Agamemnon’s Aristeia (*Iliad* 11)
Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/193-agamemnon-aristeia-iliad-11
Cycle: Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Book 11
Version line: Homeric — Agamemnon’s morning rampage until wounded
Sources: Homer, *Iliad* 11.15–283 (arming and aristeia), 11.248–283 (wound by Coön)
Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/193-agamemnon-aristeia-iliad-11.md
Characters
- Ares — Zeus’s messenger restraining Hector
- Coön — Antenor’s son; wounds Agamemnon; slain
- Hecuba — held back by Iris until the wound
- Iphidamas — Coön’s brother; killed earlier in the rampage
- Philotes — open the day of fighting
- Sons of Antimachus — victims tied to the embassy insult (background)
- Thyestes — armed leader; kills many; wounded by Coön; withdraws
Places
Themes
Narrative
At dawn Agamemnon arms in splendid panoply—corselet from Cinyras, shield with Gorgon, helmet, spears—and leads the Achaeans out. Zeus sends Strife to the ships with a portent of war. Agamemnon kills Bienor and Oileus, then the two sons of Antimachus (who had urged death for Menelaus’s embassy), then other Trojans in pairs as they flee toward the city. He presses as far as the Scaean gate’s approaches; Iris, sent by Zeus, warns Hector to hold back until Agamemnon is wounded. Coön, son of Antenor, strikes Agamemnon in the arm while trying to drag off his brother Iphidamas’s body; Agamemnon kills Coön but the wound forces him to mount and withdraw.
The aristeia shows the king who quarreled with Achilles still terrible in the field—and Zeus’s plan requiring his removal so Hector may have his day. Catalogue arming, the Antimachus vengeance-theme, Iris’s restraint of Hector, and Coön’s wound as one unit.