The Iliad picks a few days only out of the whole story: not the most obvious days (which might be the
arrival of the Achaeans, or the wooden horse and sack of Troy), but almost the only days during the ten
years when the Trojans had the better of the fighting. It does not matter exactly how many days pass
during the poem; what matters is that about twenty-one days pass in the opening scenes and another
twenty-one in the closing scenes, thus separating the core from the years that stretch on either side. A very
short time passes in between. In fact almost everything from Book 2 all the way to Book 23 takes place
during only four days and two nights. Within this very economical time-scheme there is a tight grip on the
dramatic calendar.
The Mission To Achilles, to persuade him to return to the battlefield, was described in Iliad 9 The scene
becomes popular on Athenian vases in the early fifth century, when the story was also treated on the stage
by Aeschylus. On the vases the heroes involved and Achilles' mood do not closely mirror Homer's
treatment On this vase Odysseus is seated arguing with the disconsolate Achilles. At the left is an old man
Phoenix (Achilles mentor) and at the right Patroclus. The artist (the Cleophrades Painter) is particularly
fond of Trojan scenes: the date is about 485-475 B.C.