[11,125] σκοπεῖτε δὲ τἀναντία πῶς ἐστι γελοῖα, ἀφελόντες τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὸ προκατειλῆφθαι· {κρυφθῆναι μὲν ἐν τῷ ἵππῳ στράτευμα ὅλον, τῶν δὲ Τρώων μηθένα αἰσθάνεσθαι τοῦτο μηδὲ ὑποπτεῦσαι, καὶ ταῦτα μάντεως οὔσης παρ´ αὐτοῖς ἀψευδοῦς, ἀλλὰ κομίσαι τοὺς πολεμίους δι´ αὑτῶν εἰς τὴν πόλιν· πρότερον δὲ ἕνα ἄνδρα πάντων ἡττωμένων ἱκανὸν γενέσθαι γυμνὸν ἐπιφανέντα τῇ φωνῇ τρέψασθαι τοσαύτας μυριάδας, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο ὅπλα οὐκ ἔχοντα, ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ λαβόντα νικῆσαι τοὺς μιᾷ πρότερον ἡμέρᾳ κρατοῦντας καὶ διώκειν ἅπαντας ἕνα ὄντα. (126) αὐτὸν δὲ ἐκεῖνον τοσοῦτον ὑπερέχοντα ἀποθανεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ πάντων κακίστου τὴν ψυχήν, ὡς αὐτοί φασιν, ἄλλου τε ἀποθανόντος ἄλλον σκυλευθῆναι, μόνῳ δὲ ἐκείνῳ τῶν ἡγεμόνων μὴ γενέσθαι τάφον. ἄλλον δέ τινα τῶν ἀρίστων τοσαῦτα ἔτη πολεμοῦντα ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν πολεμίων μηδενὸς ἀποθανεῖν· αὑτὸν δὲ ὀργισθέντα ἀποσφάξαι, καὶ ταῦτα δοκοῦντα σεμνότατον καὶ πρᾳότατον εἶναι τῶν συμμάχων. (127) τὸν δὲ ποιητὴν προθέμενον εἰπεῖν τὸν Τρωικὸν πόλεμον τὰ κάλλιστα καὶ μέγιστα τῶν γεγονότων ἐᾶσαι καὶ μηδὲ τὴν ἅλωσιν τῆς πόλεως διελθεῖν. ταῦτα γάρ ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς πεποιημένοις καὶ λεγομένοις. ὁ μὲν Ἀχιλλεύς, προηττημένων τῶν Ἀχαιῶν οὐκ εἰς ἅπαξ οὐδὲ τῶν ἄλλων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ στρατιᾶς, μόνος περιγενόμενος καὶ τοσοῦτον τὰ πράγματα μεταβαλών, αὐτὸς δὲ Ἕκτορα μὲν ἀποκτείνας, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀποθνῄσκων, ὃς ἦν ὕστατος τῶν Τρώων, ὡς αὐτοὶ λέγουσι, Πατρόκλου δὲ ἀποθανόντος, σκυλευόμενος ὁ Ἀχιλλεὺς καὶ τὰ ἐκείνου ληφθέντα ὅπλα, ὁ δὲ Πάτροκλος οὐ ταφείς. (128) ἐπειδὴ δὲ Αἴαντος ἦν τάφος καὶ πάντες ᾔδεσαν αὐτὸν ἐν Τροίᾳ τελευτήσαντα, ἵνα δὴ μὴ ποιήσῃ τὸν ἀποκτείναντα ἔνδοξον, αὐτὸς αὑτὸν ἀνελών. οἱ δὲ Ἀχαιοὶ φεύγοντες μὲν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας σιωπῇ καὶ τὰς σκηνὰς κατακαύσαντες καὶ τὸ ναύσταθμον ἁφθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἕκτορος καὶ τὸ τεῖχος αὐτῶν ἑαλωκός, καὶ ἀνάθημα ἀναθέντες τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ καὶ ἐπιγράψαντες, ὡς ἔθος ἐστὶ τοὺς ἡττημένους, οὐδὲν δὲ ἧττον τὴν Τροίαν ἑλόντες, ἐν δὲ τῷ ἵππῳ τῷ ξυλίνῳ στράτευμα ἀνθρώπων ἀποκρυφθέν. οἱ δὲ Τρῶες ὑποπτεύσαντες μὲν τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ βουλευσάμενοι κατακαῦσαι τὸν ἵππον ἢ διατεμεῖν, μηθὲν δὲ τούτων ποιήσαντες, ἀλλὰ πίνοντες καὶ καθεύδοντες, καὶ ταῦτα προειπούσης αὐτοῖς τῆς Κασσάνδρας. (129) ταῦτα οὐκ ἐνυπνίοις ἐοικότα τῷ ὄντι καὶ ἀπιθάνοις ψεύσμασιν; ἐν γὰρ τοῖς ὅρῳ γεγραμμένοις ὀνείρασιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι τοιαύτας ὄψεις ὁρῶσι, νῦν μὲν δοκοῦντες ἀποθνῄσκειν καὶ σκυλεύεσθαι, πάλιν δὲ ἀνίστασθαι καὶ μάχεσθαι γυμνοὶ ὄντες, ἐνίοτε δὲ οἰόμενοι διώκειν καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς διαλέγεσθαι καὶ αὑτοὺς ἀποσφάττειν {καὶ} μηδενὸς δεινοῦ ὄντος, καὶ οὕτως, εἰ τύχοι ποτέ, πέτεσθαι καὶ βαδίζειν ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάττης. ὥστε καὶ τὴν Ὁμήρου ποίησιν ὀρθῶς ἄν τινα εἰπεῖν ἐνύπνιον, καὶ τοῦτο ἄκριτον καὶ ἀσαφές.}

[11,125] But rid yourselves of your opinions and prejudices and consider how ridiculous the opposite story is. A whole army was hidden in a horse and yet not a single Trojan noticed it or even surmised it in spite of the fact that they had an unerring prophetess among them, but by their own efforts they brought the enemy within the city. Then before this, when all were defeated, one man appeared unarmed and proved able by the power of his voice to put to flight so many thousands ; and after this, being without arms, he received fresh weapons from heaven and overwhelmed the victors of but the previous day and unaided chased them all from the field. Can you believe, further, that this same Achilles, so preeminent a hero, was slain by the most faint-hearted man in the world, as the Trojans themselves confess, that while one man was slain it was another who was stripped of his arms, and that this hero was the only one among the chieftains to be given no burial-place ; that yet another, and he one of the bravest, who fought so many years, was saved from the hands of the enemy only to slay himself in a fit of anger, and that although he was looked upon as the most dignified and gentle-mannered among the allies ? And finally, the poet, who set out to tell of the Trojan war, omitted the most glorious and important events and did not even give an account of the capture of the City ! The following are some of the things that he mentions in his poem :—When the Achaeans had already been worsted, and more than once, Achilles' own force included, and he was the sole survivor, he made a great change in the situation by slaying Hector and was himself slain by Paris, who was the meanest of the Trojans, as they themselves admit, and when Patroclus was slain, it was Achilles whose body was stripped and whose arms were taken, while Patroclus was not buried. Then since there was a grave of Ajax and everyone knew that he died at Troy, he slew himself simply to deprive the man who slew him of honour ! The Achaeans fled in silence from Asia after burning their huts, and their naval camp was set on fire by Hector and their rampart captured. Then they erected a votive offering to Athena and carved an inscription upon it, as is the custom for the vanquished, but none the less they captured Troy and an army of men was hidden in the wooden horse. The Trojans suspected what was afoot and purposed to burn the wooden horse or cut it to pieces, and yet did neither the one nor the other, but ate and slept, in spite of Cassandra's forewarning too. Does not all this in reality remind one of dreams and wild fiction? In the book " Dreams " by Horus people have such experiences, imagining at one time that they are being killed and their bodies stripped of arms and that they rise to their feet again and fight unarmed, at other times imagining they are chasing somebody or holding converse with the gods or committing suicide without any cause for the act, and at times, possibly, flying offhand or walking on the sea. For this reason one might well call Homer's poetry a kind of dream, obscure and vague at that.