Iliad

Major characters

As an epic, the ''Iliad'' contains a sometimes confusingly great number of characters. The latter half of the ''Iliad'''s second book (often called the Catalogue of Ships) is devoted entirely to listing the various commanders. Many of the battle scenes in the ''Iliad'' feature bit characters who are quickly slain. See Trojan War for a detailed list of participating armies and warriors.

The Achaeans (Αχαιοί) - the word "Hellenes", which would today be translated as "Greeks", is not used by Homer

Achilles, (Αχιλλεύς), leader of the Myrmidones, (Μυρμιδόνες) whose anger is the over-arching theme of the story

Agamemnon, (Αγαμέμνων), King of Mycenae, supreme commander of the Achaean armies whose actions provoke the feud with Achilles

Patroclus,(Πάτροκλος) friend or lover to Achilles

Nestor (mythology)|Nestor, (Νέστωρ), Menelaus, (Μενέλαος), Diomedes, (Διομήδης), Idomeneus, (Ιδομενεύς), and Telamonian Aias, (Αίας ο Τελαμώνιος), kings of the principal city-states of Greece who are leaders of their own armies, under the overall command of Agamemnon

Odysseus,(Οδυσσεύς) another warrior-king, famed for his cunning, who is the subject of his own epic

Calchas, (Κάλχας) a powerful Greek prophet and omen reader, who guided the Greeks through the war with his predictions.

The Trojans and their allies

Hector, (Έκτωρ) firstborn son of King Priam, leader of the Trojan and allied armies and heir apparent to the throne of Troy

Priam, (Πρίαμος) king of the Trojans, too old to take part in the fighting

Paris (mythology)|Paris, (Πάρης) Trojan prince and Hector's brother, also called Alexander; his abduction of Helen is the casus belli. He was supposed to be killed as a baby because his sister Cassandra saw the destruction of Troy because of him. Raised by a shepherd.

Aeneas, (Αινείας) cousin of Hector, and his principal lieutenant

Helenus and Deiphobus, brothers of Hector who fight at his side

Poludamas, another Trojan warrior, apparently a commoner, or in any event not a member of the royal family

Glaucus and Sarpedon, leaders of the Lycian forces allied to the Trojan cause

Female characters

Helen, (Ελένη) former Queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus, now espoused to Paris (mythology)|Paris

Cassandra, (Κασσάνδρα) daughter of Priam, a prophetess cursed by Apollo to prophesy correctly but never be believed

Andromache, (Ανδρομάχη) Hector's wife and mother of their infant son, Astyanax (Αστυάναξ)

Hecuba, (Εκάβη) Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, mother of Hector, Cassandra, Paris (mythology)|Paris etc

Briseis, a woman captured in the sack of Lyrnessos, a small town in the territory of Troy, and awarded to Achilles as a prize; Agamemnon takes her from Achilles in Book 1 and Achilles withdraws from battle as a result The Olympian deities, principally Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, and Poseidon, appear predominantly in the ''Iliad'' as advisers to and manipulators of the human characters. All except Zeus become personally involved in the fighting at one point or another. (See Theomachy)

The story of the ''Iliad''

The ''Iliad'' narrates several weeks of action during the tenth and final year of the Trojan War, concentrating on the wrath of Achilles. It begins with the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon, and ends with the funeral rites of Hector. Neither the background and early years of the war (Paris (mythology)|Paris' abduction of Helen from monarch|King Menelaus), nor its end (the death of Achilles), are directly narrated in the ''Iliad''. The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' are part of a Trojan War cycle|larger cycle of epic poems of varying lengths and authors; only fragments survive of the other poems, however. Many Greek myths exist in multiple versions, so Homer had some freedom to choose among them to suit his story. What follows are the most common background details to the Trojan War, including (parenthetically) whether or not Homer specifically mentions them. See Greek mythology for more detail.

Background to the ''Iliad'': The Trojan War

Both the gods Zeus and Poseidon desired the sea-nymph Thetis, but a prophecy made by Prometheus revealed that Thetis's son would be greater than his father. For this reason, both gods resisted Thetis and betrothed her to a mortal king, Peleus, so that her offspring would be no more than human. To Peleus and Thetis a son was born, named Achilles. Hoping to protect him, when he was an infant his mother dipped him in the river Styx (mythology)|Styx, making him invincible everywhere except the heel (the legendary Achilles' heel) by which she held him. Achilles would grow up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors. All of the gods were invited to Peleus' and Thetis' wedding, except Eris, or Discord. Insulted, she attended invisibly and cast down upon the table a golden apple on which were inscribed the words ''To the fairest'' (''kallisti''). The apple was disputed over by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. None of the gods would venture an opinion favouring any one contender for fear of earning the enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered the matter to be settled by Paris (mythology)|Paris, the youngest prince of Troy, who was being raised as a shepherd in the plains nearby. Athena tempted Paris with power in battle and wisdom, Hera offered him power, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris eventually awarded the apple to Aphrodite. The most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, daughter of Leda (mythology)|Leda by Zeus. Scores of men sought her hand. Her father was unwilling to choose any for fear the others would attack him; finally, at Odysseus' suggestion, he solved the problem by making all the suitors swear an oath to protect Helen and her future husband. These suitors included Agamemnon, Ajax the Greater, Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, Idomeneus, and Philoctetes. Helen married Menelaus of Sparta; her sister Clytemnestra married his brother Agamemnon of Mycenae (Greece)|Mycenae. (See House of Atreus) On a diplomatic mission to Sparta, Paris became enamoured of Helen, and she either eloped with or was abducted by Paris and went with him to Troy. In anger, Menelaus called upon Helen's past suitors to make good their oaths to attack Troy. Eventually a force of a thousand ships marshalled by Menelaus' brother Agamemnon was gathered at Aulis, including all the above-named men and their own forces. A seer told them that the winds would not take them to Troy unless Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. He did so, and the fleet set off. They landed at Troy, eventually, where there ensued a siege of nine years, broken only intermittently by fighting until the tenth year. Shortly prior to the ''Iliad'', Greek forces had raided a nearby town allied to Troy. Agamemnon had taken prisoner a girl, Chryseis, daughter of a local priest of Apollo. The priest begged the god to punish the Greeks, and a plague ravaged their army.

The ''Iliad'''s story

Overview

The ''Iliad'' focuses mainly on Achilles and his rage against king Agamemnon, the Greece|Greek commander-in-chief, who has taken an attractive slave and spoil of war Briseis from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, follows the advice of his mother and withdraws from battle in revenge and the allied Achaean (Greek) armies nearly lose the war. In counterpoint to Achilles' pride and arrogance stands the Trojan prince Hector, son of King Priam, with a wife and child, who fights to defend his city and his family. The death of Patroclus, Achilles' dearest friend or lover, at the hands of Hector, brings Achilles back to the war for revenge, and he slays Hector. Later Hector's father, King Priam, comes to Achilles disguised as a beggar to ransom his son's body back, and Achilles is moved to pity; the funeral of Hector ends the poem. The poem is a poignant depiction of the tragedy and agony of friendship and family destroyed by battle. The first word of the Greek poem is "Μηνιν" ("mēnin", meaning "wrath"); the main subject of the poem is the wrath of Achilles; the second word is "aeide", meaning "sing"; the poet is asking someone to sing; the third word is "thea", meaning "goddess"; the goddess here being the "Mousa" or "muse"; a literal translation of the first line would read "Wrath, sing goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles" or more intelligibly "Sing, goddess, the wrath of Peleus' son Achilles". ()

Book summaries

Book 1: Ten years into the war, Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel over a slave girl, Achilles withdraws from the war in anger

Book 2: Odysseus motivates the Greeks to keep fighting; Catalogue of Ships, Catalogue of Trojans and Allies

Book 3: Paris challenges Menelaus to single combat

Book 4: The truce is broken and battle begins

Book 5: Diomedes has an aristea and wounds Aphrodite and Ares

Book 6: Glaucus and Diomedes greet during a truce

Book 7: Hector battles Ajax

Book 8: The gods withdraw from the battle

Book 9: Agamemnon retreats: his overtures to Achilles are spurned

Book 10: Diomedes and Odysseus go on a spy mission

Book 11: Paris wounds Diomedes, and Achilles sends Patroclus on a mission

Book 12: The Greeks retreat to their camp and are besieged by the Trojans

Book 13: Poseidon motivates the Greeks

Book 14: Hera helps Poseidon assist the Greeks

Book 15: Zeus stops Poseidon from interfering

Book 16: Patroclus borrows Achilles' armor, enters battle, kills Sarpedon and then is killed by Hector

Book 17: The armies fight over the body and armor of Patroclus

Book 18: Achilles learns of the death of Patroclus and receives a new suit of armor

Book 19: Achilles reconciles with Agamemnon and enters battle

Book 20: The gods join the battle; Achilles tries to kill Aeneas

Book 21: Achilles fights with the river Scamander and encounters Hector in front of the Trojan gates

Book 22: Achilles kills Hector and drags his body back to the Greek camp

Book 23: Funeral games for Patroclus

Book 24: Achilles lets Priam have Hector's body back, and he is burned on a pyre

After the ''Iliad'': Conclusion of the war, and after

Although certain events subsequent to the funeral of Hector are foreshadowed in the ''Iliad'', and there is a general sense that the Trojans are doomed, a detailed account of the fall of Troy is not set out by Homer. The following account comes from later Greek and Roman poetry and drama. Achilles fights and kills the Amazons|Amazon queen Penthesilea and the Aethiopean king Memnon. Very soon he gets killed on the battlefield by Paris (mythology)|Paris, with a poisoned arrow to his vulnerable heel. (See Achilles' tendon|Achilles' Heel). Ajax the Greater and Odysseus feuded over who would keep his armor. They submitted the issue to an impromptu court and Odysseus won. Ajax went mad with grief and slaughtered his livestock, believing they were the Greek commanders. Overcome with grief, he then killed himself. The Amazons came to join the battle. Philoctetes, a crippled Greek who had been abandoned by the others along the journey, was recruited because the war could not, it was prophesied, be won without his bow. Odysseus devised a plan to take the city. He had his men build a large, hollow Trojan horse|wooden horse, then he and twenty others hid inside. The Greek ships withdrew out of sight of Troy, admitting defeat, and left behind them only the horse, purportedly as an offering to Poseidon for good winds on the return trip. The Trojans took this inside the city, and then feasted and celebrated in the belief the war was over. At night the soldiers crept out and opened the gates to the other Greeks who had sailed back under cover of night. The city was sacked, and in some accounts burned for seven years. Priam was killed. According to one tradition, Hector's wife Andromache threw his son Astyanax and herself from the ramparts to save them from slavery. According to another, Astyanax was killed by Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, to ensure that Hector's son could not seek vengeance for his father's death against Achilles' son. Andromache became Neoptolemus' concubine, later to marry Helenus, Hector's brother. A Roman tradition held that Aeneas escaped with his family and several hundred people, who after years of migration eventually founded Rome. (This was used by Virgil in his Aeneid). Odysseus' long journey home is narrated in Homer's ''Odyssey''. Menelaus and Helen returned to Sparta to rule. Agamemnon took home as a slave the priestess Cassandra, who was gifted with prophecy but cursed never to be believed. When he returned home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. They in turn were killed by Agamemnon's son, Orestes, and his daughter, Electra|Elektra.

Technical features and translations

The poem is written in dactylic hexameter. The ''Iliad'' comprises roughly 16,000 lines of verse. Later Greeks divided it into twenty-four books, and this convention has lasted to the present day with little change. The ''Iliad'' has been translated into English language|English for centuries. George Chapman did a translation in the 16th century which John Keats praised in his sonnet, ''On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'' and Alexander Pope did another one in rhymed pentameter. There are five widely read modern English translations. Richmond Lattimore provides a translation that attempts to reproduce, line for line, the rhythm of the original poem. Robert Fagles emphasizes contemporary English phrasing while maintaining faithfulness to the Greek. The translations of Stanley Lombardo and Robert Fitzgerald are known for their attention to Homer's imagery. Lombardo's translation is generally the one most often recommended by classics scholars because of its faithfulness to the Greek and its modern vernacular style. A translation by Martin Hammond uses many influences, including Professor WB Stanford, Monro and Allen. Published by Penguin Books, this is more of an educational translation, including as it does a full introduction, summary and index of names.

The ''Iliad'' as oral tradition

The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' were considered by Greeks of the classical age and after as the most important works in Ancient Greek literature, and were the basis of Greek pedagogy in antiquity. As the center of the rhapsode's repertoire, their recitation was a central part of Greek religious festivals. The book would be spoken or sung all night (modern readings last around 20 hours), with audiences coming and going for parts they particularly enjoyed. The written ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' are based on older, orally transmitted works and, consequently, are full of metaphors and similes which were used to communicate the stories to a mostly illiterate population in a manner they would understand. Specifically, the similes used in The ''Iliad'' can be divided into several categories: the descriptions of battles, people, and gods. Each type of simile aided understanding in Greek oral tradition and allowed the first listeners of the story to adequately picture what was being sung to them.

The relationship of Achilles and Patroclus

In Classical Greece, and especially in Hellenism, the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus was often seen as pederasty|pederastic. Aeschylus in his tragedy ''Myrmidons'' assigned Achilles the role of ''erastes'' or protector, since he had avenged his lover's death even though the gods told him it would cost him his own life, and Patroclus as ''eromenos''. However Phaedrus asserts that Homer emphasized the beauty of Achilles which would qualify him, not Patroclus, as ''eromenos''. Plato wrote the ''Symposium'' about 385 BC, and by then an established tradition viewed Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. However there was still debate as to whether this was Homer's intention or not. Aeschylus, who wrote a century earlier in his popular tragedy ''Myrmidons,'' clearly regarded the relationship as sexual. He tells of Achilles visiting Patroclus' dead body and criticizing him for letting himself be killed. In it Achilles speaks of a ''“devout union of the thighs”''. This reading was the common view at the climax of the Hellenistic era, though it was not shared by all. Evidence of this debate is found in a speech by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, at his trial in 345 BC. Aeschines in placing an emphasis on the importance of pederasty to the Greeks argues that though Homer does not state it explicitly educated people should be able to read between the lines. ''“Although (Homer) speaks in many places of Patroclus and Achilles, he hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship, thinking that the exceeding greatness of their affection is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men.”'' Most ancient writers followed the thinking laid out by Aeschines. Since Homer does not use the terms ''“erastes”'' and ''“eromenos”'', it has been argued that their relationship was not pederastic but rather egalitarian. In his Ionia|Ionian culture it appears homosexuality had not taken on the form it later would in pederasty. However some scholars, such as Bernard Sergent, have argued that it had, though it was not reflected in Homer. He asserts that ritualized man-boy relations were widely diffused through Europe from prehistoric times. It is impossible to designate the roles found in the ''Iliad'' between Achilles and Patroclus along pederastic lines. Achilles is the most dominant. Among the warriors in the Trojan War he has the most fame. Patroclus performs duties such as cooking, feeding and grooming the horses, and nursing yet is older than Achilles. Both also sleep with women. Nonetheless the emotion between the two is obviously intense love. Achilles is tender to Patroclus contrasted to his arrogance to others. Typically warriors fought for personal fame or their city-state. But Achilles emphasizes his relationship with Patroclus above all else. He dreams that all Greeks would die so that he and Patroclus might gain the fame of conquering Troy alone. After Patroclus dies he agonizes touching his dead body, smearing himself with ash, and fasting. It was not until his desire for revenge to kill Hector who had killed Patroclus that he would fight again; fully aware that the gods warned him it would cost him his life. Attempts to edit the text were undertaken by Aristarchus of Samothrace in Alexandria around 200 BC. He has been called ''“the founder of scientific scholarship”''. He believed that Homer did not intend the two to be lovers. However he did agree that the ''“we-two alone”'' passage did imply a love relation and argued it was a later interpolation. But the majority of ancient and modern historians have accepted the lines to be an original part. It must be borne in mind that the ''Iliad'' as we know it was composed before around 700 BC out of far older traditional materials; our knowledge of Greek attitudes toward homosexuality, however, comes from the classical period, several centuries later. Many modern Greeks, who are now Greek Orthodox and uphold a religion that views homosexuality as sinful, interpret the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus as platonic, because Homer does not include a sex scene between the two. They suggest that Achilles and Patroclus are cousins who have grown up as brothers in the same household. That relationship, and the guilt Achilles feels for Patroclus's death, would seem to be sufficient to explain both their closeness and the rage for vengeance felt by Achilles, the younger of the two. Of course many academic studies dismiss such notions of mere platonic love with additional artifacts indicating ancient Greeks prefered their warriors to be homosexual lovers. ''Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece''.

The ''Iliad'' in subsequent arts and literature

Subjects from the Trojan War were a favourite among ancient Greek dramatists. Aeschylus' trilogy ''Agamemnon'', ''The Libation Bearers'', and ''The Eumenides'' follow the story of Agamemnon following his return from the war. A loose film adaptation of the ''Iliad'', ''Troy (movie)|Troy'', was released in 2004, starring Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector, and directed by German-born Wolfgang Petersen. Despite its popularity — largely a result of a huge marketing campaign by the studio — the film was a critical flop in the U.S., though not internationally. Several critics voted it the worst film of 2004. In addition, it only loosely resembles the Homeric version. An epic science fiction adaptation/tribute by acclaimed author Dan Simmons titled ''Ilium'' was released in 2003. The novel received a Locus Award for best science fiction novel of 2003.

English translations

George Chapman, 1598

John Ogilby, 1660

Thomas Hobbes, 1676 http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0256.php

John Ozell, William Broome, and William Oldisworth, 1712

Alexander Pope, 1713 http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/6130

James Macpherson, 1773

William Cowper, 1791

Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Edward Earl of Derby, 1864 http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/6150

William Cullen Bryant, 1870

Walter Leaf, Andrew Lang, and Ernest Myers http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/3059

Samuel Butler (1835-1902)|Samuel Butler, 1898 http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/2199http://classics.mit.edu/Homer/iliad.htmlhttp://www.orplex.com/gkcp/readbook.aspx?style=basic.xslt&book=The%20Iliad%20of%20Homer.xml

Alexander Falconer, 1933

Sir William Marris, 1934

E V Rieu, 1950

Richmond Lattimore, 1951

Ennis Rees, 1963

W.H.D. Rouse, 1966

Martin Hammond, 1987

Robert Fagles, 1990

Stanley Lombardo, 1997

Ian Johnston, 2002 http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/homer/iliad_title.htm

References

Milan Budimir (1940). ''"On the Iliad and Its Poet."''

External links

http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/iliad/iliad.htmlRepertory of outstanding painted vases, wall paintings and other ancient iconography of the War of Troy.

http://rss.duchs.com/homer/iliad/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/

http://www.textedge.com/