The Iliad -

A Tale of Ancient Greece

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.
ACHILLES
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
The Trojan War began as a result of
events that took place at a wedding
many years earlier……
 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.
0 Hera 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……}
Paris, of course, picked Aphrodite,
and she helped him to steal Helen
from her husband’s 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.
THE TROJAN
WAR
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 (you’ll
just have to wait to read the story
to find out the juicy details!)
 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.
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.
 Only after Hector’s father –
Priam, king of Troy – came to
Achilles and begged for the body
of his son did Achilles release his
anger and give up Hector’s body
for a proper / honorable burial.
 HOMER –
BARD of THE ILIAD
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.
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.
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.
The Epic Form
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cultural Influences
in The Iliad
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
All of these cultural influences can be seen
in Homer’s rendition of “The Iliad.”