The Iliad

 not about the Trojan war

 started in the 10th year of the Trojan War
 it is about Achilles
Achilles
 his mom’s a goddess, Thetis
Achaians
- the ancient greeks
- raided Troy and came back with a bunch of goods (gold, food, and women
– back then women were objects, not people)
Agamemnon
- the king of all the achaian forces
- brother of Manaleos (his wife is Helen)
- chose Cryses as his wife, who they stole from the Trojans
Priest Cryses
- Cryses’ father
- Comes to Agamemnon with gold and pleads for the release of his
daughter
- A priest of high standing and is friends with Apollo
Apollo
- helped Cryses, and sends a plague on the Achaians for 9 days, which the
Achaians suffered
- would lift up the plague if they give back Cryses’ daughter
Agamemnon
- feeling the pressure of all the achaian soldiers, who were suffering under
this plague, Agamemnon decided to give her up but only if he gets to take
Briseis, the girlfriend of Achilles.
- And because Agamemnon was the King, Achilles decides to give her up
Achilles
- was angry and enraged for having his girl taken from him and decides not
to fight anymore
- Achilles calls for his mom, Thetis, who is a goddess, and asked her to
convince the gods so that tha Achaians will start getting defeated and
realize how much they depend on him
(let’s keep in mind that Achilles is fighting for the Achaians, and the Trojans
of Troy are his enemies, so he’s basically saying “I want you to help my
enemies as long as I’m not fighting”
Thites
- she definitely spoils Achilles
- She gets Zeus, the king of the gods, to agree to Achilleus’ request
(sure enough, the next day the Trojans make a successful counterattack by
Hector)
Hector
- brother of Paris
- the greatest warrior of the Trojans
- he fought hard even though he had been told that Troy will fall, but he
fights anyways
Zeus
 - as promised, helps the Trojans a lot, and at one point, he has helped the
Trojans so much that they beat the Achaians all the way to their ships in
the ocean side, and the Trojans are about to burn their ships.
(now this is troublesome because if they burn the Achaian ships, and the
Achaian’s can’t fight their way out, they’re just good as dead.)
Patroklos
- best friend of Achilles
- asked permission to go into battle in Achilles’ place which Achilles grants
his request and even lets him wear his armor, but only to protect there
ships and made him promise not to go after Hector
- Patroklos gambit was successful, however the plan does not go as planned
- Hector killed Patroklos with the help of the god Apollo
Achilles
- learns the death of his friend and was in terrible grief, he starts crying,
and doesn’t eat
- his anger on Agamemnon shifts to Hector
- swears revenge
- and because Hector has his armor, he calls again for his mom Thetis and
asked to get him a new armor made especially by the fire-god, Hephaistos.
- When he got his armor, he went into war and kills Trojans left and right,
and then he goes after Hector
- Achilles kills Hector in a one-on-one battle
- Achilles isn’t satisfied, so he takes Hector’s dead body, hooks it up to the
back of his chariot and drags Hector’s dead body around, with the Trojans
watching, including Hector’s father and wife.
- He takes the body back to the Achaian camp and they hold a ceremony for
Patroclus, with human sacrifices, and food, and wine
- But there’s till issue about Hector’s body, Achilles is still mad even if he
already got his closure.
- He refused to return the body of Hector to Troy, and even refused to bury
the body. So this is a huge issue because in their time, it is a huge offense
or crime not to give a proper burial to dead bodies, because then they
can’t go to the underworld, Achilles doesn’t care about the proper burial
because he is still pissed, so he lets the body rot
- Finally the Gods say, okay, enough is enough. They made Achilles send the
body back, they sent Hermis, who is the messenger God who disguised
himself as a mortal and led king Priam into the belly of beast to Achilles
and asked for Hector’s body, so they had some wine, food, they load up
Hector’s body and sneak King Priam out from the Achaian camp, back to
Troy, where they performed their funeral ritual for Hector.
- The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.