The Iliad poem takes place in north western Turkey around the once mythical city of Troy. Troy was unearthed by a german archaeologist known by Heinrich Schliemann in 1865. Now with the actual city being found it started to bring the story into the realm of truth, but mystery behind the writer of the poem still lingered. The Iliad is believed by scholars to have an unknown author, but the poem’s authorship was ultimately given to a blind poet by the name of Homer. Homer as an individual is a mystery due to the lack of history following his life. Scholars refer to his life not by the individual, but by when the poems were written. The mystery behind this story is starting to come into actuality. I think with time we will discover more fascinating truths behind the city of Troy.
The Iliad begins with a priest, Chryses praying to the god Apollo for his daughters to be returned to him. Apollo answering the prayers of his priest rains vengeance upon the Greek encampment. After nine days of plague, a council is called to discuss ways to end the plague. The council agrees that they must return the girl Chryses asked for when he brought wealth to Agamemnon as trade for his daughter Chryseis. Chryseis is returned by Odysseus to her father, but in exchange Agamemnon takes the other daughter whom Achilles claimed. Achilles is outraged by this vowing that him and his myrmidons will no longer fight in his army. During this time Achilles prays to his mother asking her to speak with Zeus, asking if Zeus to give favor to the Trojan army.
Zeus agrees to help Achilles by sending a dream to Agamemnon, in this dream Zeus urges Agamemnon to siege the city. Agamemnon wishing to fulfill his dream seeks the morale of his army by telling them they are g...
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...tle ensues with Achilles laying waste to the Trojan army while the gods fight alongside mortal men. Hector feeling the need to face Achilles after the fall of Patroclus faces Achilles outside the walls of Troy. After a short chase due to Hector becoming fearful of losing his life, is stopped by Athena. A short duel ends with Achilles killing Hector, as Hector is dying he tells Achilles, that he too will find death soon. The body of Hector is taken by Achilles. The body of Hector lays within the tent of Achilles, Achilles has no intent on returning the body. Priam the father of Hector with the aid of Zeus and Hermes is taken to the tent. Priam begs Achilles for the body of his son, moved by this Achilles agrees and the two bemoan their loses do to the war.
Works Cited
Homer, Alexander Pope, and John Flaxman. The Iliad of Homer. New York: Heritage, 1943. Print.
Book 1 of The Iliad takes place nine years after the Trojan War has begun. As the Greek warriors, also known as Achaeans, were ransacking a town, two women, Chryseis and Briseis were taken captive. Those women ended up with the King, Agamemnon and the pride of the Achaean army, Achilles. Apollo’s priest who resides in the town pleads for Agamemnon to
The Iliad begins with the clash between Achilles and Agamemnon. Agamemnon has little, if any, respect for the gods. This is displayed by his irreverent behavior towards the priest, Chryses. Agamemnon refuses to release the princess even when the Achaean soldiers suggested "`Respect the priest, accept the shining ransom!' But it brought no joy to the heart of Agamemnon" (104). Achilles is, unlike Agamemnon, respectful of and revered by the gods. In order to expose the cause of Apollo's wrath against the Argive army, Achilles uses the prophet, Calchas. Achilles already knows why Apollo is angry, but decides the fact should be stated by someone other than himself. He knows that Agamemnon will become angry once the truth is revealed. I believe that in this instance he is trying to keep his rage in check by avoiding a direct confrontation with Agamemnon. Calchas also fears for his life because he also knows Agamemnon's fury is unyielding at times. However, with a great deal of encouragement from Achilles, Calchas "spoke out, bravely: `Beware-The god's enraged because Agamemnon spurned his priest'" (106). When the truth is exposed, Agamemnon be...
In Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, the recurring theme of intelligence is important because through intelligence, Odysseus is able to utilize wit and cunning to suit his needs and wants, as well as defeat bigger and stronger opponents than he. Through the stories of Odysseus' sufferings throughout the Trojan War and his struggles of homecoming, Homer portrays intelligence as being an effective application of strength used to gain an advantage over his opponents. Odysseus is depicted as an intellectual hero, who focuses on brain and sophrosune, rather than the typical martial hero, such as Achilles in the Iliad, who focuses on brawn and action provoked by emotion.
Achilles is introduced into The Iliad getting into a debacle with the leader of the Greek army, Agamemnon, during the last year of the Trojan War. Achilles starts a quarrel with Agamemnon because he has demanded possession of Achilles’ woman, Briseis, in consolation for having to give up his woman, Chryseis, so that the gods will end their plague upon the Greek soldiers. Achilles does all he can to get his loved one back, but he knows that nothing will waver Agamemnon’s decision. This is when Achil...
In 700 B.C, Homer, a blind Greek poet, composed The Iliad. This work has become one of the most significant works in Western literature. The Iliad is an epic poem. It is a long narrative poem in verse form which tells the story of a hero. Achilles is the epic hero in The Iliad. Achilles is the best warrior of the Achaeans and Hector was the top warrior for the Trojans. Although Achilles and Hector seem very similar, they actually have a lot of differences between the two of them, which makes each of them unique. The similarities are prominent between Achilles and Hector, but they were different in the way the way they lived, why they fought, and by their mentality.
Schein, Seth L. The Mortal Hero: An Introduction to Homer's Iliad. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Richardson, Nicholas. The Iliad : A Commentary. Vol. VI: books 21-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1993.
Homer's Iliad refers to an ancient epic Greek poem. The poem is based on the events of the Trojan War, the siege of the Troy city by a combination of Greek states that took almost ten years. The poem outlines the events and battle that took place between the Greeks and the Trojans. The events captured in the poem cover a few weeks to the end of the war. However, the poem contains deep Greek mythical allusion. It describes the great Greek legends involved in the siege, the events that occurred before the actual war such as meeting of the warriors planning the siege, the reason and the foundation of the battle and the events that happened in the beginning. It further illustrates prophesies of the future such as the death of the Troy (Iliad, pp 87).
Since Agamemnon refused to return the daughter of a priest of Apollo, Agamemnon agrees to release Helen only if Achilles gives him his prize of honor. This is when Achilles found it unfair and withdraws from the battle including all his soldiers. Achilles then asks the gods to grant him revenge. Agamemnon the had attacked because a dream had encouraged him to. Paris flees the battle with the help of a divinity and Menelaus rages on with his brother demanding the release of Helen.
Steiner, George, and Fagles, Robert, eds. Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views, ed. Maynard Mack. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1962.
The loss of his prize humiliates and dishonor’s Achilles, and starts his rage towards Agamemnon. In this rage, Achilles turns his back from his fellow warriors and he isolates himself from the war. Hurt over his loss, Achilles cries out for his mother, Thetis, a sea-goddess. Using his rage, he asks her to call in a favor with Zeus, to guarantee that the Greek armies suffer defeat from the Trojan soldiers. Achilles hopes that this will cause dishonor for Agamemnon to make up for the dishonor that was brought upon
Homer’s The Iliad: Book XX features a battle between the Trojans and Achaians, shortly after Patroklus’ death (Lattimore Book XVI), where the gods must intervene in order to restrain Achilleus’ destructive nature that becomes amplified due to the grief and wrath as a result of the loss of his cousin/lover. The divine foresaw an early fall of Troy caused by the intensified destructive nature of Achilleus, therefore they interfered in the battle to protect a bigger ideal of fate, a fate of a nation, by manipulating smaller ideals of fate, the fates of people’s lives(Lattimore 405). At the beginning of the battle, after the gods descended from Olympus, they decide to sit and just watch how their mortal teams will fend for themselves until Apollo takes form as Lykoan and coerce Aeneias to challenge Achilleus, thus establishing the first act of divine intervention (Lattimore 406-407). When Achilleus is inches away from killing Aeneias, Poseidon takes sympathy upon him and whisks him off to safety (Lattimore 407-411). The last interference occurs during the confrontation between Hektor and Achilleus, where Achilleus is about to murder him and Apollo saves Hektor (Lattimore 416). Hektor’s rescue in this battle is an important event in the Iliad because Achilleus’ and Hektor’s fates are interrelated, further meaning that if Hektor die...
The Iliad is a classic epic poem written by Homer about the Trojan War and the rage of an Achaean warrior, Achilles. The book introduces the reader to the war and the personal battle between Achilles and King Agamemnon; because of this argument between these two major characters, Homer introduces the role of the gods when Achilles asks his mother, Thetis, to go to Zeus and beg for his interference on Achilles’ behalf. The major role the gods play in the Iliad is their interference in the Trojan War as immortal versus immortal and mortal versus immortal.
After that part, Achilles shows vengeance when he talks about how he wants to kill Hector. 'I will not live nor go about mankind unless Hector fall by my spear, and thus pay me for having slain Patroclus, son of Mencetius.';
The Iliad is not a story about the Trojan War at all, the war is just to set the stage for Homer to bring together the swift footed Achilles and Hector, the Prince of Troy, so they can be compared. The Iliad starts with how Achilles is dishonored by Agamemnon and withdraws from the war and ends with his return to the fight and eventually falling at the end. Hector is brought into the story and displays through his character what a real hero should be like.