HUEN 1010
Dr. Fredricksmeyer
Contextualizing the Iliad
BACKGROUND
I. Historical background
Heinrich Schliemann (late 19th century)/archaeological evidence (1250 BCE)—Troy; Mycenae,
Agamemnon
woman/raid
II. Mythological background
Trojan cycle-8 poems from the Cypria-Telegonia, that include the Iliad and the Odyssey
III. Composition
oral tradition
scale: over 15,000 lines
formulae: nouns + epithets; phrases; scenes
dactylic hexameter
Homeric Greek = verbal painting
aoidoi (singers)—interaction with audience
written down ca. 750-650 BCE
IV. Homer?
motif of blindness: Homer, Demodocus and others up to the modern era
“the Homeric question” starting with Friedrich A. Wolf in the 18th century
V. Audience and Venue
audiences at banquets and festivals, including athletic games, e.g. the Olympic games
VI. The Iliad
general
historical and cultural amalgamation
time span: ca. 40 days
starting point: in medias res + allusions to past and future
shame culture
Names
Achilles
Pain to the People [achos + laos (cf. G. die Leute)]
Human responsibility
“double motivation”—human and divine will inextricably combined
e.g. “the Gods help great men,” or “the Gods help bad men to destroy themselves”
strict liability
bicameral mind?
Overall structure (of the Iliad)
Withdrawal, Devastation and Return (WDR)—pervasive story pattern to this day:
1) Loss/Quarrel
2) Withdrawal
3) Disguise during absence or upon return (also deceitful stories)
4) Hospitality shown to wandering hero
5) Recognition
6) Disaster during or occasioned by hero’s absence
7) Reconciliation of hero and return of hero
BOOKS 1-4
Book 1
proem (1-9) and following
anger (menis) of Achilles—death of Greeks
will of Zeus
will of Apollo
Hera suggests assembly
Calchas
Agamemnon/Briseis/Achilles
threat to poetic tradition
Freudian interpretation
menis/eris theme
Apollo’s menis > menis of Achilles
Achilles withdrawal = continuation of the plague
structural parallel reinforcing the menis/eris theme
Agamemnon vs. Apollo—Greek deaths
Agamemnon vs. Achilles—Greek deaths
shame culture—honor
kleos
time
theme of compensation
Chryses/Agamemnon—negative example
Chryses/Odysseus—positive example
complex of compensations:
Artemis-Iphigenia for Troy/Apollo-Greeks for Chryses
Greeks and loot for Chryseis/Trojans and loot for Helen
cause of war reenacted
Agamemnon contrasts with Achilles
Greek lives and loot for Briseis
Patroclus for Achilles’ time
Achilles’ kleos for mortality
Freudian interpretation
hierarchy
slave/aristocrats/ruler (king)
aristocrats
metis vs. bie (including prowess as warrior and size of army)
Achilles (bie)
Book 2
assembly
channels of communication: Agamemnon vs. Achilles
foreshadowing
threat to poetic tradition
class distinctions—Thersites vs. aristocrats
situation primed for ruin
Book 3
threat to poetic tradition
duel between Paris and Menelaus
representative of entire conflict, yet second string
vs. Achilles vs. Hector as poetic climax
theft of Helen/Paris’ guilt reenacted
Paris/negative eros
Teichoskopia
Trojan/male attitude toward beauty
Helen’s inversion of normal type-scene
characterization of major Greek players—Odysseus’ words
sympathy with Troy/Trojan culpability
antipathy toward Greeks/justice of Greek cause
Book 4
divine tensions devolved onto humans
threat to poetic tradition
Hera’s viciousness—no theodicy!
metaphysical interpretation of history.
from truce to war
Athena’ role
Pandarus
reenactment
foreshadowing
double motivation>strict liability
BOOKS 5-17
Book 5
Diomedes’ aristeia (the Diomedeia)
focus on an individual
ascending scale of importance up to Ares (coward)
Book 6
sympathetic Hector/Troy
Hector’s visit to Troy—poetic contrast with Diomedeia
Hector at Troy
ascending scale of affection
elevation of conjugal:
a) friends (companions)—Trojan women
b) mother—Hecuba
c) brothers and sisters—Paris and sister-in-law Helen
d) husband/wife
incompatibility of heroism/kleos and domestic life
suspense and foreshadowing—(pre-mature) leave-taking
effeminate Paris
city (female) and battlefield (male)
contrast: Hector/Adromache—Paris/Helen
Adrastus episode
Diomedes and Glaucus
verbal dueling
Book 7
duel between Hector and Ajax
assembly of desperate Trojans
Book 8
divine assembly scene
Greek panic
defeat—counterattack—defeat (= A-B-A pattern)
second divine assembly—Zeus’ programmatic statement
no clear chain of cause and effect
Book 9
theme of loss and compensation
Trojan assembly/Greek assembly
Achilles vs. Agamemnon
another embassy to the hut of Achilles
Odysseus’ speech/Achilles’ speech
Phoenix’ speech
Meleager myth
Ajax’ speech
Achilles’dilemma
Book 10
“Doloneia”
problems of style and characerization
Book 11
series of Greek aristeiai cut short by wounding
Agamemnon’s first
comparison to childbirth (vs. Medea)
Nestor’ speech to Patroclus
suggestion that Patroclus lead the Myrmidons
Book 12
switch from Greek to Trojan perspective
from unsuccessful Greek aristeiai to successful Trojan aristeiai
Hector’ aristeia
lion/boar simile undercuts Hector’s victory
silence in mayhem
Hector warned—Trojan victory an illusion
prudence vs. heroism
Sarpedon and Glaucus—heroic code
noblesse oblige
Book 13
Trojan set-back
shift of perspective
psychological impact of this ABA pattern
Book 14
Hera tricks Zeus
catalogue of Zeus’mistresses (poet’s purposes)
Book 15
Zeus awakens
no theodicy
situation reversed to Book 12
vanity of human effort
divine assembly:
Zeus restates the prophecy from a different angle (64-68):
Achilles will send Patroclus to battle,
Hector will kill Patroclus,
Achilles will then kill Hector.
Hector and the Trojans recover, sinister undercurrent: horse similes
Book 16
Patroclus arrives at the hut of Achilles
Achilles’ strategy
Achilles’ three warnings to Patroclus/numerology
Patroclus and Achilles’ armor
Patroclus’ death
Book 17
Patroclus is dead/the fight for his body
structural requirement
BOOKS 18-24
Book 18
grief of Achilles
beauty/ugliness
short speeches
Thetis—beauty/ugliness
mortality/immortality
irony of Achilles’ wishes
sympathetic death: from now till Book 24
Achilles in Vietnam—Soldier’s Love
shift to the Trojan camp—Polydamas/Hector
metis
/ bie
Olympus and Achilles’ shield
Troy and the Trojan War
Book 19
Achilles’ immortal armor to mortals
Patroclus
Hector
Achilles’ kills self
but first, nomen fully realized
= heroic because now against enemy
social importance of compensation—Odysseus
psychological realism of Briseis and other captive women
Achilles shrouded by doom arming for battle
horses prophesy
Book 20
assembly > involvement of the gods humorous counterpoint
to human condition
Aeneas
enmity toward Creon
greater warrior than Hector
ultimate Trojan survival
postponement of final duel
Book 21
further postponement of final duel
Achilles’ aristeia
dolphin simile—omophagy/cannibalism
Lycaon
Achilles vs. Scamander River
disruption of the kosmos itself
parallel with Zeus
psychological realism: Achilles in Vietnam—Berserk
Battle of the Gods
humorous counterpoint
Book 22
Hector’s death
kleos and time
Troy’s death
cowardice
psychological realism
pathetic
recall of simile
3
funeral procession
location—Scaean Gates
Athena’s dual role
Achilles’ impiety/Achilles’ greatness
psychological realism: Achilles in Vietnam—Abuse
Andromache’s lamentation
Book 23
parallel scenes of mourning
Achilles the living dead
Achilles’ dream
funeral
Achilles’ inhumanity/impiety
Funeral Games
foreshadowing Achilles’ reintegration into humanity
Book 24
gods vs. Achilles’ desecration
economics of honor subverted/restored
revenge unsatisfactory
Priam’s katabasis
Hermes
Achilles’ tent
Achilles’ remembers Peleus
Achilles’ old-self
return of Hector/Achilles
ending
emotional resolution
structural symmetry
pathos
narrative refuses to close—open door to a tragic future