Dolon's Night Mission in Homer's Iliad
Dolon is the son of Eumedes, and has 5 sisters. Considered a fast runner, after a request by Hector in which all the Trojan men are called together, Dolon volunteers to spy on the Greek ships and check whether or not the Greeks are still guarding them, and if so, how. In exchange Hector offers the horses and bronze chariot of Achilles as his prize at the end of the war. Fearing deceit, Dolon demands that Hector swears to fulfill the promised reward. Dolon departs wearing a wolf skin and a weasel cap in order to blend in to his surroundings. His plan was to deceive the Greeks by walking on all fours. By chance, he is spotted by Odysseus and Diomedes while they are on a secret raid to plunder the Trojans. The Greek warriors see Dolon coming and hide themselves in the bodies of the dead so that Dolon can't see them. Diomedes chases Dolon down with help from Athena and Dolon begs for his life, telling the two warriors that he is worth a valuable ransom because his father, Eumedes, is very wealthy. Odysseus says he won't kill Dolon if he tells the two of them why he was spying on the Greeks. Dolon tells Odysseus everything he wants to know, including his potential prize, before Odysseus explains to him that he has been tricked by Hector: only Achilles can control the horses that he was to receive. Dolon then tells the two Greeks which Trojan allies are living in which tent and what their strengths are. After he tells the two all the information that they wanted he is decapitated by Diomedes before the two head off into the Trojan camp to wreak havoc, slaying Rhesus, king of Thrace, and stealing his valuable horses. His son Eumedes, named after Dolon's father, survived the Trojan War to later fight and die under the command of Aeneas in Italy.
Read more about this topic: Dolon (mythology)
Famous quotes containing the words night, mission, homer and/or iliad:
“There is something singularly grand and impressive in the sound of a tree falling in a perfectly calm night like this, as if the agencies which overthrow it did not need to be excited, but worked with a subtle, deliberate, and conscious force, like a boa-constrictor, and more effectively then than even in a windy day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I cannot be a materialist—but Oh, how is it possible that a God who speaks to all hearts can let Belgravia go laughing to a vicious luxury, and Whitechapel cursing to a filthy debauchery—such suffering, such dreadful suffering—and shall the short years of Christ’s mission atone for it all?”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“In the great and deep qualities of mind, heart, and soul, there is no change. Homer and Solomon speak to the same nature in man that is reached by Shakespeare and Lincoln. but in the accidents, the surroundings, the change is vast. All things now are mobile—movable.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The genuine remains of Ossian, or those ancient poems which bear his name, though of less fame and extent, are, in many respects, of the same stamp with the Iliad itself. He asserts the dignity of the bard no less than Homer, and in his era, we hear of no other priest than he.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)