The Iliad

Agenda: Information aboutHostory through PicturesHomeText Analysis Mythological Background

The World of the Iliad

Rand McNally, Atlas of World History, pp. 22

The Trojan plain

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 41

Hisarlik

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 93

Reconstruction of Troy VI - 13th century

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 204

Troy VI from the North

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 204

The walls of Troy VI

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 74

The walls of Troy

Finding the Walls of Troy, p 229

The walls of Troy

Finding the Walls of Troy, p 230

Treasure of Priam

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 59

Sophie Schliemann Wearing the Jewels

of Helen

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 59

Mycenae from the East

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 66

Golden Mycenae

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 189-90

Ruins at Mycenae

Ruins at Mycenae

Lion Gate at Mycenae (E. Dodwell)

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 74

Mycenae and the Plain of Argos

National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 66

Lion Gate at Mycenae

In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 75

National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 64

National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 65

Mt Olympus

Mt Olympus

Early Classical Doric temple of Zeus at Olympia

Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 336

Temple of Hera at Olympia

Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 340

Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi

Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 349

Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi

Mythology

Begins with Homer 1000 B.C. Explains something in nature

Doesn’t have anything to do with religion, but rather how natural phenomenon came into existence.

Form of early entertainment

Writers

Homer

Homer

Wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey

Iliad is the first written record of Greece

Homer was an Ionian of the 8th or 9th century B.C.E., which would place his writings also more than 3 centuries after the Trojan War,

Homeric Period

The time period around 1400 B.C. was an era where Mycenae, the traditional home of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and leader of the Greek warriors in Troy, dominated the mainland, and his island of Crete assumed the political and military status of master of the eastern Mediterranean. A golden age of splendor arouse during this period, as shown by excavations of the royal graves at Mycenae, and the cultural and religious traditions of the eminent classical Greece began to take form. This is the Homeric, or Heroic, Age - also called Mycenaean, or Late Minoan -for the culture and values of the latter part of this period are those permanently embodied in the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Hesiod

Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around the year 700 BCE. From the 5th century BCE, literary historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer. Most modern scholars now agree that Homer lived before Hesiod.

Hesiod serves as a major source for knowledge of Greek mythology, of farming techniques, of archaic Greek astronomy and of ancient time-keeping

Important Names, Dates and Terminology

8th century BCE 1184 BCE Homer

Description The Homeric Question

Epic Oral Tradition

Important Themes, Motifs and Narratological Elements

CHOICE and PERSUASION THE HEROIC CODE LEADERSHIP TRIANGULAR RELATIONSHIPS SIMILES THE GODS

Do NOT Reduce the Iliad to either:

PRIDE (Hubris)

Or

FATE

Characteristics of Homeric Text:

Beginning in medias res Cinematic presentation of events and of

warfareLook for sense imagery in the text

Use of SIMILES Use of PARALLELISM when discussing

events, characters and gods

Homeric Cycle

Series of texts about TroySome tell the same stories as the

Homeric epicsMany tell entirely different storiesWhat still exists contains only a part

of the entire story of the Trojan War

Mythological Stories You Need to Know

Helen and the SuitorsWedding of Peleus and ThetisHecuba’s Dream of the Burning

CityJudgment of ParisAssembling the SuitorsSacrifice of Iphigenia

Helen and the Suitors

Helen: daughter of Tyndareus Clytemnestra: daughter of Tyndareus; twin of

Helen; (later) wife of Agamenon Penelope: niece to TyndareusSuitors Agamemnon: king of Argos; son of Atreus;

brother of Menelaus Menelaus: brother of Agamemnon Odysseus: king of Ithaka; (later) husband of

Penelope Ajax: son of Telemon; great warrior

Hecuba’s Dream of the Burning City

Priam = Hecuba

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SONS: DAUGHTERS

Hektor (m. Andromache) Cassandra

Paris (m. Helen) Polyxena

Deiphobus Creusa

Polydorus 47 other daughters

46 more sons

Wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Thetis: water nymph, daughter of Nereus

Peleus: mortal man, son of Aeacus, King of Aegina

Thetis and Peleus are the parents of Achilles

Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (cont.)

OLYMPIAN GODS Aphrodite: goddess of love Apollo: god of healing, music, prophecy Ares: god of war Artemis: goddess of the hunt Athena: goddess of wisdom, strategy Demeter: goddess of the Harvest Hephaistos: god of fire and metal craft; son of Hera and Zeus;

crippled because he was thrown by Zeus Hera: wife of Zeus Hermes: messenger god Poseidon: god of the sea Zeus: king of the gods; (very unfaithful) husband to Hera

Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (cont.)

ERIS: Goddess of Discord, not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest”

Assembling the Suitors

AgamemnonMenelausOdysseusAjaxAchilles – the most difficult to

find

Gaining a Strong Wind

Agamemnon = Clytemnestra

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Iphigeneia Electra Orestes

Key Aspects of the Epic’s Opening

Emphasis on the 1st word Invocation of the Muse

Questions What events are set into motion in the

opening 2 pages? Who is who? What are the key words? Are any of the themes mentioned earlier

present in this segment of text?

For Next Class

You are instructed to wrote a response to something you find difficult in the text.

Pick a passage of no more than 20 lines that you find important and/or difficult and write about it. We will use these student-chosen passages as the basis for discussion next class.