ARGUMENT OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH BOOK. by Homer

Editor's note

Jupiter (Zeus) steps in, instructing that Hector's body be returned. He sends Mercury (Hermes) as a divine guide to help the elderly Trojan king navigate the Greek camp safely at night. The fact that a god must *command* this shows just how extraordinary this act of mercy is—without divine intervention, Priam entering the enemy camp would amount to suicide.

Editor's note

Achilles doesn't come to terms with his emotions on his own. His mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, must visit him first to help him prepare. This is significant: it highlights that Achilles is still deeply affected by grief and anger over Patroclus. His eventual compassion for Priam represents a true, hard-earned transformation, rather than just a simple change of heart. Accepting ransom instead of keeping or desecrating the body was what society expected — yet Achilles had been rejecting that expectation for days.

Editor's note

The *Iliad* wraps up not with a triumphant Greek celebration but with a poignant Trojan funeral. Homer concludes by focusing on the sorrow of the enemy, a deeply humanizing choice. The phrase 'circumstantially described' indicates that the ritual is presented in thorough detail — from gathering wood to the burning, collecting bones, and forming the burial mound. The epic's final line names Hector, not Achilles, as the last image, reinforcing the poem's message that war devastates both sides.