Introduction

The Iliad is an epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, which recounts some of the
significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of the city of Troy (which
was also known as Ilion, Ilios or Ilium in ancient times). Written in the mid-8th Century BCE, The Iliad
is usually considered to be the earliest work in the whole Western literary tradition, and one of the
best known and loved stories of all time. Through its portayal of the epic subject matter of the Trojan
War, the stirring scenes of bloody battle, the wrath of Achilles and the constant interventions of the
gods, it explores themes of glory, wrath, homecoming and fate, and has provided subjects and
stories for many other later Greek, Roman and Renaissance writings.

Synopsis

The story covered by The Iliad begins nearly ten years into the seige of Troy by the Greek
forces, led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. The Greeks are quarrelling about whether or not to
return Chryseis, a Trojan captive of King Agamemnon, to her father, Chryses, a priest of Apollo.
When Agamemnon refuses and threatens to ransom the girl to her father, the offended Apollo
plagues them with a pestilence.

The Greeks, at the behest of the warrior-hero Achilles, force Agamemnon to return Chryseis

in order to appease Apollo and end the pestilence. But, when Agamemnon eventually reluctantly
agrees to give her back, he takes in her stead Briseis, Achilles’s own war-prize concubine.
Feeling dishonoured, Achilles wrathfully withdraws both himself and his Myrmidon warriors from the
Trojan War.

Testing the resolve of the Greeks, Agamemnonfeigns a homeward order,

but Odysseusencourages the Greeks to pursue the fight. During a brief truce in the
hostilities, Paris and Menelausmeet in single combat over Helen, while she and old King Priam of
Troy watch from the city walls and, despite the goddess Aphrodite’s intervention on behalf of the
over-matched Paris, Menelaus is the victor. The goddess Athena, however, who favours the Greeks,
soon provokes a Trojan truce-breaking and battle begins anew.

The Greek hero Diomedes, strengthened by Athena, drives the Trojans before him but, in his
arrogance and blood-lust, strikes and injures Aphrodite. Despite the misgivings of his
wife, Andromache, the Trojan hero, Hector, son of King Priam, challenges the Greek warrior-
hero Ajax to single combat, and is almost overcome in battle. Throughout all, in the background, the
various gods and goddesses (particularly Hera, Athena, Apollo and Poseidon) continue to argue
among themselves and to manipulate and intervene in the struggle, despite Zeus’ specific
orders to the contrary.

Achilles steadfastly refuses to give in to pleas for help from Agamemnon, Odysseus, Ajax,

Phoenix and Nestor, spurning the offered honours and riches and even Agamemnon’s belated
offer to return Briseis to him. Diomedes and Odysseussneak into the Trojan camp and wreak havoc.
But, with Achilles and his warriors out of battle, the tide appears to begin to turn in favour of the
Trojans. Agamemnon is wounded in the battle and, despite the heroics of Ajax, Hector successfully
breaches the fortified Greek camp, wounding Odysseus and Diomedes in the process, and threatens
to set the Greek ships on fire.

Torn between his allegiances, Achilles orders his friend and lover, Patroclus, to dress
in Achilles’ own armour and to lead the Myrmidons in repelling the Trojans. Intoxicated by his
success, Patroclus forgets Achilles’ warning, and pursues the fleeing Trojans to the walls of Troy
and would have taken the city were it not for the actions of Apollo. In the heat of the battle,
though, Hector finds the disguised Patroclus and, thinking him to be Achilles, fights and (again with
Apollo’s help) kills him. Menelaus and the Greeks manage to recover Patroclus’s corpse
before Hector can inflict more damage.

Distraught at the death of his companion, Achillesthen reconciles with Agamemnon and

rejoins the fray, despite knowing his deadly fate, and drives all the Trojans before him in his fury. As
the ten-year war reaches its climax, even the gods join in the battle and the earth shakes with the
clamour of the combat.

Clad in new armour fashioned specially for him by Hephaestus, Achilles takes revenge for
his friend Patroclus by slaying Hector in single combat, but then defiles and desecrates his corpse
for several days. Now, at last, Patroclus’ funeral can be celebrated in what Achilles sees as a
fitting manner. Hector’s father, King Priam, emboldened by his grief and aided by Hermes,
recovers Hector’s corpse from Achilles, and â€œThe Iliad” ends with Hector’s funeral
during a twelve day truce granted by Achilles.

Analysis

Although attributed to Homer, “The Iliad” is clearly dependent on an older oral tradition and
may well have been the collective inheritance of many singer-poets over a long period of time (the
historical Fall of Troy is usually dated to around the start of the 12th Century  BCE). Homer was
probably one of the first generation of authors who were also literate, as the Greek alphabet was
introduced in the early 8th Century BCE, and the language used in his epic poems is an archaic
version of Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other dialects such as Aeolic Greek. However, it
is by no means certain that Homer himself (if in fact such a man ever really existed) actually wrote
down the verses.

The Iliad was part of a group of ancient poems known as the “Epic Cycle”, most of which are
now lost to us, which dealt with the history of the Trojan War and the events surrounding it. Whether
or not they were written down, we do know that Homer‘s poems (along with others in the Epic Cycle
were recited in later days at festivals and ceremonial occasions by professional singers called
“rhapsodes”, who beat out the measure with rhythm staffs.

The Iliad itself does not cover the early events of the Trojan War, which had been launched
ten years before the events described in the poem in order to rescue Helen, the wife of King
Menelausof Sparta, after her abduction by the Trojan prince, Paris. Likewise, the death
of Achilles and the eventual fall of Troy are not covered in the poem, and these matters are the
subjects of other (non-Homeric) “Epic Cycle” poems, which survive only in fragments. â€œThe
Odyssey”, a separate work also by Homer, narrates Odysseus’ decade-long journey home to
Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.

The poem consists of twenty-four scrolls, containing 15,693 lines of dactylic hexameter
verse. The entire poem has a formal rhythm that is consistent throughout (making it easier to
memorize) and yet varied slightly from line to line (preventing it from being monotonous). Many
phrases, sometimes whole passages, are repeated verbatim over and over again
throughout â€œThe Iliad”, partly to fulfill the demands of the metre and partly as part of the
formulaic oral tradition. In the same way, many of the descriptive phrases that are linked with a
certain character (such as “swift-footed Achilles“, “Diomedes of the great war cry”, “Hector of the
shining helm”, and “Agamemnon the lord of men”) match the number of syllables in a hero’s name,
and are repeated regularly to the extent that they almost seem to become part of the characters’
names themselves.

The immortal gods and goddesses are portrayed as characters in The Iliad, displaying
individuality and will in their actions, but they are also stock religious figures, sometimes allegorical,
sometimes psychological, and their relation to humans is extremely complex. They are often used as
a way of explaining how or why an event took place, but they are also sometimes used as comic
relief from the war, mimicking, parodying and mocking mortals. Indeed, it is often the gods, not the
mortals, who seem casual, petty and small-minded.

The main theme of the poem is that of war and peace, and the whole poem is essentially a
description of war and fighting. There is a sense of horror and futility built into Homer‘s
chronicle, and yet, posed against the viciousness, there is a sense of heroism and glory that adds
a glamour to the fighting: Homer appears both to abhor war and to glorify it. Frequent similes
tell of the peacetime efforts back home in Greece, and serve as contrasts to the war, reminding us
of the human values that are destroyed by fighting, as well as what is worth fighting for.
The concept of heroism, and the honour that results from it, is also one of the major currents
running through the poem. Achilles in particular represents the heroic code and his struggle
revolves around his belief in an honour system, as opposed to Agamemnon‘s reliance on royal
privilege. But, as fighter after heroic fighter enters the fray in search of honour and is slain
before our eyes, the question always remains as to whether their struggle, heroic or not, is really
worth the sacrifice.

Menina is the word that opens The Iliad, and one of the major themes of the poem
is Achilles coming to terms with his anger and taking responsibility for his actions and emotions.

Ancient Greece – Classical Literature

Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis on literature and, according to many,
the whole Western literary tradition began there, with the epic poems of Homer.

In addition to the invention of the epic and lyric forms of poetry, though, the Greeks were also
essentially responsible for the invention of drama, and they produced masterpieces of both tragedy
and comedy that are still reckoned among the crowning achievements of drama to this day.

Indeed, there is scarcely an idea discussed today that has not already been debated and
embroidered on by the writers of ancient Greece.

The epic poems attributed to Homer are usually considered the first extant work of Western
literature, and they remain giants in the literary canon for their skillful and vivid depictions of war and
peace, honor and disgrace, love and hatred.

Hesiod was another very early Greek poet and his didactic poems give us a systematic
account of Greek mythology, the creation myths and the gods, as well as an insight into the day-to-
day lives of Greek farmers of the time.

The fables of Aesop represent a separate genre of literature, unrelated to any other, and
probably developed out of an oral tradition going back many centuries.

Sappho and, later, Pindar, represent, in their different ways, the apotheosis of Greek lyric
poetry.

The earliest known Greek dramatist was Thespis, the winner of the first theatrical contest
held at Athens in the 6th Century BCE. Choerilus, Pratinas and Phrynichus were also early Greek
tragedians, each credited with different innovations in the field.

Aeschylus, however, is usually considered the first of the great Greek playwrights, and
essentially invented what we think of as drama in the 5th Century BCE(thereby changing Western
literature forever) with his introduction of dialogue and interacting characters into play-writing.

Sophocles is credited with skillfully developing irony as a literary technique, and extended
what was considered allowable in drama.

Euripides, on the other hand, used his plays to challenge the societal norms and mores of
the period (a hallmark of much of Western literature for the next 2 millennia), introduced even
greater flexibility in dramatic structure and was the first playwright to develop female characters to
any extent.

Aristophanes defined and shaped our idea of what is known as Old Comedy, while, almost a
century later, Menander carried on the mantle and dominated the genre of Athenian New Comedy.

After Menander, the spirit of dramatic creation moved out to other centres of civilization, such
as Alexandria, Sicily and Rome. In the 3rd Century BCE, for example, Apollonius of Rhodes was an
innovative and influential Hellenistic Greek epic poet.
 After the 3rd Century BCE, Greek literature went into a decline from its previous heights,
although much valuable writing in the fields of philosophy, history and science continued to be
produced throughout Hellenistic Greece.

Brief mention should also be made here of a lesser known genre, that of the ancient novel or
prose fiction. The five surviving Ancient Greek novels, which date to the 2nd and 3rd Century CE are
the “Aethiopica” or “Ethiopian Story” by Heliodorus of Emesa,“Chaereas and Callirhoe” by
Chariton, “The Ephesian Tale” by Xenophon of Ephesus, “Leucippe and Clitophon” by Achilles
Tatius and “Daphnis and Chloe” by Longus.

In addition, a short novel of Greek origin called “Apollonius, King of Tyre”, dating to the 3rd
Century CEor earlier, has come down to us only in Latin, in which form it became very popular during
medieval times.

Main Authors:

 Homer (epic poet, 8th Century BCE)

 Hesiod (didactic poet, 8th Century BCE)

 Aesop (fabulist, 7th – 6th Century BCE)

 Sappho (lyric poet, 7th – 6th century BCE)

 Pindar (lyric poet, 6th – 5th Century BCE)

 Aeschylus (tragic playwright, 6th – 5th Century BCE)

 Sophocles (tragic playwright, 5th Century BCE)

 Euripides (tragic playwright, 5th Century BCE)

 Aristophanes (comic playwright, 5th – 4th Century BCE)

 Menander (comic playwright, 4th – 3rd Century BCE)

 Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, 3rd Century BCE)

 Greek Verse 
Early Greek verse (like Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey†) was epic in nature, a form of narrative literature recounting the
life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group. The traditional metre of epic poetry is the dactylic hexameter, in which each
line is made up of six metrical feet, the first five of which can be either a dactyl (one long and two short syllables) or a spondee (two long
syllables), with the last foot always a spondee. The formal rhythm is therefore consistent throughout the poem and yet varied from line to
line, making it easier to memorize, while preventing it from becoming monotonous (epic poems are often quite long). Didactic poetry,
such as the works of Hesiod, emphasized the instructional and informative qualities in literature, and its primary intention was not
necessarily to entertain. For the ancient Greeks, lyric poetry specifically meant verse that was accompanied by the lyre, usually a short
poem expressing personal feelings. These sung verse were divided into stanzas known as strophes (sung by the Chorus as it moved
from right to left across the stage), antistrophes (sung by the Chorus in its returning movement from left to right) and epodes (the
concluding part sung by the stationary Chorus in centre stage, usually with a different rhyme scheme and structure). Lyric odes generally
dealt with serious subjects, with the strophe and antistrophe looking at the subject from different, often conflicting, perspectives, and the
epode moving to a higher level to either view or resolve the underlying issues. Elegies were a type of lyric poem, usually accompanied by
the flute rather than the lyre, of a mournful, melancholic or plaintive nature. Elegiac couplets usually consisted of a line of dactylic
hexameter, followed by a line of dactylic pentameter. Pastorals were lyric poems on rural subjects, usually highly romanticized and
unrealistic in nature. 
Greek Tragedy 
Greek tragedy developed specifically in the Attica region around Athens in the 6th Century or earlier. Classical Greek theatre was written
and performed solely by men, including all the female parts and Choruses. The playwrights typically also composed the music,
choreographed the dances and directed the actors. Very early dramas involved just a Chorus(representing a group of characters), and
then later a Chorus interacting with a single masked actor, reciting a narrative in verse. The Chorus delivered much of the exposition of
the play and expounded poetically on themes. Aeschylus transformed the art by using two masked actors, as well as the Chorus, each
playing different parts throughout the piece, making possible staged drama as we know it. Sophocles introduced three or more actors,
allowing still more complexity. It was a highly stylized (not naturalistic) art form: actors wore masks, and the performances incorporated
song and dance. Plays were not generally divided into acts or discrete scenes and, although the action of most Greek tragedies was
confined to a twenty-four hour period, time may also pass in non-naturalistic fashion. By convention, distant, violent or complex actions
were not directly dramatized, but rather took place offstage, and then were described onstage by a messenger of some sort. Greek
tragedies usually had a consistent structure in which scenes of dialogue (“episodes†) alternated with choral songs
(“stasimon”), which themselves may or may not be divided into two parts (the “strophe† and the “antistrophe†). Most
plays opened with a monologue or “prologue†, after which the Chorus usually entered with the first of the choral songs called the
“parados”. The final scene was called the “exodos†. By the 5th Century, the annual Athens drama festival, known as the
Dionysia (in honour of the god of the theatre, Dionysus) had become a spectacular event, lasting four to five days and watched by over
 10,000 men. On each of three days, there were presentations of three tragedies and a satyr play (a light comedy on a mythic theme)
written by one of three pre-selected tragedians, as well as one comedy by a comedic playwright, at the end of which judges awards first,
second and third prizes. The Lenaia was a similar religious and dramatic annual festival in Athens, although less prestigious and only
open to Athenian citizens, and specializing more in comedy. 
Greek Comedy 
Greek comedy is conventionally divided into three periods or traditions: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy and New Comedy. Old Comedy is
characterized by very topical political satire, tailored specifically to its audience, often lampooning specific public figures using
individualized masks and often bawdy irreverence towards both men and gods. It survives today largely in the form of the eleven
surviving plays of Aristophanes. The metrical rhythms of Old Comedy are typically iambic, trochaic and anapestic. Middle Comedy is
largely lost (i.e. only relatively short fragments are preserved). New Comedy relied more on stock characters, rarely attempted to criticize
or improve the society it described, and also introduced love interest as a principal element in the drama. It is known today primarily from
the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. 
The main elements of a comedy were the parodos (the entrance of the Chorus, chanting or singing verses), one or more parabasis
(where the Chorus addresses the audience directly), the agon (a formal debate between the protagonist and antagonist, often with the
Chorus acting as judge) and the episodes (informal dialogue between characters, conventionally in iambic trimeter). Comedies were
mainly showcased at the Lenaia festival in Athens, a similar religious and dramatic annual festival to the more prestigious Dionysia,
although comedies were also staged at the Dionysia in later years.

The Iliad – Homer – Ancient Greece –

Classical Literature
Back to Top of Page
Introduction

“The Iliad” (Gr: â€œIliás”) is an epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, which

recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of
the city of Troy (which was also known as Ilion, Ilios or Ilium in ancient times). Written in the mid-8th
Century BCE, â€œThe Iliad” is usually considered to be the earliest work in the whole Western
literary tradition, and one of the best known and loved stories of all time. Through its portayal of the
epic subject matter of the Trojan War, the stirring scenes of bloody battle, the wrath of Achilles and
the constant interventions of the gods, it explores themes of glory, wrath, homecoming and fate, and
has provided subjects and stories for many other later Greek, Roman and Renaissance writings.

Back to Top of Page

Synopsis

The story covered by â€œThe Iliad” begins nearly ten years into the seige of Troy by the Greek
forces, led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. The Greeks are quarrelling about whether or not to
return Chryseis, a Trojan captive of King Agamemnon, to her father, Chryses, a priest of Apollo.
When Agamemnon refuses and threatens to ransom the girl to her father, the offended Apollo
plagues them with a pestilence.

The Greeks, at the behest of the warrior-hero Achilles, force Agamemnon to return Chryseis in order
to appease Apollo and end the pestilence. But, when Agamemnon eventually reluctantly agrees to
give her back, he takes in her stead Briseis, Achilles’s own war-prize concubine. Feeling
dishonoured, Achilles wrathfully withdraws both himself and his Myrmidon warriors from the Trojan
War.

Testing the resolve of the Greeks, Agamemnonfeigns a homeward order, but Odysseusencourages

the Greeks to pursue the fight. During a brief truce in the hostilities, Paris and Menelausmeet in
single combat over Helen, while she and old King Priam of Troy watch from the city walls and,
despite the goddess Aphrodite’s intervention on behalf of the over-matched Paris, Menelaus is
the victor. The goddess Athena, however, who favours the Greeks, soon provokes a Trojan truce-
breaking and battle begins anew.

The Greek hero Diomedes, strengthened by Athena, drives the Trojans before him but, in his
arrogance and blood-lust, strikes and injures Aphrodite. Despite the misgivings of his
wife, Andromache, the Trojan hero, Hector, son of King Priam, challenges the Greek warrior-
hero Ajax to single combat, and is almost overcome in battle. Throughout all, in the background, the
various gods and goddesses (particularly Hera, Athena, Apollo and Poseidon) continue to argue
among themselves and to manipulate and intervene in the struggle, despite Zeus’ specific
orders to the contrary.
Achilles steadfastly refuses to give in to pleas for help from Agamemnon, Odysseus, Ajax, Phoenix
and Nestor, spurning the offered honours and riches and even Agamemnon’s belated offer to
return Briseis to him. Diomedes and Odysseussneak into the Trojan camp and wreak havoc. But,
with Achilles and his warriors out of battle, the tide appears to begin to turn in favour of the
Trojans. Agamemnon is wounded in the battle and, despite the heroics of Ajax, Hector successfully
breaches the fortified Greek camp, wounding Odysseus and Diomedes in the process, and threatens
to set the Greek ships on fire.

Torn between his allegiances, Achilles orders his friend and lover, Patroclus, to dress in Achilles’
own armour and to lead the Myrmidons in repelling the Trojans. Intoxicated by his success,
Patroclus forgets Achilles’ warning, and pursues the fleeing Trojans to the walls of Troy and
would have taken the city were it not for the actions of Apollo. In the heat of the battle,
though, Hector finds the disguised Patroclus and, thinking him to be Achilles, fights and (again with
Apollo’s help) kills him. Menelaus and the Greeks manage to recover Patroclus’s corpse
before Hector can inflict more damage.

Distraught at the death of his companion, Achillesthen reconciles with Agamemnon and rejoins the

fray, despite knowing his deadly fate, and drives all the Trojans before him in his fury. As the ten
year war reaches its climax, even the gods join in the battle and the earth shakes with the clamour of
the combat.

Clad in new armour fashioned specially for him by Hephaestus, Achilles takes revenge for his friend
Patroclus by slaying Hector in single combat, but then defiles and desecrates his corpse for several
days. Now, at last, Patroclus’ funeral can be celebrated in what Achilles sees as a fitting
manner. Hector’s father, King Priam, emboldened by his grief and aided by Hermes,
recovers Hector’s corpse from Achilles, and â€œThe Iliad” ends with Hector’s funeral
during a twelve day truce granted by Achilles.

Analysis Back to Top of Page

Although attributed to Homer, “The Iliad” is clearly dependent on an older oral tradition and may well
have been the collective inheritance of many singer-poets over a long period of time (the historical
Fall of Troy is usually dated to around the start of the 12th Century BCE). Homer was probably one of
the first generation of authors who were also literate, as the Greek alphabet was introduced in the
early 8th Century BCE, and the language used in his epic poems is an archaic version of Ionic Greek,
with admixtures from certain other dialects such as Aeolic Greek. However, it is by no means certain
that Homer himself (if in fact such a man ever really existed) actually wrote down the verses.

“The Iliad” was part of a group of ancient poems known as the “Epic Cycle”, most of which
are now lost to us, which dealt with the history of the Trojan War and the events surrounding it.
Whether or not they were written down, we do know that Homer‘s poems (along with others in
the â€œEpic Cycle”) were recited in later days at festivals and ceremonial occasions by
professional singers called “rhapsodes”, who beat out the measure with rhythm staffs.

“The Iliad” itself does not cover the early events of the Trojan War, which had been launched
ten years before the events described in the poem in order to rescue Helen, the wife of King
Menelausof Sparta, after her abduction by the Trojan prince, Paris. Likewise, the death
of Achilles and the eventual fall of Troy are not covered in the poem, and these matters are the
subjects of other (non-Homeric) “Epic Cycle” poems, which survive only in fragments. â€œThe
Odyssey”, a separate work also by Homer, narrates Odysseus’ decade-long journey home to
Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War.

The poem consists of twenty-four scrolls, containing 15,693 lines of dactylic hexameter verse. The
entire poem has a formal rhythm that is consistent throughout (making it easier to memorize) and yet
varied slightly from line to line (preventing it from being monotonous). Many phrases, sometimes
whole passages, are repeated verbatim over and over again throughout â€œThe Iliad”, partly to
fulfill the demands of the metre and partly as part of the formulaic oral tradition. In the same way,
many of the descriptive phrases that are linked with a certain character (such as “swift-
footed Achilles“, “Diomedes of the great war cry”, “Hector of the shining helm”, and “Agamemnon the
lord of men”) match the number of syllables in a hero’s name, and are repeated regularly to the
extent that they almost seem to become part of the characters’ names themselves.
The immortal gods and goddesses are portrayed as characters in â€œThe Iliad”, displaying
individuality and will in their actions, but they are also stock religious figures, sometimes allegorical,
sometimes psychological, and their relation to humans is extremely complex. They are often used as
a way of explaining how or why an event took place, but they are also sometimes used as comic
relief from the war, mimicking, parodying and mocking mortals. Indeed, it is often the gods, not the
mortals, who seem casual, petty and small-minded.

The main theme of the poem is that of war and peace, and the whole poem is essentially a
description of war and fighting. There is a sense of horror and futility built into Homer‘s chronicle,
and yet, posed against the viciousness, there is a sense of heroism and glory that adds a glamour to
the fighting: Homer appears both to abhor war and to glorify it. Frequent similes tell of the peacetime
efforts back home in Greece, and serve as contrasts to the war, reminding us of the human values
that are destroyed by fighting, as well as what is worth fighting for.

The concept of heroism, and the honour that results from it, is also one of the major currents running
through the poem. Achilles in particular represents the heroic code and his struggle revolves around
his belief in an honour system, as opposed to Agamemnon‘s reliance on royal privilege. But, as
fighter after heroic fighter enters the fray in search of honour and is slain before our eyes, the
question always remains as to whether their struggle, heroic or not, is really worth the sacrifice.

“Menin” or “menis” (“anger” or “wrath”) is the word that opens  â€œThe

Iliad”, and one of the major themes of the poem is Achilles coming to terms with his anger and
taking responsibility for his actions and emotions

How to Write a Reflection Paper

Co-authored by Michelle Golden, PhD

Updated: June 6, 2019

Reflection papers allow you to communicate with your instructor about how a specific article,
lesson, lecture, or experience shapes your understanding of class-related material. Reflection
papers are personal and subjective[1], but they must still maintain a somewhat academic tone and
must still be thoroughly and cohesively organized. Here's what you need to know about writing
an effective reflection.

1
Identify the main themes.[2] In your notes, summarize the experience, reading, or lesson in one
to three sentences.

 These sentences should be both descriptive yet straight to the point.

The Iliad summary key points:

In the midst of the Trojan War, Greek leader Agamemnon refuses to return captive
Chryseis, causing Apollo to send a plague to the Greek encampment. This alienates the
powerful Greek warrior Achilles.

Zeus listens to the insulted Achilles’ prayer and supports the Trojans. The tide turns in the
Trojans’ favor. Agamemnon tries and fails to bribe Achilles to fight for the Greeks again.
Trojan prince Paris, who sparked the war by stealing Menelaus’ wife Helen, offers to battle
Menelaus to end the conflict; he is defeated, but rescued by Aphrodite. The temporary
truce is overthrown by Hera’s schemes and fighting resumes.

The Trojans attempt to light the Greek ships on fire, but the gods intervene on behalf of
the Greeks. Achilles’ friend Patroclus disguises himself as Achilles and joins the fray;
despite initial success, he is ultimately killed by Trojan prince Hector.

Achilles re-enters the battle to avenge his fallen friend. He kills Hector and attempts to
maim the body, but fails when the gods preserve it. Achilles buries Patroclus and returns
Hector’s body to Troy, where it is buried.

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Summary

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Summary

Chryses, a priest of Apollo, journeys to the Achaian camp to request the return of his
daughter Chryseis. Chryseis had been captured in a Greek siege and given to Agamemnon
as a war prize. Chryses has brought many gifts as ransom for his daughter, but
Agamemnon refuses to accept them and sends Chryses away. Apollo then revenges the ill
treatment shown to his priest by sending a plague to the Greeks. The plague claims many
lives, and a counsel is held to determine how to stop it. Through the advice of a seer, the
Greeks agree that the return of Chryses is the only way to stop the plague from taking even
more lives. Agamemnon, however, does not give up his prize willingly, and insists that he
must have another man’s prize in exchange. He demands Briseis, the woman given to
Achilleus in the same siege. Achilleus is so angry with Agamemnon for taking Briseis that
he immediately withdraws himself and his troops from the fighting with Troy. He also asks
his mother, the goddess Thetis, to plead with Zeus to help him avenge the wrong. Zeus
agrees to assist the Trojans in their attack on the Achaians, thus showing Agamemnon that
Achilleus is a great man, who would be necessary to succeed in battle.

Agamemnon gathers the rest of his army for a massive attack against the Trojans. The first
day of battle opens with a duel between Paris and Menelaos, and a truce among the rest of
the armies. After the duel, which ends with Paris being taken out of the battle by
Aphrodite, the truce is broken by Pandaros, the Trojan, and the two armies engage in
bitter fighting. At the end of the day, there is another duel, this time between Aias and
Hektor, which is broken up before its end. The two sides retreat, and the Achaians build a
wall around their encampment to protect their position and their ships.

When fighting resumes, Zeus pushes the Trojans to great triumph over the Achaians, and
their victory seems certain. At this point, Agamemnon calls his leaders together and admits
he was at fault in taking Briseis from Achilleus. He agrees to return her, along with a great
deal of treasure and a sworn oath that he has not slept with her, if Achilleus will come back
and fight with the Achaians. The message is brought to Achilleus by his good friends
Odysseus, Aias, and Phoinix. Achilleus greets his friends warmly, but refuses to make
peace with Agamemnon.

The next day the fighting resumes, and the Achaians fight well. However, over the span of
the day, most of the best men are injured and taken out of the fight. These include
Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus, Eurypylos, and Machaon. The only remaining
champion of the Achaians is Aias. Hektor then leads a strong drive by the Trojans, and
they manage to break through the Achaian wall and fight all the way to the ships. As the
Trojans attempt to set fire to the Achaian ships, the gods intervene and rescue the Achaians
from almost certain destruction. At this point, Achilleus and his companion Patroklos
become fearful for the fate of the Achaian army. While Achilleus still refuses to fight, he
sends Patroklos out to the field in his own armor with a contingent of men to save the ships.

Because Patroklos and his army are rested and fresh, they easily drive the weary Trojans
back to the city wall. Patroklos fights bravely and performs many courageous acts, but he
pushes his luck and is eventually killed by Hektor. Hektor takes the famous armor of
Achilleus from Patroklos, and a fierce battle is fought over his body. The Achaians manage
to retrieve the body of Patroklos, but the battle has turned to the Trojan’s favor, and the
Achaians retreat.

When Achilleus hears the news of his companion’s death, he is mad with rage against
Hektor, but cannot rush into the battle without his armor. However, the gods transfigure
him and when he shows himself on the battlefield the Trojans pull back and the Achaians
escape. His mother Thetis acquires immortal armor from the god Hephaistos, and
Achilleus announces to the assembled Achaians the end of his quarrel with Agamemnon.
The next day the Achaians, mostly through the exploits of Achilleus, are able to drive the
Trojans back inside their city walls. Hektor, however, refuses to go inside, promising to
encounter Achilleus directly instead. His courage fails at the last minute and Achilleus
pursues Hektor twice around the city walls. Hektor’s flight is finally halted through the
trickery of Athene, and the two men duel. Hektor is killed and his body is dragged by the
ankles behind Achilleus’ chariot back to the Achaian camp.

Achilleus then holds funeral games for Patroklos, giving many great prizes to the victors.
Patroklos’ body is mourned and burned in a great pyre. In his grief over his friend,
Achilleus has been dishonoring the body of Hektor, but the gods have kept it from
mutilation. Priam is secretly guided by the gods to Achilleus to request his son’s body in
exchange for a great ransom. Achilleus has pity on him, and returns the body. The Trojans
then bury Hektor.

Estimated Reading Time

Allow an hour or slightly more to read each chapter, or book. There are a total of 24 books
in the Iliad, totaling roughly 24-26 hours of reading time. Note: These eNotes are based on
the 1951 Richmond Lattimore translation of the Iliad.

Summary

(MASTERPIECES OF WORLD LITERATURE, CRITICAL EDITION)

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Though the myths describe the Trojan War as a thirty-year cycle of preparations, conflict,
and homecomings, the chronological period that the Iliad covers is actually quite restricted,
not more than ninety days in the final year of fighting. Despite its focus on the quarrel of
only two of its warriors, both of them Greek, Homer nevertheless conveys the full range of
human emotions that prevails in war, even as he provides a vivid portrait of Mycenaean
culture. The result is that his Iliad, bold and all-encompassing though it is, remains
essentially quite limited; that is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive features of
Homer’s epic. Homer makes the limits of his intentions clear from the outset. His
invocation to Caliope, the Muse of epic, specifies that he will sing of Achilles’ anger.

Obviously, the anger of Achilles operates on several levels and has far-reaching
consequences. On the personal level, it refers to the quarrel between Achilles and
Agamemnon for possession of Briseis, a young woman originally given to Achilles by the
Achaeans as his prize of honor. Agamemnon, too, had a captive mistress, Chryseis; yet, she
was the daughter of a priest of Apollo named Chryses. When Agamemnon haughtily
refuses to return Chryseis to her father, Chryses invokes Apollo himself, who sends a
plague upon the Achaeans. Once he realizes that the army will be decimated by disease if
he takes no action, Agamemnon returns Chryseis to her father, though he simultaneously
demands that Achilles surrender Briseis to him as her replacement. Agamemnon fears that
the Achaeans will consider him weak if he does not enforce his will upon Achilles in this
way, yet the reader perceives only Agamemnon’s pettiness and insecurity.
Achilles reviles Agamemnon in the agora (assembly) of leaders, yet he surrenders Briseis to
him without active resistance. More significantly, Achilles announces his intentions to
withdraw his Myrmidons from battle and return with them to Phthia, their home in
southern Thessaly. These dramatic announcements made, Achilles throws down the
skeptron (staff), which gives him the uncontested right to speak, and dashes from the
agora. This extraordinary behavior at the least implies weakness and apparently
cowardice. It seems to complement the pettiness of Agamemnon, but there are clearly other
reasons for Achilles’ actions.

Thetis, the goddess-mother of Achilles, subsequently appears to comfort her son, who is all
too aware of how the Achaeans could interpret his sudden withdrawal and threat to return
home. She reviews the alternatives that moira (fate) has assigned to him: either to slay
Hector, the first of the Trojan warriors, and to be killed at Troy soon thereafter or to live a
long and undistinguished life in Phthia, dying there of old age. Achilles well knows these
alternatives. His withdrawal, which extends from Iliad 1 to Iliad 22, represents an essential
pause to consider these alternatives at a crucial juncture of his life. Worth noting is the fact
that Achilles undertakes no preparations to return home; also, although the war initially
goes badly for the Achaeans, to the extent that Agamemnon offers Achilles an impressive
series of gifts (including restoration of Briseis) for his return, Achilles’ prolonged absence
makes relatively little difference overall.

Agamemnon’s embassy to secure Achilles’ return contains elements of magnanimity and

self-interest. Significantly, Agamemnon does not personally entreat Achilles. Instead, he
enlists the cunning Odysseus and Diomedes (who would together devise the stratagem of
the wooden horse), as well as Achilles’ old tutor Phoenix. The appeal thus emerges through
a combination of clever argument and sage advice, and the collection of gifts (listed in
catalog form) is calculated both to impress the Achaeans with Agamemnon’s megalapsyché
(great-heartedness, generosity), as much as it is to force Achilles to make his decision. That
is one of several places in which the humanity of the poem emerges. Achilles’ concern for
his old tutor, seen in his insistence that Phoenix remain overnight rather than attempt to
return immediately, shows that he values privileged relationships such as master and
student. It has its counterpart in Achilles’ relationship to Patroclus, his young protégé in
the art of war. This relationship, severed by Patroclus’s death, will ultimately provide the
impetus that Achilles needs to accept the short but glorious life that moira has offered him.

In one sense, all the characters of the Iliad recognize the inevitability of moira yet remain
essentially powerless to change it. The tears of Achilles that precede his mother’s
appearance are an indication of this human frailty, but so is Hector’s meeting with his wife,
Andromache, and their infant son, Astyanax. In Iliad 6, long before Achilles returns to
battle, the Achaeans have advanced to the very walls of Troy. Hector, the bravest of the
Trojan warriors, searches for Alexandrus (Paris), whose theft of Helen had been the
immediate cause of the war, and finds him in Helen’s rooms. His reproaches make
Alexandrus recognize his obligations, and Alexandrus takes up his arms to defend the city,
but the primary contrast is clear. Andromache recognizes and regretfully accepts the
likelihood of her husband’s death in battle, but Helen belittles Alexandrus as a sensualist
willing to allow others to fight for him. Andromache’s fears for Hector correspond to those
of the child, Astyanax, who does not recognize his father because of the helmet that he
wears. When Hector removes the helmet, the child accepts his father’s embrace, and the
couple laughs. There, then, is a contrast between pure love and simple sensual attraction as
well as between responsibility and weakness.

Even the deities of Olympus display the flaws of their human counterparts. They, too,
remain tied to moira and are essentially powerless to change it. They, too, govern by
agorai, and these assemblies inevitably end as inconclusively as those of the human
warriors below. The gods and goddesses have taken sides in the war, but these reflect their
previous personal antagonisms rather than their concern with humanity. Thetis, for
example, does intercede with Zeus for her son Achilles but is aware that doing so will
necessarily provoke the jealousy of Hera, Zeus’s wife. She must also know that any favor
that Zeus grants to Achilles would necessarily be in the context of glory on the battlefield.
Ironically, any such benefaction would necessarily hasten her son’s death. Just as
Agamemnon prevails in the human order, so does Zeus in the divine; yet neither appears
able to take meaningful and decisive actions that affect outcomes. The power of both is
limited to immediate actions and short-term results.

The peculiar powerlessness of Zeus emerges clearly in the Sarpedon episode, Iliad 16. At
this point, Patroclus has received Achilles’ permission to reenter battle wearing his
master’s armor. Patroclus experiences his aristeia (moment of glory), a series of combats in
which he defeats one opponent after another. Sarpedon, a beautiful boy loved by Zeus, is
one of those whom moira has determined that Patroclus will defeat. Zeus raises the scales
of moira, watches Sarpedon’s weight descend, and realizes that he must accept the young
man’s death. His resignation to moira parallels that of Andromache, even as it underscores
the similarity of mortals and immortals.

Though Achilles allows his protégé, Patroclus, to enter battle, he himself remains apart.
Patroclus is effectively Achilles’ surrogate, however, and his appearance in his master’s
armor emphasizes this relationship. So devastating is the effect of his presence that the
Trojans at first believe Achilles has returned. In one sense that is true, for Patroclus looks
very much like Achilles, and the aristeia that he enjoys is equivalent to any that his master
could have enjoyed. It is also true that once Patroclus has entered battle, the moira of
Achilles is sealed, for the lives of master and student are tied by the bonds of friendship
and obligation. Patroclus dies at the hands of Hector, and while Hector succeeds in
claiming the armor of Achilles, the body of Patroclus remains with the Greeks. The
announcement of Patroclus’s death sends Achilles into a threnody and leads to his
construction of an extravagant pyre for the corpse. This development provides the
opportunity for another catalog listing the offerings that formed the pyre. Averse as human
sacrifice was to Greek sensibilities, the pyre includes young Trojans captured in battle.
Achilles now recognizes that his obligations to Patroclus have forced his return, but he has
no armor worthy of the event. Thetis intervenes again, this time to secure armor crafted by
the artisan deity Hephaestus, and once again Thetis’s intervention hastens her son’s moira.
In effect, the alternatives that had existed in Iliad 1 are no longer available. The period of
intros2pection has ended, and Achilles reenters battle knowing that he will kill Hector but
equally aware that his own death will follow soon after. When Achilles meets Hector in
battle, he is, in effect, encountering an aspect of himself. Hector wears the armor of
Achilles, and Achilles has donned the glorious new armor that his mother, Thetis, had
secured for him. In killing Hector, especially because Homer has already portrayed that
warrior’s character so sympathetically, Achilles eliminates his ties to the past and fully
accepts the alternative of a short but glorious life. It is his true destiny and, like the armor
provided by Thetis, the only moira that is appropriate for him.

The humanity that lies behind so much of the bravado in the Iliad emerges in the final
scene of the poem. Old Priam, king of Troy, comes to Achilles to beg for the return of his
son’s body. Even though Achilles realizes that Hector had been the immediate cause of his
beloved Patroclus’s death and that Hector had forced Achilles to accept his own moira, he
grants Priam’s request and declares a truce for ritual mourning and appropriate burial of
the dead on both sides. The Iliad thus ends in a suspension, rather than a resolution, of
events.

Summary

(EPICS FOR STUDENTS)

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The Background of the Story

The goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (Achilles’
parents), so in revenge she threw a golden apple inscribed “for the fairest” into the banquet
hall, knowing it would cause trouble. All the goddesses present claimed it for themselves,
but the choice came down to three—Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. They asked Zeus to
make the final decision, but he wisely refused.

Instead, Zeus sent them to Mount Ida, where the handsome youth Paris was tending his
father’s flocks. Priam had sent the prince away from Troy because of a prophecy that Paris
would one day bring doom to the city. Each of the three goddesses offers Paris a bribe if he
will name her the fairest: Hera promises to make him lord of Europe and Asia; Athena
promises to make him a great military leader and let him rampage all over Greece; and
Aphrodite promises that he will have the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife.
Paris picks Aphrodite. From then on both Hera and Athena are dead-set against him, and
against the Trojans in general.
The most beautiful woman in the world at the time is Helen, a daughter of Zeus and Leda.
Helen is already married—to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Helen’s adoptive father
Tyndareus had required all the men who wanted to marry her swear a solemn oath that
they would all come to the assistance of Helen’s eventual husband should he ever need their
help.

Paris visits Menelaus in Sparta and abducts Helen, taking her back to Troy with him,
seemingly with her active cooperation. Paris also takes a large part of Menelaus’ fortune.
This was a serious breach of the laws of hospitality, which held that guests and hosts owed
very specific obligations to each other. In particular, the male guest was obligated to
respect the property and wife of his host as he would his own.

Menelaus, his brother Agamemnon, and all the rest of Helen’s original suitors, invite others
to join them on an expedition to Troy to recover Helen. An armada of some 1,200 ships
eventually sails to Troy, where the Achaeans fight for years to take the city, and engage in
skirmishes and plundering raids on nearby regions. The story opens in the tenth year of the
war.

Book 1: The Wrath of Achilles

Agamemnon offends Chryses, the priest of Apollo, by refusing to ransom back his
daughter. Apollo sends a plague on the Achaeans in retribution. At a gathering of the
whole army, Agamemnon agrees to give the girl back but demands another woman as
compensation, and takes Briseis, Achilles’ concubine.

Achilles is enraged, and pulls his whole army out of the war. In addition, he prays to his
mother, the goddess Thetis, to beg Zeus to avenge his dishonor by supporting the Trojans
against the Achaean forces. Zeus agrees, though not without angering his wife, Hera.

Book 2: Agamemnon’s Dream and the Catalogue of Ships

Zeus sends a false prophetic dream to Agamemnon, indicating that if he will rouse the
army and march on Troy, he can capture the city that very night. As a test, Agamemnon
calls another assembly and suggests instead that the whole army pull up its tents and sail
back home.

This turns out to be a very bad idea. The troops rush away to get ready for the voyage
home and their leaders have a very hard time restoring them to order. The army is
eventually mobilized for war, and a catalogue of the Achaean and Trojan forces involved in
the fight follows.

Book 3: The Duel between Paris and Menelaus

In what is most likely a flashback episode, a truce is called so that Menelaus and Paris can
meet in single combat, the winner to take Helen and all her treasures home with him.
Solemn oaths are sworn by both sides to abide by the outcome of the duel. Helen watches
the fight with King Priam from the walls of Troy, and points out the chief leaders of the
opposing forces. Just as Menelaus is on the point of killing Paris, his protector, the goddess
Aphrodite takes him safely out of the battle and back to his bedroom in Troy.

Book 4: The Truce is Broken

Hera schemes with some of the other gods and goddesses to break the truce. Athena tricks
Pandarus, an ally of the Trojans, into shooting an arrow at Menelaus, wounding him
slightly. General fighting breaks out again.

Book 5: The Aristeia

Helped by Athena, Diomedes sweeps across the battlefield, killing and wounding Trojans
by the dozen. He even wounds the goddess Aphrodite when she tries to rescue her son
Aeneas, and the war god Ares, when he tries to rally the Trojan forces. (Note: “aristeia” is
a Greek word which means “excellence” and here refers to an episode in which a particular
character demonstrates exceptional valor or merit.)

Book 6: Hector Returns to Troy

While hacking his way through the Trojans, Diomedes meets Glaucus, the grandson of a
man his own grandfather had hosted—which makes them “guest-friends” who cannot
harm or fight against each other. Meanwhile, Hector has gone back to Troy to urge his
mother to offer a sacrifice to Athena in an attempt to win back…

(The entire section is 2,150 words.)

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Why does a conflict take place between Agamemnon and Achilles in the Iliad ?

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takes place in Book I of this epic. In that case, the conflict comes about because
Agamemnon wants to take…

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BOOK REVIEW – THE ILIAD

JANUARY 26, 2016 JAY DEE 15 COMMENTS
 The Iliad
Author: Homer
Series: None
Genre: Classics, Poetry, Mythology
Published 762 BCE
Review Copy: Paperback bought new
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
Goodreads Description
The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilization – an epic
poem without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture.
The story of the Iliad centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War,
which lead to Achilleus’ killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer’s
theme is not simply war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a
universal and tragic view of the world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering
and death, set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background. The Iliad is the
first of the great tragedies.
Review
The Iliad is an epic poem by Homer that is widely considered a great piece of literature,
and certainly one of the oldest. It’s an epic retelling of a historical event, but with a
strong emphasis on Greek mythology. The Gods are involved, and they pretty much
dictate everything that happens. I can’t really say it’s non-fiction. Equally fascinating and
frustrating, this was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever read.
The characters were an interesting combination of bigger than life personalities and gods.
The gods had great influence on the actions of the characters, so they didn’t act entirely
of their own free will. Many of the characters were extremely strong-willed and very
stubborn. So stubborn that they were blinded by it. Achilleus, Hektor, Odysseus,
Agamemnon, Priam, and Patroklos are featured heavily in the story, and I have to say that
they all had one thing in common: personality. There was very little difference between
them. Well, I shouldn’t go that far. Achilleus is a great warrior that everyone fears and no
one can defeat. Odysseus (who is the main character in Homer’s followup The Odyssey)
is also a great warrior who no one seems to be able to beat. The king, Agamemnon, is
also a great warrior that no one has defeated. Do you see a pattern here? The greatest
warriors seem untouchable. Hektor, who was one of the Trojans, was the top warrior for
them, and again, nearly impossible to defeat. The key here are the gods. They pretty
much decided who lived and who died. They played with their lives. They seemed petty
and childish. Sometimes, I felt like there were no actual adults, but just a bunch of
schoolyard bullies.
The story is a pretty simple one. Mostly battle. Back and forth battle. One side gains an
advantage, then the gods decide to give the other side an advantage. There’s very graphic
description of the battles, and we learn exactly how each person died, their name, their
family history and status, and who killed them. There’s even an entire chapter dedicated
to listing the names of the ships, where they’re from, who is on each ship, their family
histories, their status, and so on. It’s a huge info dump. And it was easy to get distracted
from the story, because there was a lot of repetition. Don’t get me wrong, the story was
interesting, it just took a lot of dedication to keep reading.

The language used was the most difficult aspect of this poem. The paragraphs were long,
the sentences filled with adjectives describing characters, such as “god-like,” “of the
shining helmet,” “son of whatshisname,” and so on. And they were repeated so often, it
was overkill. But this was Homer’s style, and it was poetry, not prose. That’s part of what
makes it difficult to judge. Poetry is not usually read like a story, but this was a story. The
dialogue in The Iliad was incredibly unnatural. No one spoke in conversation, only
monologues. They made speeches to each other in place of conversation. And when one
person wanted to give someone else a message, the messenger repeated everything word
for word.
It’s a difficult book to rate because it’s from a time when writing style was totally
different. The story was epic. It was a massive battle with a huge amount of detail. The
writing style is difficult to read, so it took me a long time to get through all of it. I had no
sympathy for any character, because they were not written in a way that gives us any kind
of sympathetic feelings toward them. I went into it not realising how much the gods
would factor into it. I felt like there was no unpredictability. We knew where it was going
because Zeus said how it was going to go.

But how do I rate this? I’ll have to give it a 3 out of 5. It’s good, but only read this if you
are willing to go through a literary experience you’ve never been through before. And no,
there is no Trojan Horse in this story. That’s The Aeneid, and apparently only referred to
in The Odyssey. Anyway, it takes place after this story ends.

BOOK REVIEW – THE ILIAD

JANUARY 26, 2016 JAY DEE 15 COMMENTS

theiliadThe Iliad

Author: Homer

Series: None

Genre: Classics, Poetry, Mythology

Published 762 BCE

Review Copy: Paperback bought new

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

Goodreads Description

The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilization – an epic poem
without rival in the literature of the world, and the cornerstone of Western culture.

The story of the Iliad centres on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead
to Achilleus’ killing of Hektor and determine the fate of Troy. But Homer’s theme is not simply
war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the
world, of human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death, set against a vast and largely
unpitying divine background. The Iliad is the first of the great tragedies.

Review

The Iliad is an epic poem by Homer that is widely considered a great piece of literature, and
certainly one of the oldest. It’s an epic retelling of a historical event, but with a strong emphasis
on Greek mythology. The Gods are involved, and they pretty much dictate everything that
happens. I can’t really say it’s non-fiction. Equally fascinating and frustrating, this was one of
the most difficult things I’ve ever read.

The characters were an interesting combination of bigger than life personalities and gods. The
gods had great influence on the actions of the characters, so they didn’t act entirely of their own
free will. Many of the characters were extremely strong-willed and very stubborn. So stubborn
that they were blinded by it. Achilleus, Hektor, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Priam, and Patroklos are
featured heavily in the story, and I have to say that they all had one thing in common:
personality. There was very little difference between them. Well, I shouldn’t go that far.
Achilleus is a great warrior that everyone fears and no one can defeat. Odysseus (who is the main
character in Homer’s followup The Odyssey) is also a great warrior who no one seems to be able
to beat. The king, Agamemnon, is also a great warrior that no one has defeated. Do you see a
pattern here? The greatest warriors seem untouchable. Hektor, who was one of the Trojans, was
the top warrior for them, and again, nearly impossible to defeat. The key here are the gods. They
pretty much decided who lived and who died. They played with their lives. They seemed petty
and childish. Sometimes, I felt like there were no actual adults, but just a bunch of schoolyard
bullies.
The story is a pretty simple one. Mostly battle. Back and forth battle. One side gains an
advantage, then the gods decide to give the other side an advantage. There’s very graphic
description of the battles, and we learn exactly how each person died, their name, their family
history and status, and who killed them. There’s even an entire chapter dedicated to listing the
names of the ships, where they’re from, who is on each ship, their family histories, their status,
and so on. It’s a huge info dump. And it was easy to get distracted from the story, because there
was a lot of repetition. Don’t get me wrong, the story was interesting, it just took a lot of
dedication to keep reading.

The language used was the most difficult aspect of this poem. The paragraphs were long, the
sentences filled with adjectives describing characters, such as “god-like,” “of the shining
helmet,” “son of whatshisname,” and so on. And they were repeated so often, it was overkill. But
this was Homer’s style, and it was poetry, not prose. That’s part of what makes it difficult to
judge. Poetry is not usually read like a story, but this was a story. The dialogue in The Iliad was
incredibly unnatural. No one spoke in conversation, only monologues. They made speeches to
each other in place of conversation. And when one person wanted to give someone else a
message, the messenger repeated everything word for word.

It’s a difficult book to rate because it’s from a time when writing style was totally different. The
story was epic. It was a massive battle with a huge amount of detail. The writing style is difficult
to read, so it took me a long time to get through all of it. I had no sympathy for any character,
because they were not written in a way that gives us any kind of sympathetic feelings toward
them. I went into it not realising how much the gods would factor into it. I felt like there was no
unpredictability. We knew where it was going because Zeus said how it was going to go.

But how do I rate this? I’ll have to give it a 3 out of 5. It’s good, but only read this if you are
willing to go through a literary experience you’ve never been through before. And no, there is no
Trojan Horse in this story. That’s The Aeneid, and apparently only referred to in The Odyssey.
Anyway, it takes place after this story ends.