I'll tell you all about it when I see you again (The Iliad, Book 6)

ALEXA, PLAY: See You Again by Wiz Khalifa

We start with more battle scenes, blah blah blah. We know. It’s a war. 

Cut to Menelaus, who comes across the Trojan soldier Adrestos, who had been thrown from his chariot. Adrestos tells Menelaus that if he spares his life, his super rich dad would give him, like, so much money. Menelaus being only human, agreed to the deal but when he was taking Adrestos back to the Greek camp as a prisoner, Agamemnon tells him to just kill the guy. Agmemnon asks if the Trojans would do the same if the tables were turned and Menelaus knows that they wouldn’t. So he agrees and pushes Adrestos back towards Agamemnon, who promptly stabs him. 

The Trojans were just about ready to give up the fight when Helenos, the son of Priam, had a great idea to rally the troops. He asked his brother Hector to head back to Troy and talk to the women who were keeping the hearths warm at home, including their own mother, Hecuba. Helenos wanted the women to go to the temple of Athena and send up the best burnt offerings they could find. He (correctly) guessed that the reason the Trojans were on the struggle bus was because Athena was backing the Greek army. He thought that if they sent her a beautiful offering of no less than twelve cows, that she might take pity on the Trojans and have her attack dog, Diomedes, back off of them. Hector rallies his men again before skedaddling off to meet with the women of Troy. 

Next, we meet a Trojan ally named Glaukos. He is a big man and a fierce soldier. He marches right up to Diomedes who is still touched by the gift of Athena and going absolutely mad on the battlefield. He pauses when he sees Glaukos because he had never seen the big man before. Diomedes asked if they knew each other and if Glaukos is a god or a mortal, because if he was a god, Diomedes would not engage in fighting. Glaukos responds by explaining how the generations of men were like that of leaves – when one leaf dies another one grows and so forth. He then goes on to tell basically his entire family tree. In the end, it turns out that their grandfathers knew each other and were kind to one another, so the two decided that they would not fight each other that day. 

Back to Hector, who has made it to Troy to talk to the women. He heads to the palace of Priam to find his mother. Along the way, he delivers as much news as he can to the ladies clamoring for updates, but most of it is grim. He lets them know that they should continue to pray to the gods. When he arrives at the palace, Hecuba offers him some wine, as both a refreshment and for him to pour out in offering to Big Daddy Zeus but he refuses the wine saying that he was dirty from battle and travel and wanted to clean up first. He then relays the message from Helenos, telling her about the offering for Athena. Hecuba is willing to try anything, so she goes to gather all of the high women in the city and to collect the offerings to bring to the temple of Athena where their prayers fall upon deaf ears. 

Meanwhile, Hector goes to find his brother, Paris. Paris, you may remember, was whisked away by Aphrodite after being nearly defeated in a duel by Menelaus. Well, he’s still hiding in his bedchamber, cleaning his armor. Hector arrives and he's kinda like “Hey bro, your armor is shiny enough. People are dying. Maybe you should come back and join the fight.” And Paris agrees. He tells Hector to wait for him to put on the armor and he’ll come back to the battle. Before Hector can reply, Helen chimes in. Helen is annoyed, as she should be. She goes on a rant about how she wishes she had never been born so none of this would be happening. (But also… way emo Helen. In this part of the story she has swoopy bangs and is wearing a My Chemical Romance shirt and refuses to take off her headphones.) She goes on to say she wishes she was married to a better man than Paris (which, I mean, she was married to Menelaus before she was taken by Paris to Troy). She doesn’t hold it against Hector though. In fact, the kinda joke about how Paris is ruining both their lives. Lol. 

Hector leaves before Paris is even ready with the armor because he wants to see his own wife, Andromache, before he has to get back to the battle but he can’t find her. He asks one of the handmaidens who tells him that she is at the wall of the city with their son, Astyanax. Andromache cries when he finds her. She weeps and holds his hand and tells that her whole family has been killed off by the Greeks. She wants him to bring his men back to the city wall and stay close for the sake of family (Vin Diesel Fast & Furious voice). He is sympathetic but tells her that he cannot retreat from battle. 

He reaches out for his young son, Astyanax, but the boy backs away, scared of the heavily armored man. Hector pulls off his helmet and reaches again. The boy realizes that it’s his father and they share a moment. After this Hector finally prays to Zeus to give Astyanax the strength to rule if/when Hector falls in battle. Now it’s time for him to get back to the army. He says goodbye to Andromache but she is convinced that he is marching off to his death, so it’s bittersweet. 

On the way back, Paris finally catches up with Hector. Paris is like “Sorry I took so long, bro!” and Hector is like “Hey, listen. I know you don’t suck at fighting but when you DON’T fight, people talk shit and there’s not much I can do about that so maybe you better start fighting to prove these bitches wrong.” And the brothers run side by side back to the battle.