Myths are not stories that are untrue
rather they are tales that don't fit neatly into the historical record
which serve as a foundation to a culture.
Fiercely, the Trojans fight
pushing the Achaeans ever closer to their ships
and their only chance of ever seeing home again.
All the while, Achilles still refuses to help
as the battle outside grows closer and closer.
About this time,
Agamemnon is willing to admit that
maybe he shouldn't have alienated his best warrior.
So he sends Odysseus on his behalf to offer Achilles gifts
as well as a promise to return Briseis
if he will return to battle and help turn the tide.
And he's hoping Achilles says yes
because if he doesn't,
the Achaeans are well and truly hecked.
[Extra Mythology Theme by "Big Giant Circles"]
Achilles paces in his tent, mulling over Agamemnon's offer
and trying not to think of his old allies getting cut down outside.
Suddenly, his beloved lifelong companion, Patroclus,
bursts in with tears streaming down his face with dire news from the battle.
The Trojans have pushed all the way to the front line and they're running out of time.
"If you won't fight, at least let me wear your armor and lead your men into battle!"
"If they think you're back, the soldiers will rally!"
While Achilles still can't forgive Agamemnon and doesn't want to be seen caring about the Achaean army...
If Patroclus is asking, he's willing to listen.
So he agrees, and just when all seems lost, Patroclus appears in Achilles' armor leading the Myrmidons
tricking both the Trojans and the Achaeans into believing Achilles is back!
Patroclus's plan worked!
The Achaeans rally, and the Trojans reel.
Petroclus is on a rampage, chasing after Hector and his retreating men.
Three times he charges the Trojan line, and three times he takes nine Trojan lives.
But after his final charge, Apollo has had enough.
Disguised as one of Hector's allies,
he sneaks up behind Patroclus
and strikes him so fiercely on the back that his helmet flies off!
Stunned and wounded, Patroclus desperately stumbles back toward the camp.
But Hector notices this, and thinking he has a chance to defeat Achilles himself,
he impales Patroclus with his spear.
Patroclus falls with a thud and the entire Achaean army is stunned.
First, because they think their hero has died, and then because they realize what just happened.
Hector strips Achilles' armor from the body and puts it on himself as a badge of honor.
Back at the camp, when Achilles learns that his companion has died,
he bursts into tears. He tears at his hair and throws himself on the ground.
"How could this have happened?
Why did Patroclus have to chase Hector?
I should have been there!"
Achilles' mother, Thetis, hears her son's cries
and comes once again to comfort him but also with a warning.
She knows with her goddess foresight that if Achilles goes to avenge Patroclus,
he will be killed.
But Achilles doesn't care anymore.
He loved Patroclus, and he will stop at nothing to GET HIS REVENGE!
Meanwhile, back on the battlefield, a fight has broken out over Patroclus's body.
Menelaus wants to return the body home for burial,
but the Trojans want to capture the corpse and display it
as a warning for the Achaean troops.
When Achilles comes to the battlefield, wanting to see the body of his friend for himself,
he is overcome with rage,
and from the depths of his being,
a rupture war cry so ferocious,
it channels the power of Ares himself!
The trojans are so terrified that they retreat,
and the Achaeans recover Patroclus' corpse.
And when Achilles finally lays eyes upon his dead beloved, his sorrow intensifies.
He then vows to kill Hector
and sacrifice 12 Trojan warriors on Patroclus' funeral pyre in revenge.
Then, up on Olympus, Thetis pays a visit to Hephaestus, the mighty smith for the gods.
She tells him what happened on the battlefield and asks him to build new armor for Achilles.
He agrees and the armor he makes is a masterpiece!
It's embellished with a series of concentric rings,
each of which represents various aspects of the universe.
Cities, oceans, fields, weddings, farms and wars.
And now freshly armed, Achilles calls another assembly.
He declares his beef with Agamemnon is over, for now, and he will be returning to war.
While the Achaean and Trojan armies group for battle once more,
Zeus calls an assembly of his own and proclaims to all of the gods
that they're now allowed to just openly assist either side!
Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus leave at once to join the Achaeans
while Ares, Apollo, Artemis and Aphrodite buck their alliteration naming trend
and fly to the side of the Trojans.
The end game has come.
Men sling swords and spears,
gods and goddesses unleash their power,
and in the middle of it all stands Achilles.
No longer a petulant teenager,
he is now the embodiment of rage, of war, of power, of masculinity,
and he is unstoppable.
The Trojan forces flee in terror. None of them want to mess with Achilles.
He kills so many Trojans that the rivers run red with blood and are choked with bodies.
In fact, it gets so bad that the god of the river actually attacks Achilles
with roaring currents and massive waves.
Achilles almost falls under the onslaught, but Poseidon and Athena rush in to back him up
while Hera and Hephaestus attack the river with fire.
And seeing his waters boil away, the river god relents.
Bearing witness to Achilles' rage and the gods' increasing chaotic interventions,
the Trojan army retreats securing themselves once again behind their mighty walls. All but Hector.
He realizes that the only way out of this is to face Achilles in combat,
and so he stands alone outside the city gate.
And now, Achilles and Hector will face off against each other to end the war once and for all!
Pinky promise!
Achilles throws his spear first and misses, but Athena rushes it back to him.
Hector returns the favor, but his spear cannot pierce Achilles' divine armor.
The two men circle each other, slowly closing in...
...and after a few feints, Achilles lunges forward and stabs Hector in the throat.
As he dies, he begs that his body be returned to his family, but Achilles refuses.
The Achaeans then run up to jeer and stab at Hector's corpse as Achilles strips off Hector's armor.
Then, he ties lifeless Hector to his chariot and circles the city three times desecrating the body.
Then, with the war over and Patroclus avenged, Achilles turns his attention to Patroclus' funeral.
In the morning, the soldiers fetch wood and build the funeral pyre.
The armies march out in full regalia,
Patroclus is placed atop it,
and as promised, Achilles sacrifices 12 Trojan captives on the pyre before setting it alight.
And once the flames finally died down,
Achilles gathers the ashes to be buried alongside him someday,
and while that day would come soon enough, that's a tale for another time.
The Iliad is the prototypical war story,
full of honor-bound conflicts and massive battles
while at the same time also functioning as an anti-war tale
by showing us glimpses behind the curtain
of the small, often silly things, humans and their gods enact violence in the name of.
And at the center of it all is one powerful emotion: rage.
A rage so great that even now, a thousand years later, of it we still sing.
[Extra Mythology Theme by "Big Giant Circles"]
Legendary thanks to Ahmed Ziad Turk, Alicia Bramble, Casey Muscha, Dominic Valenciana, Gunner Clovis,
Kyle Murgatroyd and Orels1 for helping to make this show possible!
[Extra Mythology Theme by "Big Giant Circles" playing continues]