Things are going so poorly that Agamemnon wants to cut and run. Diomedes asserts that they'll stay even without their leader. Nestor wisely advises that they break for a meal. During this refueling he suggests they appease Achilles and "bring him round / with gifts of friendship and warm, winning words."

[Spoiler (click to open)]Agamemnon concedes, admits his blindness, ( Read more... )

Zeus finally decides to honor his promise to Thetis and punish the Argives.

[Spoiler (click to open)]Zeus tells the other gods to stay away from the fighting. “All submit to it now, so all the more quickly / I can bring this violent business to an end.”, he lies. He claims he could beat all the other Olympians combined in a divine game of tug of war. It’s unclear how this ( Read more... )

This entire book - the duel between Hector and Ajax - feels like a setup for comparing and contrasting with the later duel between Hector and Achilles.

[Spoiler (click to open)]The fighting continues and Athena prepares to enter the fray. Apollo blocks her, telling her that she's merciless. All the gods know that Troy is fated to fall. Why not let the fighting stop for ( Read more... )

In one of the most moving, human parts of this epic, Hector talks with his wife and holds his son. The infant initially recoils and cries at the sight of his father in a helmet. The parents share a fond laugh.

[Spoiler (click to open)]The battle rages on ( Read more... )

A teacher and later a principal, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) delivered this speech at the 1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, GA. According to James Daley, the editor of this collection of speeches, this speech launched his "career as a public figure and civil rights leader". The collection calls the speech the ( Read more... )

The gods are heavily involved in the fighting. Zeus hasn't fulfilled his promise to Thetis yet. Athena helps Diomedes go on a rampage. Tydeus' son even stabs Aphrodite (with Athena's full permission) and Ares (not with the goddess's permission, but I suspect she doesn't care too much).

[Spoiler (click to open)]Athena grants Tydeus' son Dimoedes strength and daring so that ( Read more... )

"A Deep and Cruel Prejudice" - John Sweat Rock (1825-1866) was a doctor, dentist, and a lawyer. He was the first African American granted admittance to argue cases in front of the US Supreme Court. He delivered this speech before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1862.

[Spoiler (click to open)]He opens with "Ladies and gentlemen: I am here not so much to make a ( Read more... )

In the previous book, Paris was whisked away. The duel is undecided and both sides are uncertain about what comes next. The Trojans (Homer never seems to let the listener/reader forget that they're not The Good Guys) break the truce and lots of men die ( Read more... )

The chronological placement of this book doesn't make sense. Helen names the Achaean commanders for Priam. Menelaus and Paris duel over Helen and her treasures. These events should have occurred at the very beginning of the war. Still the book offers the first glimpse behind the besieged Trojan walls and interesting look at Helen's motivations (not ( Read more... )

"What, to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Delivered 5 July 1852, by Frederick Douglass (181-1895) at Rochester, NY's annual Fourth of July celebration. Douglass compares the nation's progress to a river:
There is consolation in the thought that America is young. Great streams are not easily turned from channels worn deep in the course of ages. ( Read more... )