Homer’s

The IliadM.T. 31401418

THE ILIAD: CHARACTERSGODS AND GODDESSES

Aphrodite

She protected Helen, to whom she gave great beauty and she rescues Paris from Menelaus, and brings him to Helen. (The Judgement Of Paris)

ApolloIn the opening scene of the Iliad, he sends a plague upon the Achaeans because Agamemnon has dishonored his priest, Chrysies.  Later, he helps Hector in the killing of Patroclus.

AresHe supports the Trojans, and Zeus describes him as “the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympus” 

AthenaA powerful ally of the Greeks and protectress of Odysseus; she hated the Trojans because of the judgement of Paris.  She restrains Achilles from killing Agamemnon

ZeusThroughout the Iliad, he acts as an overseer: he ensures that fated events, like the deaths of Patroclus and Hector, take place, and he prevents Troy from falling at the hands of Achilles against fate

Greeks

Achilles: leader of the Myrmidons and central character of the Iliad; son of the goddess, Thetis, and the warrior, Peleus.

AGAMEMNON: son of Atreus, king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus and most powerful Greek king.  His quarrel with Achilles. Sparks Achilles’ anger and sets in motion the plot of the Iliad. 

Menelaus: son of Atreus, brother of Agamemnon, lord of Lacedaemon (Sparta), husband of Helen.

Nestor: aged king of Pylos and a wise counsellor who advises and instructs the Greek warriors. He tries unsuccessfully to make peace between Achilles and Agamemnon, and he helps persuade Agamemnon to offer compensation to Achilles.

Patroclos: son of Menoetius and companion of Achilles.  He was raised in Achilles’ household and accompanied Achilles to Troy.  He enters the battle and killed by Hector. 

Odysseus: son of Laertes, lord of Ithaca, famed for his wisdom and trickery; he rallies the troops in forms part of the embassy to Achilles. Odysseus thought of building a great wooden horse (the horse being the emblem of Troy), hiding an elite force inside, and fooling the Trojans into wheeling the horse into the city as a trophy. Under the leadership of Epeius, the Greeks built the wooden horse in three days.

Helen: daughter of Zeus and Leda, wife of Menelaus who eloped with Paris, causing the Trojan war; through the gifts of the goddess, Aphrodite, she was said to be the most beautiful of all women.

Iphigenia: was the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Iphigenia sacrificed for Greeks to have a safe voyage to Troy.

Andromache: wife of Hector; she describes how her father and brothers were killed by Achilles in a raid and tries to persuade Hector to be more cautious. 

Trojans

Briseis: woman captured by the Greeks in a raid and given to Achilles as a slave; Agamemnon took her from him by force, sparking their quarrel. 

Aeneas: leader of the Dardanes, a Trojan clan, and son of Anchises and the goddess, Aphrodite; he is rescued from Achilles' onslaught by Poseidon because he was destined to be a survivor who would continue the Trojan line; his legendary foundation of a kingdom in Italy. 

Hecuba: queen of Troy, wife of king Priam and mother of Hector. She leads the Trojan women in their prayers to Athena and, later she begs her son, Hector, not to confront Achilles.

Hector: son of Priam and Hecuba and leading warrior of the Trojans. Leads the Trojan onslaught against the Greeks.  With Apollo’s help, he kills Patroclos. He is slain by Achilles outside the walls of Troy before his parents’ eyes, and his body is brutally abused by Achilles. 

Paris: a son of Priam. He had been asked to judge which of the three goddesses, Hera, Athena or Aphrodite, each goddess tried to bribe him and he accepted Aphrodite's offer of Helen, the most beautiful mortal woman.  In book three, he challenges Menelaus to a duel, but is rescued from the fight by Aphrodite.

PRIAM: aged king of Troy, married to Hecuba, father of fifty sons; he ransoms the body of his son Hector from Achilles.

Cassandra: princesses of Troy, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. Cassandra was astonishingly beautiful and blessed with the gift of foreseeing the future. Her curse was that no one believed her, a fact that weighed heavily on the destruction of Troy during the Trojan war.

Chrysies: daughter of Chrysies, a priest of Apollo; she was captured by the Greeks in a raid and given to Agamemnon as a slave; Agamemnon's refusal to return her to her father led Apollo to send a plague on the Greeks

Prologue: The Judgment of Paris

Paris is the one who judge to whom the golden apple would be given among the three goddesses Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. He chooses Aphrodite’s offer.

Trojan War

Aphrodite led Paris to Sparta and he left Oenone for Helen. Menelaus and Helen welcomed him as their guest. Paris broke his

trust and completely left to Paris his home and went off to Crete.BUT

“Paris who coming entered a friend’s kind dwelling,

Shamed the hand there that gave him food,Stealing away a woman.”

The Achaeans, under King Agamemnon, have been fighting the Trojans off and on for nine years, trying to retrieve Helen, the wife of Menelaus,

and thus Agamemnon's sister-in-law. Paris, a son of the king of Troy, kidnaps Helen, who becomes the legendary "Helen of Troy" and "the

woman with the face that launched a thousand ships."

Yet, after years of Achaian attacks, Troy remains intact, and the Trojan army remains undefeated. The same cannot be said for the Achaian army. At

present, the Achaian troops are dying from a mysterious plague. Hundreds of funeral pyres burn nightly. Finally, Achilles, the Achaians' most honored

soldier, calls for an assembly to determine the cause of the plague.

A soothsayer reveals to the army that King Agamemnon's arrogance caused the deadly plague; he refused to return a woman who was

captured and awarded to him as a "war prize." Reluctantly, Agamemnon agrees to return the woman, but, as compensation, he says that he will

take the woman who was awarded to Achilles, his best warrior.

Achilles is furious, and he refuses to fight any longer for the Achaeans. He and his forces retreat to the beach beside their ships, and Achilles asks his mother, the goddess Thetis, if she will ask Zeus, king of the gods, to help the Trojans defeat his former comrades, the Achaeans.

Zeus agrees to do so.

The two armies prepare for battle, and Paris (the warrior who kidnapped Menelaus' wife, Helen) leaps out and challenges any of the Achaeans to a

duel. Menelaus challenges him and beats him, but before Paris is killed, the goddess Aphrodite whisks him away to the safety of his bedroom in Troy.

A short truce is called, but it is broken when an over-zealous soldier wounds

Menelaus. During the battle that follows, Diomedes, an

Achaean, dominates the action, killing innumerable

Trojans and wounding Aphrodite, a goddess.

The Trojans seem to be losing, so Hector returns to Troy to ask his mother to offer sacrifices to Athena. She performs the rituals, but Athena refuses to accept them. Meanwhile, Hector discovers Paris safe in his bedroom with Helen, and shames

him into returning to battle. Then Hector visits with his wife and their baby son. It is clear that Hector is deeply devoted to his family, yet feels the terrible weight of

his responsibility as commander-in-chief of the Trojan army.

During the fighting that continues, the Achaeans begin to falter, and at one point Athena, Zeus' daughter, fears that the entire Achaean army may be slaughtered. Thus,

she and Apollo decide to have Hector challenge one of the Achaean' warriors to a duel in order to settle the war. Ajax battles Hector so valiantly that the contest ends

in a draw, and a truce is called.

During this break in the fighting, the dead of both armies are buried and given appropriate funeral rites, and the Achaeans fortify their defenses with a strong wall

and a moat-like ditch.

The fighting resumes, and so many Achaeans are slaughtered that Agamemnon suggests that his troops sail for home, but finally he is convinced that he must return

to the fighting. Messengers are sent to Achilles, asking him to return to battle, but Achilles is still sulking beside his ships and refuses to fight.

Soon Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus, and old Nestor are all seriously wounded, and Achilles realizes that the Achaeans are in danger of imminent defeat. Therefore, he sends his warrior-companion, Patroclos, to find out who the seriously wounded are.

Patroclos talks with old Nestor, one of the wisest of the Achaean soldiers. Nestor asks Patroclos to dress in Achilles' armor and return to battle. The Achaeans, he says, will rejoice and have new faith in their death struggle against the Trojans when they think that they see Achilles returning to the battle. In addition, the Trojans will so fear the wrath of the mighty Achilles that they will be easily defeated. Patroclos promises to ask Achilles for permission to use his armor and ride into battle disguised as the mighty warrior.

Meanwhile, Hector leads a massive Trojan surge against the Achaean wall that stands between the Trojans and the Achaean fleet of ships, and the wall is successfully smashed. The tumult is so deafening that hell itself seems unloosed.Achilles is watching and realizes that his wish may be granted: The Achaeans are about to be annihilated. He sends Patroclos into the fighting, disguised as Achilles himself. The Achaean army rejoices at what they think is the return of Achilles to the fighting, and the Trojans are so terrified that they are quickly swept back to the walls of Troy.

Patroclos' valor seems superhuman. He has killed nine Trojans in a single charge when Apollo strikes him with such fury that Hector is able to catch him off-guard and thrust a spear through his body. Then some of the most

intense fighting of the war follows in a battle to claim Patroclos' body. Finally, the Achaeans rescue Patroclos' corpse, and Hector captures Achilles'

armor. Then the Achaeans return to the beach, guarding their ships as best they can.

Achilles is filled with overwhelming grief and rage when he learns that his warrior-companion, Patroclos, has been slaughtered. His mother, Thetis, comes to him and advises him that it is fated that he will die if he tries to revenge Patroclos' death. But she says that if Achilles decides to revenge Patroclos' death, she will outfit him in a suit of new armor, made by one of the gods.

Achilles chooses: He will defy certain death and the Trojans in an attempt to punish them for what they did to Patroclos. Thus, he returns to battle in his

new armor and is so successful that he and the Achaeans rout the Trojans. He savagely kills Hector, the Trojans' mightiest warrior. Achilles' anger is not sated, however. He ties Hector's corpse to his chariot and circles Patroclos’

burial mound every day for nine days.

Hector's parents are so grieved at the barbaric treatment given to their son's corpse that Priam, Hector's father, goes to Achilles and begs for his son's body. Achilles is moved by Priam's pleas and by the memory of his own father. Consequently, he agrees to cleanse and return Hector's body.

Hector's body is given the appropriate cremation rites, and then with mourning and weeping for the noble warrior,

the Trojans place his remains in a golden casket and place it in a burial barrow.

The Fall of Troy

Begins after the death and funeral of Hector

The Death of Achilles

Great battle between Achilles and Memnon Memnon is killed Achilles drives Trojans alongside wall of Troy Paris shoots arrow at him Apollo guides it toward his heel Ajax carries the body of Achilles out of battle.

The Death of Ajax

Marvelous arms Thetis had brought Achilles caused the death of Ajax.Odysseus got the arms and Ajax who was defeated was held to be dishonored.Ajax was determined to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus.Because of his anger, he killed the flocks and herds of the Greeks.

The Wooden Horse

To leave a single Greek behind in the deserted camp for the Trojans to bring the horse in their cityAt night, the Greeks would come out of the horse and open the city gates to the Army

Priest Laocoon warned the Trojans to destroy the wooden horse immediately.Cassandra had echoed his warning, but no one believed her.Two serpents crushed the life out of Laocoon and his two sons.

Trojans dragged the horse through the gate and up to the temple of Athena.In the middle of the night, the door in the horse opened.Troy was burning.Achilles’ son struck Priam down before the eyes of Hecuba and their daughters.

Many fires started throughout city

Savage fighting Killing their own Aphrodite: only god to

help any Trojans that day Helped Aeneas and his

family