The Iliad -

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The Iliad -

• A Tale of Ancient Greece

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The Iliad is the story of Achilles, or, as it is
often called, The tragedy of Achilles, and how
he brings disaster upon himself through his
anger. Although parts of the Iliad have nothing
to do with Achilles, he is the central figure,
the medium through which Homer conveys the poem's
theme. As Homer shows, coming face to face with
his own humanity, he takes his audience on a
moral journey. This is perhaps the main reason
the Iliad transcends the limits of time, place,
and gender to speak to all human beings, who must
come to terms with how and why to live and how to
face death.
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ACHILLES
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Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and the
goddess Thetis. He was the mightiest of the
Greeks who fought in the Trojan War, and was the
hero of Homer's Iliad.
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Achilles was very brave and undefeatable in
battle almost immortal, in fact. There are two
stories that explain why Achilles was so
resistant to death
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Story 1 Thetis, Achilles goddess-mother, wanted
to burn away the human part of her son so she
placed him upon a fiery altar. Peleus, Achilles
father, intervened just in time, but an angry
Thetis abandoned her son and husband.
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Story 2 Thetis, Achilles goddess-mother, wanted
to make her son immune to death. So she held him
by the heel and dipped him into the River Styx to
make him immortal. Thus, the only vulnerable
(weak) spot on Achilles body was his tendon
where his mother held him as she dipped him into
the waters of death.
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There was a prophecy given about Achilles
destiny while he was still a boy. A prophet
named Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy
could not be taken without Achilles help. Thetis
knew that, if her son went to Troy, Achilles
would die an early death, so she sent him to the
court of Lycomedes, in Scyros where he was
hidden, disguised as a young girl. Achilles'
disguise was finally discovered by Odysseus.
Achilles went willingly with Odysseus to Troy,
leading a host of his father's Myrmidons and
accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his close
friend Patroclus.
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The Trojan War began as a result of events that
took place at a wedding many years earlier
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Paris, the handsomest man in all of the known
world, was asked by Zeus to judge a divine
beauty contest of sorts. A golden apple would
be given to the most beautiful goddess present
Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite.
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0Hera offered Paris ultimate power if he picked
her Athena promised to make him the wealthiest
man alive, and Aphrodite promised to give Paris
Helen the most beautiful woman alive.
Nevermind that she was already married to
Menelaus of Sparta
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Paris, of course, picked Aphrodite, and she
helped him to steal Helen from her husbands home
and whisk her away to Troy, his boyhood home.
Needless to say, Menelaus launched 1,000 ships
commanded by Greek kings and their armies to
get Helen back. Thus, the Trojan War began.
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THE TROJAN WAR
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Just after Menelaus, Achilles, and Agamemnon
(three Greek kings) had found Troy and began to
engage the Trojan army in a fight, Achilles
became very angry at Agamemnon over a girl
(youll just have to wait to read the story to
find out the juicy details!)
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Achilles refused to fight, and returned home in a
pout. All of the rewards the Greeks had to offer
could not entice him to return to battle
however, he allowed his best friend Patroclus
to fight in his place.
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When Achilles received word that his friend
Patroclus was killed by Hector the Trojan hero
he returned to battle, swearing revenge on
Hector. He killed Hector and dragged his body
behind a chariot to further dishonor him.
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Only after Hectors father Priam, king of Troy
came to Achilles and begged for the body of his
son did Achilles release his anger and give up
Hectors body for a proper / honorable burial.
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HOMER BARD of THE ILIAD
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The ancient Greeks ascribed the Iliad and the
Odyssey, their two oldest, monumental epic poems,
to Homer, whom they called simply "The Poet."
Nothing certain is known about Homer's life. His
name, which means "hostage," gives no clue to his
origins, since small wars and raids between
neighboring city-states and towns were frequent
in ancient Greece, and prisoners were routinely
held for ransom of sold into slavery. Homer is
commonly referred to as the "Ionian bard," or
poet more than likely, he came from Ionia in
the eastern Mediterranean.
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Legend has it that Homer was blind. This legend
may have some basis in fact if he lived to be an
old man, he may simply have become blind.
However, the idea of Homer's blindness may have
arisen because of its symbolic implications. The
Greeks contrasted inner vision with physical
vision, that a second sight was a gift from the
gods to make up for a loss of physical sight.
Also, Homer's image - the blind bard singing the
myths of his people - is a striking symbol for
the beginning of Western literature.
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Although it is not known for certain when Homer
lived, the Iliad was almost certainly composed
late in the 8th century B.C. Historically,
however, both the Iliad and the Odyssey take
place in a long-past heroic age known as the Late
Bronze Age. Homer did not create the plot of
characters of the epics he is credited with
writing rather, he inherited the stories of
those epics. Generations of Greeks had preserved
orally the subject matter of the Iliad and the
Odyssey - the story of the Trojan War and the
heroic mythology that pervades both poems.
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The Epic Form
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The Iliad was, in fact, considered historical
fact children in the fifth century B.C.
memorized large sections of the poem and
practiced the ethical codes that Homer presents.
Athenians even claimed the Homeric gods and
heroes as founders or champions of Athens and its
people. Homer's epics also had a tremendous
influence on later generations of Greek writers.
Greek lyric poets, dramatists, and philosophers
considered themselves Homer's heirs, drawing on
his work either to imitate it or to argue with
it.
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Just as the oral tradition supplied Homer with a
vast body of legend, it also provided him with
the form and structure in which to express the
legend. Although Homer was free to choose and
shape the elements of the story according to his
own vision, his language, meter, and style were
formulaic. Over time, bards had developed a
common fund of expressions, phrases, and
descriptions that fit the rhythms of the epic
verse line. These conventions became the
building blocks of the epic genre.
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Homer begins the Iliad powerfully by stating the
epic's theme and invoking one of the Muses. The
Muses are nine goddesses in Greek mythology who
were believed to preside over all forms of art
and science. The poet calls on the Muse to
inspire him with the material he needs to tell
the story. This type of opening is one of the
defining features of a Homeric epic.
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Homer observes another epic convention by
beginning the story "in medias res," which is
Latin for "in the middle of things." Reading a
Greek epic from the beginning is like tuning in
to a story already in progress, in that many of
the story's events have already taken place.
Information about those events is revealed later
in the poem through flashbacks and other
narrative devices. Homer could begin his poems in
medias res because the general outline of the
plot and the main characters would have been
already familiar to his audience.
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The particular demands of composing and listening
to oral poetry gave rise to the use of stock
descriptive words of phrases, such as "brilliant
Achilles," or "Hector breaker of horses." These
epithets, often compound adjectives like
"blazing-eyed Athena," allowed the poet to
describe an object or a character quickly and
economically, in terms his audience would
recognize. Homeric epithets and other formulaic
language may have helped the poet shape his story
and compose while reciting, and the repetition of
familiar expressions also would have helped the
audience follow the narrative.
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Cultural Influences in The Iliad
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The gods and goddesses of Homer's epics often
would take contradictory sides in human affairs
and would interfere with mortals in ways that
sometimes seemed helpful while at other times
seemed unfair. Humans were constantly at the
gods' mercy, and many Greeks would blame
misfortunes upon an angry god or goddess who had
been displeased by the actions of some human
soul.
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To protect themselves from the vengeance of angry
gods, Greeks practiced ritual sacrifices. The
ritual sacrifice of animals was a common
practice. Normally, only certain parts of the
slaughtered animals were burned. Among these
were the fatty parts that make aromatic smoke
sacrificers hoped would reach the gods the
remaining meat was shared among the people. When
the entire animals was burned, the sacrifice was
called a holocaust, which means "wholly burned"
in Greek.
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Sometimes larger, more substantial sacrifices
were necessary. A hecatomb is the sacrifice of
one hundred animals (usually oxen, sheep, or
goats), although the term may be used to refer to
any large sacrifice. Other times, a human
sacrifice was required, as in the case of
Agamemnon's daughter who was slain in order to
appease the goddess Artemis and ensure a safe
voyage to Troy. Agamemnon himself was said to
have bragged that he had slain his child to help
a war.
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Throughout the Iliad, reciprocity, hospitality,
and exchange are the glue that holds a society
together, mending the cracks that would split it
apart. Exchanging gifts and services is the way
"xenia" works, the guest-host relationship in
ancient Greece that binds together people not
related by blood or clan.
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Early in the sixth book of the Iliad, the heroes
Glaucus and Diomedes come together to fight.
Before engaging in battle, each ascertain the
other's identity. The two men discover that
their ancestors had established a bond of xenia.
Realizing that they are bound to uphold the
ancestral bond, the two warriors vow not to fight
each other and exchange armor as a gesture of
friendship.
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Refusing to take part in the system threatens to
shake the foundations of civilized community.
Likewise, Greeks who would withhold hospitality
to other Greeks or traveling strangers risked
angering the gods and goddesses, who often
traveled in disguise and would be offended if
hospitality were not given.
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In ancient Greece, oaths were sworn to solemnize
promises or threats and to formalize official
relationships between individuals, clans, or
states. The gods were called on to witness the
intentions of the speaker if the speaker
violated his oath, the gods would punish him.
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As warfare is presented in the Iliad, there are
several options in dealing with a dead opponent.
The winner might strip the armor of the
vanquished warrior and then return the body. The
returning of the vanquished hero to his homeland
was important to the ancient Greeks, and warriors
would often go to great lengths to retrieve the
bodies of their fallen comrades.
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The Greeks placed such importance upon burying
the dead that they believed departed souls would
return to haunt the living if, in death, they did
not receive a proper burial. In the context of
formal mourning, only women sang funeral dirges
(songs). The men would play "funeral games" -
games of skill and chance to honor the fallen
warrior.
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All of these cultural influences can be seen in
Homers rendition of The Iliad.