An odd image this. Gleaming helmets topped with bobbing plumes of beautiful birds can create mirages of battlefield glamour, building the height and perceived power of the warrior. But vultures feed off dead bodies and have a hungry, predatory look to them. You wonder when they felt it was safe to swoop down on the carnage and tuck in.
‘And now,
Quibuph, holding his vulture-plumed helmet,
Catches his eye.’
Source: Christopher Logue, War Music: An account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer’s Iliad, London: Faber and Faber, 2001, p. 135
