Bare with me, it may take a moment to get to my point.
I remember seeing and old WWI movie – think it was "The Fighting 69th" but not sure. Anyway, the protagonist goes out on patrol with some of his mates and then loses his nerve. He makes a run for it, but all his mates get killed. Or so he thinks.
In the Iliad, from time to time a hero has to be saved by the gods. There are several examples, but Apollo saving Aeneas would be a good example.
My old prof claimed this was an example of a soldier running away in battle – but you can't have a hero doing that, so you get the story of the gods coming to his rescue.
So I wonder, suppose Harry the Hoplite goes on a mission with a few of his mates. They get ambushed and are in a bad way. Harry the Hoplite turns tail and runs -all his mates get killed.
When he gets back to the messhall, he tells everyone he was fighting bravely but next thing he knew Apollo drug him away from his comrades -he tried to stay with his mates, but was overpowered by Apollo.
Do you suppose the guys in the barracks would believe this?
I wonder what would happen???
steps into the arena with two gladiators from 
