Book 20: Not sure what happened here, but either I skipped this book or just didn't write about it the other day when I listened to it, because I definitely didn't hear it this morning. Brief recap from Sparknotes: Zeus tells the gods they can now intervene in the fight if they want, but they all sit down on mountains to watch and see what happens. Achilles fights Aeneas until Poseidon saves him (whisking him away). Then Achilles fights Hector, but not to the death...THIS TIME.
Upon reading the re-cap I definitely remember hearing about the gods choosing seats on the best mountains around Ilium, so I guess I did listen to it and forgot to write about it.
Book 21: Achilles is now on a mission to kill ALL the Trojans. He kills a lot of them in a river, which makes the river (who is a person sometimes?) really mad and he attacks Achilles, but then Hephaestus sets fire to the river and boils it until he stops bothering Achilles.
Back in Godville, Athena lays the smack down on Ares and Aphrodite when they get in a fight about the mortals. Hera does the same for Artemis, who's trying to get Apollo to fight for the humans some more. Poor Artemis. I kind of like her, even though that emotion comes fully from her characterization in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books.
By the end of this book all the Trojans have gotten back into the walls of Troy so Achilles can't smite them any more.
Book 22: There's a lot of bird imagery here. People are compared to black hunting eagles (the strongest bird) and the mountain falcon (the swiftest bird.) So that's something.
When I said ALL of the Trojans were in the wall at the end of the last book, I meant all but Hector, who is still itching for a fight. But then he realizes Achilles is SUPER MAD and runs away from him for a while until Athena tricks him into turning to fight (when she pretends to be his buddy who's going to help him) and then Achilles stabs him.
When Achilles is about to kill him, Hector begs that his body be given to his parents and wife with the phrase: "By your life and knees." Which I kind of like. Or maybe I misheard it.
Either way, Achilles doesn't want any part of that and instead drags him through the dust, intending to feed his body to dogs and vultures. Also the rest of the Achaeans stab him with THEIR spears so he's really super dead.
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