The Iliad

1. The Iliad

2. Type of Work • ......The Iliad is an epic poem, a long narrative work about heroic exploits that is elevated in tone and highly formal in its language. • It was composed in ancient Greek and transmitted orally before it was written down. • Many modern translators present the Iliad in prose, making it read like a novel.

3. Title Explanation • The Iliad derives the first two syllables of its name from Ilios or Ilion (Greek for Troy) or, alternately, from Ilium (Latin for Troy). • The suffix -ad means related to, concerning, having to do with, or associated with. • Thus, Iliad means a story concerning Troy.

4. Setting • Time of Action: • About 3,200 years ago in recorded history's infancy, when humankind's imagination peopled the known world with great heroes and villains and nature reflected the mood of the gods inhabiting the mountaintops, the seas, the forests, and the unseen worlds above and below. • Homer fashioned The Iliad, the story of the Trojan War, about 600 years after the war ended. The story is a mixture of fact, legend, and myth.

5. Setting Continued • Place of Action: • The walled city of Troy and the surrounding plains in northwestern Anatolia, a region that is part of modern-day Turkey. • Anatolia is west of Greece (across the Aegean Sea) and north of Egypt (across the Mediterranean Sea).

6. Iliad’s Importance • The Iliad ranks as one of the most important and most influential works in world literature in that it established literary standards and conventions that writers have imitated over the centuries, down to the present day. • It also created archetypes that hundreds of great writers—including Vergil, Dante, Shakespeare, Stephen Crane, and James Joyce—alluded to when in need of an apt metaphor or simile.

7. Iliad’s Importance Continued • In addition, the Iliad provided a mother lode of information about Greek customs and ideals and about Greek mythology. • Even though its author had no similar literary model on which to base his work, he wrote a masterpiece that ranks with the greatest works of all time. • No student of literature can ignore Homer. • No writer's education is complete unless he has read Homer.

8. Verse Format • The meter (rhythmic pattern of syllables) of Homer’s epic poems is dactylic hexameter. • A dactyl is a metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables, as in the words technical (TEK nik l), allocate (AL oh kate), and harbinger (HAR bin jer). • Hexameter is a line containing six metrical feet. • Thus, dactylic hexameter is a scheme containing six dactyls, as in the following line: MAKE me a BEAU tiful GOWN and a HAT fringed with TASS les of DOWN, good sir. For a full detailed discussion and explanation of meter and its forms, click here.

9. The Homeric Epithet • One of the hallmarks of the Homeric style is the epithet, a combination of a descriptive phrase and a noun. • An epithet presents a miniature portrait that identifies a person or thing by highlighting a prominent characteristic of that person or thing. • In English, the Homeric epithet usually consists of a noun modified by a compound adjective, such as the following: fleet-footed Achilles, rosy-fingered dawn, wine-dark sea, earth-shaking Poseidon, and gray-eyed Athena.

10. Epic Conventions • Homer established literary practices, rules, or devices that became commonplace in epic poetry written later. These rules or devices are now known as epic conventions. They include the following: • 1. The invocation of the muse, a goddess. In Greek mythology, there were nine muses, all sisters, who were believed to inspire poets, historians, flutists, dancers, singers, astronomers, philosophers, and other thinkers and artists. • If one wanted to write a great poem, play a musical instrument with bravado, or develop a grand scientific or philosophical theory, he would ask for help from a muse. • When a poet asked for help, he was said to be “invoking the muse.” The muse of epic poetry was named Calliope [kuh LY uh pe].  

11. Epic Conventions Continued • 2. Telling a story with which readers or listeners are already familiar; they know the characters, the plot, and the outcome. • Most of the great writers of the ancient world—as well as many great writers in later times, including Shakespeare—frequently told stories already known to the public. Thus, in such stories, there were no unexpected plot twists, no surprise endings. • If this sounds strange to you, the modern reader and theatergoer, consider that many of the most popular motion pictures today are about stories already known to the public. Examples are The Passion of the Christ, Titanic, The Ten Commandments, Troy, Spartacus, Pearl Harbor, and Gettysburg. 

12. Epic Conventions Continued • 3. Conflict in the celestial realm. • Divine beings fight and scheme against one another in the epics of Homer and Virgil, and they do so in John Milton's Paradise Lost on a grand scale, with Satan and his forces opposing God and his forces.

13. Epic Conventions Continued • 4. Use of epithets. See "Homeric Epithet," above.

14. Attitude About the Afterlife • The here and now concerns the Greeks at Troy more than the afterlife, for they generally believe that the abode of the dead is dark and dismal. • Consequently, their main purpose in life is to achieve immediate rewards and to live for the moment. • The idea of a heaven that will requite them for good deeds, whether on or off the battlefield, is of less importance to them. • However, they generally do revere the gods of Olympus, who take sides in the war. Offending the gods could incur their wrath and affect the outcome of the war. 

15. Themes in the Iliad • Theme 1:. • The wrath of Achilles. • The main focus of the Iliad is the anger of the Greek warrior Achilles and the revenge he seeks against those who wrong him, including the general of the Greek armies, Agamemnon, and the Trojan warriors. 

16. Themes in the Iliad • Theme 2:. • Glory and honor are everything. • The war begins because a Trojan offended Greek honor by absconding with the wife of a Greek king. • The war continues—for fully 10 years—in part because the combatants seek glory on the battlefield. • In this respect, the combatants are like modern athletes, actors, and politicians who compete for Heisman Trophies, Academy Awards, and votes. • Achilles withdraws from battle on a point of honor; King Priam reclaims his son's body for the same reason.

17. Themes in the Iliad • Theme 3:. • Revenge. • The Greeks seek revenge against the Trojans because one of the latter has taken the wife of a Greek king. • Chrysesand Apollo seek revenge because Agamemnon has defied them. • Achilles seeks revenge against Agamemnon because the latter has insulted him. • Later, after he reenters the battle, Achilles seeks revenge against the Trojans in general—and Hector in particular—for the death of Patroclus. 

18. Themes in the Iliad • Theme 4: • .Persistence pays. • For 10 years, the Greeks fight a foreign war. • Although they long for their families, although they have lost many men, they refuse to abandon the battlefield. • Ultimately, their pertinacity enables them to gain the upper hand, setting the stage for ultimate victory.

19. Themes in the Iliad • Theme 5:. • Women play important roles in motivating action and shaping the future. • Helen is the immediate cause of the Trojan War. • Chryseisis the cause of the rift between Agamemnon and Apollo's priest, Chryseis. • Briseis is the cause of the rift between Agamemnon and Achilles. • Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, and the sea-nymph mother of Achilles—Thetis—all affect the action of The Iliad significantly. • Sometimes these goddesses get the better of their male counterparts.