas who is fearful of explaining Apollo’s anger in sending the plague. The courageous Achilles lives up to his hero reputation by promising that he will protect Calchas even if it is from King Agamemnon.
Picture of Agamemnon lashing back at Achilles

You – I hate you most of all the warlords
loved by the gods. Always dear to your heart,
strife, yes, and battles, the bloody grind of war.
What if you are a great soldier? That’s just a gift of god.
Go home with your ships and comrades, lord it over
your Myrmidons!
You are nothing to me – you and your overweening anger!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 208-213. As his conflict with Achilles comes to a head, Agamemnon delivers this hostile speech to Achilles. Acknowledging that Achilles is a great warrior who has fought many battles, he tells him that this is only so because the gods have helped him. And on Achilles’s threat to quit the war, Agamemnon tells him to go home with his ships and soldiers, that Achilles and his anger are nothing to him.
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.

They came in a hundred ships and Agamemnon led them on,
Atreus’ royal son, and marching in his companies
came the most and bravest fighting men by far.
And there in the midst, armed in gleaming bronze,
in all his glory, he towered high over all his fighters –
he was the greatest warlord, he led by far the largest army.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 667-672. Commanding a hundred ships, King Agamemnon leads the largest army and bravest fighting men in the expedition against Troy. He is portrayed as a larger-than-life, heroic and godlike figure. His bronze armor gleams and in all his glory he stands taller than all of his fighters.

What’s this? –
you, the son of Tydeus, that skilled breaker of horses?
Why cringing here? Gazing out on the passageways of battle!
That was never Tydeus’ way, shy behind the lines –
he’d grapple enemies, bolting ahead of comrades.
…Now there was a man, that Tydeus, that Aetolian.
But he bore a son who’s not the half of him in battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 430-434, 465-466. Agamemnon rebukes Diomedes for his timidity in the face of battle, when he finds him standing by in the combat car. In an effort to spur Diomedes on by appealing to his pride, Agamemnon mentions the heroic and glorious feats of Diomedes’s father Tydeus, adding that Diomedes is not half the man he was in battle.

Enraged at his friend’s death Odysseus sprang in fury,
helmed in fiery bronze he plowed through the front
and charging the enemy, glaring left and right
he hurled his spear – a glinting brazen streak –
and the Trojans gave ground, scattering back,
panicking there before his whirling shaft –
a direct hit! Odysseus struck Democoon.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 570-576. When his friend Leucus is killed, an enraged Odysseus runs straight to the front lines and kills King Priam’s son Democoon to avenge Leucus’s death. This demonstrates the great fighting skills and heroic courage of Odysseus in the heat of battle.

Diomedes, loosing his war cry, charged Aeneas –
though what he saw was lord Apollo himself,
guarding, spreading his arms above the fighter,
but even before the mighty god he would not flinch.
Tydides reared and hurled himself again and again,
trying to kill Aeneas, strip his famous armor.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 496-501. Here the fearless Diomedes heroically takes the gods and Aeneas – Apollo is protecting the Trojan fighter. Again and again Diomedes hurls himself at Aeneas, trying to kill him, unflinching before the mighty archer god.

But as he turned back,
his host spun out the tightest trap of all:
picking the best men from Lycia far and wide
he set an ambush – that never came home again!
Fearless Bellerophon killed them all.
Then, yes,
when the king could see the man’s power at last,
a true son of the gods, he pressed him hard to stay,
he offered his own daughter’s hand in marriage,
he gave him half his royal honors as the king.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 220-228. Glaucus recounts the story of his heroic grandfather Bellerophon to Diomedes, when they meet as enemies on the battlefield. Bellerophon was sent by Proetus to Iobates, the king of Lycia, with a message that he was to be slain. A trap was set but Bellerophon killed all those sent to ambush him. When the Lycian king saw his power and heroism, he took him into his household and offered him his daughter’s hand in marriage.
Hector tells Andromache he is no shrinking coward

All this weighs on my mind too, dear woman.
But I would die of shame to face the men of Troy
and the Trojan women trailing their long robes
if I would shrink from battle now, a coward.
Nor does the spirit urge me on that way.
I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely,
always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers.
winning my father great glory, glory for myself.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 522-529. Hector’s reply to his wife Andromache when she begs him to remain home, be a husband to her, and not leave their child an orphan. Hector is touched by her plea, but won’t allow himself to be moved. What is more important to him, he makes clear to her, is winning great glory, not being a shrinking coward in battle and always to fight in the front ranks.

Then both went thrashing into the lines to make a slaughter
as two wild boars bristling, ramping back for the kill,
fling themselves on the yelping packs that hunt them –
back they whirled on attack and laid the Trojans low
while Achaeans just in flight from Hector’s onset
leapt at the chance to gather second wind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 375-380. As the Greek army begins to retreat, Odysseus and Diomedes decide to make a stand. They heroically fling themselves at the Trojans like "two wild boars" going in for the kill, as described in an epic simile. Their action inspires the other Achaeans.

That left the famous spearman Odysseus on his own,
not a single Argive comrade standing by his side
since panic seized them all. Unnerved himself,
Odysseus probed his own great fighting heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 473-476. When his friend Diomedes is hit in the foot by an arrow from Paris, Odysseus decides to remain on the battlefield long enough to allow him escape. All of his fellow soldiers have fled, leaving him alone, and the Trojans are coming. But Odysseus shows her heroic qualities by staying in the fight.

they found Odysseus
dear to Zeus but round him Trojans thronged
like tawny jackals up in the mountains swarming
round a horned stag just wounded – a hunter’s hit him
with one fast shaft from his bow and the stag’s escaped,
sprinting at top speed so long as his blood runs warm
and the spring in his knees still lasts…
But soon as the swift arrow saps his strength
the ravening carrion packs begin their feasting
off on a ridge in twilight woods until some god,
some power drives a lion down against them-claw-mad
and the panicked jackals scatter, the lion rends their prey.
So packed around Odysseus skilled and quick to maneuver
swarmed the brave bulk of Trojans – but still the hero
kept on lunging, spearing, keeping death at bay.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 556-570. Menelaus and Great Ajax find Odysseus surrounding by Trojans, but heroically managing to keep death at bay. In an epic simile comparing him to a wounded stag surrounded by jackals, Odysseus is depicted as a great warrior with steely resistance and determination. The fact that Zeus holds him dear also helps his cause.

Wild as a swollen river hurling down on the flats,
down from the hills in winter spate, bursting its banks
with rain from storming Zeus, and stands of good dry oak,
whole forests of pine it whorls into itself and sweeps along
till it heaves a crashing mass of driftwood out to sea –
so glorious Ajax swept the field, routing Trojans,
shattering teams and spearmen in his onslaught.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 11, lines 580-586. As Great Ajax attacks and routs the Trojans, Homer in an epic simile conjures up an image of a river swollen by rain storms from Zeus, sweeping through a forest and dragging a mass of driftwood out to sea. The Greek warrior is compared to a force of nature as he heroically sends the enemy running.

think of the hounds and huntsmen circling round
some lion or boar when the quarry wheels at bay,
rippling in strength as the men mass like a bastion
standing up to his charge and hurl their pelting spears
and the boar’s brave spirit never flinches, never bolts
and his own raw courage kills him – time and again
he wheels around, testing the huntsmen’s ranks
and where he lunges out the ranks of men give way.
So Hector lunged into battle, rallying cohorts now,
spurring them on to cross the gaping trench.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 50-59. A brave and heroic Hector attacks the Achaean wall. An epic simile likens Hector to a lion or boar, surrounded by hounds and huntsmen hurling spears at their quarry, and the animal repeatedly turns around and lunges at its attackers.

Both warriors planted there before the towering gates
rose like oaks that rear their crests on a mountain ridge,
standing up to the gales and driving rains, day in, day out,
their giant roots branching, gripping deep in the earth:
so these two, trusting all to their arms, their power,
stood up to Asius’ headlong charge and never shrank.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 155-160. The Achaean spearmen Polypoetes and Leonteus heroically defend the Achaean gate in the Greeks’ wall against the charge led by Trojan ally Asius. They are compared in an epic simile to two great oaks standing up to gales and driving rains.

the two burst forth to fight before the gates
like wild boars, a pair of them up on the hilltops
bracing to take some breakneck rout of men and dogs
and the two go slanting in on the charge, shattering timber
round about them, shearing off the trunks at the roots
and a grinding, screeching clatter of tusks goes up
till a hunter spears them, tears their lives out –
so the clatter screeched from the gleaming bronze
that cased their chests as blows piled on blows.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 169-177. Fighting for all they are worth, the Achaeans Polypoetes and Leonteus are likened to two wild boars in an extended Homeric simile, as they heroically make a stand against the Trojan charge at the Achaean gate.

Father Zeus –
so even you are an outright liar after all!
I never dreamed these heroic Argive ranks
could hold back our charge, our invincible arms.
Look, like wasps quick and pinched at the waist
or bees who build their hives on a rocky path,
they never give up their hollow house, they hold on,
keep the honey-hunters at bay, fight for their young.
So these men will never budge from the gates
though they’re only two defenders –
not till they kill us all or we kill them!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 189-199. Asius curses Zeus for his failure to break through the Achaean defensive wall. An epic simile conjures up an image of bees or wasps who will never give up the fight for the defense of their house and young. So the heroic Achaeans will defend against the Trojan charge until they kill all or are killed themselves.

That splendid shield he gripped before his chest
and shaking a pair of spears went stalking out
like a mountain lion starved for meat too long
and the lordly heart inside him fires him up
to raid some stormproof fold, to go at the sheep,
and even if he should light on herdsmen at the spot,
guarding their flocks with dogs and bristling spears,
the marauder has no mind to be driven off that steading,
not without an attack. All or nothing – he charges flocks
and hauls off bloody prey or he’s run through himself
at the first assault with a fast spear driven home.
So how the heart of Sarpedon stalwart as a god
impelled him to charge the wall and break it down.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 12, lines 346-358. The demi-god Sarpedon, son of Zeus and a Trojan ally from Lycia, charges the Achaean wall to attempt to break through it. The image of a mountain lion starved of meat and charging flocks of sheep and hauling off its bloody prey is used in an epic simile to describe Sarpedon, one of the big heroes of the Trojan War.

that’s where you really spot a fighter’s mettle,
where the brave and craven always show their stripes.
The skin of the coward changes calor all the time,
he can’t get a grip on himself, he can’t sit still,
he squats and rocks, shifting his weight from foot to foot,
his heart racing, pounding inside the fellow’s ribs,
his teeth chattering – he dreads some grisly death.
But the skin of the brave soldier never blanches.
He’s all control. Tense but no great fear.
The moment he joins his comrades packed in ambush
he prays to wade in carnage, cut-and-thrust at once.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 13, lines 327-337. Idomeneus tells Meriones that war reveals the true nature of a fighter, and separates the brave man from the coward. The brave man is unafraid and all control and can handle the stresses of war. But the coward falls apart under the pressure, dreading grisly death.

he stood his ground like a wild mountain boar,
Trusting his strength, standing up to a rout of men
That scream and swoop against him off in a lonely copse,
The ridge of his back bristling, his eyes flashing fire,
He grinds his teeth, champing to beat back dogs and men.
So Idomeneus, famous spearman, stood his ground,
he never gave an inch with Aeneas charging in.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 13, lines 545-551. Idomeneus heroically stands his ground to face Trojan demi-god and warrior Aeneas, who charges at him. An epic simile likens him to a wild mountain boar standing up to a group of screaming men and dogs.

They closed ranks, they packed like a stone wall,
a granite cliff that towers against the churning surf,
standing up to the screaming winds, their sudden assaults
and the breaking waves they spawn that crash against its base –
so the Danaans stood the Trojan onslaught, rock-solid
and never flinched in fear.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 15, lines 717-722. Heroically holding their line by their ships against the Trojan onslaught, the Achaeans are compared in an epic simile to a granite cliff standing up to the churning suft and roaring winds.

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.

If it really was Achilles who reared beside the ships,
all the worse for him – if he wants his fill of war.
I for one, I’ll never run from his grim assault,
I’ll stand up to the man – see if he bears off glory
or I bear it off myself!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 355-359. Hector is aware of Achilles’s brilliance in battle, but that does not deter him from heroically charging forth. The greatest glory awaits one of the two heroes, he believes, and Hector chooses not to run from it but to stay and fight for it. Hector’s pride is one of his strengths that make him a great warrior, but it also a weakness that will lead to his downfall.
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