Theomachia

Presenting Achilles with the elaborate armor forged by Hephaestus, Thetis promises to attend to Patroclus's body while Achilles goes to battle. It is then that Achilles makes the announcement of his intentions to go to war via a speech to the assembly where he additionally announces the end of his μῆνις.  The ever reasonable Odysseus, however, has to remind god-like Achilles of mortal mens need to feed. Begrudgingly, Achilleus delays battle to allow his soldiers to eat while he himself attests his refusal to nourish himself until he is able to exert retribution on Hektor by slaying him. Overtook with emotion, Achilles continues to mourn Patroclus. Taking pity on Achilles' loss, Zeus directs me to instill a  sense of satiety to him so as to prevent undernourished fatigue.

As both armies prepare themselves for battle, Zeus summons the gods. Zeus proceeds to lift the veil of divine intervention and each and every god shoots down to the moral world, overlooking the battle prior to definitive involvement. Achilles and Aeneas try their hardest to offend one another, spewing insults. Poseidon, however, whisks Aeneas away before any damage can be done. Hektor then provokes battle with Achilles only to fail miserably and be whisked away by Apollo yet again.

Just so completely overcome with emotion over the miniscule blemish in his skin from the time I encouraged Diomedes to spear him, Ares spews harsh words of provocation on me. In response I take a hand stone, seemingly insignificant, and hit Ares in the neck with it, causing him to spread over seven acres in his fall. I laugh at this pathetic sight, standing over his body, and acclaim in triumph: “You child; you did not think e ven this time how much stronger I can claim I am than you, when you match your furty again me. Therefore you are paying atonement to your mother’s furies since she is angry and wishes you ill, because you abandoned the Achaians, and have given your aid to the insolent Trojans,” (410).

Intense battle ensues. Achilleus divides the Trojans into two waves, one of which is corralled toward the riverbank. Achilles decimates Lycaon followed by the slay of Asteropaeus. Fueled by his vengeful rage of Patroclus, Achilleus goes on a Trojan killing spree, tossing the corpses into the river. It is then that the river requests Apollo's aid. In response to this request Achilles directs his attacks to the river itself, only to be draged downstream on the brink of death. Always in favor of the Greeks, however, Hera ignites fire against the river until he is forced into submission. Igniting a sense of argument within the Gods, bickering and disagreement occur. Cognizant of the great extent of loss, Priam opens the gates to Troy and the troops flee. Achilles fights with Agenor until he nearly faces death, allowing the Trojans to return to Troy.

Although Achilleus announces so publicly the ending of his μῆνις, I being a wise and knowledgeable God know that this is not the case. Achilleus’ μῆνις is still present with a simple shift in direction: instead of focusing his anger on the Greeks, it is now directed toward Trojan forces. Another namely mention of Achilleus is his godlike essence. Dear to my heart for this very understanding, Godlike Achilleus demonstrates his superiority and inhuman endurance by asserting his fast from food until the avengement of slain Patroklos. It is in his speaking that I am stirred and plummeted from the sky before him, “dropping the delicate ambrosia and the nectar inside the breast of Achilleus softly, so no sad weakness of hunger would come on his knees,” (353). I thought ambrosia and nectar to have the most satiety for a warrior so Godlike as Achilleus, within his capabilities mirroring the Gods themselves. This aristeia is present in other facets as well. Often described as illustrated by fiery imagery, Achilleus mirrors the Gods. He even attacks a God to no consequence!

It must be noted as well that if Achilleus were left to his own devices, absent from the influence of the ever-powerful Gods, he would overcome his own fate and survive the war by way of his own account, such is his gift.

After the assembly of all the immortal Gods and its associated instruction to enter battle amongst the mortals, I “bellowed standing now beside the ditch dug at the wall’s outside and now again as the thundering sea’s edge gave out [my] great cry,” (48) while Ares did the same from the opposite direction. It is a great sight to have seen this, every God plummeting down at once, allocating to which side they assert their pledge of aid…