The Iliad A Tale of Ancient Greece
The Iliad is the story of Achilles, or, as it is
often called, “The tragedy of Achilles,” and how
he brings disaster upon himself through his
anger. Although parts of the Iliad have nothing
to do with Achilles, he is the central figure, the
medium through which Homer conveys the
poem's theme. As Homer shows, coming face
to face with his own humanity, he takes his
audience on a moral journey. This is perhaps
the main reason the Iliad transcends the limits
of time, place, and gender to speak to all
human beings, who must come to terms with
how and why to live and how to face death.
ACHILLES
Achilles was the son of the
mortal Peleus and the goddess
Thetis. He was the mightiest of
the Greeks who fought in the
Trojan War, and was the hero of
Homer's Iliad.
Achilles was very brave and
undefeatable in battle – almost
immortal, in fact. There are two
stories that explain why Achilles was
so resistant to death:
Story 1:
Thetis, Achilles’ goddess-mother, wanted to
burn away the human part of her son; so she
placed him upon a fiery altar. Peleus,
Achilles’ father, intervened just in time, but
an angry Thetis abandoned her son and
husband.
Story 2:
Thetis, Achilles’ goddess-mother, wanted to
make her son immune to death. So she held
him by the heel and dipped him into the River
Styx to make him immortal. Thus, the only
vulnerable (weak) spot on Achilles’ body was
his tendon where his mother held him as she
dipped him into the waters of death.
There was a prophecy given about Achilles’
destiny while he was still a boy. A prophet
named Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy
could not be taken without Achilles’ help. Thetis
knew that, if her son went to Troy, Achilles would
die an early death, so she sent him to the court
of Lycomedes, in Scyros where he was hidden,
disguised as a young girl. Achilles' disguise was
finally discovered by Odysseus. Achilles went
willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host of
his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by his
tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus.
The Trojan War began as a result of
events that took place at a wedding
many years earlier……
Paris, the handsomest man in all of
the known world, was asked by Zeus
to judge a divine “beauty contest” of
sorts. A golden apple would be given
to the most beautiful goddess present
– Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite.
0
Hera offered Paris ultimate power
if he picked her; Athena promised
to make him the wealthiest man
alive, and Aphrodite promised to
give Paris Helen – the most
beautiful woman alive.
{Nevermind that she was already
married to Menelaus of
Sparta……}
Paris, of course, picked Aphrodite,
and she helped him to steal Helen
from her husband’s home and
whisk her away to Troy, his
boyhood home. Needless to say,
Menelaus launched 1,000 ships –
commanded by Greek kings and
their armies – to get Helen back.
Thus, the Trojan War began.
THE TROJAN
WAR
Just after Menelaus, Achilles, and
Agamemnon (three Greek kings)
had found Troy and began to
engage the Trojan army in a fight,
Achilles became very angry at
Agamemnon over a girl (you’ll
just have to wait to read the story
to find out the juicy details!)
Achilles refused to fight, and
returned home in a pout. All of
the rewards the Greeks had to
offer could not entice him to
return to battle; however, he
allowed his best friend – Patroclus
– to fight in his place.
When Achilles received word that
his friend Patroclus was killed by
Hector – the Trojan hero – he
returned to battle, swearing
revenge on Hector. He killed
Hector and dragged his body
behind a chariot to further
dishonor him.
Only after Hector’s father –
Priam, king of Troy – came to
Achilles and begged for the body
of his son did Achilles release his
anger and give up Hector’s body
for a proper / honorable burial.
HOMER –
BARD of THE ILIAD
The ancient Greeks ascribed the Iliad and the
Odyssey, their two oldest, monumental epic
poems, to Homer, whom they called simply
"The Poet." Nothing certain is known about
Homer's life. His name, which means
"hostage," gives no clue to his origins, since
small wars and raids between neighboring
city-states and towns were frequent in ancient
Greece, and prisoners were routinely held for
ransom of sold into slavery. Homer is
commonly referred to as the "Ionian bard," or
poet; more than likely, he came from Ionia in
the eastern Mediterranean.
Legend has it that Homer was blind. This
legend may have some basis in fact; if he
lived to be an old man, he may simply have
become blind. However, the idea of Homer's
blindness may have arisen because of its
symbolic implications. The Greeks
contrasted inner vision with physical vision,
that a “second sight” was a gift from the gods
to make up for a loss of physical sight. Also,
Homer's image - the blind bard singing the
myths of his people - is a striking symbol for
the beginning of Western literature.
Although it is not known for certain when
Homer lived, the Iliad was almost certainly
composed late in the 8th century B.C.
Historically, however, both the Iliad and the
Odyssey take place in a long-past heroic age
known as the Late Bronze Age. Homer did not
create the plot of characters of the epics he is
credited with writing; rather, he inherited the
stories of those epics. Generations of Greeks
had preserved orally the subject matter of the
Iliad and the Odyssey - the story of the Trojan
War and the heroic mythology that pervades
both poems.
The Epic Form
The Iliad was, in fact, considered historical fact:
children in the fifth century B.C. memorized large
sections of the poem and practiced the ethical
codes that Homer presents. Athenians even
claimed the Homeric gods and heroes as
founders or champions of Athens and its people.
Homer's epics also had a tremendous influence
on later generations of Greek writers. Greek
lyric poets, dramatists, and philosophers
considered themselves Homer's heirs, drawing
on his work either to imitate it or to argue with it.
Just as the oral tradition supplied Homer with
a vast body of legend, it also provided him
with the form and structure in which to
express the legend. Although Homer was
free to choose and shape the elements of the
story according to his own vision, his
language, meter, and style were formulaic.
Over time, bards had developed a common
fund of expressions, phrases, and
descriptions that fit the rhythms of the epic
verse line. These conventions became the
building blocks of the epic genre.
Homer begins the Iliad powerfully by
stating the epic's theme and invoking one
of the Muses. The Muses are nine
goddesses in Greek mythology who were
believed to preside over all forms of art
and science. The poet calls on the Muse
to inspire him with the material he needs
to tell the story. This type of opening is
one of the defining features of a Homeric
epic.
Homer observes another epic convention by
beginning the story "in medias res," which is
Latin for "in the middle of things." Reading a
Greek epic from the beginning is like tuning in to
a story already in progress, in that many of the
story's events have already taken place.
Information about those events is revealed later
in the poem through flashbacks and other
narrative devices. Homer could begin his poems
in medias res because the general outline of the
plot and the main characters would have been
already familiar to his audience.
The particular demands of composing and
listening to oral poetry gave rise to the use of
stock descriptive words of phrases, such as
"brilliant Achilles," or "Hector breaker of horses."
These epithets, often compound adjectives like
"blazing-eyed Athena," allowed the poet to
describe an object or a character quickly and
economically, in terms his audience would
recognize. Homeric epithets and other formulaic
language may have helped the poet shape his
story and compose while reciting, and the
repetition of familiar expressions also would have
helped the audience follow the narrative.
Cultural Influences
in The Iliad
The gods and goddesses of Homer's
epics often would take contradictory
sides in human affairs and would
interfere with mortals in ways that
sometimes seemed helpful while at
other times seemed unfair. Humans
were constantly at the gods' mercy, and
many Greeks would blame misfortunes
upon an angry god or goddess who had
been displeased by the actions of some
human soul.
To protect themselves from the vengeance
of angry gods, Greeks practiced ritual
sacrifices. The ritual sacrifice of animals
was a common practice. Normally, only
certain parts of the slaughtered animals were
burned. Among these were the fatty parts
that make aromatic smoke sacrificers hoped
would reach the gods; the remaining meat
was shared among the people. When the
entire animals was burned, the sacrifice was
called a holocaust, which means "wholly
burned" in Greek.
Sometimes larger, more substantial sacrifices
were necessary. A hecatomb is the sacrifice
of one hundred animals (usually oxen,
sheep, or goats), although the term may be
used to refer to any large sacrifice. Other
times, a human sacrifice was required, as in
the case of Agamemnon's daughter who was
slain in order to appease the goddess
Artemis and ensure a safe voyage to Troy.
Agamemnon himself was said to have
bragged that he had slain his child to help a
war.
Throughout the Iliad, reciprocity,
hospitality, and exchange are the glue
that holds a society together, mending
the cracks that would split it apart.
Exchanging gifts and services is the way
"xenia" works, the guest-host relationship
in ancient Greece that binds together
people not related by blood or clan.
Early in the sixth book of the Iliad, the
heroes Glaucus and Diomedes come
together to fight. Before engaging in
battle, each ascertain the other's identity.
The two men discover that their ancestors
had established a bond of xenia. Realizing
that they are bound to uphold the ancestral
bond, the two warriors vow not to fight
each other and exchange armor as a
gesture of friendship.
Refusing to take part in the system
threatens to shake the foundations of
civilized community. Likewise, Greeks
who would withhold hospitality to other
Greeks or traveling strangers risked
angering the gods and goddesses, who
often traveled in disguise and would be
offended if hospitality were not given.
In ancient Greece, oaths were sworn to
solemnize promises or threats and to
formalize official relationships between
individuals, clans, or states. The gods
were called on to witness the intentions of
the speaker; if the speaker violated his
oath, the gods would punish him.
As warfare is presented in the Iliad, there
are several options in dealing with a dead
opponent. The winner might strip the
armor of the vanquished warrior and then
return the body. The returning of the
vanquished hero to his homeland was
important to the ancient Greeks, and
warriors would often go to great lengths to
retrieve the bodies of their fallen
comrades.
The Greeks placed such importance upon
burying the dead that they believed
departed souls would return to haunt the
living if, in death, they did not receive a
proper burial. In the context of formal
mourning, only women sang funeral dirges
(songs). The men would play "funeral
games" - games of skill and chance to
honor the fallen warrior.
All of these cultural influences can be
seen in Homer’s rendition of “The Iliad.”