5 minute summary - Book 19 - Anna Glenn

Achilles Lamenting the Death of Patroclus - Nikolai Ge

Book 19 opens at Dawn with Thetis bringing Achilles his newly made armor from Hephaestus. She finds him weeping over Patroklos’ body and she tells him that he needs to stop grieving. Thetis puts the armor down of the ground with a crash and all the Myrmidons are terrified to even look at it. It clearly has some terrible power beyond it's protective abilities. Achilles is pleased and viewing the armor makes him even angrier over Patroklos’ death. It seems that the armor affects him as well, just differently than the other soldiers.

Achilles thanks his mother, but says he is worried about Patroklos’ body not lasting until he could be given a funeral. Thetis says not to worry, she has just the stuff. She uses ambrosia and nectar, the magical food and drink of the gods, to keep the body in stasis until the funeral.

Thetis gives Achilles new armor

Then she instills great courage into Achilles and he goes along the shoreline making his unique cry which causes an assembly to form. Everyone comes to this assembly: those who had not been fighting, the workmen, and the wounded, of whom Diomedes, Odysseus, and Agamemnon are mentioned specifically. This council, unlike the one that opened the poem, seems set up from the start to draw the Greek forces back together.

Achilles addresses Agamemnon saying that he wished he had never taken Briseis from her hometown. Even though he is still angry with Agamemnon, his newer and more terrible anger towards Hector makes him want to put it aside and go back to fighting the Trojans.

Agamemnon insists that everyone be very quite and listen carefully to him. He tells them how he was caught by Destiny and Deception, and that this whole episode was the will of Zeus. He then relates how even Zeus had been caught by Deception in the past, when Hera tricked him into causing Herakles to be subject to Eurystheus. This allows him to both relate himself to the highest god while also diverting any blame away from himself. He wraps up by telling Achilles that the previously offered gifts would be brought to him just as the delegation had said.Achilles is clear that gifts or no, he wants to leave immediately to fight the Trojans and urges everyone to follow. 

Briseis Returned to Achilles - Rubens

Odysseus asks Achilles to wait while the men eat and drink so that they will be able to endure a long day's battle. He requests that Achilles have the gifts brought out in front of the assembly so everyone can see them. He says that at the same time Agamemnon should swear that he never slept with Briseis.By allowing this, the social hierarchy should begin to be set right and the soldiers could re-unify.

Achilles agrees to delay the fighting and orders a sacrifice readied, but insists that he will not eat or drink until he has had revenge.

The prizes are brought out and Agamemnon swears his oath, just as Odysseus suggested. When he swears he slits the throat of a pig in sacrifice, but the animal is tossed into the sea by Talthybios rather than eaten as usual. It is also odd because throughout the poem sacrifices have typically been cows or bulls, not pigs. Achilles responds that this was all the will of Zeus and sends everyone off to their meals. The crowd disperses and the Myrmidons take the prizes to Achilles ship for him, he pays no attention to them.

Statue of Achilles - Achilleion Palace - Corfu

Briseis grieves for Patroklos, whom she had not know to be dead. She relates her brief history and sorrows but remembers that Patroklos was so kind to her, wanting to help her become Achilles legal wife. Then Achilles, after refusing food again, is reminded of when Patroklos would wait on him and bring him food. He says that he had hoped Patroklos would make it home to Phthia, though he knew that he himself would not.

Zeus takes pity and sends Athena, who really wanted to help, down to Achilles. She gives him nectar and ambrosia in order to sustain his body through the fighting. Everyone bustles about preparing for battle, which introduces a simile:
As when in their thickness the snowflakes of Zeus come fluttering
cold beneath the blast of the north wind born in the bright sky
so now in their thickness the pride of the helms bright shining
were carried out of the ships, and shields massive in the middle
and the corselets strongly hollowed and the ash spears were worn forth. (Lattimore),
which gives a sense of the terrifying chaos and massive numbers of soldiers arming themselves. Achilles is leading the preparations and he puts on his magnificent armor in a terrible rage and when he picks up his shield there is another simile:
And as when from across water a light shines to mariners,
from a blazing fire, when the fire is burning high in the mountains,
in a desolate steading, as the mariners are carried unwilling
by strom winds over the fish-swimming sea, far away from their loved ones:
so the light form the fair elaborate shield of Achilleus
Shot into the high air. (Lattimore)  
then in the next line "The helmet crested with horse-hair shone like a star, the golden fringes were shaken about it" and after another few lines "the armor became as wings and upheld the shepherd of the people".
 This seems to be the arming portion of Achilles aristeia, and the descriptions of his armor is letting us know that. Also, they reinforce our understanding of the magical properties of the armor and how increasingly fearsome Achilles was becoming, perhaps in part because of the armor. His anger is increased every time her interacts with the armor, it seems.

Chariot with Charioteer

Then Achilles speaks with his horses, goading them about having left Patroklos' body behind in battle. Xanthos, one of the horses, bows his head so that the mane brushes the ground; a gesture related to funerals. The horse tells Achilles that Patroklos death was fated by the gods, and that their speed was not lacking and should not be questioned. He then says that they will bring Achilles home this day, but that his death was rapidly approaching. Then the Furies stop him from speaking. Achilles is understandably freaked out and tells his horses that he knows he will dies soon, but not before he takes his revenge. He finishes speaking and lets out a terrible shout, and holds tight onto his horses.