Maar daar is 'n
skitterende intensiteit en die wonderlike omhulsel van Achilles en Agamemnon se
rusie aan die begin en die dood van Hector aan die einde.
Oomblikke van groot
visie: die finale hoofstuk waar Achilles en Priam saam huil, Priam oor sy seun
en Achilles oor sy vader, is een van die groot groot oomblikke van ons lettere.
Die pragtige
beskrywing van Achilles se skild, met alles wat mooi en sleg is op aarde, in
die stilte tussen Patroklus se dood en Achilles wraak.
Hector wat skreeu
"the Gods have called me to my death" wanneer hy op die finale
oomblik deur Athene verraai word.
Oor alles hang die
gevoel v Godeskemering en groot hartseer, van Troye se einde wat naderkom,
onkeerbaar.
Dit voel snaaks om te
dink dat die Iliad geen letterkunde of karakterontwilling het nie. Menelaus,
Helen en Paris feature nie veel nie, en die belangrikste oomblikke: Achilles se
dood en einde van Troye, word uitgelaat. Tog voel alles so reg en volledig.
"While Hector yet
lived, and yet Achilles kept his wrath, and unsacked was the city of Priam the
king, so long the great wall of the Achaians likewise abode steadfast. But when
all the bravest of the Trojans died, and many of the Argives,--some were taken,
and some were left,--and the city of Priam was sacked in the tenth year, and
the Argives had gone back in their ships to their own dear country, then verily
did Poseidon and Apollo take counsel to wash away the wall, bringing in the
might of the rivers, of all that flow from the hills of Ida to the sea. Rhesos
there was, and Heptaporos, and Karesos, and Rhodios, Grenikos, and Aisepos, and
goodly Skamandros, and Simoeis, whereby many shields and helms fell in the
dust, and the generation of men half divine; the mouths of all these waters did
Phoebus Apollo turn together, and for nine days he drave their stream against
the wall; and still Zeus rained unceasingly, that the quicker he might mingle
the wall with the salt sea. And the Shaker of the earth, with his trident in
his hands, was himself the leader, and sent forth into the waves all the
foundations of beams and stones that the Achaians had laid with toil, and made
all smooth by the strong current of the Hellespont, and covered again the great
beach with sand, when he had swept away the wall, and turned the rivers back to
flow in their channel, where of old they poured down their fair flow of water."
