Iliad Continued Flashcards
(Book 5) Now that Achilles is gone, who takes the spotlight?
- Diomedes
- Aristeia = catalogue of excellence in battle
- Supported by Athena
- Diomedes is fighting Aeneas, Aphrodite’s son (whom she had with a Trojan prince)
- Aphrodite rescues him and Diomedes cuts her wrist (Athena says he can)
- Aphrodite cries to Zeus in a comical and tender scene
(Book 6) Who does Diomedes meet in battle and what happens?
Diomedes (Greek) and Glaucus (Trojan) meet in battle and realise they inherited ties of friendship; grandfathers hosted each other (xenia)
Exchange gifts and spare each other
(Book 6) Who does Hector meet at the gates of Troy?
- Hector and Andromache, nursing Astyanax, meet at the gates of Troy
- Andromache tells her life story
- Achilles sacked her city and murdered her father, brothers
- Achilles took Andromache for timé but returned her for ransom (unlike Agamemnon)
- Andromache presents a woven item and asks for Athena’s protection, but Athena is firmly on the Greek’s side
Hector also meets his mother Hecuba, Helen, Paris
Explain Hector’s understanding of fate
- No one can kill him against fate, so nothing will protect him from his fated death
- Whether he stays or goes he will still be fated to die; he may as well die in battle and get kleos from himself and family
- He describes the grief he will feel if Andromache is taken captive
- He prays that Astyanax will grow up to be just like him
(Book 7) What do Ajax and Hector agree to do?
Ajax and Hector agree to a ritualised formal duel to decide the victor of the war and to make peace, but the duel is a die so nothing is resolved
Ajax gives Hector a leather shield strap and Hector gives a sword
By Zeus’s will, the Trojans advance and plan to set fire to Greek ships. What does Agamemnon do?
- Agamemnon sends an embassy to Achilles’ camp after meeting with Greek chiefs
- Offers Achilles treasure and privileges in exchange from his sword in battle
- The embassy includes Odysseys, Phoinix, Ajax
What do Odysseus and Phoinix tell Achilles at the embassy? Does he accept?
- Odysseus reminds Achilles of his father’s parting advice (“restrain your anger”)
- Phoinix tells the story of Meleager:
- Meleager withdrew from battle in anger at his mother, who curses him with an early death because he killed her siblings in battle
- He remains in his room with his bride Cleopatra, resisting gifts
- He returns when his home is threatened, receiving no gifts in the end
- Achilles still refuses
Why does Achilles refuse to go back to war and accept the gifts?
- He refuses because the gifts are meant to subordinate him
- Agamemnon offers Achilles his daughter –> Achilles would be made his son
- He refuses because his mother Thetis has told him about the two fates leading to his death
- If he goes to battle, he will die but earn renown (kleos)
- If he returns home, his life will long endure (nostos)
Who is Phoinix and what is his relationship to Achilles?
- Phoinix was an older man who was exiled from his home as a youth and taken in by Achilles’ father Peleus
- Cursed to have no children of his own by his biological father, he cares for Achilles as a son and a pupil
- His father took a concubine and dishonoured his mother
- His mother told him to sleep with the concubine; he did and his father cursed him; he was exiled
(Book 11) Without Achilles, Agamemnon, Diomedes, and Odysseus are all wounded and Achilles becomes worried. What does Achilles do?
- Achilles sends best bud Patroclus out to get news
- Nestor suggests Patroclus convince Achilles to return to battle, but if he refuses he should instead ask for his armour to scare the Trojans
- Achilles refuses and gives him the armour but warns him not to advance against Hector
- Patroclus becomes overconfident in Achilles’ armour and kills Sarpedon (Zeus’ son)
(Book 16) What happens to Patroclus?
- Hector slays Patroclus with the help of the gods and takes Achilles armour
- Ajax rescues the corpse of Patroclus so that he can receive a proper funeral
- While anger made Achilles withdraw from battle, rage due to his dead friend makes him run to the battlefield
- Achilles refuses to eat or drink and throws himself into dirt in grief (“acting dead”)
- He doesn’t care about timé or kleos, he wants to kill as many trojans as possible; however, he has no armor
- While anger made Achilles withdraw from battle, rage due to his dead friend makes him run to the battlefield
(Book 18) How does Achilles get new armor?
- Achilles must return to battle but Hector has his armor
- Achilles asks Thetis for help
- Hephaestus makes divine armor for Achilles at Thetis’ request
- The shield has moving images on it; it contains the whole world
How does Patroclus’ death transform Achilles?
- Patroclus’ death transforms Achilles; in his grief he becomes:
- Like a dead person
- Like a god (surreal strength + crazy armour)
- Like an animal (hungry for revenge)
- Not like a human; he will not observe any rituals or rules of war
- Achilles and Agamemnon reconcile, Odysseus says Achilles can fight while the troops eat
(Book 22) What do Priam and Hecuba say to Hector before he goes to fight Achilles?
- Priam imagines his shameful death when Troy is taken if Hector is not there to defend him; “his own dogs will eat him in his palace”
- Hecuba shows Hector the breast that nursed him
- She is afraid that if Achilles kills him, no one will grant him funeral rites and dogs will eat him
- Dogs eating a warrior’s body is the utmost disgrace
How does Hector die?
- Achilles chases Hector around the walls of Troy three times
- Zeus wonders if he can save Hector but Athena stops him
- Zeus gives Athena permission to help Achilles
- Hector trips and Apollo leaves his side
- Athena tricks Hector by pretending to be his brother and giving him the courage to fight Achilles (finally they stop running)
- Hector proposes a reciprocal agreement to give their bodies back to their families in case of death
- Achilles rejects Hector’s proposal and believes he will avenge Patroclus if Hector is killed
- Achilles slays him
How does Achilles violate the death ritual?
- Achilles defiles Hector’s corpse; he ties Hector’s body to his chariot and drags him in the dust around Troy as the Trojans, Priam, Hecuba, and Andromache watch
- He uses the belt that Ajax gave him to tie him
- Achilles delays Patroclus’ burial as he is obssessed with revenge
- The gods preserve Hector’s and Patroclus’ bodies
How does Priam retrieve Hector’s body?
How does the Iliad end?
- He is escorted by the psychopomp through no man’s land to Achilles’ camp
- Priam offers ransom for Hector’s body as suppliant and Achilles orders Hector’s body to be prepared for return and burial
- Achilles says they must eat, as neither of them have eaten since Hector’s death
- He tells the story of Niobe, the mythical example of grief
- Priam asks Achilles to think of his own father; in Priam’s case, all 50 of his sons have died and he has no home
- The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector
