The Iliad Zeus 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.
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.
So, who of the gods this time, my treacherous one, was hatching plans' with you - Homer

So, who of the gods this time, my treacherous one,
was hatching plans’ with you?
Always your pleasure, whenever my back is turned,
to settle things in your grand clandestine way.
You never deign, do you, freely and frankly,
to share your plots with me – never, not a word!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 648-653. A row breaks out in heaven as Hera chides her "treacherous" husband Zeus for hatching plans behind her back. This is after Thetis comes to beg of Zeus that he honor Achilles by helping the Trojans. This displeases Hera as she favors the Greeks.

Maddening one…you and your eternal suspicions –
I can never escape you. Ah but tell me, Hera,
just what can you do about all this? Nothing.
Only estrange yourself from me a little more –
and all the worse for you.
If what you say is true, that must be my pleasure.
Now go sit down. Be quiet now. Obey my orders,
for fear the gods, however many Olympus holds,
are powerless to protect you when I come
to throttle you with my irresistible hands.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 674-683. When Hera continues to taunt Zeus with what she knows about his pact with Thetis to help the Trojans, he orders her to be silent and threatens her with violence. The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, mediated by the elder Nestor, is paralleled in heaven with the quarrel between Zeus and Hera, mediated by Hera’s son Hephaestus.

At that the white-armed goddess Hera smiled
and smiling, took the cup from her child’s hands.
Then dipping sweet nectar up from the mixing bowl
he poured it round to all the immortals, left to right.
And uncontrollable laughter broke from the happy gods
as they watched the god of fire breathing hard
and bustling through the halls.
That hour then
and all day long till the sun went down they feasted
and no god’s hunger lacked a share of the handsome banquet
or the gorgeous lyre Apollo struck or the Muses singing
voice to voice in choirs, their vibrant music rising.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 717-727. All is not well on Olympus as a quarrel breaks out between Zeus and his wife Hera, over Zeus helping the Trojans in the war. But the tension is broken at a banquet when Hera’s son Hephaestus, god of fire, intervenes to make peace. All the happy gods end up roaring with laughter as the deformed Hephaestus, who limps because he has crooked legs, bustles through the halls pouring out sweet wine for Hera and all the gods. They feast and celebrate all day until sunset. Note that Homer often refers to the gods as "the immortals" – their immortality is one of the most important things that distinguishes them from mortal human beings.

at last one plan seemed best:
he would send a murderous dream to Agamemnon.
…"Zeus commands you to arm your long-hatred Achaeans,
to attack at once, full force –
now you can take the broad streets of Troy!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 5-7, 33-34. Zeus gives a false steer to Agamemnon in his war with the Trojans, by sending a fraudulent dream of hope commanding him to attack Troy immediately. The king of the gods is fulfilling his promise to Thetis to help the Trojans. This interference by the gods in human affairs is an example of dramatic irony. Agamemnon is convinced by Zeus that his army is about to inflict defeat on the Trojans, but the reader knows that the Trojans will be able to inflict terrible damage in this full-on attack.

Cronus’ son has trapped me in madness, blinding ruin –
Zeus is a harsh, cruel god. He vowed to me long ago,
he bowed his head that I should never embark for home
till I had brought the walls of Ilium crashing down.
But now, I see, he only plotted brutal treachery:
now he commands me back to Argos in disgrace,
whole regiments of my men destroyed in battle.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 130-136. Agamemnon blames Zeus for his defeat in battle by the Trojans and the destruction of whole regiments of his army. The king who forced Achilles out of the army fails to take personal responsibility.

there in the midst strode powerful Agamemnon,
eyes and head like Zeus who loves the lightning,
great in the girth like Ares, god of battles,
broad through the chest like sea lord Poseidon.
Like a bull rising head and shoulders over the herds,
a royal bull rearing over his flocks of driven cattle –
so imposing was Atreus’ son, so Zeus made him that day,
towering over fighters, looming over armies.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 565-572. Godlike Agamemnon’s powerful presence among the Achaean warriors is dramatized in an epic simile, which attributes to him the eyes and head of Zeus, great girth of Ares, broad chest of Poseidon and power of a royal bull rearing over his cattle.

and the ground thundered under them, deep as it does
for Zeus who loves the lightning, Zeus in all his rage
when he lashes the ground around Typhoeus in Arima,
there where they say the monster makes his bed of pain –
so the earth thundered under their feet, armies trampling,
sweeping through the plain at blazing speed.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 889-894. The formidable noise of the Achaean army thundering through the plain is compared in one of Homer’s epic similes to Zeus in a rage and lashing the land with thunder and lightning.
But ceaseless war's upon us - quote with picture of Hector

But ceaseless war’s upon us!
Time and again I’ve gone to battle, fought with men
but I’ve never seen an army great as this. Too much –
like piling leaves or sand, and on and on they come,
advancing across the plain to fight before our gates.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 906-910. Zeus sends messenger goddess Iris to Troy, alerting them to assemble their armies to meet the Achaeans advancing towards the city. She warns Trojan King Priam and his son Hector that she has never seen an army as great as this. She likens them in a simile to piling leaves or sand.

Whenever I am bent on tearing down some city
Filled with men you love – to please myself –
Never attempt to thwart my fury, Hera,
give me my way. For I, I gave you this,
all of my own free will but hardly willing. No,
of all the cities under the sun and starry skies,
wherever men who walk the earth have dwelled,
I honor sacred Ilium most with my immortal heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 47-54. Zeus says this angrily to Hera, when the gods sit in council on Mount Olympus and watch events take place in Troy. The two row over the level of intervention in the war on different sides by the gods, including Hera. But Zeus is supreme god and makes clear to Hera that it is he who has power to destroy cities, at his pleasure, and she is never to twart him.

Down the goddess swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks
and dove like a star the son of Cronus flings.
Cronus with all his turning, twisting ways –
a sign to men at sea or a massive army marching,
blazing on with a stream of sparks showering in its wake.
Like a shooting star Athena flashed across the earth,
plunging down in the midst of both camped forces.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 86-92. In this wonderful epic simile the goddess of wisdom Athena is said to sweep down from Olympus to the armies like a shooting star. Zeus has ordered her down to the battlefield in order to provoke the Trojans into breaking the truce.

Don’t lie, Atrides! You know the truth – say it!
We claim we are far, far greater than our fathers.
We are the ones who stormed the seven gates of Thebes,
heading a weaker force and facing stronger walls
but obeying the gods’ signs and backed by Zeus.
Our fathers? Fools. Their own bravado killed them.
Don’t tell me you rank our fathers with ourselves!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 4, lines 470-476. When Agamemnon goads his troops including Achaean commander Diomedes for failing to live up to his ancestors’achievements, Sthenelus makes this retort. He says that his troops are far better militarily than their ancestors, citing their successful storming of Thebes when they were supported by god Zeus.

Down the plain he stormed like a stream in spate,
a routing winter torrent sweeping away the dikes:
the tight, piled dikes can’t hold it back any longer,
banks shoring the blooming vineyards cannot curb its course –
a flash flood bursts as the rains from Zeus pour down their power,
acre on acre the well-dug work of farmers crumbling under it –
so under Tydides’ force the Trojan columns panicked now,
no standing their ground, massed, packed as they were.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 96-104. Diomedes continues to rage through the battle attacking the panicked Trojans – just before he is wounded in the shoulder from an arrow shot by Pandarus. An epic simile describes the Greek warrior’s rampage like a river swollen by rains from the god Zeus causing a flash flood and bursting through dikes and farmers’ vineyards.

The troops themselves had no fear,
no dread of the Trojans’ power and breakneck charges,
no, they stood their ground like heavy thunderheads
stacked up on the towering mountaintops by Cronus’ son,
stock-still in a windless calm when the raging North Wind
and his gusty ripping friends that had screamed down
to rout dark clouds have fallen dead asleep. So staunch
they stood the Trojan onslaught, never shrinking once.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 5, lines 601-608. This epic simile tells us how the unshrinking Achaeans, spurred on to fight by their leaders, show no fear and hold their ground against the Trojans. They are likened to thunderheads stacked up on the mountaintops by the god of lightning Zeus.

Zeus, all you immortals! Grant this boy, my son,
may be like me, first in glory among the Trojans,
strong and brave like me, and rule all Troy in power
and one day let them say, "He is a better man than his father!" –
when he comes home from battle bearing the bloody gear
of the mortal enemy he has killed in war –
a joy to his mother’s heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 568-574. Hector’s parting words before going to battle in this prayer to Zeus for his infant son and wife. He asks the god to take care of his son’s reputation, so that he it will exceed that of his father. He asks also that his son be a joy to his mother. As well as being a great warrior, Hector is a committed family man, who deeply loves his wife Andromache and son.

Ajax harnessed himself in burnished, gleaming bronze
and once he had strapped his legs and chest in armor,
out he marched like the giant god of battle wading
into the wars of men when Zeus drives them hard
to clash and soldier on with heart-devouring hate.
So giant Ajax marched, that bulwark of the Achaeans –
a grim smile curling below his dark shaggy brows,
under his legs’ power taking immense strides,
shaking his spear high, its long shadow trailing.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 237-245. A fully armed Great Ajax moves out to face Hector in single combat. In an epic simile he is compared to a giant god of war, Ares, marching into a clash of warriors stirred up to fight by the god Zeus.

Father Zeus, is there a man on the whole wide earth
who still informs the gods of all his plans, his schemes?
Don’t you see? Look there – the long-haired Achaeans
have flung that rampart up against their ships,
around it they have dug an enormous deep trench
and never offered the gods a hundred splendid bulls,
but its fame will spread as far as the light of dawn!
And men will forget those ramparts I and Apollo
reared for Troy in the old days –
for the hero Laomedon – we broke our backs with labor.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 516-525. Poseidon complains bitterly to Zeus that the Greeks have built their trench and walls to fortify their ships without making the due sacrifice of a hundred bulls to him. Though he appears more concerned that the fortifications will earn some kind of fame and immortality, while his and Apollo’s ramparts for Troy will be forgotten. Even gods are cursed with fragile egos, it seems!

Come now, just wait till these long-haired Achaeans
sail back in their ships to the fatherland they love,
then batter their wall, sweep it into the salt breakers
and pile over the endless beach your drifts of sand again,
level it to your heart’s content – the Argives’ mighty wall.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 532-536. An angry Zeus responds to Poseidon’s moaning about the great wall that the Greeks built at Troy. When the Achaeans sail back home after the end of the war, he tells Poseidon that he can destroy it to his heart’s content.

The god bent his head that the armies must be saved
not die in blood. That instant he launched an eagle –
truest of Zeus’s signs that fly the skies – a fawn
clutched in its talons, sprung of a running doe,
but he dropped it free beside the handsome shrine
where the Achaean soldiers always sacrificed to Zeus.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 8, lines 281-286. Zeus feels sorry for the weeping Agamemnon, who appeals to the god as Hector calls for torches to burn the Greek ships. Zeus sends Agamemnon an omen that his armies are to be saved – an eagle carrying a fawn in its talons and dropping it free at the shrine where the Achaeans sacrifice to Zeus.

Go back and tell him all,
all I say – out in the open too – so other Achaeans
can wheel on him in anger
…He cheated me, did me damage, wrong! But never again,
he’ll never rob me blind with his twisting words again!
Once is enough for him. Die and be damned for all I care!
Zeus who rules the world has ripped his wits away.
His gifts, I loathe his gifts…
I wouldn’t give you a splinter for that man!
Not if he gave me ten times as much, twenty times over, all
he possesses now, and all that could pour in from the world’s end –
not if his gifts outnumbered all the grains of sand
…and dust in the earth – no, not even then could Agamemnon
bring my fighting spirit round until he pays me back,
pays full measure for all his heartbreaking outrage!
His daughter…I will marry no daughter of Agamemnon.
Not if she rivaled Aphrodite in all her golden glory,
not if she matched the crafts of dear-eyed Athena,
not even then would I make her my wife! No.
let her father pitch on some other Argive.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 450-478. Despite the best efforts of Odysseus to lure Achilles back to the battle, the Greek warrior is still seething with anger at Agamemnon and refuses to budge. He point black refuses the king’s offer of gifts and a daughter in marriage – not if she rivaled goddesses Aphrodite or Athena would he wed her. He says that Zeus has ripped Agamemnon’s wits away.

We do have Prayers, you know, Prayers for forgiveness,
daughters of mighty Zeus…and they limp and halt,
they’re all wrinkled, drawn, they squint to the side,
can’t look you in the eyes, and always bent on duty,
trudging after Ruin, maddening, blinding Ruin.
But Ruin is strong and swift –
She outstrips them all by far, stealing a march,
leaping over the whole wide earth to bring mankind to grief.
And the Prayers trail after, trying to heal the wounds.
And then, if a man reveres these daughters of Zeus
as they draw near him, they will help him greatly
and listen to his appeals. But if one denies them,
turns them away, stiff-necked and harsh – off they go
to the son of Cronus, Zeus, and pray that Ruin
will strike the man down, crazed and blinded
until he’s paid the price.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 609-624. The charioteer Phoenix pleads with Achilles to relent on his vow not to fight for the Achaeans against the Trojans until Agamemnon has assuaged his honor. He asks him not to dishonor Prayers for forgiveness when they come to his door, warning him that Prayers are the daughters of Zeus. If a man denies those daughters, they will go to Zeus and ask him to send Ruin to that man to punish him, he tells Achilles.

So by the ships the other lords of Achaea’s armies
slept all night long, overcome by gentle sleep…
But not the great field marshal Agamemnon –
the sweet embrace of sleep could not hold him:
his mind kept churning, seething. Like Zeus’s bolts
when the lord of bright-hatred Hera flashes lightning,
threatening to loose torrential rain or pelting hail
or snow when a blizzard drifts on fields – or driving on,
somewhere on earth, the giant jaws of rending war –
so thick-and-fast the groans came from Atrides,
wrenching his chest, heaving up from his heart
and rocked his very spirit to the core.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 10, lines 1-12. While the other Greek commanders sleep soundly that night, Agamemnon does not. He feels grim about the military situation and is concerned about the fate of the Achaean army after their rout by the Trojans earlier that day. An epic simile compares the turmoil in his heart to Zeus flashing lightning and threatens to let loose a massive storm.

And now as he scanned across the Trojan plain
Agamemnon marveled in horror at those fires,
a thousand fires blazing against the walls of Troy,
and the shrill of pipes and flutes and low roar of men.
And now as he glanced back at Achaea’s troops and ships
he tore out his hair by the roots, he looked to Zeus on high,
groaning from the depths of his proud, embattled heart.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 10, lines 13-19. As Agamemnon looks across the plain in horror at the thousand fires of the confident Trojans, he turns his gaze up to Zeus, groaning from the depths of his proud heart. He is fearful for the fate of his armies, after the thrashing they received from the Trojans the day before. So worried is he, he is literally pulling his hair out.
Close