Quotes About Warfare

Weapons themselves can tempt a man to fight.

The spearhead sliced right through to the flesh, And when Diomedes pulled it out, Ares yelled, so loud you would have thought Ten thousand warriors had shouted at once, And the sound reverberated in the guts of Greeks and Trojans, As if Diomedes had struck not a god in armor But a bronze gong nine miles high.

Whene'er, by Jove's decree, our conquering powers Shall humble to the dust her lofty towers.

Trojans and Achaians, who like wolves sprang upon one another, with man against man in the onfall.

Nastes and Amphimachus, the illustrious sons of Nomion - but Nastes, chilldish fool that he was, Went into battle decked out in gold like a girl. But gold could not help him escape a horrible death at the hands of Aeacus' grandson, the swift Achilles, In the bed of the river, and Achilles, fierce ad fiery, Took care of all his gold.

Odysseus is a migrant, but he is also a political and military leader, a strategist, a poet, a loving husband and father, an adulterer, a homeless person, an athlete, a disabled cripple, a soldier with a traumatic past, a pirate, thief and liar, a fugitive, a colonial invader, a home owner, a sailor, a construction worker, a mass murderer, and a war hero.

so as the great Achilles rampaged on, his sharp-hoofed stallions trampled shields and corpses, axle under his chariot splashed with blood, blood on the handrails sweeping round the car, sprays of blood shooting up from the stallions' hoofs and churning, whirling rims—and the son of Peleus charioteering on to seize his glory, bloody filth splattering both strong arms, Achilles' invincible arms—

There are no binding oaths between men and lions— wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds— they are all bent on hating each other to the death. So with you and me. No love between us. No truce till one or the other falls and gluts with blood

They are destroying each other; the Achaians fight in defense over the fallen body while the others, the Trojans, are rushing to drag the corpse off 175  to windy Ilion

As inhuman fire sweeps on in fury through the deep angles of a drywood mountain and sets ablaze the depth of the timber and the blustering wind lashes the flame along, so Achilleus swept everywhere with his spear like something more than a mortal harrying them as they died, and the black earth ran blood.

some day let them say of him: 'He is better by far than his father,' 480  as he comes in from the fighting

With that he hurled and Athena drove the shaft and it split the archer's nose between the eyes— it cracked his glistening teeth, the tough bronze cut off his tongue at the roots, smashed his jaw and the point came ripping out beneath his chin. He pitched from his car, armor clanged against him, a glimmering blaze of metal dazzling round his back—

There I sacked the city, killed the men, but as for the wives and plunder, that rich haul we dragged away from the place —

We're glad to say we're men of Atrides Agamemnon, whose fame is the proudest thing on earth these days, so great a city he sacked, such multitudes he killed!

Stones and blows and I are hardly strangers. My heart is steeled by now, I've had my share of pain in the waves and wars. Add this to the total. Bring the trial on.

For many a Trojan, many a Greek, that day Prone in the dust, and side by side, were laid.

Then at last his sorrowing wife detailed the horrors that befall those whose city is taken; she reminded him how the men are slain, and the city is given over to the flames, while the women and children are carried into captivity; when he heard all this, his heart was touched, and he donned his armour to go forth.

2.?ILIÁDOS B So the other gods as well as chariot-fighting men slept through the night; but

Then when all the contingents were marshaled with their leaders the Trojans set out with ringing cries and clamor

Never once have you taken courage in your heart to arm with your people for battle, or go into ambuscade with the best

He shook them and called out to the best men of the Argives to meet him in the mêlée face to face.

Sprachs, und entsandte den speer; ihn richtete Pallas Athene Grad am aug in die nas; und die schimmernden zähne durchdrang sie; Auch die zung and der wurzel entschnitt das gewaltie erz ihm, Daß die stürmende Spitze am unteren Kinne hinausfuhr. (Ilias; fünfter Gesang V. 290-293)

On with you, horse-taming Trojans! Never give Greeks best in your will to fight! They are not made of stone or iron. Their flesh can't keep out penetrating spears when they are hit.

If history is to be creative, to anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive movements of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.