Disclaimer: I am not an ancient Greek scholar. For the full disclaimer, read here.
“Even so was the fight balanced evenly between them till the time came when Jove gave the greater glory to Hector son of Priam...”
Iliad, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
Book 12 Summary
Unable to cross the trench the Achaeans dug around their camp, Hector and the other Trojans on chariots are advised to go on foot and assault the ramparts.
On the Achaean side, the two Ajax’s are barely holding the army together. Sarpedon manages to put a breach in the rampart, but the Achaeans stop him from getting inside the camp.
Wanting to give Hector the greater glory, Zeus gives him the strength to lift a particularly heavy stone and he uses it to breach the gates of the Achaean camp.
As the Trojans begin to pour into the camp, the Achaeans scatter in panic.
For a list of the major characters, with Greek and Latin names, go here.
The Most Famous Line In The Iliad
While the Trojans are pushing up against the ramparts of the Achaeans’ camp, they are suddenly confronted with an unfavorable omen: An eagle flies to their left with a big red snake in its claws. The snake bites the eagle, the eagle lets go of the snake, and flies off crying out in pain.
The Trojans are now terrified.
One of Hector’s advisors tells him it’s a bad omen and they should back off from fighting. Hector will have none of it:
“There is one omen, and one only—that a man should fight for his country.”
Iliad, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
I’ll let Bernard Knox, who wrote the introduction to the Robert Fagles translation of the Iliad, take it from here:
It is one of the most famous lines in the poem, respected and admired by the Greeks of later centuries as the epitome of patriotic courage, of the mood that inspired men to defend their own city, great or small, in the face of overwhelming odds, hostile portents and omens of disaster.
Bernard Knox, Introduction to the Robert Fagles translation of the Iliad, p. 34; Penguin Classics; 1990
It’s amazing that the line in the Iliad that garnered so much admiration from the Greeks was spoken by a Trojan. It’s even more amazing that Homer gave Hector this line.
However, it fits Hector's character. Recall what he told his wife back in Book 6 after she begged him to stay inside Troy rather than fight on the front lines:
“I know nothing save to fight bravely in the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown alike for my father and myself. Well do I know that the day will surely come when mighty Ilius shall be destroyed with Priam and Priam's people…”
Iliad, Book 6; Samuel Butler translation
Hector knows Troy is doomed—either because he knows of the prophecy or because he intuits that the Achaeans are a superior fighting force. He also knows that once that happens his wife will most likely become someone’s slave. However, he will still fight for it until the bitter end. Troy is where his wife is, but more than that, it’s where his son is. Hector knows his and his wife’s futures are over, but he hopes he can secure one for his son.
A Speech Agamemnon Could Learn From
Just before the Lycians, one of the Trojan allies, begin their assault on a particular section of the rampart, their leader Sarpedon gives what I believe is a very remarkable speech to his subordinate:
"Glaucus, why in Lycia do we receive especial honour as regards our place at table? Why are the choicest portions served us and our cups kept brimming, and why do men look up to us as though we were gods? Moreover we hold a large estate by the banks of the river Xanthus, fair with orchard lawns and wheat-growing land; it becomes us, therefore, to take our stand at the head of all the Lycians and bear the brunt of the fight, that one may say to another, ‘Our princes in Lycia eat the fat of the land and drink best of wine, but they are fine fellows; they fight well and are ever at the front in battle.' My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death thenceforward and for ever, I should neither press forward myself nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him; therefore let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves, or yield it to another."
Iliad, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
This is how I believe a leader should see their station. A leader should live worthy of the respect and honor he’s given by the people he leads. This is a stark contrast to Agamemnon as observed by Achilles:
“Never when the Achaeans sack any rich city of the Trojans do I receive so good a prize as you do, though it is my hands that do the better part of the fighting. When the sharing comes, your share is far the largest, and I, forsooth, must go back to my ships, take what I can get and be thankful, when my labour of fighting is done.”
Iliad, Book 1; Samuel Butler translation
Achilles said this after Agamemnon demanded immediate compensation for needing to give up the priest of Apollo’s daughter to end the plague. He was unwilling to wait until they sacked Troy and be compensated then. And then, in spite, he took Achilles’ war prize Briseis for daring to confront him on the issue.
Of course, we can’t forget Book 9 where Agamemnon tries to bribe Achilles into returning to the war effort rather than apologize for humiliating him.
Would that our leaders have Sarpedon’s mindset rather than revel in their power and privilege.
Would that I have Sarpedon’s mindset should I ever find myself in leadership.
What Is It About The Past?
Homer makes two different comments pretty close to each other about how the men in the Iliad were stronger than the men of his own day:
[About Ajax lifting a large stone] As men now are, even one who is in the bloom of youth could hardly lift it with his two hands, but Ajax raised it high aloft and flung it down...
[About Hector lifting a large stone] ... two of the best men in a town, as men now are, could hardly raise it from the ground and put it on to a waggon...
Iliad, Book 12; Samuel Butler translation
This isn’t a new sentiment expressed in the Iliad. Back in Book 1, Nestor said something similar about the men he knew in his youth:
“Moreover I have been the familiar friend of men even greater than you are, and they did not disregard my counsels. Never again can I behold such men as Pirithous and Dryas shepherd of his people, or as Caeneus, Exadius, godlike Polyphemus, and Theseus son of Aegeus, peer of the immortals. These were the mightiest men ever born upon this earth: mightiest were they, and when they fought the fiercest tribes of mountain savages they utterly overthrew them. I came from distant Pylos, and went about among them, for they would have me come, and I fought as it was in me to do. Not a man now living could withstand them, but they heard my words, and were persuaded by them.”
Iliad, Book 1; Samuel Butler translation
The men of Nestor’s day were made of different stuff than the men he is fighting with in the Trojan War. And the men who fought in the Trojan War were made of different stuff than the men of Homer’s day.
This is quite a universal sentiment across cultures, stories, and sacred texts, and it fascinates me. Beliefs about ages where men were stronger, smarter, more technologically advanced, closer to God or the gods, and where the fantastic and the miraculous were existent or far more commonplace.
At the top of my head, I think about how Robert E. Howard set Conan the Barbarian in our world's forgotten past. No one like Conan, or anyone he met or fought, could ever exist today. And if they did, we would be in big trouble.
I think about shows like Stargate SG-1 and the race known as the Ancients. Humans are their descendants, and are inferior in every way.
I think about Mortimer Adler (How To Read A Book) and Dorothy L. Sayers (“The Lost Tools of Learning”) who, in 1940 and 1947 respectively, lamented the poor state of the schools in their respective countries compared to the past. Imagine what they would say today.
I think about Richard M. Weaver, who was derisive of Jazz music in his 1948 book Ideas Have Consequences. Jazz music! Today, we lament how cheap and simple music is compared to Jazz. Weaver died in 1962. What would he have said about The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, or metal?
I think about the theory of ancient aliens, or the longing that many have to escape the city and live more simply like our ancestors, or groups like SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) which reenacts a more romantic version of the Middle Ages. I think about the veneration we have of ancient wisdom, whether it regards ethics, diet and health, or everything in between...
Everything deteriorates over time. That seems to be a universal sentiment. Is this sentiment true? Or, do human beings have their perspectives distorted by nostalgia or ignorance? Is it something else entirely?
What is it about the past that causes us to long for it, venerate it, and believe it was superior?
That’s all for Book 12 of the Iliad.
May your days be filled with grace.
-Andronikos
The booklist I am going through can be found here.
If you want to learn a little more about the Iliad, I have a page devoted to it.
Find me on social media.
Thumbnail: Hector Breaches the Gate of the Greek Camp. Liebig trade card. 19th century. Taken from here.