Blog for 2/18/18
I found a section of book 7 of The Iliad to be a bit confusing for me. For example, "'Stop the fight, dear children, nor go on with this battle. To Zeus who gathers the clouds both of you are beloved, and both of you are fighters; this thing all of us know surely. Night darkens now. It is a good thing to give way to the night-time'" (279-282). This part is when the herald stops the fight between Hector and Ajax. I got the impression that Zeus does not want to lose either Hector and Ajax, that is the reason why he stopped the fight. If I am correct, than why does Zeus not want to lose both?
We could ask the question, by what authority (divine or otherwise) does the herald have to claim Zeus' love of these men. Is it because they are fighters merely? That is odd. Perhaps the emphasis is on the impending darkness, and the heralds infer that since the fighting has gone on until the night, at which time it must stop, it must be that Zeus does not want them to continue fighting. But then again, your question still stands - why does Zeus love both of these men?
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