Iliad, "The Story
of the Fall of Troy" (Pages 12-13)
- Read Book 1 (Pages 59-75) In the first seven lines, what does Homer tell us the whole story will be about?
- In lines 8-52, what event started the whole problem?
- What do we learn about the character of
Achilleus and of Agamemnon in their quarrel in lines 101-303?
- What does Achilleus ask his mother to do
for him in lines 407-412, and why does he ask this?
- In lines 446-474, what similarities do
we see between the ceremony to Apollo and Old Testament Jewish sacrifices to God Himself?
- In lines 493-530, how does Thetis move
Zeus to answer her request?
- In the next passage, what is Hera's
reaction to Zeus granting Thetis's request?
- Through Homer, we see "stock
epithets"--that is, multi-word adjectives that are always attached to a person's name. Here are some examples; what do you think they mean, and why might they be appropriate for each person?
a. line 17:
"strong-greaved Achaians"
b. line 195: "Hera the goddess of the white arms"
c. line 489: "Achilleus of the swift feet"
d. line 551: "the ox-eyed lady Hera"
e. line 311: "crafty Odysseus"
f. line 440: "Odysseus of the many designs"
- This was originally composed as poetry. The original Greek did not rhyme, and neither does this English translation. What other elements might an audience find in this to make it poetry, since they obviously weren't looking for rhyme? (clue: repetition of things is always an element of poetry. The repetition of stock epithets, as in #8 above, is one kind of repetition. What other kinds can we find?)
- Read the first 10 or 20 lines aloud. How many "strong beats" (naturally stressed syllables) do you find in each line, on average?
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