Instant downloads of all 1415 LitChart PDFs If he yields to Agamemnon’s embassy, he believes he will seal his fate for a price that is not worth it. Practice using these by pronouncing them out loud: use them in conversations with friends for instance (it's very hard to remember a name you can't pronounce!). These men, despite the differences that separate them, are united by something far more powerful, their humanness, their attempts, failures though they may be, to deal with what it means to be human and mortal. Teachers can have students read chapters from the epic poem, then teachers can ask students selected questions from this study guide. went, screaming terror, all delight of battle forgotten. Remember that The Iliad was not meant to be speed read. That scene might indeed seem realistic, except that the war is in its tenth year and it hardly seems likely that Priam has just gotten around to asking who his enemies are. Those newsreels might as easily show soldiers from any war anticipating the “delight of battle” while the reality is that they are being prepared for slaughter. (The names below are taken from the Lattimore translation. Homer could have said simply that the Trojans came on in a wild and disorganized way, whereas the Achaians seemed unified and controlled. This image of the two noble men weeping together, mourning not only their own deaths, not only the deaths of the one’s father and the other’s son, but their whole understanding of human mortality, is so profound, so masterfully accomplished, that it is virtually impossible to discuss; and when Achilleus raises Priam to his feet and shows the older man the respect due to another human being, despite their sworn enmity, we suddenly understand so much. If the warriors were all evil men, it would be easy to dismiss them, but many of them are quite appealing. Yes, the leaves will pass, because they, like us, are subject to mortality; but the leaves will die in their own time. Diomedes’ refusal to leave is met with much heartier approval from the troops. Be prepared for that to happen. These alternatives, of course, are the same alternatives that every warrior in the poem faces, but they are stated most starkly in the case of Achilleus. Some of the quarrels between Zeus and Hera, for instance, when they seem like the archetypal married couple who cannot get along or when they scheme and plot to outwit each other, are actually funny. loge] our pleasure and … It makes no logical sense and it would never happen. There are just a few things left that I would like the prospective reader of The Iliad to consider. Remember that this poem was not meant to be read quickly. It is true, of course, that these episodes concerning Andromache and Briseis, even if we add to them those concerning Helen and Hekabe, comprise only a few lines out of the thousands that make up The Iliad. (including. They were, perhaps, a kind of crutch that the rhapsodes used, but they also add to the mood of the poem. Only men who are past their primes, like Nestor, are looked to for intelligent thought. There is such sadness here, such a deep feeling for those imponderable aspects of life that we face every day. Just as you begin to get involved with the story, everything stops halfway through Book II so that Homer can present what is called the Catalogue of the Ships, a long list of all the warriors who came to Troy and where they came from. Actually we know very little about the war itself. Both his speech and his actions are full of gratuitous cruelty, and it is hard to believe that when Homer calls him a “hero” (in line 61), he is not being ironic. No longer are they faceless enemies bent on mutual destruction. Nevertheless, toward the end of the poem, after Achilleus has lost his best friend and has re-entered the battle, Agamemnon is relatively gracious in acknowledging Achilleus’ superiority, in giving him gifts, and in allowing Achilleus to keep Briseis. I am not sure. (VI.63-65). Similarly, when Ares, the fierce god of war, whom no one likes, neither gods nor mortals, receives a minor wound in battle, he must be led groaning from the battlefield by Aphrodite, which is surely another comment on the real nature of war. Even those of us who have never been in a battle would have to agree that removing one’s armor in the midst of battle is not a recommended procedure, but the narrator’s only comment is that Glaukos got the worse end of the deal, since his armor was more valuable than Diomedes’. Furthermore, when Diomedes learns who Glaukos is, he realizes that in days long past, his grandfather and Glaukos’ grandfather had been allies, so he drives his spear into the ground and proposes that they vow never to fight against each other. Despite the historical importance of that catalogue, however, my recommendation is that when you get to it, you should skip directly to Book III so that you can maintain the continuity of the story. Given the fact of human mortality—and the fact that we are so often in such haste to hurry it along—how do we, and how should we, continue to live in this world? Agamemnon slightly diminishes his honor by suggesting that the Achaeans abandon the war. How does Book VI differ from most of the Iliad? That value had become irrelevant. The answer is that no one knows for sure how it occurred, because the records we have come from much later, but apparently the legends were handed down orally from generation to generation, were combined with other legends about other legendary figures, and over the course of several centuries evolved into the intricately wrought and powerful poem that we now call The Iliad. The Trojans and some ancient Greek tribes were fighting over who would have commercial ascendancy, and the war itself, which was certainly important to those who took part in it or to those who suffered from it, was hardly crucial for the course of world history. If we juxtapose Hektor’s words here with Glaukos’ words earlier in the book, as well as with the actions of Glaukos and Diomedes, we can see Homer building a pattern that will continue to develop throughout the epic. First, Zeus can, that is, he has the physical power to, alter the dictates of destiny. Try to imagine this scene: there is Priam, the king of Troy, on his knees as a suppliant to the man who has killed so many of his people and of his sons, including Hektor, thereby guaranteeing that the city will be destroyed. He knows that his city will be destroyed. It must be read slowly and savored, and the epic similes are part of the savoring process. The choice, Homer seems to say, is ours, though clearly the Achaians and the Trojans have made their choice. Diomedes is a fierce warrior who can demonstrate moments of true nobility. If he did what Andromache suggests, he would feel shame, not simply because he would be following a woman’s advice but because he is trapped by the heroic code, which dictates that the only way to win glory is through battle, through what was thought of as “manly” behavior. Menelaos’ brother Agamemnon, who was the king of the Mycenaeans (and who was married to Helen’s sister Clytemnestra), gathered an army and brought it to Troy, where Alexandros and Helen had fled. There is not much in The Iliad that is humorous, but this scene is—if the reader is aware of what Homer is doing. This is a real city, however, populated by real people, and so there are disagreements and potential strife in the city as well, as in the case of the two men. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Hera, who is usually at odds with her husband, responds that Zeus certainly has the power to do what he suggests but that he should not do so because if he does, then all of the gods will want to save their favorites from death, thereby obliterating the distinction between gods and mortals. He is widely respected, and even Helen says that he alone has been consistently kind to her. No matter how deeply committed the gods may be to one side or the other, the war is only a diversion to them. First, he had to keep the poem going, but he also had to follow a particular metrical pattern that involved patterns of long and short vowels. But I am sure that reading The Iliad is worthwhile and that once a person starts to read it, it becomes progressively easier. Another hint concerns the second half of Book II. Both warriors jump from their horses, shake hands, and, as a sign of their agreement, exchange armor, which means, obviously, that right there on the battlefield, with spears and arrows flying everywhere, they each remove their armor. One is that it allows Homer to show off his skill at fitting all of these names into the strict metrical requirements of the verses. Agamemnon ridicules his brother’s tendency toward leniency and states as his goal the destruction of every Trojan male, even the unborn son in his mother’s womb. Even Hektor’s feeling that Troy will be defeated is a guess, accurate though it may be, but Achilleus knows for certain that he must choose between life and death. Homer has a point to make here that transcends representational realism. The Iliad is meant to be read (or heard), not summarized. My last hint concerns the many battle scenes in the poem. The Iliad is full of violence. Finally, after he kills Hektor, he desecrates that hero’s body and then refuses to bury it, sacrilegious behavior indeed. The narrator of The Iliad asks one of the Muses for her aid in the first line of the poem.) study the Iliad despite not being literature majors. (My favorite is when Zeus tries to tell Hera how beautiful she is and he compares her to all the young mortal women with who he has had affairs.) In The Odyssey, when Odysseus visits the Underworld, he finds it to be a place of darkness and boredom, and the ghost of Achilleus there explains that it would be better to be the lowest kind of slave on earth than to be in the Underworld. 3. Burgeons with leaves again in the season of spring returning. The following questions for each book of the story can be used in a variety of ways. “Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. 6. Auden’s “The Shield of Achilles.”). The Iliad Book 2 Summary & Analysis | LitCharts. It never happens that way, of course, and we never learn. They have nothing like war to hasten the process. 5. Who was the mortal man responsible for the plague against the Greek army? Accordingly, Homer’s narrator makes a significant comment here: as Briseis laments, so do the women who are with her, “openly for Patroklos, but for her own sorrows each.” Briseis’ lament is ostensibly for her rescuer Patroklos, but really it is a lament for herself, for the sorrows that she, as a woman, has suffered because of the men’s wars. He is responding to Diomedes’ challenge and so he downplays the worth of the individual in relation to the whole of humanity. Characters are just collections of words.” That might be a very contemporary and sophisticated approach to literature, but it is not true to the experiences of readers, who act as accomplices to authors in giving life to the words. Neither Homer nor any member of his audience would have understood the concept of speed reading, so slow down and savor the poem. And there is, of course, a background story that the ancient Greeks knew and that the modern reader has to know. As I said earlier, I like to think of books—the physical objects, books—as holding a world that I can enter; and as I also said, some of my best friends, some of the people I know best, live in books. 4. The Iliad is largely concerned with examining how human beings confront their mortality, but if we focus only on the male heroes, we get only a partial view. You may want to ask your students why they think legends or myths were written. He has been the Trojan leader in this awful war, loyal to his city even though he has doubts about the rightness of the city’s cause regarding Helen’s status, though by this point the war has taken on a life of its own and Helen’s status barely seems to be an issue any longer. These descriptions are hardly pleasant, and they get worse as the poem continues, but they are a very important part of the poem. 2. My feeling is that it is vital to read a contemporary poetic translation that captures the feeling of the original Greek. Often such victims of kidnapping were women, who would be parcelled out like other items of booty. Until it was written down in the eighth century, it existed only in the memories of those bards who were trained to recite it at the various festivals that were celebrated in those days. Recently I heard someone ask, “How can readers fall in love with a character in a book? Teachers may find this book useful as a discussion guide for the epic poem. A more significant function is that it served as an historical record for the ancient Greeks while at the same time illustrating how important this war had been for their ancestors. His cruelty is always evident. What a tragedy. Of course, I am exaggerating, but not too much. One of the funniest scenes in The Iliad is related to these arming scenes. Was it fought over Helen of Troy and did it include great heroes from all over Greece and Asia Minor? When Hektor approaches Andromache, she weeps and pleads with him to stop putting himself in so much danger. We may remember that the whole crisis of The Iliad occurs over the status of the captive Briseis—does she belong to Achilleus or to Agamemnon? It requires the aged and rather helpless king to cross through the enemy lines and to approach his deadliest enemy. If those scenes disgust you, the poem is working. From Achilles’ perspective, all death is the same, so it does not matter how it comes. In Aeschylus’ dramatic version of the story from the fifth century, she ran off with him.) 1. That is a huge choice for a young, vigorous man to make, and it helps to explain many facets of Achilleus’ behavior. No one gets all good. In fact, part of Briseis’ salvation had been the promise that she would become the wife of the man who slew her husband. Clearly there was a reason that she was the goddess of discord, and discord immediately broke out, as three of the goddesses, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, each claimed to be the goddess worthy of the apple. Instead, in a kind of pathetic reversal of this scene, she is at home preparing a bath for what she thinks is the imminent return of her husband.) Or earlier in the poem, Helen appears on the ramparts and Priam, the Trojan king, asks her to identify all of the Achaian heroes who are arrayed against the Trojans. Zeus, she says, should allow Sarpedon to die, as mortals are meant to die, and then give him a good funeral. He tells her that he knows that what she says is accurate: he knows that if he follows his present course, Troy will be conquered and he will die. When The Iliad opens, the Greek forces have been besieging Troy for nearly ten years and everyone on both sides is tired and discouraged. Geography of the Telemachy. A warrior had to establish his nobility, and family background was one of the criteria; but we must also remember that this lengthy exchange takes place against the noise and chaos of the fighting. She suggests that he pull his troops inside the city walls and concentrate them at the weakest spot, where the greatest attacks might be expected. Telamonian Aias is a quiet giant who always tries to do his best and who maintains his integrity throughout the poem. Books 1-2 Books 3-6 Books 7-9 Books 10-12 Books 13-15 Books 16-18 Books 19-22 Books 23-24 A note on line numbers: Line numbers that appear in the margin refer to the Fagles text.Line numbers at the top of the page refer to the Greek text; these are the ones that will normally appear in books and essays referring to the Iliad. Great Ajax’ entreaty to Achilles is the most effective of the three speeches. Apparently one man has killed another, so the killer and the deceased’s kinsman are arguing over the penalty. When Hektor removes the helmet, his son comes to him happily. Their discussions (to use the polite word) over the apple went on for many years, until finally they agreed to allow a young shepherd to decide among them. Sophocles, Antigone 904–922. So one generation of men will grow while another dies.” (VI.145-50). (Digression: The two cities on Achilleus’ shield are represented by the friezes on the two sides of the urn in Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Keats, who loved Homer’s work, created the urn based on this passage. His only hope is that he will be dead before Andromache is captured so that he may not hear her screaming and know that what he foresees has actually happened. As he explains to the delegation who have come from Agamemnon to ask him to return to battle, his mother had told him long before that he has a choice to make: he can either stay at Troy, fight, die, and gain great glory or he can leave the battle, go home, and live a long life in obscurity. In ancient Greece, The Iliad and The Odyssey were among the poems preserved in this way. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the live timber He tends to get his way by threatening people or by shaming them in front of their companions. No one could. Athena offered him wisdom, Hera offered wealth, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world. Her plan would protect the city and the warriors, and it makes a lot of strategic sense. I will list them here as Achaian or Trojan, but as you read the poem, you will find yourself automatically remembering who these people are. But one of the functions of literature is to challenge the accepted values of a society, and The Iliad challenges the values of its society at almost every point. The characters in The Iliad range from the very simple, like those who appear in a single line, just long enough to be killed, to those who are as complex as people we might know. Shortly before the beginning of The Iliad, the Greeks had staged one such raiding party and captured two women, Chryseis and Briseis, who were given as prizes to Agamemnon and to the greatest warrior among the Achaians, Achilleus, who happened to be the son of Thetis and Peleus, at whose wedding, ironically, all the problems had begun. The composite authorship of the poem over a lengthy stretch of time could help to explain this oddity, just as it explains why the poem describes warriors wearing armor from different historical periods or why it describes different burial practices that did not coexist. They are human beings, each with an identity, united by events in the distant past and by their common struggle against human mortality. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 15, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821: Why doe they cover with so many lets, one over another, those parts where chiefly consisteth [transl. When they have finished grieving, Achilleus takes Priam’s hand and helps him to his feet. (I would read this way at home rather than on a bus or subway, but that may be just a personal preference.) Not only can they not choose to go out to the battlefield, that is, not exercise that particular kind of choice over their destinies, but their destinies are entirely determined by the fates of the men, who generally make their choices without considering the women. This passage always makes me think of the enthusiasm that people manage to work up for wars. Use this evolving study guide for assistance in isolating what's important. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Homer's tale of the Trojan War runs from the time of Achilles's falling out with the Greek King, Lord Agamemnon, and shunning from the war to the time … Describe the shield of Achilles and explain the symbolism. (obsolete, copulative) To be. It is because of such values, as evidenced by their grandfathers, that these two warriors find and extend the link between them, and they, too, as individuals are vitally important. The relative authority of religious texts develops … The answer is that we really do not know if there ever truly was a person named Homer who was involved with The Iliad and The Odyssey, and it is of no great importance whether or not such a person existed. What is the purpose of the catalogue of ships? 5. They have a much more serious role. This context is important, for the next scenes we see portray two human cities. Horace, … Again the answer has to do with oral composition. Nevertheless, he sees no way to implement her plan, because he has to win glory for himself. She visits Hephaistos, the god of fire and of the forge, who creates a magnificent set of armor for Achilleus, including a shield that is covered with scenes of human life, scenes to which Homer devotes considerable attention. (Aphrodite elsewhere can save Paris and Aineias because their death days have not arrived.) It is also essential to know the mythological background, because even if the ancient Greeks modified their beliefs in the various deities over time, they certainly knew who those deities were, just as they also knew the mortal heroes and heroines. That description would be much more concise, and also much duller. A period is the standard way to separate book and line numbers. The ancient Greeks, however, lived in a culture that was primarily oral rather than visual, so that their notion of memorization differed from ours. Of course not. As Glaukos and Diomedes approach each other, amid the tumult of the battle, Diomedes challenges Glaukos, asking who he is that he dares to stand up against Diomedes’ power. As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity. But The Iliad is not simply a poem the way, say, a verse work by Wordsworth is a poem, for the story of its creation was entirely different. The comparison of human life to the short life of plants is hardly novel, but Homer goes further than that. Where are the Greeks at the opening of the epic? Yes, The Iliad is long, very long, but it has all been leading to this scene. Because of his pride, he alienates his best warrior and early in the poem he tests his men’s devotion by telling them that he has been instructed by the gods to end the war, whereupon he is shocked that the men are deliriously happy and run for their ships. They know that they will either die gloriously in battle or live gloriously as victors (since no one in the Homeric poems ever survives with a disabling injury). Later in the poem there will be a scene when Achilleus appears to be covered by a divine fire and sends the Trojan army running just by shouting. The location of Nestor's Pylos was disputed in antiquity; towns named Pylos were found in Elis, Triphylia and Messenia, and each claimed to be Nestor's home. In giving this advice, Hera is unusually sympathetic to Zeus, who agonizes over the decision and finally agrees with her, though he “wept tears of blood…for the sake of his beloved son” (XIV.459-60). Join the discussion about Iliad. What she has done, then, because she loves him and needs him, because she is a woman in a society that did not greatly value women, is put Hektor in the position of having to make a clear choice, which he certainly does.
Pta Verification Form, Who Owns I9 Sports, Pac N Dre, Potassium Chloride Positive And Negative Ion, Dream Berry Strain Female Seeds, Makita Disc Sander, 1080p Gaming In 2020 Reddit, Vitamin Water Zero Rise Review, We're Animani, Totally Insaney, Saginaw 3 Speed For Sale, 4th Gen 4runner Fog Light Bulb Replacement, Buckingham County Va Real Estate Tax Rate, What Is The Significance Of Universal Gas Constant,