He drags Hector’s body behind his chariot across the battlefield back to the Achaean camp.
It is at this point that Achilles is able to kill Hector. The goddess Athena intervenes and tricks Hector into turning around mid-chase. At last, Achilles reaches Hector and the two battle. He even fights the river god, Xanthus, who is angered by how many bodies Achilles has caused to fall into his river. Achilles is emboldened by his rage and kills many Trojan warriors. Hector and his men are camping outside the walls of Troy, but the Trojan army flees in terror when they see Achilles. The god Hephaestus forges Achilles a new set of armor and Achilles leads the Achaeans into battle the following day. Thetis travels to Mount Olympus to plead with the gods for help in battle. He agrees at this point to mend the rift between himself and Agamemnon and rejoins the battle. Achilles is filled with grief and rage after learning of his dear friend’s death. Hector kills Patroclus in battle and steals Achilles’s armor. Patroclus’s presence does help the Achaean army somewhat, but it can only last for so long before the Trojans regroup. He creates a plan in which his friend Patroclus will take his place in battle using Achilles’s armor. As much hope as this brings to the Achaeans, the Trojans are still able to beat the Achaean soldiers back until they reach the Achaean camp.Īchilles is concerned for his military comrades, but he is still too proud to take any action to help them. The Achaeans are continually beaten down until finally, a nighttime mission conducted by Odysseus and Diomedes allows them to uncover Trojan war plans. There are many outstanding duels between figures such as Paris and Menelaus as well as Ajax and Hector. With Zeus on the side of the Trojans and Achilles refusing to fight, the Achaeans begin to suffer grave losses in the war. He enlists the services of Zeus, king of the gods, to slant the battling against the Achaeans so that they will lose the war. Achilles is insulted and furious and refuses to fight against the Trojans anymore. He then demands that Achilles give him Briseis. Many Achaeans die from this plague, Agamemnon reluctantly sends Chryseis home. Her father is a priest of the god Apollo, so Chryseis prays to Apollo who hears her and send a plague to the Achaean camp. Chryseis’s father puts out a ransom for his daughter to come home, but Agamemnon refuses. He keeps Chryseis and gives Briseis to Achilles. When, after nine years of fighting with the Trojans, the Greeks (Achaeans) capture two young maidens, the Achaean leader Agamemnon takes them as war prizes. The Iliad and The Odyssey are two of the greatest examples of the epic poem genre to this day for this reason. This gives the poem a historical context as well that not only helps people understand the oral tradition of storytelling and the values of these ancient people but the social and political context in which they operated. To live like a god would live meant that a human had high moral superiority.įurthermore, although the Trojan year was believed to be fictious for a long time, there is now archeological evidence that Troy really existed and possibly did fall to the Greeks. Because of this, many humans lived up to values that were godly in nature-heroic qualities such as super-human strength, bravery, honesty, etc. Many philosophers believed that the Bronze Age was a time of moral and artistic superiority in which humans worked in tandem with the gods and were punished for going against the gods. What is The Iliad About? Set in the Bronze Age, The Iliad provides a historical look at how society in this time view morality and heroism. Major Symbols: The shield of Achilles The Greek shipsĬlimax: Achilles returns to the war and the Trojans suffer a great defeat, ensuring the fall of Troy. Plot: Past tense, told by an omniscient third person narrator. Achilles then refuses to fight in the Greek army, which causes them to suffer losses to the Trojans. Apollo hears her prayers and sends a plague to the Greek military camp.Ĭonflict: Agamemnon demands Achilles’s war prize (the maiden Briseis), which hurts Achilles’s pride greatly. Chryseis’s father offers a ransom for his daughter, but Agamemnon refuses to return her. The Greek army captures Chryseis and Briseis, two beautiful maidens from an ally town to Troy.
Major Thematic Elements: The glory of war heroes military victories valued above personal life the fleeting nature of human existenceĮxposition: It is nine years after the beginning of the Trojan War.
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