THE ILIAD: BOOK ONE Aquila Theatre Company Welcome! 2 The State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ welcomes you to the school-day performance of The Iliad: Book One. The ancient Greek war story has been adapted for the stage by Aquila Theatre using Stanley Lombardo’s English translation of the original Greek text. These Keynotes provide information and activities to help you watch the play with a well-informed eye and ear. We hope that the materials in this guide will add to your understanding and enjoyment of the performance and help you make connections to your own personal experience. CONTENTS Welcome/Acknowledgements ......................................................2 A Tale of War ........................................................................................3 The Story ................................................................................................4 Character Profiles................................................................................5 The Trojan War ....................................................................................6 The Greek Gods ..................................................................................7 A Matter of Honor ..............................................................................8 Production Notes ................................................................................9 Are You Ready for the Performance?........................................10 Keynotes are made possible by a generous grant from Bank of America Charitable Foundation. Keynotes are produced by the Education Department The State Theatre’s education program is funded in part by Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Brother International Corporation, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, of the State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ. Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, J. Wesley Brustad, President Seward Johnson, Sr. 1963 Charitable Trust, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, McCrane Lian Farrer, Vice President for Education Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Starch and Chemical Foundation, Inc., PNC Foundation, Provident Bank Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Keynotes for The Iliad written and designed by Lian Verizon, and Wachovia Foundation. Their support is gratefully acknowledged. Farrer. Edited by Katie Pyott and Jennifer Cunha. Aquila Theatre’s production of The Iliad: Book One has been made possible in part by a major grant © 2008 State Theatre from the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life. The State Theatre, a premier nonprofit venue for the Aquila Theatre’s production of The Iliad: Book One has also received an Access to Artistic Excellence performing arts and entertainment. award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding has been made possible in part by Continental Airlines The Heldrich the New Jersey State Council on the is the official airline is the official Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the State hotel of the of the National Endowment for the Arts. Theatre. State Theatre. A Tale of War 3 They say Achilles in the darkness stirred... And Priam and his fifty sons Wake all amazed, and hear the guns, And shake for Troy again. —Rupert Brooke, sailing for the Battle of Gallipoli, 1915 How would a Generations of troops, from staging of The fifth-century BC Athenian Iliad look if it were set during infantrymen to the soldier-poets of the Civil War? The the First World War and beyond, Ameri can Revolu - have found striking parallels tion? The Hundred Years’ between the poetry of The Iliad War? Choose a and their own responses to war from any waging war. Aquila Theatre Company highlights the idea that war is a time and place. universal and timeless experience by placing their production of The Find out what Want to kinds of uniforms Iliad: Book I in a World War II setting. Their inspiration was the cover hear how and weapons photograph (right) on Stanley Lombardo’s translation of The Iliad. The Iliad were used during might have Titled “Into the Jaws of Death,” this black-and-white photograph was this war and see sounded to if you can find taken by a member of the U.S. Coast Guard from a landing craft on the original descriptions of D-Day as the Americans landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. audience? the battles. Based Listen to Stanley Lombardo In the performance, the Greek soldiers—Achilles, Agamemnon, on your research, read the text in Ancient Greek. sketch designs for Odysseus, and their companions—wear the uniforms of Allied soldiers www.wiredforbooks.org/iliad scenery and in World War II. The audience hears the sounds of modern warfare: costumes of your special booming guns, exploding bombs, hissing smoke. The words of the play, production of The taken directly from Lombardo’s translation of Homer, remain true to the Iliad. original text, and refer to the life and beliefs of the ancient Greeks. More War Stories to Explore BATTLE OF AGINCOURT: WORLD WAR I: Saving Private Ryan, Henry V, by William Shakespeare (play) A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway directed by Steven FRENCH REVOLUTION: (novel) Spielberg (film) “Liberty Leading the People,” by Eugene “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” by Wilfred The Caine Mutiny, by Delacroix (painting) Owen (poem) Herman Wouk (novel) CRIMEAN WAR: All Quiet on the Western Front , by Erich VIETNAM WAR: “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” by Alfred Maria Remarque (novel) The Killing Fields, directed by Roland Joffé Lord Tennyson (poem) Gallipoli, directed by Peter Weir (film) (film) The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: WORLD WAR II: (novel) The war photographs of Matthew Brady Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (novel) Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone (film) The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen The Thin Red Line, directed by Terrence Crane (novel) Malick (film) IRAQ WAR: Glory, directed by Edward Zwick (film) Generation Kill, by Evan Wright (memoir) The Story 4 The Iliad stretches back nearly three thousand Homer’s years to tell the story of the Greek invasion of poem, The Troy. When Paris, a prince of Troy, steals the From the Director: Iliad, is laid For our play, we decided to use book out in 24 beautiful Helen from her husband, King Menelaus one and part of book two, as it seemed books, or of Sparta, a thousand Greek ships set sail to chapters. the most logical place to begin our story. punish the Trojans. The Greek army, under the Aquila We hoped that the production would be Theatre’s command of King Agamemnon, lays siege to the exciting and accessible enough so the production city of Troy for ten years. As the story unfolds, audience would be left wanting more. Our focuses on Agamemnon comes into conflict with Achilles, the hope is that you will leave the theater book one, with and go read the entire poem! portions of bravest of all the Greek warriors; their conflict is the books two and central theme of The Iliad. nine also Before the action of The Iliad begins, the Greek forces had raided included. several cities near Troy and taken many prizes of war. The choicest Who Wrote prize by far was a beautiful young girl named Chryseis, daughter of Have you ever Chryses, an elderly and respected priest of the god Apollo. The girl The Iliad? felt that you were was awarded to Agamemnon. Since The Iliad was being treated created before The story opens in the Greek camp on the Trojan shore. When unfairly by written language was someone in a Agamemnon refuses to release Chryseis, her father Chryses calls upon in use, no one can really be position of Apollo to send a terrible plague to kill the Greek forces. The prophet said to have “written” it. Long authority, such as after the events of the actual a parent, teacher, Calchas warns that the only way to appease Apollo and end the plague Trojan War, different versions or coach? What is to give Chryseis back to Chryses. Agamemnon agrees to surrender of the story were created by kinds of feelings Chryseis only if he can take Briseis, a girl that Achilles won and now did you have oral poets, who recited The towards that loves. This enrages Achilles, who is restrained from killing Agamemnon— Iliad aloud in public. Although person? How did his commander-in-chief—by the goddess Athena. Achilles calls to his the poets used a formal you handle the mother, the sea goddess Thetis; on her advice decides to withdraw from structure that dictated the situation? rhythm and number of the battle. syllables in each line, they Thetis ascends Mt. Olympus to ask Zeus, the king of the gods, to turn were free to change details of the war against the Greeks in order to punish Agamemnon. Zeus’ wife, the story as they performed it Hera, catches her husband with Thetis and begins to scold him. Zeus to suit the interests of the audience. lashes out in anger, until Hephaestus, the lame god of the forge, lightens There is a lot of debate the gloomy atmosphere on Mt. Olympus with his comical behavior. about the origins of The Iliad Keeping his promise to Thetis, Zeus works out a plan to destroy the we read today. A poet known Greek army. He sends a as Homer is said to have authored it—but no one can false dream in the form of prove that such a person ever Nestor, Agamem non’s even existed. It is generally most trusted advisor, to believed that The Iliad was tell Agamemnon to composed sometime between launch an all-out attack 750 and 725 B.C. Modern translations of on Troy that very The Iliad are based on morning. Without medieval and Renaissance Achilles, though, the war manuscripts, which were will go very badly for the themselves copies of ancient manuscripts that were lost Greeks. countless years ago. The soothsayer Calchas addresses the Greek army. Character Profiles 5 Achilles Who’s Who in Achilles is the Greeks’ greatest warrior. When he was an infant, his the Play mother dipped him in the River Styx to make him immortal, ACHILLES (a-KILL-eez) - The son but since she held him by the heel, this one spot of the mortal King Peleus and was left unprotected.