Polytropy

On the day recounted in Book VIII of the Iliad,

• on earth, the Achaeans are twice driven behind their new walls;
  • during the first rout,
    • Odysseus does not hear when Diomedes urges him to come to the aid of Nestor;
    • Hector thinks he will be able to burn the Achaean ships and kill all the men;
    • Agamemnon prays for mere survival;
  • the second time, Hector calls for fires to be lit, lest the Greeks try to escape in the night;
• in heaven, Zeus
  • weighs out a heavier fate for the Achaeans;
  • declares that it shall be so until Achilles is roused by the death of Patroclus;
  • warns Hera and Athena not to interfere (though they try to anyway).

I wrote a fuller summary in 2017. Because I was reading it, I also talked about Huysmans, Against Nature, and the belief of the main character that the prose poem could

contain within its small compass, like beef essence, the power of a novel, while eliminating its tedious analyses and superfluous descriptions.

Now I shall find reason to bring up Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Thoreau, and Freud, and especially William James and Collingwood on the subject of emotion.

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