The Iliad - Book 12 - The Trojans storm the rampart

• Reading time: about 32 minutes

• The wall.

• The wall is the focus of the entire book--will Hector breach it?
• The book begins with a magnificent look at the Achaean wall and trench, wounds made by the invaders in the earth. This long-lasting war--so important and significant to the participants at the time--has left no mark after the passing of time. "While Hector still lived and Achilles raged on and the warlord Priam's citadel went unstormed, so long the Achaeans' rampart stood erect. But once the best of the Trojan captains fell, and many Achaeans died as well while some survived, and Priam' high walls were stormed in the tenth year and the Argives set sail for the native land they loved--then, at last, Poseidon and Lord Apollo launched their plan to smash the rampart, flinging into it all the rivers' fury....So in the years to come Poseidon and god Apollo would set all things to rights once more." (13-42)
• Notice the simile applied to Hector: (50) he is a ferocious boar, yet the boar will be killed: "and his own raw courage kills him."

• The Trojan seer Polydamas gives 1st advice.

• Polydamas will give two pieces of advice in this book. The first is that the Trojans should not attempt to cross the trench around the Achaean wall in their chariots. They should get out and charge on foot.
• Hector follows this advice but Asius disagrees and attacks in his chariot. His men are slaughtered by the two spearmen up on the ramparts.
• Therefore, Polydamas's advice is correct in this instance.

• The Trojan seer Polydamas gives 2nd advice.

• 230: Polydamas sees an eagle fly by on the left--the sinister side. Polydamas takes that as an ill omen. He advises Hector to stop the attack.
• In this case, however, Hector rejects his advice--bad move!
• Hector rejects (281) Polydamas's advice and believes there is only one true advice, one not based on the flight of birds, and that is: "Fight for your country--that is the best, the only omen." This is one of the most famous lines of The Iliad. Hector's rejection of the seer's advice is a wrong, however. Although Hector seems to speak a noble line, this is the one time when Hector could have backed down without losing face (Mueller 43).
• Hector makes his fateful choice here, to ignore the omens and to fight for glory.

• Sarpedon and Glaucus

• Examine the lengthy simile on lines 348-358.
• Sarpedon's advice to Glaucus emphasizes and amplifies Hector's view of glory. Here is the heroic code: (374 ff)
  • "Ah my friend, if you and I could escape this fray and live forever, never a trace of age, immortal, I would never fight on the front lines again or command you in the field where men win fame. But now, as it is, the fates of death await us, thousands poised to strike, and not a man alive can flee them or escape--so in we go for attack! Give our enemy glory or win it for ourselves!"
  • This is one of the most famous passages in the entire Iliad. Notice that it is composed of two parts:
    • The social contract of the leader with his subjects (359-373). In the first part of Sarpedon's speech, he explains how subjects look up to their leaders, and the leaders must live up to their subjects' expectations. The leader is awarded the best cuts of meat, the best wine, because he then will fight the best.
    • In the second part (374-381), the leader faces death, and it is in the face of death that honor is won.
  • Compare what Sarpedon says here to what Hector said to his wife, Andromache, in 6.521-555. Is this striving for glory against all odds folly? [Discuss Il 12-Compare Sarpedon's view with Hector's]

• Hector breaks through the wall

• The book concludes with a thrilling description of Hector's success--he breaks through the wall.