The Iliad: Book VI

The gods have abandoned the mortals in their combat, and have thus ceased their intervention. The Acheans have the upper hand in the battle, and the Trojans retreated back into Troy. Nestor senses a great deal of weakness among the Trojans, as they give into the littlest extortion. He suggests that they kill as many Trojans as possible while they are winning. As the Trojans anticipate their defeat, they begin to pray. In the meantime, Paris has withdrawn from fighting claiming it because he is grieving. Hector and Helen quickly push Paris back out into battle. Hector also returns after visiting his wife, Andromache who was watching the battle from afar. She believes that Hector is going to die, and begins to mourn his potential death.

A theme in this book is the importance of bravery and nobility. Between mortals and gods both have a need for these virtues. For example, as Paris avoids war, he is brought to account for his lack of bravery.

A notable piece of poetry in this book is the following lines, from a dialogue between Hector to Paris, "How could anyone fair and just underrate your work in battle? You're a good soldier. But you hang back of your own accord, refuse to fight. And that, that's why the heart inside me aches when I hear our Trojans heap contempt on you, the men who bear such struggled all for you." The idea of rejection of cowardism is evident in this passage. From this calling, Paris agrees to fight alongside Hector.

The Iliad: Book I

The story begins with Chryses, an Apollonian priest, begs to have his daughter, Chryseis, back from Agamemnon, an Achean leader, who took her as a "spoils of war". Chyrses was denied and forcefully driven out of Agamemnon's presence. Chryses prayed to Apollo, his patron god, and Apollo strode down Olympus and began killing the Acheans through a great sickness. Achilles, a prominent soldier of the Acheans, called an assembly among the army, asking also for a soothsayer to figure out why people were dying. Calchas comes to Achilles and reveals the plague as a revenge tactic of Chryses via Apollo. Agamemnon is enraged, but refuses to give back Chryseis unless he has compensation, which is concluded to be Briseis. Achilles is offended by the taking of Briseis, and threatens to leave the Achean army. He later confronts Agamemnon, threatening his life. Before Achilles gives Agamemnon an assumably fatal strike, Athena comes down to him and puts reason in his actions. The story ends on Olympus, where Zeus and Hera argue over which of the sides (of the battle) shall win. They are soon loosed from anger with "nectar", as they all fall asleep.

A definite theme in The Iliad is replacement for lost things, as well as the idea of vengeance. Apollo strikes Agamemnon, Agamemnon loses something valuable; he must replace it with something more valuable, Briseis; and Achilles is the one in loss, and he must continue to shift the loss to someone else, and so on. 

A prominent line in Book I is in line 136-139 "What I [Agamemnon] really want is to keep my people safe, not seeing them dying. But fetch me another prize, and straight off too, else I alone of the Argives go without my honour." This text only speaks to the idea of replacement in the Iliad, as it also shows the innocence of Agamemnon. He is not a man who likes to do harm, but to keep people safe. He feels like the only way to keep his people safe is by keeping his honour, by taking all of these "spoils of war".