Monday, June 15, 2009

Iliad Review 1-6

1. Reasons to watch Troy for fun but not for correct content:
No Trojan horse in the Iliad
No sack of Troy in the Iliad
No sex scenes with Briseis in the Iliad
Phoinix and Ajax are not in the Embassy to Achilles in the movie
Priam and Achilles DO NOT die in the Iliad
Troy is missing the funeral games for Patroklos and Hektor
No gods on battlefield in Troy

2. Hard time recalling each book? Try to give the books a title. For example, I titled book 3 "Helen reviews the champions, Menelaos and Paris fight". Or, for book 5 I have "Diomedes' killing rage".

3. Questions to think about as you go:
What kinds of functions do the gods perform?
What powers do they have? what do they lack?
**What is the relationship between gods and men?
How do the humans think of the gods?
Is the relationship consistent?

Background of Trojan war in Greek mythology:
Story of the Apple of Discord
Wedding of Thetis & Peleus (WHO is Thetis?)
ERIS (personnification of strife) throws a golden apple into the wedding party with a note "to the fairest" attached.
Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite ALL think it's for them, which causes an argument

Judgement of Paris
Goddesses want to know who deserves the Apple of Discord
They ask Paris, son of Priam (Trojan King)
Each offers him a gift to bribe him
Aphrodite offers the most beautiful woman: Helen of Sparta, married to Menelaos
Paris steals Helen from Sparta


BOOK ONE: Make sure to read & focus on the following
Chryses & Invocation of Apollo (lines 1-52)
a. Who is Chryses? Chryseis?
b. Why is he angry at Agamemnon? (lines 8-33)
c. What does he ask Apollo to do? (line 35-52)
d. Prayer & offering scene (445-475)

Achilles & Agamemnon
a. Why is Achilles angry at Agamemnon? (105-194)
b. What/Who does Agamemnon steal from Achilles? (180-187)
c. What does Achilles try to do? Who stops him? (187-195)
d. What is Achilles' response to Agamemnon? (292-303)
e. What does Achilles do after this? (350-427)
f. What does his mother Thetis do? (495-530)

Achilles & Athena
Think about relationships between gods & men here.
How does Athena appear to Achilles?
What is his response to her?

Achilles
Why does he think he's special?

Agamemnon?
Why does he think he's special?

BOOK THREE
Paris & Menelaos "Fight"
Paris (30-36)
Paris & Hektor (38-75)
See oath scene, line 276, before the fight (Zeus is god of oath swearing)
Why do they end up not fighting? (370-382)
What happens to Paris?

Helen & Aphrodite (383-426)


BOOK FIVE & SIX: Diomedes' Aristeia
Diomedes & Athena
What power does she give him?
Who does he attack?
Diomedes & Glaukos
XENIA!
Story of Bellerophon
Diomedes & Aphrodite 5.334 & following
Aphrodite is carrying Aeneas (from Virgil's Aeneid), he has a crushed hip
Aphrodite is "scratched" by Diomedes, drops Aeneas & runs away to Olympus

Diomedes & Ares
Diomedes & Apollo 5.432
5.440 - "Take care, give back, son of Tydeus,and strive no longer to make yourself like the gods in mind, since never the same is the breed of gods, who are immortal, and men who walk groundling"

Other sections of note
Andromache & Hektor (6. 405-end)

Status in the Iliad
Agamemnon - King of Mycenae (i.e. most powerful Greek)
Menelaos - King of Lacedaemonia (i.e. Sparta)
Achilles - King of the Myrmidons
Odysseus - King of Ithaca
Aias (Ajax) - from Salamis
Diomedes - from Argos

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