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Summary
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Zeus calls the gods to assembly and permits them to join the battle. The gods choose sides, and the battlefield becomes a contest of divine partisanship as well as human skill.
Achilles drives through the Trojan ranks, killing many. Aeneas stands against him and is rescued by Poseidon, who knows that Aeneas is destined to survive and found a new people. The book establishes Achilles’ superiority and the approaching end of the Trojan defence.
Opening lines
So by the beaked ships around thee, O son of Peleus, insatiate of fight, the Achaeans arrayed them for battle; and likewise the Trojans over against them on the rising ground of the plain. — Homer, Iliad XX.1ff., trans. A. T. Murray (Loeb; Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0).
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