Iliad: Book Eleven

This is a translation of the eleventh of the twentyfour books of Homer’s Iliad and continues the sequence of books already available in ePub format. 


No one incident dominates the book which more or less reduces to a sequence of leading Greek warriors being sent wounded from the battle-field, including Agamemnon, Dio-madas and Odysseus.


Akhilleus watching the battle from his ship sees Nestor returning with one of the wounded and he sends Patroklos to find out who it is. Nestor encourages Patroklos to try to get Akhilleus engaged on the battlefield or at least to let Patroklos return to the fight with the other Myrmidons. This sets in train the events that lead to what is arguably the central event of the poem, the death of Patroklos. 


The book ends with Patroklos tending one of the wounded Greek warriors before returning to report to Akhilleus.