Reference no: EM133368916

When The Iliad was written down, it was written on scrolls and each scroll was considered a separate "book." Because of that, the editors continue to refer to what we call chapters in works from the classical tradition as "Books."

Some classical scholars think that the Iliad (from another name for Troy---Ilium) and the Odyssey (from Odysseus whom we first meet in the Iliad) were written by a blind poet named Homer. Others say that they were written and reworked by a variety of writers. What both sides agree on, based on language usage, is that both were written sometime in the 8th Century or late 7th Century BCE. The events that are being described, though, happened about 1250 BCE. So, the epic poems were written about 500 years after the events that are being described. and were passed on orally. Even in Homer's time, (we will consider him to be the author) they were considered legends of questionable truth. By the 19th Century CE, the events were considered totally mythical, that is until Heinrich Schliemann, a multimillionaire self-financed amateur archeologist decided to find Troy based on information gleaned from the Iliad and the Odyssey and other classic sources. In 1872, he actually found the city on the coast of what is now Turkey, proving that the Trojan War actually occurred. Of course, the events described in the Iliad and the Odyssey may only be partially true, if that. This, of course, makes little difference to our interpretation of the Iliad, since we will be approaching the Iliad as a literary work.

The Iliad is the story of "Achilles' wrath," as Homer writes in the first line of the poem. It is not the entire story of the Trojan War. It begins with a dispute between Achilles, the greatest warrior, who strikes fear into the hearts of the Trojans, and Agamemnon, the greatest King and the leader of the expedition. (I visited the ruins of Agamemnon's city, Mycenae, on a bike trip in Greece. Agamemnon was not there when I visited. The city, on the eastern shore of the Peloponnese, was discovered in 1841 and later completely excavated also by Heinrich Schliemann.) The Iliad ends with the death and burial of the greatest Trojan warrior, Hector. This is, after all, the story of Achilles' wrath, as Homer says in the first sentence, not of the Trojan War itself. It doesn't include the origin of the war, which was supposedly caused by Paris (also known as Alexandros), one of the sons of the king of Troy, Priam, when he kidnapped the wife of Menelaus, the King of Sparta and brother of King Agamemnon, the famous Helen of Troy. Helen and Paris were both considered extremely beautiful. After the Iliad ends, Achilles dies from being shot in the heel by an arrow, giving us the terms Achilles heel for a weak spot in an otherwise strong body and the body part, the Achilles tendon. (Like most great Greek heroes, Achilles is a demigod, half-God/half-human. His mother, the Goddess, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx when he was a baby, making him invincible, except for the heel that she held him by.) The Trojan War ends when the Greeks supposedly give up and leave, leaving behind a large wooden horse. The Trojans bring the horse inside the walls, not realizing that there were Greek warriors inside who under the cover of darkness open the gates, letting in the waiting Greek army to slaughter the Trojans, giving us the warning, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," although it should have been "Beware of gifts bearing Greeks." (That's my attempt at a joke.)

What primarily concerns us, though, is the first and ninth books (chapters) of the Iliad, which is reputed to be the oldest work of literature in the Western World. We will be looking closely at the motivations of the actors in the drama. Agamemnon is forced to give up his prize of war, a slave woman, and takes Achilles' slave woman instead, leaving Achilles deeply offended. Achilles, himself a prince, withdraws from the war and threatens to return to Greece (Book 1). With Achilles gone, the war goes badly for the Greeks and an embassy is sent to Achilles to persuade him to return to battle (Book 9). Achilles still refuses to return to battle but doesn't return to Greece. Eventually, Achilles' best buddy (most interpreters claim this is a homoerotic relationship), Patroclus, puts on Achilles' armor and fights in his place (Book 16), terrifying the Trojans who think that Achilles has returned to battle. Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, angering Achilles, and leading him to return to battle to kill Hector and defile his body (Books 22 and 24). So it is Achilles' wrath that leads him to leave the battle and to return, as well.

This should give you enough context to make the sections I have assigned intelligible. Of course, if you find this interesting, you could read the entire poem. There is also a very good contemporary novel by Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles, that retells the story from a modern LGBTQ perspective.

Explain the origin of Achilles' withdrawal from battle and each of the arguments presented by the Embassy in Book 9 to persuade Achilles to return to battle. What is Achilles' response to each of these arguments? What do you make of Achilles' concerns about death? What sorts of concerns underlie each of Achilles' responses? How does Achilles' position change over the course of the discussion? What does Achilles' return to battle after the death of Patrocles tell us about Achilles' motivations?