The cliffsnotes study guide on homers iliad supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, a graphical character map, critical commentaries, expanded glossaries, and a comprehensive index, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work. Rieu one of the foremost achievements in western literature, homers iliad tells the story of the darkest episode of the trojan war. In fact, this structural technique is a basis for the entire work. On the riverbank, achilles mercilessly slaughters lycaon, a son of priam. The iliad is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, for which barry powell, one of the twentyfirst centurys leading homeric scholars, has given us a magnificent new translation. Achilles, the epics central character, exposes this fact and confronts the king.
Therefore, when athena tells achilles not to draw his sword to kill agamemnon, the speaker is actually one side of achilles brain. The ancient greek audience, however, would have been familiar with all the events leading up to this tenth year, and during the course of the iliad, homer makes many references to. Here youll find an approximately onepage summary of each book, a description of the major characters and sometimes places, and an english translation. Acknowledgments we would like to acknowledge the many painstaking hours of work holly hughes and thomas f. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in the iliad, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. This contains a book by book summary and analysis of homers epic poem. To repay the indignity chryses has suffered, apollo, the mouse god, rains arrows of plague on the greek forces for 9 days.
Book 5 is primarily diomedess aristeia, an extended passage in an epic celebrating a heros best work, although the exploits of others and actions of the gods are interspersed through it. Homers technique of repeating an earlier scene with a later one is used throughout the iliad. The narrative begins nine years after the start of the war, as the achaeans sack a trojanallied town and capture two beautiful maidens, chryseis and briseis. The product of more than a decades continuous work 15981611, chapmans translation of homers great poem of war is a. Consisting of 15,693 lines of verse, the iliad has been hailed as the greatest epic of western civilization. The greeks continue to push the trojan line back, but zeus wakes to see hector vomiting and poseidon in the battle. When, therefore, minerva saw these men making havoc of the. More of the iliad in ancient greek professor gregory nagy of harvard university recites several selections from the poem in ancient greek. Apollos priest chryses comes to the achaian camp and asks to ransom back his daughter chryseis, who has been captured. The battle continues between the achaeans and the trojans. In the tenth year of the trojan war, tensions are running high among the achaians a superancient name for the ancient greeks. A plague has overcome the greek armies because agamemnon has refused to return the daughter of a priest of apollo.
Rodents do spread plague, so the association between a divine mouse function and delivering plague makes sense, even if the greeks werent completely aware of the connection. The iliad deals with only a small portion of the trojan war. I read the iliad when i was in my early twenties, and i have no idea what edition. This is an important, powerful, memorable book that invites us to look differently not only at the iliad but at our own ways of telling stories about the past and the present, and at how anger and. The poet invokes a muse to aid him in telling the story of the rage of achilles, the greatest greek hero to fight in the trojan war. The iliad is an epic poem by homer that tells the story of several weeks in the last year of the decadelong trojan war in the greek camp, agamemnon and achilles, the greeks.
With an introduction and notes by adam roberts, royal holloway, university of london. These free notes consist of about 101 pages 30,062 words and contain the following sections. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of the iliad and what it means. Apollo plays a pivotal role in the episode that kicks off the conflict at the center of the iliad. Information on the first book of the iliad of homer. Glaucus responds that diomedes shouldnt ask about his birth, as men are like the generations of leavesas one generation comes to life.
On the greek side, the story of the iliad begins with the wedding of peleus, a mortal, and thetis, a goddess. Find a summary of this and each chapter of the iliad. The iliad, an epic poem attributed to homer and the oldest extant piece of european literature, is conventionally divided into 24 books. Chapter summary for homers the iliad, book 2 summary. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. I am a greek roman mythology passionate and i couldnt have not started with one of the most popular classics. The iliad book 1 book 2 book 3 book 4 book 5 book 6 book 7 book 8 book 9 book 10 book 11 book 12 book book 14 book 15 book 16 book 17 book 18 book 19 book 20 book 21 book 22 book 23 book 24 notes books 112, by hal cardiv and erwin cook books 24, by natalie trevino and erwin cook names in the iliad. Graceful, lucid, and energetic, powells translation renders the homeric greek with a. The iliad by homer of course was a great read for the first half of the summer, when the weather was nice and sunny and i woke up early, id stay in bed reading for hours. Book 9 of the iliad old phoenix calls for a man of words and a man of to. The free the iliad notes include comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. Book 21 achilles routs the trojans and splits their ranks, pursuing half of them into the river known to the gods as xanthus and to the mortals as scamander. However, book i essentially sets up the tension for the rest of the poem.
Homers epic poem the iliad tells the story of the trojan war and the epic heroes and gods, including achilles, hector, odysseus, athena, ares, paris. Well, the first place you could look is the enotes summary on homers iliad. The iliad is an ancient greek epic poem by homer that was first published in 762 bc. First, the priest chryses comes to ask their leader, king agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom agamemnon was holding captive. At their wedding, eris, the goddess of strife, throws down a golden apple with the message, for the fairest. Diomedes tells glaucus that he has never noticed him before, and that he will fight him if he is mortal. Homer calls upon the goddess of poetry and inspiration the muse to sing of achilleus anger. Argives, she darted down to ilius from the summits of olympus, and apollo, who was looking on from pergamus, went out to meet. Homers the iliad starts after the achaians have been at war with the trojans for nine years, trying to retrieve helen of troy, the wife of menelaos who was kidnapped by paris.
The trojan ally glaucus meets diomedes on the battlefield. Jaynes sees the iliad as a book dealing with premodern minds. The iliad of homer translated by alexander pope, with notes by the rev. The written version of the iliad presupposes a basic familiarity with the characters and mythological causes and effects of the. Chryses, priest of apollo, comes to the greek camp to ransom his daughter, chryseis, held captive by agamemnon. Notes the genealogy of the royal house of troy textual variants from the oxford classical text notes on the translation suggestions for further reading pronouncing glossary.
This is the first aristeia of many in the poem and the longest and bloodiest except for achilles s in books 2022. The wrath of achilles seems justified from book i to book ix. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. At its center is achilles, the greatest warriorchampion of the greeks, and his conflict with his leader agamemnon. 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. Menelaus almost spares the trojan adrestus life in exchange for ransom, but agamemnon. Home english literature classic books the iliad navigate here note book i book ii book iii book iv book v book vi book vii book viii book ix book x book xi book xii book xiii book xiv book xv book xvi book xvii book xviii book xix book xx book xxi book xxii book xxiii book xxiv. I chose the above edition because there seems to be no information available about it, and gr requires some edition. Series editor michael spring, editor literary cavalcade, scholastic inc.
Agamemnon roughly rejects the ransom and dismisses the priest. Zeus begins to taunt hera, mocking her and athena for standing by while aphrodite rescues paris. We all know of the horse, but how did it come together. The achaeans, including great ajax and diomedes, kill several trojans. Hirsch have devoted to making the book notes series a success. The achaeans have been camped outside the walls of troy for nine years and, as. Homers iliad begins nine years after the greek armies first arrived at troy. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read the iliad of homer. The iliad begins with the poet calling on the muse to sing of the wrath of achilleus and its consequences. The iliad in ancient greek professor, homer translator, and performance artist stanley lombardo reads all of book 1 of the iliad in ancient greek. I think it was part of some classics book club deal. Free barrons booknotes for the iliad free literature. Summary read an overview of the entire poem or a line by line summary and analysis.