09. THE ILIAD

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Plot

• covers about a month in the 9th or 10th year of a 10-year war
• focus, the rage of Achilles at his commander, Agamemnon, made clear in first line
  • quarrel over the woman Briseis--awarded to Achilles as prize; Agamemnon takes her away when forced to give up his own prize woman
• Achilles refuses to fight, until his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector
  • then kills Hector in revenge, and abuses his body
• Trojan King Priam visits his tent, and compassion induces Achilles to return Hector's body

Characters

• Greek side
  • Agamemnon: commander
  • Menelaus: Agamemnnon's brother, Helen's husband
  • Achilles: greatest warrior
  • Patroclus: Achilles older friend
  • Diomedes, Ajax: other prominent warriors
  • Odysseus: wily warrior
  • Nestor: aged warrior
  • friendly gods: Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hephaestus (and Zeus, ultimately, because Greeks are fated to win, though he helps both sides)
• Trojan side
  • Paris: Helen's abductor, son of Priam
  • Hector: greatest warrior, son of Priam
  • Sarpedon: other prominent warrior, son of Zeus
  • Priam: old king
  • friendly gods: Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis, Ares

Themes

• Wrath vs. compassion
• Heroic code: expressed by Sarpedon (Lombardo p. 124-25)
  • Achilles moves (sort of) from value system in which worth measured by others, expressed by rewards, to one in which loyalty, friendship prevail