The Iliad
An Epic Poem
Epic Poem
 An extended narrative poem in elevated or
dignified language, celebrating the feats of a
legendary or traditional hero.
 Characters of high position form an organic
whole through their adventures, their relation
to a central heroic figure, and their
development of episodes important to the
history of a nation or race.
Main Characteristics
 Opens in medias res (in the middle of things)
 Has a vast setting, which covers many nations, the
world or the universe.
 Begins with an invocation to a muse
 Starts with a statement of the theme.
 Includes long catalogues (lists) of things like ships
or booty
 Is written in verse

Dactylic hexameter
Main Characteristics
 Uses epithets
 descriptive term (word or phrase) accompanying, or
occurring in place of, a name, and having entered common
usage.
 Pelides, signifying the "son of Peleus", to identify Achilles
 “her fingers of pink light” = dawn
 “winedark” = sea
 Features long and formal speeches.
 Shows divine intervention on human affairs.
 Contains “star" heroes who embody the values of the
civilization.
 Highlights heroic characters bound by a code of honor.
Prominent Epic Poems
 Greek
 The Iliad


about the role of Achilles in the Trojan War
The Odyssey

about the misadventures of Odysseus trying to return
from the Trojan War and the shenanigans of the suitors
trying to usurp his place back in Ithaca
 Latin
 The Aeneid

about the travels of the Trojan prince Aeneas on his
way from the Trojan War to Italy where he founds a
new home for the future Romans
Epic Hero
 Participates in a cyclical journey or quest
 Faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his
journey
 Returns home significantly transformed by his
journey.
 Illustrates traits, performs deeds, and
exemplifies certain morals that are valued by
the society from which the epic originates.
 Depicts recurring characters in the legends of
their native culture.
Epic Heroes
 The Iliad

the Greek Achilles
 The Odyssey

the Greek Odysseus
 The Aeneid

the Trojan Aeneas
The Stories
The Iliad and The Odyssey
 Tells the different parts of a single story



A Greek military expedition to the distant city
of Troy
A war with the Trojans
The return of the heroes to their cities and
kingdoms
 Both divided into 24 books

Each book corresponds to the 24 letters of the
Greek alphabet
The Iliad
 Author

Homer


No one really knows for certain who
wrote the poem
Blind
 Probably written in the eighth century B.C. when
alphabetic writing was introduced to Greece


Stories handed down orally before then
Events described in the story took place in the 13th
century B.C. or approximately 500 years before the
story was written down.
The Iliad
 Narrator
 The poet

declares himself to be the medium through which one
or many of the Muses speak
 Point of view
 Third person omniscient
 Themes
 The interaction between fate and free will
 Pride as a source of greatness and ruin
 The pursuit of glory as a legacy
 The glory of battle and the horror of war
The Iliad
 Most famous account of the Trojan War
 Means “Tale of Ilios” or “Tale of Troy”
 Based on a body of mythic stories known as
“The Judgment of Paris”
“The Judgment of Paris”
 Begins with the wedding between Peleus and
Thetis
 Eris, goddess of discord, rolls a golden apple
inscribed with the words “For the Fairest”
 Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claim the
apple.
 Zeus chooses Paris, the most handsome
prince of Troy, to decide who deserves the
title.
 All out she-war to gain title as the goddesses
bribe Paris for the honor
“The Judgment of Paris”
 Paris chooses Aphrodite
 She promised him the most beautiful
woman in the world in return

Helen, wife of Menelaus
 Paris falls in love with Helen and takes
her and other treasures back to Troy.
 Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother, and
other Greek kings seek revenge.
 Revengers cannot sail to Troy because
there is no wind.
“The Judgment of Paris”
 A seer convinces Agamemnon to sacrifice his
youngest daughter as a means of restoring
the winds
 Revengers reach Troy
but are unable to secure
the return of Helen and
the stolen treasures
 War begins.
 The Iliad begins.
The Iliad
 Trojan War is in its 10th year.
 Action of the war



A quarrel between
Agamemnon and Achilles
The death of Achilles’
close friend Petroclus
The death of Hector,
the Trojans’ greatest warrior.
Between the Two Epics
 Achilles is poisoned by an arrow.
 When Priam’s son, Helenus, is captured, he tells
the Greeks that Troy will fall only when
Philoctetes renters the war with Achilles’ son,
Neoptolemus
 Odysseus and Neoptolemus lures Philoctetes to
Troy, where he kills Paris with Herakles’ bow.
 The actions still do not destroy Troy.
 Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into Troy and
steal the sacred statue of Athena, believed to be
the source of Troy’s strength
Between the Two Epics





Troy still does not fall.
Finally, the Greeks resort to deception.
They build a large, hollow wooden horse
The belly is filled with Achaeans (Greeks).
When Odysseus and the others sail away, the
curious Trojans come out of the city and find
Sinon, a lone Greek soldier, and the horse.
 Sinon relays the he has been abandoned and
that the Greeks have left the horse as
atonement for stealing the statue. Greeks drag
horse inside the city walls.
Between the Two Epics
 In the middle of the night, the Achaeans emerge from
the horse and call their compatriots back from a
nearby island.
 The Greeks then ransack and burn Troy.
 The prizes




Menelaus gets Helen.
Agamemnon gets Priam’s daughter, Cassandra
Odysseus gets Hecuba, Priam’s wife
Neoptolemus gets Andromache, Hector’s wife
 Odysseus, who angered three gods, spends 10 years
making his way back to his wife Penelope and his
son Telemachus
The Odyssey
 Finally Odysseus returns to Ithaca after the
Trojan War

He has been gone 20 years.
 Series of episodes of Odysseus’s protracted
homeward voyage, which are divided into three
songs.



1 – Telemachus, who is old enough to be king,
must undergo rites of passage before assuming
that role.
2 – Odysseus’s adventures on his return trip.
3 – Odysseus and Penelope reunite, and
Odysseus disposes of her suitors.