So far every Book of the Iliad has contributed in different ways but with strong effect to the monumental plan of the poem, either through establishing the central theme of the wrath of Akhilleus, or by preparing for, and delaying, the great battles to come, or by presenting major figures like Diomedes, or essential background like the behaviour of individual gods and goddesses or the characters in the beleaguered city. The seventh Book, by contrast, seems to falter slightly in its monumental rôle, as well as in the coherence of events generally – this is reflected in the clumsy Hellenistic title of the Book, Ἕκτορος καὶ Αἴαντος μονομαχία. Νεκρῶν ἀναίρεσις (on which see also p. 277, (3)). Hektor and Paris return to battle as indicated at the end of bk 6, but are soon interrupted by Apollo and the proposal for a second formal duel, curiously like that of bk 3 but without stated or accomplished purpose. It is bizarrely curtailed by the heralds, and Hektor survives. At the celebratory dinner for Aias, Nestor proposes a truce for the collection and burning of the dead; Priam independently proposes the same, and the Achaeans take the opportunity of building a huge defensive wall and trench around their camp. The Book ends with nightfall and the arrival of wine-ships from Lemnos.