Whether youve loved the book or not, if you give your honest and detailed thoughts then people will find new books that are right for them. Gazing at the peaceful land of thrace to the north of troy, he doesnt notice that poseidon defies his order of noninterferenceit seems zeus isnt completely allseeing. This contains a book by book summary and analysis of homers epic poem. Iliad, homer the iliad is an ancient greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to homer. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Homeric scholarship is the study of any homeric topic, especially the two large surviving epics, the iliad and odyssey. Find helpful summaries and analyses for every chapter in homers the iliad. Homers iliad clst 181sk ancient greece and the origins of western culture. Use the glossary at the back of your book to help keep track of who is who. In this edition colin macleod tries to reach both scholars and greekless readers alike.
As throughout the poem, the intervention of zeus can be seen as providing an explanation for things that have no obvious explanation. On the scepter in the electra of sophocles, see nagy 2017. Naturally, a goddess, athena, assists him in attaining this glory. With the exception of the two aeantes and menelaus, few of the most familiar achaean warriors fight in books and 14. Sep 12, 2011 the iliad homer book 1 ragegoddess, sing the rage of peleus son achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the achaeans countless losses hurling down to the house of death so many sturdy souls, great fighters souls, but made their bodies carrion feats for the dogs and birds and the will of zeus was moving towards its. Book 2 of homers iliad contains twenty similes, a large number. For the purpose of the present article, homeric scholarship is divided into three main phases. Homer, iliad book 12 theoi classical texts library. After his grandson is killed, poseidon inspires idomeneus of crete and his fierce aide meriones on the left of the battle. Though we are in the tenth year of the trojan war, these encounters are the most violent that have taken place since the greeks arrived. It is a sweeping epic poem that seeks to find answers to some of mankinds most fascinating questions, questions which still intrigue and perplex us today.
Book xii, sometimes called the book of the wall, completes the first grand sweep of trojan successes as homer builds up to the reentry of achilles. Hectors and the aeantess plural of ajax position in the center of the line illustrates their central. First, a literary analysis from a moderately informed modern viewpoint. Greeks who crossed the sea to lay siege to troy, a city in modern turkey. The trojan war, as youll know from the backstory section of our summary of book 1, involved a massive army of achaians a. When agamemnon refuses, the priest prays to the god apollo to send a plague against the achaians. The purpose of the iliad is not to relate the overall story of the. They had built the wall and dug the moat to defend the ships and their vast spoils, but had failed in ritual sacrifice to the gods. The iliad is an ancient greek epic poem by homer that was first published in 762 bc.
The iliad book 1 summary the poet prays to the muse, the goddess of poetic inspiration. Analysis zeus, who has kept tight control of the action for the last few books, now takes his eye off the ball. Achilles kindness to priam in book xxiv ends the warriors. Once again, it is striking how issues of life and death in the mortal world are so. Polydamas advises retreat to the city and is ignored see book 12 thetis asks hephaestus to make armor for achilles a description of the shield of achilles. With the trojans through the achaean wall, zeus takes his eyes off the fighting, and the seagod poseidon takes advantage. First, the priest chryses comes to ask their leader, king agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom agamemnon was holding captive. So the son of menoetius was attending to the hurt of eurypyluswithin the tent but the argives and trojans still fought desperatelynor were the trench. He wants her to tell him about the rage of achilleus, and how it hurt the achaians. Thus the two books are meant to be a unified study of homers similes as. Agamemnon, splendidly armed, cuts down man after man and beats the trojans back to the citys gates. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in the iliad, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. This lesson will summarize book of homers the iliad. With an essay on homeric grammar and notes the purpose of this work is to furnish an introduction to the reading of homer, suited to the wants of persons who have learned the rudiments of attic greek, and have made some little progress in construing.
This term is very appropriate in describing the beginning of the iliad since it. The adjective is once used in the accusative plural in od. In book 21, achilles continues his killing spree and the. We are told from the beginning that the story is going to be about the rage or anger of achilles, the greatest warrior in achaia greece. The artistry of the homeric simile dartmouth college. Books xiixv cliffsnotes study guides book summaries. Book 20 robert fagles translation analysis segue from previous book and to the next book in book 19, achilles is still grieving over the death of patroclus and still refuses to eat. Their spirits restored, the achaeans again stand up to the trojans, and the two aeantes the plural of ajax prove successful in driving hector back. In the tenth year of the trojan war, tensions are running high among the achaians a superancient name for the ancient greeks. At the start of book 12 of the iliad, the trojans decide to charge the achaean walls and defenses. Kirk, 97805212817, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Homers iliad books 1 2 provided by the internet classics archive.
Books 14 the scene between hera and zeus in book 14 does little to advance the plot of the poem, as zeus has already departed the scene of battle and ceased to support the trojans. Characterization through gnomai in homers iliad 643 seitel categorizes proverbs by their applicability to the speaker, the addressee, or a third person defined as neither the speaker nor the addressee. The iliad begins with the poet calling on the muse to sing of the wrath of achilleus and its consequences. The iliad takes place in the tenth year of the trojan war. The fortress is destined to be destroyed, but only after the fall of troy itself. Zeus has departed for the time being and poseidon is now involved. This is the second occurrence of the noun therapon in the iliad. And because of book 2s length there are other narrative sections where similes are more densely concentrated.
The next morning, zeus rains blood upon the achaean lines, filling them with panic. Although the greeks now rise again to power, the troops rally under a temporarily reduced set of leaders. Agamemnons rejection of chryses in book i leads to all of the events of the iliad. It is currently part of the academic discipline of classical studies. He asks her to begin with the fight between achilleus and agamemnon. Apollos priest chryses comes to the achaian camp and asks to ransom back his daughter chryseis, who has been captured. The iliad, an epic poem attributed to homer and the oldest extant piece of european literature, is conventionally divided into 24 books. Summary read an overview of the entire poem or a line by line summary and analysis. In book 12, hector mistakes zeuss current favoritism for a promise of ultimate success and ignores his sign to the contrary. The book opens with the explanation that in the future the wall will be completely destroyed by poseidon, showing the impermanence of human creation.
Sing, o goddess, the anger of achilles son of peleus, that broughtcountless ills upon the achaeans. Homers epic poem the iliad tells the story of the trojan war and the epic heroes and gods. Here youll find an approximately onepage summary of each book, a description of the major characters and sometimes places, and an english translation. Homers iliad begins during the tenth year of the trojan war and opens, like most epic poems, with a request for inspiration from the appropriate muse.
My comments here on iliad 11 work around nestors story at i. The twentyfourth book of the iliad the account of priams ransoming of hectors body from achilles is one of the masterpieces of world literature, a work of interest to a far wider audience than scholars of ancient greek. Note now that polydamas, whom we saw in book 12, is a minor but pivotal figure. The iliad summary in the tenth year of the trojan war, tensions are running high among the achaians a superancient name for the ancient greeks. He refers to these proverbs as first, second or third person sayings, which may be singular or plural. Book describes the continuing battle between the greeks and trojans.
Good translations abound but robert fitzgeralds in the oxford world classics series is a good read with handy notes and maps. A sampling of comments on the iliad and odyssey center for. This term is very appropriate in describing the beginning of the iliad since it begins in the ninth year of the. The city is wellprotected, and the achaeans, who are really the greeks, even dug a. Many people have noted connections between the last book and the first because both involve a father seeking the return of a child. Books 1 to 4 of the iliad trace the events from the breaking out of the quarrel between achilles and agamemnon to the first combat on the battlefield. Check out our revolutionary side byside summary and analysis. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis. Set during the trojan war, the tenyear siege of the city of troy ilium by a coalition of greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between king agamemnon and the warrior achilles. This is a long and complex book but the key chapters for the action are 1, 6, 9, 16, 18, 22, and 24. Agamemnon, odysseus, and diomedes have all been injured, and nestor now tends to the wounded healer machaon. Willcocks, a companion to the iliad is the way to go. This study guide consists of approximately 114 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the iliad. But, by afternoon, they have begun to make progress.
Book 5 begins a passage of extended individual heroism for diomedes, something that the greeks called an aristeia. While brave patroclus was tending wounded eurypylus in his hut, the greeks and trojans milled together fighting, and it seemed the danaans trench and the thick wall behind it would not long protect them. Many a brave soul did it sendhurrying down to hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogsand vultures, for so were the counsels of jove fulfilled from theday on which the son of atreus, king. Chapter summary for homers the iliad, book summary. Patroclus agrees to appeal to achilles and dresses the wound of a man named eurypylus, who has been injured fighting alongside ajax. The wrath of achilles is finally assuaged in book xxiv. Follow this link for a detailed summary of the iliad.