Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video we’re going to discuss a
couple chapters from the Iliad that culminate in the gods attacking each other and play
out with all the excitement of a tavern brawl and all the drama of a soap opera.
The gods are summoned to Olympus, where Zeus bades them to descend to the mortal plane,
to join the Trojan war directly, supporting each side, so that Achilles’ frenzied killing spree
doesn’t result in the burning of Troy before the city’s destruction is officially sanctioned by
the fates. This ends in an all-out brawl in which the gods clash in a series of duels.
Hephaestus uses his unquenchable fire to combat the raging rapids of Scamander, a river god. Ares
and Athena meet in a viscous melee. Apollo is unmanned by Poseidon and slinks away with his
tail between his legs. Hera humiliates Artemis, and Hermes yields to Leto, explaining that,
even if he wins, Zeus won’t look too kindly on him beating one of his lovers black and blue.
Let’s get into it.
Beyond the various instances in which various gods support either the Trojans or the Greeks, we know
for certain which gods fought for which side from a passage near the beginning of chapter 20 of the
Iliad. Zeus instructs Themis to call the gods to council. Virtually every god answers the call,
even the thousands of river gods and countless nymphs. You see, Achilles was a juggernaut of
rage and wrath, and Zeus feared that the hero’s impending onslaught would decimate the Trojans and
raze the walls of Troy before the decree of the fates had officially been proclaimed. To ensure
everything proceeded in accordance with fate, Zeus bade the gods to join the war and make certain
that what unfolded stayed on script. Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus went to reinforce
the Greeks, and Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite. Leto, and Scamander went to reinforce the Trojans.
Both Ares and Athena bellowed cries of war, emboldening their respective sides. Zeus
shook the sky with booming claps of thunder, and Poseidon shook the earth with trembles and quakes,
even Hades, ensconced in his chthonic palace, feared that the earth above might split open.
Now walking amongst the ranks of mortal soldiers, the gods were poised to fight.
They nearly engaged each other then and there - a cataclysmic conflict of the divine
the likes of which wouldn’t have been seen since the Titan war - but it wasn’t yet time.
Achilles charged forward with startling speed and ferocity, indomitable,
almost as if he was a conduit for death’s grim power. Apollo chose Aenas to oppose Achilles,
urging him on, filling him with strength, and the two heroes became locked in combat.
Hera was ready to enhance Achilles in much the same way, but Poseidon restrained her, counseling
that the Greek forces were much stronger and that the moment didn’t warrant their intervention.
The gods who supported the Greeks then distanced themselves from the din
and bedlam of the fighting, electing instead to watch from a remote vantage point up high,
allowing the war to temporarily progress without their involvement; However,
if the gods who supported the Trojans interfered directly with Achilles’ advance on Troy, then they
would reengage and bring to bear their full might against the interlopers, kin though they were.
Aenas would have fallen to Achilles sword, but he honored the gods all his life,
pouring libations and burning sacrifices, so Poseidon thought it unjust for him to die,
pushed into the impossible task of withstanding Achilles and being cut down before fate deemed
it was time. Despite championing the Greeks, Poseidon descended like a hawk from a tall branch
and cast a mist around Achilles' eyes, momentarily blinding him. He whisked Aenas away,
bearing him to the rear guard, and when they alighted, he ordered Aenas to disengage
and fallback anytime he found himself pitted against Achilles, against whom only death awaited
The war seethed. Everywhere weapons clashed, blood spilled, and soldiers screamed their
final breaths. Hector and Achilles entered each other’s paths. Hector hurled his spear,
but it was effortlessly blown away by Athena. Achilles raced forward, all savage lethality,
but Apollo plucked Hector from the battlefield and bore him aloft, to safety.
Not a one amongst the Trojans could resist Achilles’ onrush.
He was a storm of sword and spear. His killing reached a sort of crescendo when he killed so
many people that a nearby river turned red and its flow became obstructed by sodden corpses.
This is a pivotal moment because it is here that all the gods are drawn into the fighting.
The god of this bloody and blocked river was none other than Scamander,
one of the gods who descended from Olympus to support the Trojans.
That his waters were transformed into a mass grave aroused his ire, so he set his flow against
Achilles. If you recall from earlier, the gods who supported the Greeks sidelined themselves,
but stated they would join the fray if any of the gods on the Trojan side directly impeded Achilles.
Scamander’s rapids surged, bent towards pulling Achilles, who was overmatched, down and drowning
him. Achilles bewailed his fate, crying to all the world that the gods had deceived him, that
they had promised him glory only to allow some swelling and swirling river to swallow him whole.
But such a death, of course, was not to be his fate. Poseidon and Athena came to his side and
spoke words of encouragement to him, filling him with a strength beyond his own. Fortified,
Achilles pressed forward and made to attack the very heart of the river, but still,
the situation would have gone ill for him were it not for Hephaestus unleashing his fire.
Here is where everything boils over and comes to a head.
Fire exploded from Hephaestus, blazing and blackening the land in every direction.
Scamander was engulfed, and the blistering heat that suffused him boiled his currents, like water
in a cauldron or fat melting in a pan. The river retreated, and then the other gods began to fight.
Ares charged Athena, but she dodged his attack and countered by hurling a boulder at his head.
She scored a direct hit, and Ares crumpled to the ground in a heap of limbs and armor.
Victorious, Athena gloried over her fallen brother, spitting insults at him. Aphrodite
tried to haul away the body of her beaten lover, but she didn’t get far. Athena attacked her,
hammering her with clenched-fist blows. She collapsed next to Ares, and Athena yelled:
“down you go! May all the gods who help the Trojans fall as hard.”
Poseidon and Apollo came face to face. Poseidon explained that it would be a
shame for them to return to Olympus unbloodied. He explains that he’s wiser and more cunning
and extends the courtesy of allowing Apollo to make the first move.
He then scolds Apollo in an angry tirade. He recounts how Zeus sent them to slave
for king Laomedon for a whole year, how they built the walls of Troy for promised wages,
and how, when the time came to pay, Laomedon reneged on his promise and paid them nothing.
His torrent of invective ends with him expressing how ridiculous it is that Apollo supports those
whose former king deceived and duped him, not even paying a penny for a whole year’s worth of toil.
Apollo responds by explaining the ridiculousness of being drawn into fighting over the business of
mortals. He turns and leaves, but his departure is harried by a diatribe from his sister,
who slings insults his way at every step. She says, “so, the deadly immortal archer
runs for dear life! - turning over victory to Poseidon, total victory,
giving him all the glory here without a fight. Why do you sport that bow, you spineless fool? - it’s
worthless as the wind! Don’t let me hear you boast in father’s halls, ever again,
as you bragged among the gods till now, that you would fight Poseidon strength for strength.”
Though Apollo slinks away without returning any gibes or jeers, Artemis’ outburst provokes Hera,
prompting her to let loose a harangue of her own. Here’s what she says:
“How do you have the gall, you shameless bitch, to stand and fight me here? You and your archery!
Zeus made you a lion against all women, true, he let you kill off mothers in their labor - but
you’ll find it painful, matching force with me. Better to slaughter beasts on rocky mountain
slopes and young deer in the wild than fight a higher goddess! But since you’d like a lesson in
warfare, Artemis, just to learn, to savor how much stronger I am when you engage my power.”
The exchange that follows conjures up an image of a mother disciplining her daughter.
Hera defangs Artemis, stripping the huntress of her bow and quiver,
who then has her ears boxed, and now dominated and humiliated, she begins to cry and runs away.
The potential battle between Hermes and Leto is nipped in the bud by Hermes’ pragmatism. He
defers to Leto, explaining that fighting with Zeus’ lovers is a no win situation:
he’ll either be defeated or he’ll win and thereby incur Zeus’ wrath.
Leto picks up her daughter's bow and arrows and departs.
And with that the battle ended. Artemis returns to Olympus,
sits on Zeus’ lap, and cries like a young girl who has skinned her knee. Apollo returns to Troy,
where the state of things seems so dire that Troy might fall before fate’s decree,
And Achilles, his advance as implacable as the tides, continued to cut through the Trojans.
And that’s it for this video!
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