Epic Summer: The Iliad, post 4

I had some extra time and mindless tasks to perform today (cooking, cleaning, that sort of thing) so I listened to 4 more books of the Iliad (6-9). 

But a lot of what happens in these books is the tide of war going back and forth, so I don't have a lot of specifics to relate.

Here's what I do have to say (bolstered by the summaries I read on Sparknotes.com):

Book 6: We retreat into the camp of the Trojans for much of this book, showing confrontations between Paris and Hector.  Sparknotes says both Hector and Helen berate the cowardly Paris during this part, but I mainly remember the part at the end where Hector and Paris are buddies again and prepare to go kill them some Greeks.  Hector also talks to his wife and son here.  Humanizing!

Book 7: Time for another man-to-man combat to give us some relief from constant battle.  This time it's Hector stepping up to the plate, and although Menelaus is raring to go, it is Ajax who ultimately steps forward.  (The strong Ajax, not the other Ajax.)  Nobody dies, however, as night falls and apparently there's no dueling at night?  Also they decide to take a break the next day so everyone can bury their dead.  Holiday!

Book 8: So I don't remember much of this at all, and a lot of it is coming from Sparknotes.  Zeus forbids the other gods to take part in the battle, but then takes the side of the Trojans by sending lightning onto the Greeks.  Zeus: Kind of a jerk.  (Honestly, I do remember mention of lightning, but mostly my brain relates this passage as just a litany of fighting and death.) Then at the end the Trojans who have the upper hand at this point camp outside the Greeks' stronghold with a lot of campfires, to seem all creepy and powerful.  (I remember that part too.  Imagery!)

Book 9: Agamemnon is mega-bummed and wants to throw in the towel, but is then convinced by advisers to get back in touch with Achilles (remember him? greatest warrior around?) and give him back the slave-girl he stole and give him some horses and junk.  Achilles accepts his visitors (with best-bud Patroclus playing the part of butler) from the Greeks, but says he'd still rather not help, even though those are some pretty sweet horses.

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Now we're getting to the part I've actually read about in a couple of other books.  Patroclus is going to ::SPOILER ALERT:: fight in Achilles' stead and get killed by Hector.  Achilles, mad with rage, will then go to fight and kill Hector to avenge Patroclus.  Then he'll drag Hector's body around behind his horse, disrespecting the corpse.  King Priam will come to camp and humbly beg for his son's body back.

The story of Achilles' conference with Priam is told in the book Ransom by David Malouf.  It extends the encounter into a novella, plumbing the depths of grief and shared humanity.

The entire story of Achilles and Patroclus is told in the more recent Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, which rewrites the story a little, imagining the two in what starts as a teenage romance, and then turns into a tragic love story after a few years on the front of the Trojan War.  All of the Iliad thus far is related in Miller's book, excepting the lists of names and all of the ins and outs of the battles.

I can kind of see why these authors want to look at these characters and situations because the rest of this is turning into a snooze-fest.