Iliad 2 reality check on ptogress

n   Here are some things one should note when reading the first part pf the ilad, the fight against the thraceans and troy which is at the bottom heel of ancient italu.  When the section says that 9 years have passed during the war, it means nine years of fighting has occurred.  As you remember troyjam allies amd those who desired to use it as a vihicle for their peoples success or their own personal success.  Others are keeping it a float and not necessarily for the troyjans advamtage.

 

 

 

His deep design unknown, the hosts approve

Atrides' speech. The mighty numbers move.

So roll the billows to the Icarian shore,

From east and south when winds begin to roar,

Burst their dark mansions in the clouds, and sweep

The whitening surface of the ruffled deep.

And as on corn when western gusts descend,⁸⁵

Before the blast the lofty harvests bend:

Thus o'er the field the moving host appears,

With nodding plumes and groves of waving spears.

The gathering murmur spreads, their trampling feet

Beat the loose sands, and thicken to the fleet;

With long-resounding cries they urge the train

To fit the ships, and launch into the main.

They toil, they sweat, thick clouds of dust arise,

The doubling clamours echo to the skies.

E'en then the Greeks had left the hostile plain,

And fate decreed the fall of Troy in vain;

n  The Icarean shore is towers the marara sea or the Dardanelles.  This is not troy but the people the Greeks think are the source of the attacks against them, the same attacks that started the war to begin with.  The war began with a declaration that troy and the old Greeks will be destroyed.  Iy looks now after years of conflict that the declaration looks like it was made in vain.  However the races the Greeks are fighting are the ones reinforcing troy, so to get rid of the problem they must continue dealing with those trying to maintain the unity of Troy and not as much the Thracians.

 

 

But Jove's imperial queen their flight survey'd,

And sighing thus bespoke the blue-eyed maid:

"Shall then the Grecians fly! O dire disgrace!

And leave unpunish'd this perfidious race?

Shall Troy, shall Priam, and the adulterous spouse,

In peace enjoy the fruits of broken vows?

And bravest chiefs, in Helen's quarrel slain,

Lie unrevenged on yon detested plain?

No: let my Greeks, unmoved by vain alarms,

Once more refulgent shine in brazen arms.

[pg 031]

Haste, goddess, haste! the flying host detain,

Nor let one sail be hoisted on the main."

 

n  Now it is pointed out that no justice has come of this bout as was declared to be the reason for it to start.  For Goddess and the divine does act m and allows only what it has and desires to,;