Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan sit down to talk about the embassy to Achilles in Book 9.In this episode we will discuss:What happens in book nine?Who is Phoenix?What is the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus?What effect does the embassy have on Achilles?What else should be noted in the embassy to Achilles?Want our whole guide to The Iliad? Download it for free.Book NineThe Embassy to AchillesBut now at last, stop, Achilles—let your heart-devouring anger go!Odysseus (9.307)47. What happens in book nine?Night has fallen. As the Trojans set their watch, the Achaeans are distraught and panicked (9.02). King Agamemnon despairs and tells his men to sail home (9.31). After a long silence, Diomedes tells Agamemnon to “sail away” (9.49), but Diomedes and company will stay and fight until the “fixed doom of Troy” occurs (9.56). Nestor, the old Achaean war chief, exhorts Agamemnon to have the night sentries take their posts (9.76) and to throw a feast of “grand hospitality” for his senior chieftains (9.80). Agamemnon obeys and, at the feast, Nestor appeals to Agamemnon to make peace with Achilles (9.122). Agamemnon again follows Nestor’s lead. He sends Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix (9.201) with the promise that Agamemnon will return Briseis to Achilles along with hordes of treasure and more treasure to come when Troy falls (9.146).The embassy finds Achilles playing the lyre by his ships (9.222). Achilles greets them warmly and each member of delegation attempts to convince Achilles to return to the war and save the Argives. But Achilles still harbors an undying rage against Agamemnon, stating: “I hate that man like the very Gates of Death” (9.379). Agamemnon has wounded the honor of Achilles and no gifts can undo that fact (9.470). Achilles even tells Odysseus that Agamemnon can keep and enjoy Briseis (9.407). The heart of Achilles “still heaves with rage” (9.789), and he will not even think of “arming for bloody war again” until Hector has slaughtered the Argives all the way to his own ship (9.795). The embassy reports back to Agamemnon and, as they were all “struck dumb,” Diomedes rallies the chieftains and tells Agamemnon to fight on the front lines tomorrow (9.865). The Achaeans, who are stirred by the speech, make their offerings to Zeus and go to sleep awaiting the dawn (9.866).48. Who is Phoenix? Phoenix, an Achaean, was charged by Peleus, Achilles’ father, to train Achilles in war and rhetoric (9.533). Regarding his own background, Phoenix tells the story of sleeping with his father’s concubine, at his mother’s request, and his father finding out (9.549). Phoenix runs away from home, and Peleus welcomes him into his home as a son (9.583). One may observe the similarity that Phoenix’s past and Achilles’ present both hinge on a concubine or slave-girl. Phoenix claims to Achilles: “I made you what you are—strong as the gods… I loved you from the heart” (9.587). He expresses his love for Achilles, as a man who knew he’d never have his own son (9.595). In fact, he leverages this into an argument stating: “I made you my son, I tried, so someday you might fight disaster off my back” (9.600). He then gives an explanation of the Prayers of Zeus, personified, who “heal the wounds of mankind” (6.117). The explicit appeal to family and then to the gods (to save his people) invites another comparison between Achilles and Hector—whose piety toward family, polis, and the gods was on display in book six. Phoenix’s appeal to the ancient story of Meleager is...