The Iliad
Epic Hero Characteristics
Superhuman strength
Craftiness; intelligence
Confidence
Helped by gods (luck?)
Ideals and values of culture
Victorious from perilous situations
Homer’s Iliad
Homer is said to be the
first teller of adventures of
all times.
He was not the first author
because in his day stories
were passed down---they
were told.
Written version is
approximately 3000 years
old!
He was a blind man whose
exact date of birth is
unknown.
Eris, Goddess of Discord
Angry because she was not invited to the
wedding of the Sea Goddess Thetis to King
Peleus, Eris tossed the Golden Apple marked
“To the Fairest” into the banquet.
Who Me??
Athena – Zeus’
daughter and a real
daddy’s girl
Hera – Zeus’ wife and
Queen of the Gods
Aphrodite – The
Goddess of Love, Beauty,
Pleasure and Procreation
Who’s the Fairest??
Aphrodite, Hera, and
Athena wanted the apple
Zeus would not choose, he
did not want the goddesses
angry with him
To the fairest
Paris was asked to make
the decision
The Judgment of Paris
Athena offers victory in
war
Hera offers power over
nations
Aphrodite offers him the
most beautiful woman in
the world
What would YOU
choose?
Paris Chooses Aphrodite
Paris accepts Aphrodite’s
offer of The Most
Beautiful Girl in the
WORLD!
He then learns that the
most beautiful girl in the
world was ALREADY
MARRIED (minor
detail…)
She is Helen and Helen is
married to Menelaus, King
of Sparta!
The Beginning of War
King Menelaus called on all those who were loyal to him.
They gathered a huge army, and built a thousand ships to carry
the army to Troy
Helen of Sparta was now called “Helen of Troy”
She was “The face that launched a thousand ships”
The Trojan War
The battle raged for 10
years
Many great heroes lost
their lives
A prophet predicted
that Troy could be
captured only with the
help of Achilles.
The Hero Achilles
Knowing the prophecy and
worried that her son would be
killed in war, Achilles’ mother
dips him in the river Styx to
make him immortal.
His only weakness is the place
on his heels where she held
him.
During the war, Achilles is
forced to give up his war prize,
a slave girl, to Agamemnon,
and so he refuses to fight.
Patroclus, his friend, asks
Achilles if he may ride out in
his armor so the Trojans would
lose heart.
Achilles
Achilles allows his friend, Patroclus,
to wear his armor. The next day
Patroclus is killed and stripped of the
armor by the Trojan hero Hector, who
mistook him for Achilles.
Achilles is overwhelmed with grief for
his friend and rage at Hector.
Achilles kills Hector. He desecrates
Hector’s body by dragging it behind
his chariot before the walls of Troy.
Finally Paris, aided by Apollo,
wounds Achilles in the heel
with an arrow; Achilles dies of the
wound.
10 Years of War
The Gods are tired of
watching men kill
each other, and decide
to help end the war.
Athena whispers an
idea in the Spartan
hero Odysseus’s ear.
The Trojan Horse
Odysseus tells them they
will build a huge horse of
wood.
Some would climb inside
and hide.
The rest would sail around
the tip of the island, where
they could not be seen.
One would stay behind
and tell the Trojans that he
had been abandoned by
the Greeks, and that the
horse was an offering to
Athena.
The Fall of Troy
The Trojans believed
the trick.
They had a huge
banquet to celebrate
the end of the war.
At night the men from
inside the horse came
out and unlocked the
gates to the city.
The Burning of Troy
The city is invaded by the
army.
The Trojans are drunk and
spent from their night of
revelry, unable to fight
back.
The Spartans destroy and
burn the city.
Aphrodite saves Helen
from the destruction.
The War Ends
King Menelaus
accepts Helen back.
The Warriors can now
return home.
Odysseus leaves for
home, and his wife
and son.
Book 5