The Iliad is an epic poem written down in Homeric Greek, a literary
mixture of the Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th
or early 7th century BC. One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer’s Iliad is a part of an extended mythology around the
legendary Trojan war that tells the story of the Greeks and the Trojans fought
for ten years. Its center is Achilles, the greatest warrior champion of the
Greeks, and his Conflicts with his leader, Agamemnon. Agamemnon has captured a
woman named Chryseis during his siege against the other towns around Troy.
Chryseis’ father is a priest of Apollo, who begs Agamemnon to return his
daughter. When Agamemnon refuses, the priest prays to Apollo, who, in turn, unleashes havoc on the Greek armies in the form of plagues.
Achilles is so enraged with Agamemnon’s stupidity and
failure to realize how he has doomed his armies over Chryseis that Athena must
stop Achilles from killing Agamemnon. Finally, Achilles convinces Agamemnon to
return the girl. However, Achilles must, in return, give Agamemnon Briseis,
the woman he has taken for himself. Achilles agrees, but decides that he will
no longer fight for Agamemnon.
Love and friendship, revenge, war and mortality, fate and free will, and honor are the main
themes of Homer’s The Iliad. All three themes follow Achilles and the other
main characters of the epic poem. We see how Achilles ‘friendship with
Patroclus and his hunger for honor guide much, which leads to both his and
Hector’s demises.
Major Characters:
Achilles:
Achilles is the protagonist of the Iliad.
The story centers on his rage and anger against Agamemnon.
Hector:
The eldest Prince of Troy and heir to the throne. Hector is a brave warrior and a thoughtful leader. He is also a devoted husband and father, and he is very concerned for the survival of Troy.
Zeus:
Zeus is the Olympian god of sky and thunder
and the king of all other gods and men. Consequently, he is the chief figure in
Greek mythology. He rules the world and imposes his will on gods and mortals
alike. Zeus’s father was Cronus, and Rhea was his mother. his siblings were
Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Afterwards, he overthrew his father
and made himself ruler of the skies. Then he gave dominion over the seas to
Poseidon and over the Underworld to Hades. He made Hera his chief consort. He had
several other wives. Prominent among Zeus’s children were Apollo, Ares,
Hephaestus, Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis. Zeus’s power greatly exceeds that of
his fellow immortals. The fate of the war is changed when Zeus promises This
that he will give glory to Achilles by turning the war …
Throughout The Iliad, Zeus
acts as an overseer; he ensures that fated events, like the death of Patroclus
and Hector, must take place. It is he who prevents Troy from falling at the hands
of Achilles against fate (book XX). At Hera’s insistence, he even allows his mortal
son, Sarpedon, to be killed so that fate will not be overturned (Book X).
Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Achaean armies. Agamemnon is the wealthiest of all of the Achaean kings and also commands the largest army. However, his leadership can be questionable at times
Hera is Zeus’s wife and queen of the gods. Paris doesn’t select her as the most beautiful goddess. Hera had a
passionate hatred of Troy. She conspires to destroy the city.
Thetis:
Thetis is Achilles’s mother, a sea-nymph. Thetis cares greatly for her mortal son and is determined to fulfill his wishes before he dies. Thetis is a minor character in Homer's Iliad. Her husband Peleus, was a human being. He was the King of Phthia. Thetis was a very caring mother. When she gave birth to Achilles, she decided to make him invulnerable by dipping him in the sacred water of the River Styx. During the Trojan War, she tried to help his son on several occasions. In the first book of The Iliad, Achilles prayed to Thetis to ask Zeus to punish the Achaeans. Accordingly, she met the king of the gods, who promised by saying. "I will see the matter through." Achilles' friend Patroclus went to the battlefield wearing his amour. But he was killed, and Hector promptly put on Achilles' amour. After the death of Patroclus, Thetis came to console Achilles. She warned him by saying, "My child, you do not have long to live. You are doomed to die immediately after Hector." But Achilles told his mother that she should not keep him away from the battle. Then Thetis went to Hephaestus and requested him to make for his son a shield and helmet, a pair of fine leg guards for his shins fitted with ankle clasps, and body armor. When the god finished making every piece, he handed them over to Thetis, and she reached the Greek camp soon. She delivered those to Achilles and took leave of him.
Paris is the Trojan Prince, and he is the son of Priam and brother of Hector.
Minor Characters:
Patroclus:
Achilles’s constant companion and brother in arms. He is known for his compassion and good sense. When the Trojan begins to attack the Achaean ships, Patroclus puts on Achilles and fights the Trojans in Achilles’s place.
Priam:
Priam is the king of Troy. Priam is an old
man now but once was a skillful fighter.
Apollo:
The golden archer, God of prophecy and
music.
Athena: The goddess of wisdom.
Epic is a long
narrative poem, on a grand scale, about the deeds of warriors or heroes,
incorporating myth, legend, folk tale, and history. Epics are often of national
significance, as they embody the history and aspirations of a nation in a lofty
or grandiose manner.
Epics are
understood to belong to one of two categories: (a) primary – also known as oral
or primitive; and (b) secondary - or literary. The first is composed orally;
only much later, in some cases, is it written down. The second is written down
at the start. Gilgamesh, the Sumerian epic (c. 3,000 BC), is the earliest
extant work in the oral tradition. It recounts the adventures of the king of
that name and his search for glory and eternal life. Next come the Homeric
epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey (c. 800 BC), whose heroes are Achilles and
Odysseus, respectively. The Iliad recounts the story of the war between the
Greeks and the
Trojans; the
Odyssey relates the adventures of Odysseus during his return from the Trojan
war to his island home in Ithaca. The Iliad, which is supposed to have been
written between the 12th and 8th centuries B.C., is classed as a primary epic.
Both the style and the subject matter of this epic vary sharply from those of
the epic written in modern times. The primary epics were oral. It is transmitted
from one person to the other through memory. These
epics were
preserved in the memories of the poets who used to move from one court to
another and recite them to the kings and the princes. The primary epic is also
said to be the epic of growth. The later epics grew out of the primary epics.
From the Iliad, the later poets borrowed the structure of their poems. The
Iliad is composed to sing of the legends of the national heroes of Greece and
Troy. It heavily drew on the habits and customs of the Trojans and the Achaian.
The picture of the past is constructed with wonderful consistency. In the
Iliad, the description of the heroes, their customs and behaviours, is
presented being intertwined with the myths of national gods and goddesses. In
it, we find the barbarous practices such as insult to the dead body, the use of
poisoned arrows, the sacrifice of human beings on the altar of gods and
goddesses, and the suppression of women, etc. The Iliad, as a
primary epic, pictures the life of the barbaric ages. The cruelties that were
committed in The Iliad were characteristic of the barbaric ages.
In spite of the corrections, the essence of these practices has been retained
in the epic. Iphigenia, a 14-year-old daughter, was sacrificed by her father to
appease the god of wind. Odysseus sends a hundred oxen to be sacrificed. In
Book I, there is a passage to describe how men arranged the oxen "in
orderly manner around the strong-founded altar," after which they washed
their hands. Homer gives a detailed account of how men killed the animals for
the sacrifice. The thigh bone, covered with pieces of fat and flesh,
symbolically represented the whole
animal and was
burned during the sacrificial ritual. The priest then poured wine upon the
ground as a libation to the gods. The worshippers ate the 'vitals' (liver,
heart, lungs, kidney and stomach) and roasted the remaining flesh. The funeral
games were held to honor the deceased. The funeral rites for a dead man used to
be performed by living persons because they believed that the dead man could
not enter Hades unless the funeral was observed. Formal rhetoric as used in the
Iliad shows the epic was an oral one.
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