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Since not all the books of the Iliad and Odyssey are assigned, the following summaries will help you keep the narrative thread between assigned portions.
Iliad, book 2: In order to do honor to Achilles, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon which urges him to prepare his army to attack, holding out hope that Troy will at last now be taken. Agamemnon, thus deluded, calls a council of chiefs to report the dream; he wishes, however, to test the spirits of his men first. In a full assembly of the army summoned immediately afterwards, he claims to despair of ever taking Troy and tells the army to sail home. Exhausted by nine years of war, the men eagerly prepare to flee but are halted by Odysseus, whom Athena had commanded to rally the army. Odysseus manages to call the army back to assembly and restores morale by recalling a prophecy of Calchas that Troy would be taken in the tenth year. Agamemnon orders the army to prepare for battle and duly sacrifices to Zeus for victory, "but the son of Cronus would not bring this prayer to pass, not yet...the Father accepted the sacrifices, true, but doubled the weight of thankless, ruthless war." The Achaean host musters, and Homer enumerates at length, with great dramatic effect, the various heroes and their contingents. There follows a shorter list of Trojan heroes and allies gathering for battle.
Iliad, bk. 4 (after line 256): The truce is broken and Menelaus is wounded. Agamemnon rallies his troops and chiefs, shaming them into action. His last exchange is with the Argive hero Diomedes, son of Tydeus, whom he chides for hanging back from the action. The armies close ranks and clash again in full battle order.
Iliad, bk. 7: Hector, returning to the field of battle, challenges the Achaeans to face him in single combat. Among the Achaeans, the lot falls to Telamonian Ajax ("Great Ajax"), "that bulwark of the Achaeans." Night and Apollo intervene, breaking off the duel; the two exchange "unforgettable gifts, so any man may say, Trojan soldier or Argive, ‘First they fought with heart-devouring hatred, then they parted, bound by pacts of friendship.’" After dinner Nestor urges Agamemnon to have a defensive wall built around the ships, while the Trojans offer to give back the treasures Paris had brought home from Argos, but not Helen. The offer is rejected, but the two sides agree to a pause for burial of the dead.
Iliad, bk. 10: Odysseus and Diomedes conduct an intelligence-gathering raid by night into the no-man’s-land between the camps. The Trojan Dolon, on a similar patrol, falls into their hands and is killed after giving information about a Thracian encampment, which they pounce upon next. Odysseus and Diomedes return triumphantly, driving to their own lines the Thracians’ prize horses.
Iliad, bk. 13: Poseidon intervenes to help the Achaeans stem the Trojan attack on the ships. The Argives rally, yet Hector and the Trojans maintain their assault.
Iliad, bk. 17: Despite fierce resistance from Menelaus, Hector is able to strip Patroclus's corpse of Achilles’ brilliant armor. Telamonian Ajax, however, manages to fend Hector off and a furious struggle breaks out over Patroclus’ body. Zeus continues to favor the Trojan assault, and only with the greatest difficulty do Menelaus and Meriones carry the corpse back to the Achaean camp, while the two Aeantes "held the Trojans off as a wooded rocky ridge stretched out across an entire plain holds back a flood...."
Iliad, bks. 19-21: Thetis brings the newly forged armor to Achilles, who rages to avenge Patroclus. First, however, he swiftly puts aside his quarrel with Agamemnon, at last recognizing its terrible cost; Agamemnon, for his part, sees that "I was blinded and Zeus stole my wits." Achilles accepts Agamemnon's gifts (7 tripods, 20 cauldrons, 12 stallions, 7 "women, flawless, skilled in crafts... and Briseis in all her beauty made the eighth") and arms for battle. Just before Achilles charges into battle, his horse, given a voice by Hera, prophesies to the hero his imminent death, "cut down by a deathless god and mortal man" (bk. 19). Zeus releases the Olympians to join the side each favors—Hera, Athena, Poseidon and Hermes hasten to assist the Achaeans, Ares, Apollo, Artemis and Aphrodite, the Trojans. "So god went up against god." Achilles hunts for Hector, destroying those who cross his path in a terrifying fury; Hector only escapes death when Apollo whisks him away (bk. 20). Achilles's rampage continues; the hero shows no humanity, slaughtering a youthful suppliant, Lycaon, and maltreating his victims’ corpses by tossing them into the river Scamander, behavior which finally rouses the river-god himself against him. At length even Scamander is forced to withdraw before fire sent by Hephaestus (on Hera's orders), and the Trojans flee into their city before Achilles’ wrath (bk. 21).
Iliad, bk. 23: Achilles puts on a splendid funeral for Patroclus, including the slaughter of 12 Trojans at Patroclus’ pyre. Achilles abuses Hector’s corpse by continually dragging it behind his chariot, but it is preserved unmarred by Aphrodite and Apollo. Achilles holds funeral games for Patroclus, and the Achaean heroes compete in chariot-racing, boxing, wrestling, running, armed combat, shot-put, archery, and spear-throwing.
Odyssey, bks. 3-4: Telemachus, though a diffident youth, is received warmly by Nestor at Pylos. Nestor has information about Agamemnon’s miserable end but nothing about Odysseus, and advises Telemachus to visit Menelaus in Sparta. After learning that Athena has thus far been attending him, Telemachus sets out for Sparta, guided by Nestor’s son Peisistratus (bk. 3). Menelaus and Helen entertain Telemachus in style and exchange reminiscences about Odysseus; Menelaus is confident that he will return. At last he reveals that he has hopeful news: during his long and arduous journey back from Troy he learned from the old man of the sea, Proteus, that Odysseus was still alive, though detained on Calypso’s island. The book ends with a change of scene to Ithaca, where the treacherous suitors plan, at Antinous’ suggestion, to waylay and murder Telemachus on his return.
Odyssey, bks. 14-16: Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, is hospitably received in the hut of his faithful old swineherd, Eumaeus. Eumaeus courteously waits until Odysseus is well fed before asking his name and origin; the wily hero continues to play the beggar, weaving together a splendid fiction to account for his arrival on the Ithacan shore, meanwhile repeatedly asserting to the disbelieving swineherd that his lord is alive and soon to return (bk. 14). Telemachus leaves Lakedaimon and, escaping the suitors’ ambush, reaches Ithaca. Before returning home, he visits Eumaeus, where Odysseus remains, still concealing his identity, carefully eliciting from his host information on the circumstances of his household (bk. 15). Eumaeus departs to tell Penelope of Telemachus’ safe return, leaving him and Odysseus alone. Odysseus reveals his identity to his son, and the two plot the destruction of the suitors. The scene shifts to town, where the suitors are still discussing murdering Telemachus. Eumaeus returns at nightfall to his shed (bk. 16).
Odyssey, bk. 18: Various incidents in Odysseus's hall: Odysseus fights a rival beggar; Penelope makes an appearance among the suitors, and encourages them to bring her costly gifts; Odysseus is insulted by the housemaid Melantho; Odysseus must bear the taunts of the suitors and their humiliation of Telemachus, who is too young to maintain order in his father's household.
Odyssey, bk. 20: More minor incidents in Odysseus's household: the housemaids slip away to sleep with the suitors; Melanthius the goatherd insults the beggar (Odysseus), while the cowherd Philoetius pities him and declares his readiness to avenge dishonor to his lord; the suitors return and turn to the feast, merrily abusing the beggar further; Telemachus endures the sneers of the suitors, waiting for his father to make the first move.
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