Homer and Herodotus.

The structure of the Iliad 2017.01.31

- Starts of with the death of warriors, Zeus will.
- Homer says he will focus on one episode of the Trojan war (10 years into the war)
- The anger of Achilles occupies 5 books of the Iliad.

1. Bk 9 have to plead with Achilles

2. Bk 16 he sends Patroclus
3. Then Bk 19 he joins the fight again
4. Bk 22 he fights Hector
- The tenth year of the war, the fight between Ach. and Ag.
- Homer uses a sequence of episodes that take place during the tenth year, that are
actually taking place in the earlier years of the war.

First quasi-flashback = the Greek March Out

i) Homer makes comparisons to the Greeks TBC
ii) The Catalogue of Troops. Appeal to the muses
iii) The Duel (Bk. 3) they have a duel
iv) Teichoscopia
v) Paris and Helen
vi) Pandarus two goddesses want the war to break out again. Athena and Hera hate
Troy so they want he war to continue. Athena goes up to Pandarus and gets him to
shoot an arrow to break the truce. He then is the first to get killed and the Goddess
Athena is the one to insure he gets killed. The gods of the Iliad are cruel
vii) The fall of troy

What is the Iliad about? The title means 'Troy poem' (from 'Ilios' = 'Troy'), which suggests
that it is about the whole Trojan War. The beginning of the Iliad, however, says that the
subject is 'the anger of Achilleus', which is just one episode in the 10-year war. What Homer
does, in fact, is to focus on this one episode, but to treat it in a way that brings in the whole
war. He thus achieves both concentration and scope.

Some episodes in Books 2-4 seem really to belong to an earlier phase of the war, although
Homer describes them as if they happened in the tenth year. They are thus quasi-flashbacks:
 (1) the march-out of the Greek army (2.441-83), illustrated by similes, is
described in a very grand way, as if it were the very beginning of the war;

(2) the catalogue of troops (2.484-877) seems to belong to an account of the

original gathering of the armies;

(3) another episode which seems to belong to an earlier stage of the war is
the teichoskopia, or 'viewing from the wall' (3.161-244), in which Priam asks
Helen to identify the Greek leaders;

(4) the duel between Paris and Menelaus (3.245-382) might have occurred to the
Greeks and Trojans rather earlier than the tenth year of the war as a solution to
their dispute over Helen;

(5) the bedroom scene between Paris and Helen (3.383-447) reminds us of their
original elopement;

(6) the treachery of Pandarus (4.68-191) is another reminder of the beginning of

the war, stressing the guilt of the Trojans. NB the role of the gods, both in
prompting Pandarus to break the truce and in making sure that he is punished
(5.290-6).

The Iliad ends before the death of Achilles and the fall of Troy, but both events are
foreshadowed.

The prophecies of the death of Achilles (e.g. 22.355-60) will be discussed in Lecture 5. He is
doomed once he has killed Hector.

The fall of Troy is predicted by both Agamemnon (4.155-68) and Hector (6.447-65). Three
lines occur in both speeches (4.163-5 6.447-9), a good example of the use of formulae for
poetic effect. The fall of Troy is associated with the death of Hector (22.410-11; 24.728-30).

Lecture 4, wk. 2
The lecture started by discussing the age of heroes (Hesiod, Works and Days 156-73),
and the distinction between it and Homers own day (Iliad 12.378-86, 444-50). It then
moved on to the aristeia of the hero, with special reference to Diomedes (Iliad 5.134-
58, 432-42). Homer also gives sympathetic attention to the minor warriors who are
killed by the great heroes (Iliad 4.473-89; 5.49-68).
 The lecture then discussed the heroic ethos (= system of beliefs), starting with the
dangers of the world which Homer describes, and the consequent need of a city to
have good fighters to defend it (Odyssey 9.39-50). The best fighters are thus well
rewarded. The overhead illustrating this was taken from Sarpedon's speech to Glaukos
(Iliad 12.310-21). This speech is a very important expression of the heroic ethos, or
value-system. It shows how a warrior ethos had developed, whereby men establish
their status by fighting.

Warriors in Homer also want to be remembered after their deaths. There is no

worthwhile immortality of the soul. The overhead describing the ghost of Patroklos
was Iliad 23.99-107. Warriors thus want to gain immortal glory through their exploits.
The overheads illustrating this were Iliad 12.322-8 (Sarpedon again) and 22.297-305
(Hector).

Achilles and Helen are especially aware of the power of art to confer immortality.
Achilles passes the time when he is not fighting 'singing tales of men's glory'
(Iliad 9.189), and Helen weaves pictures of the Trojan War (Iliad 3.121-8). Homer's
phrase for 'immortal glory' ('kleos aphthiton', Iliad 9.413) corresponds to the Sanskrit
phrase 'sravas aksitam', so the whole concept is very old.

Warriors like Sarpedon, Hector, and Diomedes seem to accept the heroic ethos
unquestioningly, but there are also passages which express hatred of war (Iliad 2.139-
54; 5.888-98).

Lecture 5 wk. 2

Achilles is the leader of the Myrmidons from Phthia in northern Greece (2.681-94).
He has impressive armour (16.130-44), which he lends to Patroclus. He was educated
by the centaur Cheiron (11.822-36), although he also had a human tutor Phoenix.
Peleus is his father and Neoptolemos is his son (19.314-37). He sings tales of mens
glory, accompanying himself on the lyre (9.182-98).
 He quarrels with Agamemnon over the prize-woman Brises (1.149-71), and is about
to kill him when he is restrained by Athene (1.197-214). He complains to his mother
Thetis (1.334-63), who has a special relationship with Zeus (1.393-412). She says that
Achilles is short-lived and miserable (1.413-27).

Achilles refuses to return to the fighting in Book 9, and the speech in which he
explains his reasons is perhaps the most important in the whole Iliad, as it shows that
his disillusionment is much deeper than it had been in Book 1 (9.401-29).

It becomes clear that his fate is bound up with that of Hector (18.70-96). The
overhead illustrating Achilles' increasingly precise knowledge of his impending death
was: 1.416 (short life), 9.410 (two destinies), 18.96 (after Hector), 19.417 (a god and
a man), 21.277 (Apollo, near the wall), 22.359 (Paris and Apollo, at the Scaean gates).
His awareness of the shortness of his life affects his whole outlook (21.99-113).

Achilles is supplied with new armour before he returns to the fighting, and the shield
is described in detail (18.478-608).

The Iliad ends with Achilles returning the body of Hector to Priam (24.120-40, 503-
33).

2017-02-14

- 197 long similes in the Iliad, less than a of this in the Odyssey
- Similes from nature, animate nature and inanimate nature.
- Similes animals lions, donkeys, stags, wolves, dogs, boars, bees, locust and an
octopus
- Most of the similes are used by the poet, but Achilles seems to use similes, even
though almost none of the characters use similes in the Iliad
- Achilles compares himself to a bird that feeds chicks, he gives to the others (prizes of
war) and has none for himself