The Iliad by Homer

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The Iliad by Homer

• The Iliad narrates several weeks of action during
  the tenth and final year of the Trojan War,
  concentrating on the wrath of Achilles. It begins
  with the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon,
  and ends with the funeral rites of Hector.
  Neither the background and early years of the war
  (Paris' abduction of Helen from King Menelaus),
  nor its end (the death of Achilles and the Trojan
  Horse), are directly narrated in the Iliad. The
  Iliad and the Odyssey are part of a larger cycle
  of epic poems of varying lengths and authors
  only fragments survive of the other poems,
  however.
• Both the gods Zeus and Poseidon desired the
  sea-nymph Thetis, but a prophecy made by
  Prometheus revealed that Thetis' son would be
  greater than his father. For this reason, both
  gods resisted Thetis and betrothed her to a
  mortal king, Peleus, so that her offspring would
  be no more than human. To Peleus and Thetis a son
  was born, named Achilles.

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The Iliad by Homer

• Both the gods Zeus and Poseidon desired the
  sea-nymph Thetis, but a prophecy made by
  Prometheus revealed that Thetis' son would be
  greater than his father. For this reason, both
  gods resisted Thetis and betrothed her to a
  mortal king, Peleus, so that her offspring would
  be no more than human. To Peleus and Thetis a son
  was born, named Achilles.
• Hoping to protect him, when he was an infant his
  mother dipped him in the river Styx, making him
  invincible everywhere except the heel (the
  legendary Achilles' heel) by which she held him.
  Achilles would grow up to be the greatest of all
  mortal warriors. All of the gods were invited to
  Peleus' and Thetis' wedding, except Eris, or
  Discord. Insulted, she attended invisibly and
  cast down upon the table a golden apple on which
  were inscribed the words To the fairest
  (kallisti).

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The Iliad by Homer

• The apple was disputed over by Hera, Athena, and
  Aphrodite. None of the gods would venture an
  opinion favouring any one contender for fear of
  earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually,
  Zeus ordered the matter to be settled by Paris,
  the youngest prince of Troy, who was being raised
  as a shepherd in the plains nearby.
• Athena tempted Paris with power in battle and
  wisdom, Hera offered him power, and Aphrodite
  offered him the most beautiful woman in the
  world. Paris eventually awarded the apple to
  Aphrodite. The most beautiful woman in the world
  was Helen, daughter of Leda by Zeus. Scores of
  men sought her hand. Her father was unwilling to
  choose any for fear the others would attack him
  finally, at Odysseus' suggestion, he solved the
  problem by making all the suitors swear an oath
  to protect Helen and her future husband.

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The Iliad by Homer

• These suitors included Agamemnon, Ajax the
  Greater, Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes, Odysseus,
  Nestor, Idomeneus, and Philoctetes. Helen married
  Menelaus of Sparta her sister Clytemnestra
  married his brother Agamemnon of Mycenae.
• On a diplomatic mission to Sparta, Paris became
  enamoured of Helen, and she either eloped with or
  was abducted by Paris and went with him to Troy.
  In anger, Menelaus called upon Helen's past
  suitors to make good their oaths to attack Troy.
• Eventually a force of a thousand ships marshalled
  by Menelaus' brother Agamemnon was gathered at
  Aulis, including all the above-named men and
  their own forces. A seer told them that the winds
  would not take them to Troy unless Agamemnon
  sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. He did so, and
  the fleet set off.

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The Iliad by Homer

• They landed at Troy, eventually, where there
  ensued a siege of nine years, broken only
  intermittently by fighting until the tenth year.
  Shortly prior to the Iliad, Greek forces had
  raided a nearby town allied to Troy. Agamemnon
  had taken prisoner a girl, Chryseis, daughter of
  a local priest of Apollo. The priest begged the
  god to punish the Greeks, and a plague ravaged
  their army.

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The Iliad by Homer

• The Iliad focuses mainly on Achilles and his rage
  against king Agamemnon, the Greek
  commander-in-chief, who has taken an attractive
  slave and spoil of war Briseis from Achilles.
  Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age,
  follows the advice of his mother and withdraws
  from battle in revenge and the allied Achaean
  (Greek) armies nearly lose the war.In
  counterpoint to Achilles' pride and arrogance
  stands the Trojan prince Hector, son of King
  Priam, with a wife and child, who fights to
  defend his city and his family.
• The death of Patroclus, Achilles' dearest friend
  or lover, at the hands of Hector, brings Achilles
  back to the war for revenge, and he slays Hector.
  Later Hector's father, King Priam, comes to
  Achilles disguised as a beggar to ransom his
  son's body back, and Achilles is moved to pity
  the funeral of Hector ends the poem.

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The Iliad by Homer

• The poem is a poignant depiction of the tragedy
  and agony of friendship and family destroyed by
  battle. The first word of the Greek poem is the
  main subject of the poem is the wrath of
  Achilles the second word is "aeide", meaning
  "sing" the poet is asking someone to sing the
  third word is "thea", meaning "goddess" the
  goddess here being the "Mousa" or "muse" a
  literal translation of the first line would read
  "Wrath, sing goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles" or
  more intelligibly "Sing, goddess, the wrath of
  Peleus' son Achilles".