The night after the burial ceasefire, Trojans led by Hector set out to meet the Greeks on the plain.
On this day, the gods favor the Trojans, although Hector loses his charioteer to a javelin hurled by Diomedes. The Trojans push the Greeks back across the Scamander and behind their palisade. Then Hera rouses the Greeks and Teucer kills 10 Trojans. The Trojans are not prepared to retreat, so they pitch camp and build fires to keep burning all night. This is their first night outside the city in 10 years (or, at any rate, a very long time). The Greeks panic. Nestor says they need Achilles and his Myrmidons, and Agamemnon agrees, so they send an embassy to Achilles. They also decide to send out a scouting party of Diomedes and Odysseus to learn what the Trojans are up to. The Trojans had decided to do the same, but choose an incompetent for the job, whom the Greek scouts intercept, pressure into revealing all, and then kill. The description of this expedition is unusual in behavior and in anti-Trojan bias, as well as vocabulary, so it may have been written by someone other than the writer of the rest of The Iliad. Strauss also says the Trojans should have spent their time harassing the Greeks, infiltrated their ranks and fed them misinformation, but they did not. He then explains the Bronze Age familiarity with personal violence like ear chopping and nose biting-off. He concludes that Hector was not interested in anything but a full, glorious victory.
The Trojan War: A New History, summary pages:
Introduction | 1. War for Helen | 2. The Black Ships Sail | 3. Operation Beachhead | 4. Assault on the Walls | 5. The Dirty War | 6. An Army in Trouble | 7. The Killing Fields | 8. Night Moves | 9. Hector's Charge | 10. Achilles Heel | 11. The Night of the Horse | Conclusion
