The Death of Lycáon Anonymous College

This paper will explicate The Iliad, Book 21, Ll. 99-127 with respect to syntax, diction, and figurative language. This passage is the scene of Lycáon’s death at the hand of Achilles, who is on a killing spree after the death of Patroclus. The syntax in this piece of Homer’s earlier epic transitions from formulaic to frenetic.

Initially, Mitchell, in describing Achilles’s final address of Priam’s son before dealing the fatal blow, presents us with several statements separated by conjunctions that beget the greater situational irony. “The son of Priam implored Achilles with pitiful words. / But the answer he got had no pity” (99-100). The first conjunction we see is “but,” which establishes the contrast between the two clauses—that which Lycáon wants, and that which he is to be granted. Achilles’s next claim, that he formerly would have “[spared] the life of a Trojan,” simply reinforces the original statement: “But now no Trojan… shall ever escape” (103, 105). Then, with a “so,” Achilles offers his enemy the solution to the two contrasting statements: “you too must die” (108). The irony in the exchange arises because there is an “and;” Achilles is not yet finished, but rather offers now an additional example: himself. His...