Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When Achilles returns to battle after Patroclus’s death, Zeus calls the gods to council and releases them to take sides openly, lest Achilles storm Troy before the fated day and overturn destiny. Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus go to the Achaeans; Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Xanthus, and Aphrodite to the Trojans. The earth shakes as they arm; Zeus thunders; the stage is set for mortal and immortal combat alike. On the plain Achilles first meets Aeneas, whom Apollo has urged forward. The two exchange genealogies and taunts: Aeneas recalls Dardanus’s line and the favor of Zeus; Achilles remembers prior flight when he raided Lyrnessus and Pedasus. Spears and stones fly; Achilles’ cast is stopped by Aeneas’s shield, Aeneas’s great stone would have crushed Achilles’ helmet or shield—had not Poseidon intervened. Looking ahead, Poseidon tells Hera that Aeneas is destined to survive so that Dardanus’s seed not perish (Zeus loved Dardanus above his children by mortal women); the line of Priam is hated, but Aeneas and his children’s children shall rule over the Trojans. Poseidon sheds mist, draws the spear from Aeneas’s shield, sets Aeneas far from the fight at the army’s edge, and warns him never again to face Achilles, who is stronger and dearer to the gods for now. Achilles, baffled by the empty mist, turns to slaughter other Trojans. Hector would meet him, but Apollo in mortal guise restrains Hector for this day. Catalogue this book as the Homeric hinge where Achilles’ aristeia meets fate’s veto: the gods may fight, yet Poseidon saves Aeneas so the Dardanian future outlasts Priam’s house.