THE ILIAD STUDY GUIDE Take Notes About Each Character and Their Actions in the Epic – Also Refer to Descriptions on P

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

THE ILIAD STUDY GUIDE Take Notes About Each Character and Their Actions in the Epic – Also Refer to Descriptions on P Name: THE ILIAD STUDY GUIDE Take notes about each character and their actions in the epic – also refer to descriptions on p. 363. Label each character as “Greek” or “Trojan.” Even the gods will take sides. Peleus Achilles (aka “Pelides” and “Aeacides”) Achaeans/Danaans/ Argives Agamemnon (aka “Atrides”) Apollo (aka “Smintheus” and “Phoebus”) Zeus Chryseis Menelaus Priam Calchas (pg 366-367) Ajax Myrmidons Athena (aka “Pallas” and “Tritogenia”) Hera Hector Helen Clytemnestra Nestor Odysseus Patroclus Dardanians/Phrygians Andromache 1 Name: Astyanax (aka “Scamandrius”) Briseis Paris Aphrodite (aka “Lady of Cyprus”) Hades Hermes Thetis BOOK ONE (pp. 364 - 373) 1. As the Iliad begins, what problem confronts the Greeks? What is the cause of the problem and why is the problem of such importance to their soldiers and the campaign? 2. Agamemnon says that he will give up Chryseis for the sake of his people only if he receives a prize to replace her. What does Agamemnon’s insistence on having a prize imply about the values of Homeric warriors? 3. In what way does Agamemnon think Achilles is trying to “cheat” him? 4. Why does Agamemnon claim Briseis as his prize? 5. What is Athena’s role in the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon? 6. Achilles states that “[i]f a man obeys the gods, they are quicker to hear his prayers.” What does this tell you about the relationship between men and immortals? 7. What conflicting feelings does Achilles experience as a result of his decision to withdraw from battle? What theme of the poem does this dilemma help convey? 8. How do you view Achilles at the end of Book 1? What are your first impressions of this hero? 2 Name: BOOK SIX (pp. 374 - 379) 1. Why did Andromache go to the gates of Troy? What was Hector’s reaction when he heard this news? How is Hector characterized from the very beginning? 2. What do Andromache’s comments about Hector’s importance in her life suggest about his own fate? 3. What prediction does Hector make about the future of Troy? 4. What does Hector believe is worse than the fall of Troy and death of many Trojans? 5. What favor does Hector ask of Zeus? 6. What outlook on life and death does Hector express at the end of Book 6? 7. The poet Homer was, first and foremost, a loyal Greek citizen. Why then did he paint such a tender, honorable picture of Hector, who was enemy to the Greeks? 8. Compare Hector’s treatment of his wife to Achilles and Agamemnons’ treatment of women in Book I. How are women viewed in this culture? Do they have any power? 9. What does the concept of Honor seem to mean in the Homeric world? Do you agree with this notion of honor? BOOK TWENTY -TWO (pp. 383 - 396) 1. What Homeric simile is used to describe Hector in the beginning of the book? How does this reveal his character/mentality at this point in the story? 2. Describe the epic simile that Homer uses when describing Achilles’ pursuit of Hector. 3 Name: 3. What does Athena do to aid Achilles? Does this supernatural intervention change the outcome of the situation? Does it change your view of Achilles? 4. What pact does Hector propose to Achilles when they meet face to face? What is Achilles’ response? What does this suggest about Achilles’ character/mentality at this point in the story? 5. What do Achilles’ words to the dying Hector reveal about his character? 6. What was Andromache doing while all of Troy was mourning Hector? How is this an example of situational or dramatic irony? BOOK TWENTY -FOUR (pp. 397-408) 1. How did Apollo come to Hector’s aid even after his death? 2. What does Zeus decide must ultimately happen to Hector’s body? 3. What does Achilles’ response to Priam reveal about his character? 4. What did Achilles have the women do to Hector’s body before he gave it back to Priam? Why did he have them perform these rites? 5. What three women mourn Hector’s death upon Priam’s return to Troy with his body? 6. Do you think Achilles behaves heroically in the Iliad ? Why or why not? SUMMARY OF THE STORY: 4 .
Recommended publications
  • Homer's Iliad Via the Movie Troy (2004)
    23 November 2017 Homer’s Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004) PROFESSOR EDITH HALL One of the most successful movies of 2004 was Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Brad Pitt as Achilles. Troy made more than $497 million worldwide and was the 8th- highest-grossing film of 2004. The rolling credits proudly claim that the movie is inspired by the ancient Greek Homeric epic, the Iliad. This was, for classical scholars, an exciting claim. There have been blockbuster movies telling the story of Troy before, notably the 1956 glamorous blockbuster Helen of Troy starring Rossana Podestà, and a television two-episode miniseries which came out in 2003, directed by John Kent Harrison. But there has never been a feature film announcing such a close relationship to the Iliad, the greatest classical heroic action epic. The movie eagerly anticipated by those of us who teach Homer for a living because Petersen is a respected director. He has made some serious and important films. These range from Die Konsequenz (The Consequence), a radical story of homosexual love (1977), to In the Line of Fire (1993) and Air Force One (1997), political thrillers starring Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford respectively. The Perfect Storm (2000) showed that cataclysmic natural disaster and special effects spectacle were also part of Petersen’s repertoire. His most celebrated film has probably been Das Boot (The Boat) of 1981, the story of the crew of a German U- boat during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941. The finely judged and politically impartial portrayal of ordinary men, caught up in the terror and tedium of war, suggested that Petersen, if anyone, might be able to do some justice to the Homeric depiction of the Trojan War in the Iliad.
    [Show full text]
  • Excerpts from Iliad Six (Hector Is the Oldest Son of Troy's King Priam, And
    EXCERPTS FROM HOMER Excerpts from Iliad Six (Hector is the oldest son of Troy’s King Priam, and the chief defender of the city. He leaves battle temporarily to return to the city.) Focus questions: 1. What are the main roles of women in this section – i.e., what are the actions of the Trojan women, Theano, Hecuba (the queen, Hector’s mother) and Andromache? 2. How do women’s roles support the survival of the city – or do they? 3. In what ways do women contribute to or detract from a man’s honor? 4. Hector and Andromache’s relationship is perfect in Greek terms – how do they relate to one another? What is the balance of “power”? What roles does each play in the family? Now when Hector reached the Scaean gates and the oak tree, the wives and daughters of the Trojans came running towards him to ask after their sons, brothers, kinsmen, and husbands: he told them to set about praying to the gods, and many were made sorrowful as they heard him. Presently he reached the splendid palace of King Priam, adorned with colonnades of hewn stone. In it there were fifty bedchambers- all of hewn stone- built near one another, where the sons of Priam slept, each with his wedded wife. Opposite these, on the other side the courtyard, there were twelve upper rooms also of hewn stone for Priam's daughters, built near one another, where his sons-in-law slept with their wives. When Hector got there, his fond mother came up to him with Laodice the fairest of her daughters.
    [Show full text]
  • Child Abuse in Greek Mythology: a Review C Stavrianos, I Stavrianou, P Kafas
    The Internet Journal of Forensic Science ISPUB.COM Volume 3 Number 1 Child Abuse in Greek Mythology: A Review C Stavrianos, I Stavrianou, P Kafas Citation C Stavrianos, I Stavrianou, P Kafas. Child Abuse in Greek Mythology: A Review. The Internet Journal of Forensic Science. 2007 Volume 3 Number 1. Abstract The aim of this review was to describe child abuse cases in ancient Greek mythology. Names like Hercules, Saturn, Aesculapius, Medea are very familiar. The stories can be divided into 3 categories: child abuse from gods to gods, from gods to humans and from humans to humans. In these stories children were abused in different ways and the reasons were of social, financial, political, religious, medical and sexual origin. The interpretations of the myths differed and the conclusions seemed controversial. Archaeologists, historians, and philosophers still try to bring these ancient stories into light in connection with the archaeological findings. The possibility for a dentist to face a child abuse case in the dental office nowadays proved the fact that child abuse was not only a phenomenon of the past but also a reality of the present. INTRODUCTION courses are easily available to everyone. Child abuse may be defined as any non-accidental trauma, On 1860 the forensic odontologist Ambroise Tardieu, neglect, failure to meet basic needs or abuse inflicted upon a referring to 32 cases, made a connection between subdural child by a caretaker that is beyond the acceptable norm of haematoma and abuse. In 1874 a church group in New York childcare in our culture. Abused children found in all 1 City took a child named Mary-Helen from home in which economic, social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and she was being abused.
    [Show full text]
  • The Historical Background of the Trojan War
    447 The Historical Background of the Trojan War. By John L. Myres and K. T. Frost. 1. Rameses III. and the Sea-Haiders. To give complete and accurate account of events in the Levant during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries B. C. is one of the most diffi- cult tasks presented by ancient history. It is also one of the most fasci- nating; for it must include not only a summary of what is known of the peoples of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, but also a survey of the My- cenean Age, and the Late Minoan "Sea-Raiders". It is moreover the historical background of the Trojan War. It was a time of great unrest, of fierce invasions and national migrations, whose effects lasted long. At the turn of the Century, in 1200 B. C. these are the main lines of the picture. From the Adriatic Sea to the Persian Gulf a large pro- portion of cities and tribes were independent of any great overlord. Knossos had been OTerthrown for some two centuries and although partly reinhabited it no longer ruled the waves, and the Mediterranean was swept by the Late Minoan sea-rovers. Egypt was powerless abroad and decadent at home. Babylon was just driving out the Kassites who had ruled for some centuries, and as yet the new native dynasty had little influence outside^). Assyria, whose power had greatly declined since the death of Tukulti-Ninib some forty years earlier, was beginning to reassert herseif but was still fully occupied in guarding her own frontiers. The empire of the Hittites was being finally overthrown by a fierce invasion of the Muski Phrygians who had crossed from Europe and were devastating Asia Minor.
    [Show full text]
  • Trojan War - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Trojan War from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia for the 1997 Film, See Trojan War (Film)
    5/14/2014 Trojan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Trojan War From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the 1997 film, see Trojan War (film). In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen Trojan War from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; its sequel, the Odyssey describes Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful Achilles tending the wounded Patroclus of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who (Attic red-figure kylix, c. 500 BC) took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean The war troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' Setting: Troy (modern Hisarlik, Turkey) insult.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Mythology Ancestry
    GRANHOLM GENEALOGY EARLY MYTHOLOGY ANCESTRY 1 INTRODUCTION This book covers the earliest history of man and the mythology in some countries. The beginning from Adam and Eve and their descendants is from the Old Testament, but also by several authors and genealogy programs. The age of the persons in the lineages in Genesis is expressed in their “years”, which has little to do with the reality of our 365-day years. I have chosen one such program as a starting point for this book. Several others have been used, and as can be expected, there are a lot of conflicting information, from which I have had to choose as best I can. It is fairly well laid out so the specific information is suitable for print. In addition, the lineage information shown covers the biblical information, fairly close to the Genesis, and it also leads to both to mythical and historical persons in several countries. Where myth turns into history is up to the reader’s imagination. This book lists individuals from Adam and Eve to King Alfred the Great of England. Between these are some mythical figures on which the Greek (similar to Roman) mythology is based beginning with Zeus and the Nordic (Anglo-Saxon) mythology beginning with Odin (Woden). These persons, in their national mythologies, have different ancestors than the biblical ones. More about the Nordic mythology is covered in the “Swedish Royal Ancestry, Book 1”. Of additional interest is the similarity of the initial creation between the Greek and the Finnish mythology in its national Kalevala epos, from which a couple of samples are included here.
    [Show full text]
  • Troy Myth and Reality
    Part 1 Large print exhibition text Troy myth and reality Please do not remove from the exhibition This two-part guide provides all the exhibition text in large print. There are further resources available for blind and partially sighted people: Audio described tours for blind and partially sighted visitors, led by the exhibition curator and a trained audio describer will explore highlight objects from the exhibition. Tours are accompanied by a handling session. Booking is essential (£7.50 members and access companions go free) please contact: Email: [email protected] Telephone: 020 7323 8971 Thursday 12 December 2019 14.00–17.00 and Saturday 11 January 2020 14.00–17.00 1 There is also an object handling desk at the exhibition entrance that is open daily from 11.00 to 16.00. For any queries about access at the British Museum please email [email protected] 2 Sponsor’sThe Trojan statement War For more than a century BP has been providing energy to advance human progress. Today we are delighted to help you learn more about the city of Troy through extraordinary artefacts and works of art, inspired by the stories of the Trojan War. Explore the myth, archaeology and legacy of this legendary city. BP believes that access to arts and culture helps to build a more inspired and creative society. That’s why, through 23 years of partnership with the British Museum, we’ve helped nearly five million people gain a deeper understanding of world cultures with BP exhibitions, displays and performances. Our support for the arts forms part of our wider contribution to UK society and we hope you enjoy this exhibition.
    [Show full text]
  • The Government of Troy: Politics in the Iliad William Merritt Sale
    The Government of Troy: Politics in the "Iliad" Sale, William Merritt Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1994; 35, 1; ProQuest pg. 5 The Government of Troy: Politics in the Iliad William Merritt Sale N RECENTLY PUBLISHED STUDIES of Homeric formulae I have I called attention, on the basis of statistical evidence, to two facts about Homer's Trojans in the Iliad: (1) The nominative proper-name formulae used by the poet to refer to them display a remarkable lacuna: there are no frequently occurring, 'regular', formulae. 1 The other characters and peoples who are mentioned anything like as often as the Trojans all have regular formulae, usually more than one. We give the term 'regular formula' a quantitative definition, "exactly repeated six times or more," but the phenomenon is not mere­ ly quantitative; there are certain qualities that regular formulae have and that infrequently occurring formulae tend to lack. Most notable of these are their noun-epithet form (nominative proper-name noun-verb formulae all occur infrequently) and the occurrence of the formula in a major colon:2 frequently oc­ curring formulae are noun-epithet and occupy major cola; infre­ quent formulae fall in minor cola, and the less frequently they occur, the more likely they are to fall in minor cola and to be noun-verbal in syntax. Hence the distinction between regular and infrequent formulae is qualitative, and the Trojans in the nominative lack something they ought to have, noun-epithet formulae used regularly to fill metrical spaces that the other characters have formulae to fill. A lack of regular formulae is significant; and the significance is statistically demonstrable.3 1 w.
    [Show full text]
  • Lycian and Phrygian Names
    LYCIAN AND PHRYGIAN NAMES. ACCORDING to a theory which has been very commonly accepted by archaeologists in this country, the local names of Greece prove that a single language was once spoken there and in Asia Minor which was totally different from Greek, Thraeian, Illyrian, or Phrygian. It was neither Aryan nor Semitic, and resembled that of the Lycian inscriptions. At a later date, whether before or after the arrival of the Greeks, certain Thraeian and Illyrian elements were added, but they contributed little to the sum of geographical names.1 This belief is founded on the occurrence in Greece of local terminations in -a-0-- and especially in -v9-, which are considered to be foreign, and on their identification with the suffixes -acr- and -vB-, which are well known in Lycia, as well as in other districts of Asia Minor, and are derived from the native Lycian language.2 It is supported by the collection of a long list of geographical names from the islands and the mainland of Greece which are not recognisably of Greek origin, and show resemblances, so close and numerous that they can hardly be accidental, to names of places in Asia Minor. The case as stated by Pauli, Kretschmer, and Fick has a very convincing- appearance. But the facts on which it is based seem to be in general inconclusive and in part erroneous. In the case of -era--, the doubling of the s, which is the most important point in common between the suffixes found in Greece and Asia Minor, is not present in the original Lycian.3 On the other hand, the same suffix occurs in several European countries: as in 1 See especially Kretschmer, Einleitung, guage, related to the Phrygian, there would etc.
    [Show full text]
  • The TROJAN WAR
    The TROJAN WAR The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete Indiana University Greek and Latin Classics and Dares the Phrygian TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY R. M. FRAZER, JR. Indiana University Press BLOOMINGTON & LONDON CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The Medieval Troy Story 3 The Anti-Homeric Tradition 5 Dictys 7 Dares 11 The Translation 15 A JOURNAL OF THE TROJAN WAR by Dictys of Crete Letter 19 Preface 20 Book One 23 Book Two 37 Book Three 70 Book Four 87 Book Five 103 Book Six 119 THE FALL OF TROY, A HISTORY by Dares the Phrygian [Letter] 133 Sections 1-44 133 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright © 1966 by Indiana University Press BIBLIOGRAPHY 169 Library of Congress catalog card number: 65-19709 NOTES 170 Manufactured in the United States of America INDEX OF PROPER NAMES 180 v THE TROJAN WAR The Chronicles Adcnowledgments of Dictys of Crete The present volume brings together for the first time in En­ and Dares the Phrygian glish translation the accounts of Dictys and Dares about the Trojan War. These works deserve our careful attention as the principal sources of the medieval Troy story and as examples of the anti-Homeric literature of late antiquity. In the introduction I have briefly described the influence of our authors on later European literature, and have tried to show how our Latin texts depend on Greek originals. For the latter purpose I have found the scholarship of Nathaniel Edward Griffin especially rewarding for Dictys and that of Otmar Schissel von Fleschenberg for Dares. I have used the notes to comment on matters of form (how our Latin texts probably differ from their Greek originals), to point out difficulties and incon­ sistencies, and to cite some of the sources and parallel versions of the stories that Dictys and Dares tell.
    [Show full text]
  • Adrastus, Amphiarius, Tydeus, Polyneices, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus
    Seven Against Thebes- Adrastus, Amphiarius, Tydeus, Polyneices, Capaneus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus Epigoni- Aegialeus, Alcmaeon, Amphilocus, Diomedes, Thersander, Sthenelus, Euryalus (s. of Mecistus), Promachus Argonauts- Jason (leader), Heracles (strongest), Ancaeus (2nd strongest), Hylas (Heracles' beloved), Zetes and Calais (Boreades), Tiphys (1st helmsman), Ancaeus (2nd helmsman), Mopsus (seer), Idmon (seer), Euphemus (wave-runner), Asclepius (medic), Orpheus (musician), Periclymenus (shape-shifter), Castor and Pollux (horseman and boxer), Idas and Lynceus (some guy and his brother with x-ray vision), Atalanta, Bellerophon, Butes (siren-Aphrodite guy), Laertes, Meleager, Oileus, Peleus, Nestor, Nauplius, Perseus, Phocus, Philoctetes, Poeas, Perseus, Telamon, Theseus, Polyphemus (not the Cyclops. Went with Heracles) Caledonian Boar Hunt- Meleager, Atalanta, Toxeus and Plexippus, Admetus, Ancaeus (dies), Amphiarius, Asclepius, Castor and Pollux, Eurytion (dies by Peleus), Jason, Idas and Lynceus, Laertes, Mopsus, Nestor, Peleus, Pirituous, Telamon, Theseus Greeks at Troy- Agamemnon (Mycenae), Menelaus (Sparta), Odysseus (Ithaca), Diomedes (Argos), Palamedes (Nauplia), Achilles (Aegina [Myrmidons]), Nestor (Pylos), Idomeneus (Crete), Menestheus (Athens), Cinyras (Cyprus), Ajax Telamon (Salamis), Teucer, Ajax Oileus (Locris), Calchas (prophet), Patroclus (Phocis), Protesilaus, Thersites, Antilochus (s. of Nestor), Machaon and Podalirius (sons of Ascelpius), Sthenelus, Amphilochus, Alcmaeon, Lycomedes (Sceiros), Philoctetes (Meliboea),
    [Show full text]
  • Aeneid Iii: Aeneas’ Voyage Per Imperium
    AENEID III: AENEAS’ VOYAGE PER IMPERIUM by B. TODD THOMASON (Under the Direction of Sarah Spence) ABSTRACT This thesis is an analysis of Aeneas’ stops at Crete, Mt. Etna, Thrace, Buthrotum, Drepanum, Delos, the Strophades, Actium, and Castrum Minervae in Aeneid III. Of these nine landfalls, six are part of the traditional Aeneas legend while three appear to be Vergilian inventions. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actions and experiences of the Trojans in these various locations in an effort to discover why Vergil selected these particular settings for Aeneas’ adventures. The episodes are divided into those that celebrate Rome’s triumph over the Greek East and those that expose the pain, hardship, and even irony inherent in that triumph with the goal of revealing Vergil’s objective assessment of the empire in which he lived. INDEX WORDS: Vergil, Virgil, Aeneid—Criticism, Rome—History, Rome—Literature Crete, Sicily, Thrace, Buthrotum, Delos, Strophades, Actium, Castrum Minervae, Aeneid 3, Aeneas AENEID III: AENEAS’ VOYAGE PER IMPERIUM by B. TODD THOMASON B.A., The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1997 M.Div., Mercer University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2004 © 2004 B. Todd Thomason All Rights Reserved AENEID III: AENEAS’ VOYAGE PER IMPERIUM by B. TODD THOMASON Major Professor: Sarah Spence Committee: Robert Curtis T. Keith Dix Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2004 KRISTENAE CONIUGI AMICAE DELICIIS ET P.
    [Show full text]