Book 6 Summary

Book 6 opens with the Greeks advancing and enjoying some success.

• Ajax and Diomedes are at the forefront of the Greek success.
  
• Diomedes is the greatest threat the Trojans have ever faced 
• Agamemnon urges no mercy to the Trojans and slays the defenceless Adrestus, who his brother Menelaus was contemplating taking prisoner.

Nestor, the wisest man in the Greek army, goes further and tells the Greeks not to plunder the battlefield or be distracted from the killing. Victory first then reward is what he is trying to say.

Helenus, a Trojan prophet, tells Hector to return to the city and offer sacrifice to Athena to reduce her anger and stop the Greek victory and to also rally the troops or the Greeks will win.

Hector does as he's told, highlighting him as an honurable man and one whom the reader ought to admire. (Compared to Agamemnons reaction to Calchas in Book 1)

While Hector returns, the battle rages. 

• Diomedes meets Glaucas.
• Rather than kill eachother they stop to discuss their parentage.
• Diomedes may be a great warrior but he is not prepared to kill someone if there is chance that person is divine.
• They realise their Grandfather's were friends
• They do not fight, but instead swap armour on the battlefield

Here they demonstrate Xenia

When Hector returns to the city, he orders his mother Hecabe to sacrifice to Athena along with the other women of Troy.

• This is part of a woman's role in life.
• To worship the Gods was one of their responsibilities.

Hector meanwhile goes to find Paris who is reclining in his bedroom. He attacks Paris and Helen also attacks him.

• Helen acts in an unwomanly manner by attacking her husband infront of another man.
• The contrast between Hector and Paris shows the difference between a hero and a normal man. The hero never complains.

Hector is dedicated to his duty, unlike Paris. This is reinforces when he goes to meet his wife Andromache.

• Andromache wants to run away and survive, but Hector must stay and put his duty to his country before his life and his wife and sons lives.
• He cannot live with the idea of his countrymen despising him for cowardice.
• He is the lion of Troy and he knows that if he quits, his city is no more.

Hector shares a tender moment with his wife and son, Astyanax. He reaches out for the bot but the child shrinks away in fear as he is wearing his armour and helmet which are scary.

He takes off his helmet and his son reaches for him and Hector prays to Zeus to make his son greater than Hector himself.

Hector then leaves his family and departs back to battle. Paris catches him up and the two are described very differently. 

• Hector sombre and dutiful
• Paris laughing and running like an immature boy (similie of horse)

• Hector's meeting with his wife creates Pathos.
• She has nobody else in the world - her entire family have been killed by the Greeks 
• She fears she will be made a prize/geras of war and her son orphaned
• Her son will be thrown from the walls of Ilium by the victorious Greeks and his short life ended by the rocks below.

·         Homers description of war in Book 6 is quite contradictory.

·         He describes the killing of Axylus in a very sympathetic way

·         He was a kind, friendly man who practiced xenia, yet war still ended his life.

·         He also calls war 'Grim' yet refers to a spear as 'glittering' and warriors as 'godlike'.