The Iliad
The following questions should be answered as completely as possible--very often
requiring at least three complete sentences; also, a proper response will involve the
insertion and analysis of quotations from the text as support. Provide for each
vocabulary word: a numbered list of the word, its part of speech, a brief definition,
the line from the poem that uses the word, and your own context sentence. Your
answers to the questions should follow this vocabulary list for each book of the
poem.
Book Vocab/Questions
1,2,3,4, and 5
6,7,8,9,10,11
16,18,19,22,23, and 24
Due Date
10:00 P.M. 9/20
10:00 P.M. 9/27
10:00 P.M. 10/11
Quiz Dates
9/20 Books 1,2,3,4, and 5
9/27 Books 6,7,8,9,10, and 11
Test
10/11
Writing Assignment will be due on turnitin.com at 10:00 P.M. on 10/15
Extension Activity will be in class on 10/15
Location
Dropbox
Dropbox
Dropbox
Book 1
Thursday 9/13---9/14 for Section 9
Vocabulary: plundered,
sacrosanct,
hecatomb,
defilement
propitiate,
derision,
1. As you read Book 1, notice how narrative slowly reveals characters, relationships, and
the general situation. Why is this an effective narrative device? What are its limitations?
2. The Iliad opens with an invocation of the Muse (here referred to only as “Goddess”).
What does it reveal about the narrator? How does it influence your reading of the rest of
the work?
3. Why does Agamemnon respond so threateningly to the priest of Apollo? Why does
Agamemnon give up his concubine, Chryseis? Why does he take Briseis? Why is this
such an outrage to Achilles? What action against Agamemnon does Achilles contemplate
before he decides to withdraw from the fighting? Note also how Homer attends to the
social and political dynamics of events. Who is present when Agamemnon and Achilles
have their quarrel? Would this quarrel have erupted if they were the only two present?
4. When Achilles addresses Thetis, he describes in detail his quarrel with Agamemnon. Is
his account exactly the same as that narrated earlier in the book? Why would events, so
recently narrated, be retold? What does Thetis’ reaction to his request reveal about
Achilles?
5. Apollo, Athena, Zeus, Hera, and Hephaestus all play roles in Book 1. What types of
human activities attract the attention of the gods?—provide at least one quotation, and
analysis, that helps to explain the motivation of at least one of these gods.
6. Compare the conversations between Zeus and Thetis, in private, and between Zeus and
Hera, before the other Olympian gods. Would Zeus have even entertained Thetis' request,
had she made it in the presence of the other gods? Would Zeus have reacted as violently
toward Hera if she hadn't pressed him before other gods?
Book 2 Monday, 9/16---Tuesday, 9/17 for Section 9
Vocabulary: tumult,
courier,
sparsely,
citadel,
prostrate
1. Book 2 presents the first of Agememnon’s “aborted plans”. What does Agamemnon
decide to do? What prompts his decision? What does this say about Agamemnon’s
effectiveness as a leader? Who steps in to save the situation?
2. Provide Thersites’ comments about Agamemnon and discuss how these are different
from Achilles’? Why does Odysseus treat Thersites so harshly? What does this say
about what is important to Odysseus
3. Why the long list of cities represented in the catalogue of ships? In antiquity this was
often deemed one of the high points of the Iliad. Modern readers often have a different
reaction. Why would one react positively to this passage? What does it add to the work?
Outside of conveying the scope of the expedition, does the catalogue fulfill any other
functions?
4. The book closes with a shorter Trojan catalogue. What does this reveal about the
Trojans and their allies?
Book 3
Monday, 9/16---Tuesday 9/17 for Section 9
Vocabulary: brazen,
flank,
luminous,
censure
1. Provide the quotation of at least two similes that open book 3 and explain what these
reveal about the differences between Greeks and Trojans?
CSTS215: TALES OF TROY
2. How do the old men of Troy respond to Helen’s presence? How does Priam regard
her? Is there blame of her for the losses, economic as well as human, to Troy?
3. Why do the gods intervene to rescue Paris from single combat with Menelaus? What is
the outcome of this divine intervention for Paris? How does his character compare with
other heroes in the poem?
4. Is the duel a complete waste of time, or is the situation at the end of the book at all
different from the beginning? Why or why not? Do we know more about the relative
guilt of Greeks and Trojans?
5. To what extent is Book 3 a repeat of the events that would most likely have occurred at
the beginning of the war, ten years before? Why is scene situated here?
Book 4
Wednesday, 9/18—Thursday, 9/19 for section 9
Vocabulary: ramparts,
marshaling, reproach,
staunch,
bastions
1. Consider the descriptions of fighting in these books. How graphic are the descriptions
of fighting, wounding and death? Provide an example. Do you think this promotes
warfare?
2. What kinds of things does Homer tell us about the minor characters who appear only to
be killed? Provide at least one specific example.
3. What similes does Homer use to describe the behavior of combatants? Provide at least
three samples and discuss why the poet uses these in this scene?
4. Much of this book is devoted to Agamemnon's marshalling of the troops and
encouragement of the various leaders. Does he seem more competent here than in the
previous books? Are his leadership methods effective? What historical or contemporary
leader might you liken him to and why?
Please answer completely. Provide quotations to support your analysis.
Book 5
Due 9/26
Vocabulary: conspicuous, corselet,
vaunting,
insatiate, perdition
1. Provide the line(s) to explain why the immortals do not have blood
2. What is the divine response to Diomedes' violence against gods? Is he punished for
impiety? Why or why not?
3. What is Zeus’ attitude toward these acts against his fellow Olympians? How does the
relationship between heroes and gods differ from the relationship between the rest of
humanity and the gods?
4. Now that you have read a significant section of the Iliad, what can do we know about
the narrator? Does he reveal any partiality for one side or the other? Explain with at least
two different ideas and/or examples.
Book 6
Due 9/26
Vocabulary: rapturous, injunctions,
steadfast,
aegis,
lingered
1. Who prompts Hector to return to Troy? Why does he go? What exactly is his mandate
from Helenus? (provide the lines of her mandate to him)
2. The Greek Diomedes and Glaucus decide not to fight each other. Why exactly is this?
3. What women does Hector encounter in Troy? What is his relationship between each?
How might their attempts to delay him make him actually want to get back to the battle
quicker?
4. What is the impact of war on Hector's mother, Hecuba? What does she desire to offer
Hector and what is she instructed to do? Provide the quotation. What is ironic in this
action?
5. How does the father regard his young son? How aloof or distant was this powerful
warrior from his small child? How intimate? Here is another instance of Homeric
laughter, as father and mother react to the infant's initial alarm at his father in battle gear
with face mostly hidden by his helmet. What circumstances produce the laughter? How is
this like the laughter on Olympus as gods watched Hephaestus scrambling in service to
them? How is it different?
Book 7
Vocabulary: stricken, throng, haughty,
1. Another dual is proposed. Who will fight this time? How is the Greek champion
chosen?
2. What is the initial Greek response to Hector’s challenge? Who breaks the silence?
Why do the Greeks fear for Menelaus? How does Agamemnon persaude him not to fight?
3. Keeping the dual between Paris and Menelaus in mind: who seems to be winning the
dual in Book 7? Why does it break off before it is completed? How do Ajax and Hector
part.
4. A Trojan elder, Antenor, also has a plan? What does he suggest? Paris refuses but does
make a counter-offer that is relayed to the Greeks. What is this offer? Could it be
successful?
5. Poseidon takes a special interest in the construction of the Greek wall. He has two
concerns about the wall; what are they? What does Zeus grant Poseidon concerning the
wall? When will this come to pass?
Book 8
Vocabulary: hewed,
traverse, goaded, audacious,
fodder,
1. How does Zeus deal with Athena and Hera in their efforts to advance the Greek side?
What is the basis of his power? What is revealed about the roles of Hector and Patroclus?
2. Beginning in the Book and climaxing just before his death in Book 22, Hector
becomes increasingly arrogant. Given his performance in the dual in Book 7, is this
attitude merited?
3. What does the brief scene between Hera and Poseidon add? How does it motivate the
action of the work?
4. Just as Hector routs the Greeks, the scene shifts to Olympus. What does the
conversation between Athena, Hera, and Zeus add to the narrative? What is happening
when the narrative returns to the Trojan plain?
5. What do you make of Hector’s speech that closes the Book? Provide, and analyze the
final sentence of his speech?
Book 9
Vocabulary: sentinels,
supplication,
cauldrons,
sacrosanct, recompense
1. When Nestor confronts Agamemnon about his seizure of Briseis, what is
Agamemnon’s view of that act?
3. What reparation does Agamemnon decide to offer Achilles? What relationship
between himself and Achilles does Agamemnon envision?
4. Who are the members of the delegation sent to Achilles? Nestor selects these heroes
not at random, but rather because of their close relationship with Achilles. What qualities
does each have that would appeal to Achilles? How does each seek to persuade Achilles
to return to combat? Who seems to move Achilles most from his determination to avoid
fighting? Notice that the narrator says that Nestor gives advice to each member of the
embassy but does not reveal that advice.
5. In his reply to Odysseus, Achilles says, "I hate that man like the very Gates of Death
who says one thing but hides another in his heart" (lines 378-379). This charge, aimed at
Agamemnon, must have a stunning effect on Odysseus, who is renowned among the
Greeks for being a very clever and calculating speaker.
6. In his reply to Odysseus, what does Achilles say about his commitment to the values
that brought him to Troy? About the heroic ideal? What are his reservations about
pursuing heroic honor? What does he reveal about the two fates available to him? Which
fate does he choose at this point?
7. Before this book, Agamemnon seems to have been chiefly responsible for sustaining
the quarrel between himself and Achilles. Do the events of this book shift the burden of
responsibility?