Homer’s The Iliad at a glance

 ‘The Iliad’ is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extended works of literature still widely read by modern audiences.  It describes the war waged by Achaean princes against Troy to recover Helen, wife of Menelaus, whom Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, had carried away. In particular, it deals with the wrath of Achilles, the special hero of the poem, at the slight put upon him by Agamemnon, leader of the host, and his final return to the field and slaying of Hector. The key facts of this epic are given below in short:

The Iliad: Key Factors:

Full Title: The Iliad

Author: Homer

Type of Work: Poem

Genre: Epic tragedy

 Language: the language of the Iliad is basically a form of the Ionian dialect of Greek spoken in Asia Minor and Attica, but has many Aeolian words and constructions.  

Time: It was written probably around 750 B.C in Greece.   As it was written in the past form, the story belonged to the Bronze Age, nine years after the start of the Trojan War.

Main characters: Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, Patroclus, and various gods.

Publisher: unknown

Narrator: the poet, who declares himself to be the medium through which one or many of the Muses speak.

Published in English: 1598; 427 years ago

Lines: 15,693

Mater: Dactylic hexameter

Point of view: The narrator speaks in the third person. An omniscient narrator (he has access to every character’s mind), he frequently gives insight into the thoughts and feelings of even minor characters, gods, and mortals alike. The critical themes in the poem include rage, honor, pride, fate, emotion, and wrath. Though it is a tragic poem, it also contains instances of comedy and laughter.

Tragedy:

Tragedy is broadly applied to literature, representations of serious actions which eventuate in a disastrous conclusion for the protagonist (the main character). the Iliad is considered a tragedy because it features numerous deaths, including the major characters like Achilles and Patroclus, and explores themes of fate, glory, and devastation of war.

 At the beginning of the Iliad, we are simply informed by Homer that Achilles (the greatest Greek warrior) and Agamemnon (the commander of the Greek army), though both of them are Achaeans (Greeks), quarreled themselves about a captive, Briseis. Agamemnon took Achilles’s war prize, a woman named Briseis, which deeply insulted Achilles. Being enraged, Achilles refused to fight for the Greeks against the Trojans. As a result, without Achilles, the Greek soldiers became weak, and the Trojans, led by Prince Hector, began to win the war. The Greeks suffered heavy losses and were pushed back to their ships. Achilles’s friend Patroclus couldn’t bear to see the Greeks lose. Disguising himself, he wore Achilles’ armor and led Greek troops into battle. However, he was killed by Hector on the battlefield, thinking that it was Achilles. Devastated by Patroclus’s death. Achilles returned to the battlefield to avenge him. After killing many Trojans, he killed Hector in a fierce duel and dragged Hector’s body around the walls of Troy. Later, King Priam, Hector’s father, bravely enters the Greek camp to beg Achilles for his son’s body. Realizing a father’s grief for his son’s death and also reminding Achilles’s father, Achilles, afterwards returns Hector’s body for a proper burial. Here, humanity and reconciliation

 In “The Iliad”, the Olympian gods, goddesses, and minor deities fight among themselves as well as participate in human warfare, often by interfering with humans or mortals to oppose other gods.