Classical Mythology
Handout: Iliad 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
Dr. Fredricksmeyer
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