[11,105] τέως δὲ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην ἐπιμεληθῆναι καὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλω τοῦ διαμεῖναι τὸν νεκρόν. {οὐκ ἔχων δὲ ὅ,τι ποιήσῃ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, ἐπεὶ ἔδει αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῶν Τρώων τινὸς ἀνῃρῆσθαι· οὐ γὰρ δὴ καὶ τοῦτον ἔμελλεν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν Αἴαντα, ὑφ´ ἑαυτοῦ ἀποθανόντα ποιεῖν, φθονῶν τῆς δόξης τῷ ἀνελόντι· τὸν Ἀλέξανδρόν φησιν ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτόν, ὃν πεποίηκε τῶν Τρώων κάκιστον καὶ δειλότατον καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ Μενελάου μικροῦ δεῖν ζωγρηθέντα, ὃν λοιδορούμενον ἀεὶ πεποίηκεν, ὡς μαλθακὸν αἰχμητὴν καὶ ἐπονείδιστον ἐν τοῖς Ἕλλησι. (106) ἵνα δὴ τοῦ Ἕκτορος τὴν δόξαν ἀφέλοιτο, καὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα φαίνεται καθῃρηκώς, {καὶ} πολὺ χείρω καὶ ἀδοξότερον αὐτοῦ ποιήσας τὸν θάνατον. τέλος δὲ προάγει ἤδη τεθνηκότα τὸν Ἀχιλλέα καὶ ποιεῖ μαχόμενον· οὐκ ὄντων δὲ ὅπλων, ἀλλὰ τοῦ Ἕκτορος ἔχοντος· ἐν τούτῳ γὰρ ἔλαθεν αὐτὸν ἕν τι τῶν ἀληθῶν ῥηθέν· ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ φησι κομίσαι τὴν Θέτιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἡφαίστου γενόμενα ὅπλα· καὶ οὕτως δὴ γελοίως τὸν Ἀχιλλέα μόνον τρεπόμενον τοὺς Τρῶας, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων Ἀχαιῶν, ὥσπερ οὐδενὸς παρόντος, ἁπάντων ἐπελάθετο· ἅπαξ δὲ τολμήσας τοῦτο ψεύσασθαι πάντα συνέχεε. καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς ἐνταῦθα ποιεῖ μαχομένους ἀλλήλοις, σχεδὸν ὁμολογῶν ὅτι οὐδὲν αὐτῷ μέλει ἀληθείας. (107) πάνυ δὲ ἀσθενῶς καὶ ἀπιθάνως τὴν ἀριστείαν διελθών, ὁτὲ μὲν ποταμῷ μαχόμενον αὐτόν, ὁτὲ δὲ ἀπειλοῦντα Ἀπόλλωνι καὶ διώκοντα αὐτόν· ἐξ ὧν ἁπάντων ἰδεῖν ἔστι τὴν ἀπορίαν αὐτοῦ σχεδόν· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς ἀληθέσιν οὕτως ἀπίθανος οὐδὲ ἀηδής· μόλις ποτὲ τῶν Τρώων εἰς τὴν πόλιν φευγόντων, τὸν Ἕκτορα πεποίηκε πρὸ τοῦ τείχους ἀνδρειότατα ὑπομένοντα αὐτὸν καὶ μήτε τῷ πατρὶ δεομένῳ μήτε τῇ μητρὶ πειθόμενον, ἔπειτα φεύγοντα κύκλῳ τῆς πόλεως, ἐξὸν εἰσελθεῖν, καὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, τάχιστον ἀνθρώπων ἀεί ποτε ὑπ´ αὐτοῦ λεγόμενον, οὐ δυνάμενον καταλαβεῖν. (108) τοὺς δὲ Ἀχαιοὺς ὁρᾶν ἅπαντας ὥσπερ ἐπὶ θέαν παρόντας καὶ μηδένα βοηθεῖν τῷ Ἀχιλλεῖ, τοιαῦτα πεπονθότας ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος καὶ μισοῦντας αὐτόν, ὥστε καὶ νεκρὸν τιτρώσκειν. ἔπειτα Δηίφοβον ἐξελθόντα τοῦ τείχους, μᾶλλον δὲ Ἀθηνᾶν παραλογίσασθαι αὐτόν, εἰκασθεῖσαν Δηιφόβῳ, καὶ τὸ δόρυ κλέψαι τὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος ἐν τῇ μάχῃ, οὐδὲ ὅπως ἀποκτείνῃ τὸν Ἕκτορα εὑρίσκων, τρόπον τινὰ ἰλιγγιῶν περὶ τὸ ψεῦδος καὶ τῷ ὄντι ὡς ἐν ὀνείρατι μάχην διηγούμενος. μάλιστα γοῦν προσέοικε τοῖς ἀτόποις ἐνυπνίοις τὰ περὶ τὴν μάχην ἐκείνην.} (109) εἰς τοῦτο δὲ προελθὼν ἀπεῖπε λοιπόν, οὐκ ἔχων ὅ,τι χρήσηται τῇ ποιήσει καὶ τοῖς ψεύσμασι δυσχεραίνων {ἀγῶνά τινα προσθεὶς ἐπιτάφιον, καὶ τοῦτο πάνυ γελοίως, καὶ τὴν Πριάμου βασιλέως εἰς τὸ στρατόπεδον ἄφιξιν παρὰ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα, μηδενὸς αἰσθομένου τῶν Ἀχαιῶν, καὶ τὰ λύτρα τοῦ Ἕκτορος. καὶ οὔτε τὴν τοῦ Μέμνονος βοήθειαν οὔτε τὴν τῶν Ἀμαζόνων, οὕτως θαυμαστὰ καὶ μεγάλα, ἐτόλμησεν εἰπεῖν, οὔτε τὸν τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως θάνατον οὔτε τὴν ἅλωσιν τῆς Τροίας.}

[11,105] Aphrodite and Apollo having in the meanwhile cared for its preservation. But not knowing what disposition to make of Achilles—for he must have been slain by some one of the Trojans, since Homer had no idea of representing him as dying by his own hand as he did Ajax, thereby denying his slayer the glory of the deed—Homer says that Paris slew him, Paris, whom he has depicted as the most base and cowardly of the Trojans, and as having been almost captured alive by Menelaus, whom he has depicted as being always reviled as a faint-hearted spearman and a name of reproach among the Greeks ; and he does this, we see, in order to steal the glory from Hector—who undoubtedly slew Achilles—thus making the hero's end much less creditable than it really was and much more inglorious. Finally, he brings forth Achilles, who was in fact already slain, and has him do battle with the Trojans. But his arms are not at hand but are in Hector's possession—for here Homer did permit one truth to escape his lips—and so he says that Thetis brought from heaven the arms made by Hephaestus, letting Achilles in this way, forsooth, rout the Trojans single-handed—a ridiculous conception, wherein Homer has ignored all the other Achaeans as though not a single man were available. And having once given himself the liberty of making this misrepresentation, he went on to distort the entire story. At this point he makes the gods fight with one another, thus virtually acknowledging his utter disregard for the truth. (107) Moreover, he recounts Achilles' heroic deeds in a manner very weak and unconvincing. Now the hero is fighting with a river, now threatening Apollo and pursuing him, the entire narrative at this point showing how well-nigh desperate the poet was. For when he is telling the truth, he is not so unconvincing or dull. Once when the Trojans were hard bestead to withdraw safely into the city, Homer has represented the splendid heroism with which Hector awaited Achilles outside the city walls, deaf to the prayers of father and mother. Then he circles the city in flight when he might have entered it, and Achilles is unable to catch him, though he is always represented by Homer as the swiftest of men. Meanwhile all the Achaeans were looking on as if attending a show, and none rendered Achilles any help after all they had suffered at Hector's hands and though they so hated him that they afterwards even wounded his dead body. Then he makes Deïphobus come forth from the walls—or, rather, Athena in his guise— and deceive Hector and steal his spear from him in the duel, the poet being at his wits' end how to despatch Hector, and dazed as it were by his falsehood, so that he actually describes the fight as if in a dream. At any rate the account of that struggle bears the closest resemblance to a nightmare. (109) " When he reached this point, Homer gave up, not knowing how to continue his work and being dissatisfied with his falsehoods. He merely added some sort of funeral games, a perfectly ridiculous thing, then the arrivai of king Priam in the Greek camp at the tent of Achilles without the knowledge of any of the Achaeans, and the ransom of Hector. But of the help which Memnon and the Amazons brought, great and splendid episodes though they were, not a word did he venture to speak, nor of the death of Achilles, nor of the capture of Troy.