The Iliad - Book 17 - Menelaus Finest Hour - The fight for Patrocluss body
- Reading time: about 55 minutes but just read lines 1-240 and then 445-543 and then 618-675 and then 705 to the end
- We want to find out Achilless reaction to the
killing of Patroclus, but this book holds us back
from seeing that as the Trojans and Menelaus and Ajax
fight over the body of Patroclus.
- The importance of cremation and
burial.
- Without proper cremation and burial of
the ashes, the Greeks believed the dead person could
not properly go down to Hades.
- Patroclus went to battle wearing Achilles
armor. Hector has stripped Patroclus of that armor,
so Achilles, when he reenters battle, will have no
armor.
- Book 18 will show us how Achilles got new armor. It
will also give us a view of ideal Greek life in
Homer's time.