The generations of men
In Iliad VI Glaucus meets Diomedes in battle, and Diomedes asks who he is. Glaucus answers with the image of human generations as leaves: the wind scatters them, the forest grows new ones, and so it is with men. The simile is one of the poem’s most resonant statements of mortality and renewal.
He then explains his descent from Bellerophon, and Diomedes recognises that their fathers were guest-friends. They agree not to fight and exchange armour. The poem notes that Glaucus gave gold for bronze, and the detail is usually read as a comment on the foolishness of a generous gesture in a war economy.
The Lycian war
Glaucus fights beside Sarpedon throughout the Trojan battle, and in Book XVI he is wounded and calls on Apollo to heal him so that he can help Sarpedon. In Book XII he and Sarpedon lead the assault on the Achaean wall, and Sarpedon’s speech about honour is addressed to him.
After Sarpedon’s death Glaucus is one of the leaders who fight over the body, and he is wounded again. The Iliad does not report his death. He is a secondary figure, but the leaves simile and the armour exchange have given him a permanent place in the poem’s imagination.
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The following entries mention “Glaucus”.