1. The Iliad Agenda: Information about Hostory through Pictures Home
Text Analysis
Mythological Background

2. The World of the Iliad

3. Rand McNally, Atlas of World History, pp. 22

4. The Trojan plain
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 41

5. Hisarlik
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 93

6. Reconstruction of Troy VI - 13th century
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 204

7. Troy VI from the North
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 204

8. The walls of Troy VI
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 74

9. The walls of Troy
Finding the Walls of Troy, p 229

10. The walls of Troy
Finding the Walls of Troy, p 230

11. Treasure of Priam
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 59

12. Sophie Schliemann Wearing the Jewels of Helen
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 59

13. Mycenae from the East
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 66

14. Golden Mycenae
In Search of the Trojan War, pp

15. Ruins at Mycenae

16. Ruins at Mycenae

17. Lion Gate at Mycenae (E. Dodwell)
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 74

18. Mycenae and the Plain of Argos
National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 66

19. Lion Gate at Mycenae
In Search of the Trojan War, pp. 75

20. National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 64

21. National Geographic, Dec 99, pp. 65

22. Mt Olympus

23. Mt Olympus

24. Early Classical Doric temple of Zeus at Olympia
Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 336

25. Temple of Hera at Olympia
Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 340

26. Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi
Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece, pp. 349

27. Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi

28. Mythology Begins with Homer 1000 B.C. Explains something in nature
Doesn’t have anything to do with religion, but rather how natural phenomenon came into existence.
Form of early entertainment

29. Writers
Homer

30. Homer Wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey
Iliad is the first written record of Greece
Homer was an Ionian of the 8th or 9th century B.C.E., which would place his writings also more than 3 centuries after the Trojan War,

31. Homeric Period
The time period around 1400 B.C. was an era where Mycenae, the traditional home of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and leader of the Greek warriors in Troy, dominated the mainland, and his island of Crete assumed the political and military status of master of the eastern Mediterranean. A golden age of splendor arouse during this period, as shown by excavations of the royal graves at Mycenae, and the cultural and religious traditions of the eminent classical Greece began to take form. This is the Homeric, or Heroic, Age - also called Mycenaean, or Late Minoan -for the culture and values of the latter part of this period are those permanently embodied in the Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

32. Hesiod
Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around the year 700 BCE. From the 5th century BCE, literary historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer. Most modern scholars now agree that Homer lived before Hesiod.
Hesiod serves as a major source for knowledge of Greek mythology, of farming techniques, of archaic Greek astronomy and of ancient time-keeping

33. Important Names, Dates and Terminology
8th century BCE
1184 BCE
Homer
Description
The Homeric Question
Epic
Oral Tradition
Important Names, Dates and Terminology
8th century BCE: when the text of the Iliad was composed/written down
1184 BCE: supposed date of the fall of Troy as chronicled in Homeric text
Homer: poet to whom the Iliad and the Odyssey are attributed
Epic: a long poem (in dactylic hexameter) that discusses a world-view in the past and invokes distance between the world of the poem and the world of the reader
Oral tradition: responsible for some of the stylistic repetition in the text, the PATRONYMICS, the syntax of the poem

34. Important Themes, Motifs and Narratological Elements
CHOICE and PERSUASION
THE HEROIC CODE
LEADERSHIP
TRIANGULAR RELATIONSHIPS
SIMILES
THE GODS

35. Do NOT Reduce the Iliad to either:
PRIDE (Hubris) Or
FATE

36. Characteristics of Homeric Text:
Beginning in medias res
Cinematic presentation of events and of warfare
Look for sense imagery in the text
Use of SIMILES
Use of PARALLELISM when discussing events, characters and gods
This epic is not specifically about the Trojan War; it is about a PORTION of the Trojan War.
Homer had the rest of the Homeric cycle to fill in the gaps for his audience. He can start mid-stream and still have this work make sense.
We will evaluate where he starts and how his beginning echoes some mythological tensions when we look at the first two pages of the epic.

37. Homeric Cycle Series of texts about Troy
Some tell the same stories as the Homeric epics
Many tell entirely different stories
What still exists contains only a part of the entire story of the Trojan War

38. Mythological Stories You Need to Know
Helen and the Suitors
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Hecuba’s Dream of the Burning City
Judgment of Paris
Assembling the Suitors
Sacrifice of Iphigenia

39. Helen and the Suitors Helen: daughter of Tyndareus
Clytemnestra: daughter of Tyndareus; twin of Helen; (later) wife of Agamenon
Penelope: niece to Tyndareus
Suitors
Agamemnon: king of Argos; son of Atreus; brother of Menelaus
Menelaus: brother of Agamemnon
Odysseus: king of Ithaka; (later) husband of Penelope
Ajax: son of Telemon; great warrior
Leda had 2 sets of twins, one set fathered by Tyndareus and one fathered by Zeus:
Helen and Polydeuces
Clytemnestra and Castor
Leda gave birth to two eggs from which these four children were hatched.
As they grew up, Helen became the most beautiful woman in the entire world, and many many suitors came to seek her hand in marriage. Tyndareus was scared of offending any of these great warriors, for fear that they would turn on him and Helen (and her husband) after she was married.
ODYSSEUS helped Tyndareus, and in exchanged asked to marry Penelope, Tyndareus’ niece. Odysseus sugested that the suitors swear a pact to:
1. honor Helen’s choice of husband
2. keep Helen’s marriage intact; if anyone should steal her, all of the other suitors would come to help get her back.
~ this pact is CRUCIAL to the Iliad.
Helen marries Menelaus, and he becomes king of Sparta. Helen and Menelaus eventually have a daughter, Hermione.

40. Hecuba’s Dream of the Burning City
Priam = Hecuba
__________________|___________________
SONS: DAUGHTERS
Hektor (m. Andromache) Cassandra
Paris (m. Helen) Polyxena
Deiphobus Creusa
Polydorus other daughters
46 more sons
While pregnant with Paris, Hecuba has a terrible dream. She dreamt that she gave birth to a flame that would destroy the city of Troy instead of to an infant. When a seer was asked in to give an interpretation of the dream, he suggested that the to-be-born child be killed so that he or she could never cause harm to Troy.
Neither Priam nor Hecuba could kill their infant son once he was born, so Priam gave him to his head-shepherd to kill. The shepherd took baby Paris, but found himself also unable to kill him. Instead the shepherd left the baby exposed on the top of Mount Ida. When he returned the next day to get a token from the dead child to prove that he had died, he found Paris still alive and took him home to take care of him instead. He took a tongue from a dead animal instead to “prove” Paris’ death.
Paris grows up and eventually returns to Troy where he is recognized by his parents and chooses to live.
Troy is a wealthy city (because of its people’s skill at raising horses and, more practically, because of its control of the Hellespont).

41. Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Thetis: water nymph, daughter of Nereus
Peleus: mortal man, son of Aeacus, King of Aegina
Thetis and Peleus are the parents of Achilles
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
There was a prophecy that the son of Thetis would be greater than his father
None of the immortals, therefore, wanted to father Thetis’ son since they didn’t want their child to be better than them
Insead they arranged for Thetis to marry a mortal, Peleus, but he needed help as she initially refused him
With the help of Poseidon, Peleus was able to get Thetis to marry him (but only after she rapidly changed shapes of animals over and over)
Will take place on Mt. Pelion and all the gods and goddesses were there
EXCEPT ONE!

42. Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (cont.)
OLYMPIAN GODS
Aphrodite: goddess of love
Apollo: god of healing, music, prophecy
Ares: god of war
Artemis: goddess of the hunt
Athena: goddess of wisdom, strategy
Demeter: goddess of the Harvest
Hephaistos: god of fire and metal craft; son of Hera and Zeus; crippled because he was thrown by Zeus
Hera: wife of Zeus
Hermes: messenger god
Poseidon: god of the sea
Zeus: king of the gods; (very unfaithful) husband to Hera

43. Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (cont.)
ERIS: Goddess of Discord, not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest”
All the gods and goddesses were feasting the marriage of Peleus and Thetis except for one: Eris
(Who would invite “discord” to a wedding?)
Eris was furious to be left off the list, so she had a golden apple made that was inscribed “to the fairest”
She then threw the apple into the middle of the party
Aphrodite stepped up to claim it
As did Athena
As did Hera
The three goddesses were squabbling amongst themselves at the party until one of them turned to Zeus to ask him who should get it.
Zeus (no fool) quickly stated that he couldn’t decide between the 3 beautiful goddesses, but he would find someone who could: PARIS
The three went to Mt. Ida
Hera offered political power
Athena offered military strategy and wisdom
Aphrodite offered Helen

44. Assembling the Suitors
Agamemnon
Menelaus
Odysseus
Ajax
Achilles – the most difficult to find
Achilles was not immediately ready to go fight the war at Troy; his mother was worried about him fighting because she knew that a prophecy foretold that if he fought he would die young. So, she hid him among the daughters of Lycomedes. Odysseus, however, was able to find out generally where Achilles was hiding, so he went to Lycomedes’ court. Hoping to draw out the young warrior, Odysseus threw a bag of gifts on the ground in front of the women (and hiding Achilles); he threw down clothes and jewelry and a sword. As Achilles grabbed for the sword, he gave himself away. Odysseus was then able to convince Achilles to fight with the rest of the Greek forces.

45. Agamemnon = Clytemnestra
Gaining a Strong Wind
Agamemnon = Clytemnestra
______________|_____________
| | |
Iphigeneia Electra Orestes

46. Key Aspects of the Epic’s Opening
Emphasis on the 1st word
Invocation of the Muse
Questions
What events are set into motion in the opening 2 pages?
Who is who?
What are the key words?
Are any of the themes mentioned earlier present in this segment of text?

47. For Next Class
You are instructed to wrote a response to something you find difficult in the text.
Pick a passage of no more than 20 lines that you find important and/or difficult and write about it. We will use these student-chosen passages as the basis for discussion next class.