BOOK BY BOOK SUMMARY OF
THE ILIAD
OCR 2017 onwards
BOOK 6 SUMMARY
1 – 100
•The battle rages on, and killings on both sides are described by Homer.
•Menelaus is about to spare Adrestus’ life after being promised a huge ransom to keep him alive
•Agamemnon pressures Menelaus into making the kill and tells him to spare no one, including
unborn children (foreshadows Astayanax’s death?)
•Nestor urges the Greeks not to think of looting the dead for the time being but to focus on killing
•Helenus tells Hector not to retreat and to keep fighting at the gates, while delivering a message
to the women to give offerings to Athena, so that she takes pity and saves them from Diomedes,
now more feared than Achilles
100 – 200
•Hector rallies his troops then goes off to complete his mission
•Glaucus is about to fight Diomedes, before Diomedes asks of his birth (to be sure he is not
divine)
•Glaucus tells the long story of Bellerophon, who, after being accused of being suitor of The
Queen of Argos is sent to his death but evades the slaughter and returns home a hero.
The Iliad | Book 6
THE ILIAD
OCR 2017 onwards
BOOK 6 SUMMARY
1 – 100
•The battle rages on, and killings on both sides are described by Homer.
•Menelaus is about to spare Adrestus’ life after being promised a huge ransom to keep him alive
•Agamemnon pressures Menelaus into making the kill and tells him to spare no one, including
unborn children (foreshadows Astayanax’s death?)
•Nestor urges the Greeks not to think of looting the dead for the time being but to focus on killing
•Helenus tells Hector not to retreat and to keep fighting at the gates, while delivering a message
to the women to give offerings to Athena, so that she takes pity and saves them from Diomedes,
now more feared than Achilles
100 – 200
•Hector rallies his troops then goes off to complete his mission
•Glaucus is about to fight Diomedes, before Diomedes asks of his birth (to be sure he is not
divine)
•Glaucus tells the long story of Bellerophon, who, after being accused of being suitor of The
Queen of Argos is sent to his death but evades the slaughter and returns home a hero.
The Iliad | Book 6
