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Back Of Gods and Men Save as PDF
Chapters (110)
  1. COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. COPYRIGHT
  4. DEDICATION
  5. CONTENTS
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. THE BIRTH OF LOVE
  8. THE ORIGINS OF THE TROJAN WAR
  9. THE TRUCE
  10. HECTOR VERSUS ACHILLES
  11. THE DEATH OF ACHILLES
  12. THE CYCLOPS
  13. THE SONG OF DEMODOCUS
  14. AND SO TO BED
  15. PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA
  16. WHATEVER ONE LOVES
  17. PERSEPHONE AND THE POMEGRANATE SEEDS
  18. THE LIFE OF AESOP
  19. THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE
  20. THE VENGEANCE OF CLYTEMNESTRA
  21. EDUCATING CYRUS
  22. DARIUS AND THE SCYTHIANS
  23. XERXES’ CHOICE
  24. THE FALL OF THE BARBARIANS
  25. THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL
  26. A BEAST OF INDIA
  27. THE ECSTASY
  28. HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS HORSES
  29. EURIPIDES THE WOMAN-HATER
  30. OEDIPUS LEARNS THE TRUTH
  31. ONE GIRL VERSUS THE LAW
  32. THE PLAGUE AT ATHENS
  33. THE MURDER OF ERATOSTHENES
  34. THE POWER OF LOVE
  35. THE AGEING PROCESS
  36. THREE TYPES
  37. THE MISANTHROPE
  38. THE CONTEST OF TWO MOUNTAINS
  39. HERCULES AND THE TWELVE LABOURS
  40. ALEXANDER THE GREAT MEETS THE RAM GOD
  41. THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER
  42. THE CONSTELLATION OF THE MAIDEN
  43. THE MERCHANT
  44. EUROPA AND THE BULL
  45. TROUBLE COMES TO TOWN
  46. PHILOCTETES
  47. SLAUGHTER OF THE HUSBANDS
  48. THE GOLDEN FLEECE
  49. MEDEA’S REVENGE
  50. ARIADNE AND THESEUS
  51. ALCIBIADES
  52. IN THE BEGINNING
  53. SULPICIA’S BIRTHDAY
  54. THE TROJAN HORSE
  55. DIDO AND AENEAS
  56. ROMULUS AND REMUS
  57. THE GEESE ON THE CAPITOL
  58. THE RISE OF HANNIBAL
  59. ATTIS AND THE MOTHER GODDESS
  60. A COUNTRY VILLA
  61. SPARTACUS
  62. A WOMAN SCORNED?
  63. CICERO: FOR HIS DAUGHTER
  64. CAESAR VERSUS POMPEY
  65. DIVINE CAESAR
  66. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
  67. TO HEAL AN ASP BITE
  68. THE GNAT
  69. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
  70. NARCISSUS
  71. DIANA & ACTAEON
  72. PYGMALION
  73. OVID’S DEFENCE
  74. THE TOWN AND THE COUNTRY MOUSE
  75. THE EMPEROR’S SLAVE
  76. THE RICHES OF CALIGULA
  77. THE PUMPKINIFICATION OF EMPEROR CLAUDIUS
  78. THE STORY OF BRITAIN
  79. THE GREAT FIRE OF ROME
  80. DINNER AT TRIMALCHIO’S
  81. THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS
  82. ON LAMPSTANDS, THE DISCOVERY OF GLASS, ON THE DOLPHIN
  83. THE MADNESS OF HERCULES
  84. THE SIEGE OF JOTAPATA
  85. THE COLOSSAL TURBOT
  86. CANNIBALS IN EGYPT
  87. ACHILLES BECOMES A GIRL
  88. THE IMPORTANCE OF BREAST MILK
  89. DO IT YOURSELF
  90. ANDROCLES AND THE LION
  91. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA
  92. WAR ON THE GIANTS
  93. THE METAMORPHOSIS OF CERAMBUS
  94. FIRST LOVE
  95. A SHAM SACRIFICE
  96. THE DREAM OF LUCIAN
  97. PRAXITELES AND THE GODDESS
  98. CUPID AND PSYCHE
  99. A PICTURE OF PHAËTHON
  100. THE WEDDING FEAST
  101. CUPID CRUCIFIED
  102. A CLASSICS STUDENT
  103. THE PHOENIX
  104. THE TWICE-BORN GOD
  105. INTRIGUES AT THE PALACE
  106. A MEETING WITH LADY PHILOSOPHY
  107. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  108. EXTENDED COPYRIGHT
  109. About the Author
  110. An Invitation from the Publisher

THE TRUCE

Iliad, Book III

Homer

Translated by E. V. Rieu, 1950

The story of the Iliad of Homer is set in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War. At the beginning of this extract from the poem, the messenger goddess Iris comes to tell Helen that the Greeks (‘Achaeans’ or ‘Argives’) and Trojans have agreed to a truce. Her lover Paris is to fight her forsaken husband Menelaus, King of Sparta (‘Lacedaemon’) man to man for her and her goods. We meet Priam, King of Troy (‘Ilium’), and a great many of the characters who predominate on the battlefield, including Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army.

Meanwhile Iris brought the news to white-armed Helen, disguising herself as Helen’s sister-in-law, Laodice, the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters, who was married to the lord Helicaon, Antenor’s son. She found Helen in her palace, at work on a great purple web of double width, into which she was weaving some of the many battles between the horse-taming Trojans and the bronze-clad Achaeans in the war that had been forced upon them for her sake. Iris of the Nimble Feet went up to her and said: ‘My dear sister, come and see how strangely the Trojan and Achaean soldiers are behaving. A little while ago they were threatening each other with a terrible battle in the plain and looked as though they meant to fight to the death. But now the battle is off, and they are sitting quietly there, leaning on their shields, with the long javelins stuck on end beside them, while Paris and the redoubtable Menelaus are to fight a duel for you with their great spears, and the winner is to claim you as his wife.’

This news from the goddess filled Helen’s heart with tender longing for her former husband and her parents and the city she had left. She wrapped a veil of white linen round her head, and with the tear-drops running down her cheeks set out from her bedroom, not alone, but attended by two waiting-women. Aethre daughter of Pittheus, and the ox-eyed lady Clymene. In a little while they reached the neighbourhood of the Scaean Gate.