Book 23 is low key the most important part of the Iliad and also the most underrated.Menelaus and Antilochus fighting over the prize directly mirrors Agamemnon and Achilles fighting over Briseis and Menelaus conceding the horse to Antilochus despite being the winner shows what the writer (Homer) thinks Agamemnon should have done where he a more mature and honest statesman.I don’t have any mindblowing thoughts on this but I just think about that scene a lot and what it says of Homer’s view of social interactions and statesmanship.
I also think about it, I learned to notice struggle because of it when before I only noticed the people who come in first, now even if a man comes in last I honor him if he tried harder than the winner
