Characters
- Meriones — vows to Apollo; hits the flying dove; victor
- Patroclus — honoree
- People of Crisa — receives Meriones’ vow; implicit favor
- Teucer — first shot; severs the cord; misses the bird; no vow
- Trojan assembly — sets the mast, dove, and iron prizes
Places
- Trojan shore — mast and target set for archery
Themes
Narrative
Achilles sets dark iron as prizes and hangs a dove by a thin cord from a mast as target. Teucer, Ajax’s brother and the best Achaean archer in battle, shoots first but fails to vow a sacrifice to Apollo; he misses the bird and cuts only the cord, so the dove flies free. Meriones snatches the bow, vows a hecatomb to Apollo, and brings the bird down mid-flight. He takes the iron; Teucer takes the lesser lot.
The episode turns skill into piety: Meriones’ vow wins where Teucer’s bare excellence fails—Apollo’s favor made explicit in a funeral contest.