The Iliad

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The Iliad

• An Epic Poem

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Epic Poem

• An extended narrative poem in elevated or
  dignified language, celebrating the feats of a
  legendary or traditional hero.
• Characters of high position form an organic whole
  through their adventures, their relation to a
  central heroic figure, and their development of
  episodes important to the history of a nation or
  race.

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Main Characteristics

• Opens in medias res (in the middle of things)
• Has a vast setting, which covers many nations,
  the world or the universe.
• Begins with an invocation to a muse
• Starts with a statement of the theme.
• Includes long catalogues (lists) of things like
  ships or booty
• Is written in verse
• Dactylic hexameter

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Main Characteristics

• Uses epithets
• descriptive term (word or phrase) accompanying,
  or occurring in place of, a name, and having
  entered common usage.
• Pelides, signifying the "son of Peleus", to
  identify Achilles
• her fingers of pink light dawn
• winedark sea
• Features long and formal speeches.
• Shows divine intervention on human affairs.
• Contains star" heroes who embody the values of
  the civilization.
• Highlights heroic characters bound by a code of
  honor.

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Prominent Epic Poems

• Greek
• The Iliad
• about the role of Achilles in the Trojan War
• The Odyssey
• about the misadventures of Odysseus trying to
  return from the Trojan War and the shenanigans of
  the suitors trying to usurp his place back in
  Ithaca
• Latin
• The Aeneid
• about the travels of the Trojan prince Aeneas on
  his way from the Trojan War to Italy where he
  founds a new home for the future Romans

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Epic Hero

• Participates in a cyclical journey or quest
• Faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his
  journey
• Returns home significantly transformed by his
  journey.
• Illustrates traits, performs deeds, and
  exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the
  society from which the epic originates.
• Depicts recurring characters in the legends of
  their native culture.

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Epic Heroes

• The Iliad
• the Greek Achilles
• The Odyssey
• the Greek Odysseus
• The Aeneid
• the Trojan Aeneas

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The Stories The Iliad and The Odyssey

• Tells the different parts of a single story
• A Greek military expedition to the distant city
  of Troy
• A war with the Trojans
• The return of the heroes to their cities and
  kingdoms
• Both divided into 24 books
• Each book corresponds to the 24 letters of the
  Greek alphabet

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The Iliad

• Author
• Homer
• No one really knows for certain who
• wrote the poem
• Blind
• Probably written in the eighth century B.C. when
  alphabetic writing was introduced to Greece
• Stories handed down orally before then
• Events described in the story took place in the
  13th century B.C. or approximately 500 years
  before the story was written down.

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The Iliad

• Narrator
• The poet
• declares himself to be the medium through which
  one or many of the Muses speak
• Point of view
• Third person omniscient
• Themes
• The interaction between fate and free will
• Pride as a source of greatness and ruin
• The pursuit of glory as a legacy
• The glory of battle and the horror of war

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The Iliad

• Most famous account of the Trojan War
• Means Tale of Ilios or Tale of Troy
• Based on a body of mythic stories known as The
  Judgment of Paris

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The Judgment of Paris

• Begins with the wedding between Peleus and Thetis
• Eris, goddess of discord, rolls a golden apple
  inscribed with the words For the Fairest
• Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claim the apple.
• Zeus chooses Paris, the most handsome prince of
  Troy, to decide who deserves the title.
• All out she-war to gain title as the goddesses
  bribe Paris for the honor

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The Judgment of Paris

• Paris chooses Aphrodite
• She promised him the most beautiful
• woman in the world in return
• Helen, wife of Menelaus
• Paris falls in love with Helen and takes
• her and other treasures back to Troy.
• Agamemnon, Menelaus brother, and
• other Greek kings seek revenge.
• Revengers cannot sail to Troy because
• there is no wind.

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The Judgment of Paris

• A seer convinces Agamemnon to sacrifice his
  youngest daughter as a means of restoring the
  winds
• Revengers reach Troy
• but are unable to secure
• the return of Helen and
• the stolen treasures
• War begins.
• The Iliad begins.

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The Iliad

• Trojan War is in its 10th year.
• Action of the war
• A quarrel between
• Agamemnon and Achilles
• The death of Achilles
• close friend Petroclus
• The death of Hector,
• the Trojans greatest warrior.

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Between the Two Epics

• Achilles is poisoned by an arrow.
• When Priams son, Helenus, is captured, he tells
  the Greeks that Troy will fall only when
  Philoctetes renters the war with Achilles son,
  Neoptolemus
• Odysseus and Neoptolemus lures Philoctetes to
  Troy, where he kills Paris with Herakles bow.
• The actions still do not destroy Troy.
• Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into Troy and steal
  the sacred statue of Athena, believed to be the
  source of Troys strength

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Between the Two Epics

• Troy still does not fall.
• Finally, the Greeks resort to deception.
• They build a large, hollow wooden horse
• The belly is filled with Achaeans (Greeks).
• When Odysseus and the others sail away, the
  curious Trojans come out of the city and find
  Sinon, a lone Greek soldier, and the horse.
• Sinon relays the he has been abandoned and that
  the Greeks have left the horse as atonement for
  stealing the statue. Greeks drag horse inside the
  city walls.

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Between the Two Epics

• In the middle of the night, the Achaeans emerge
  from the horse and call their compatriots back
  from a nearby island.
• The Greeks then ransack and burn Troy.
• The prizes
• Menelaus gets Helen.
• Agamemnon gets Priams daughter, Cassandra
• Odysseus gets Hecuba, Priams wife
• Neoptolemus gets Andromache, Hectors wife
• Odysseus, who angered three gods, spends 10 years
  making his way back to his wife Penelope and his
  son Telemachus

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The Odyssey

• Finally Odysseus returns to Ithaca after the
  Trojan War
• He has been gone 20 years.
• Series of episodes of Odysseuss protracted
  homeward voyage, which are divided into three
  songs.
• 1 Telemachus, who is old enough to be king,
  must undergo rites of passage before assuming
  that role.
• 2 Odysseuss adventures on his return trip.
• 3 Odysseus and Penelope reunite, and Odysseus
  disposes of her suitors.