Humanities 101 Fall 2014Classics in Conversation Stiemsma

Iliad Reading Guide Part 1

Use the following guide to help you to fill in the blanks on books or parts of books skipped, and fill out the sections for yourself on the assigned portions as you read them.

Bk Ll. Summary Quotes Discussion ?? Other/Notes1 All What is

the view of war put forth?

Why is Achilles so angry?

2 1-583

Lists of names of soldiers, families, homes, etc., Greek then Trojan.

This is called the catalogue and is an epic convention now.

On Achilles’ Acheans: “But they had no lust…” (782-85)

On Aeneas: “And the noble son…” (930-32)

Find and analyze an epic simile in this book.

Why so many invocations?

Multiple invocations of the muse. Why?

3 All Compare the characters of Paris and Menelaus

4 489-630

Zeus suggests that Menelaus has won and that the war should be over, but Hera and Athena can’t accept

Zeus orders Athena: “…see that the Trojans break the sworn truce first…” (81-84)

Agamemnon after Menelaus’

Compare the epic similes used to describe the two armies.

Why does

437 ff recounts the story of Oedipus’ kids

this, and so Athena gets the Trojans to break the truce by attacking Menelaus

injury: “The son of Cronus, / Zeus…will brandish over their heads…” (191-95)

Homer give such intense descriptions of violence in the battles?

5 ** Diomedes goes after every Trojan in sight, wounding Aeneas, and even attacking Aphrodite, Apollo, and Ares, as well as people whose name does not start with “A”

Hector strikes back, with Ares on his side

Athena to Ares (ironic?): “…why not let these mortals flight it out…” (34-38)

Diomedes’ prayer: “…prayed and Athena heard his prayer, / put spring in his limbs…” (133-48)

Brave Aeneas: “No talk of turning for home…” (242-52)

Re: Diomedes: “Doesn’t the son of Tydeus know, deep down, / the man who fights the gods does not live long?” (465-66), “That daredevil Diomedes, he’d fight Father Zeus…” (527-29)

Ares after injury: “We everlasting gods…Ah what chilling blows/w suffer…(1008-15)

6 ** Lots more Agamemnon to Androma

fighting, back and forth, lots of killing

The Greeks seem to be winning, so Hector goes back into Troy, sees his wife and child, and brings Paris back to the front

Menelaus, concerning mercy: “Why such concern for enemies… No baby boy in his mother’s belly,/not even he escape” (64-70) (ouch!)

Hector to Paris: “What on earth are you doing? … You’d be the first to lash out at another—anywhere—/you saw hanging back…” (384-92)

Helen to Hector: “…But since the gods ordained it all…Zeus planted a killing doom within us both, /so even for generations still unborn/we will live in song” (407-26)

Stallion metaphor for Paris: “Nor did Paris linger…” (601-12)

Hector’s significant subjective: “If Zeus will ever let us raise…” (628-31)

che calls herself Hector’s “widow”

7 ** Hector, spurred by Apollo and Athena,

How the gods relate: “So Apollo staged the action…”

challenges the Greeks, who send forth Ajax to fight him. The two spur, but Zeus calls off the fight, and both armies retire.

Both armies desire to bury their dead, and no truce is reached.

(49 ff) Hector requests

respect for his body: “But give my body to friends to carry home again…” (92-105)

Ajax on winning the right to fight Hector: “...the lot is mine and it fills my heart with joy!” (219-230)

“Hector himself, his heart pounding against his ribs…” 248 ff) FEAR!

Paris refuses to give up Helen (415-418)

Perfect ending: “Then down they lay at last and took the gift of sleep” (558)

8 ** Amidst more back and forth between the armies, Hector and the Trojans begin to dominate by the will of Zeus.

Zeus orders that the gods are to remain out of the fighting, and they fear him and agree,

Intro continues from before: “Now as the dawn flung out her golden robe…” (1 ff)

Zeus on his own power: “Hang a great golden cable down from the heavens,/lay hold of it, all you gods, all goddesses too:/you can never drag me down from sky

but they don’t.

to earth…But whenever I’d set my mind to drag you up,/in deadly earnest, I’d hoist you all with ease” (20-31)

Zeus foreshadowing regarding Hector: “This powerful hector will never quit the fighting,/not till swift Achilles rises beside the ships…” (546-51)

9 All Based on his words and actions here, has Agamemnon changed?

What are the various appeals made to Achilles? How effective is each speaker?

Why does Achilles respond as he does? What does he want?

10 ** Diomedes and Odysseus

Diomedes kills Dolon the

sneak to spy on the Trojans, discover a Trojan spy, get information from him, kill him, and then use his information to slaughter many Thracians that night.

informant: “…just as Dolon reached up for his chine/to cling with a frantic hand and beg for life,/ Diomedes struck him swuare across the neck…” (515-40)

11 908-1015

The next morning, the fighting continues with great intensity, with Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus all receiving injuries.

Hector has a brush with death, but continues his attack

Patroclus…

The gods as responsible: “But Zeus drove a swirl of panic deep in their lines…Zeus was bent on hurling down/to the House of Death a rout of sturdy fighters” (60-63)

Metaphor for Agamemnon: “Think of a lion…” (132-42)

Rough justice from Agamemnon: (142-165)

12 All Characterize Hector thus far in the epic. How is he like Greek heroes? How is he not?

Consider the relationshi

p between human actions and the will and actions of Zeus. How doe the other gods fit in this picture?