Iliad summary Flashcards
Book 1 - Plague and Wrath
Chryses offers ransom for his daughter, which Agamemnon rejects. Apollo sends a plague on the Greeks (nine days).
Achilles calls an assembly. Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis, but demands compensation.
Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel over compensation. Achilles threatens to walk out. Athena prevents Achilles killing Agamemnon. Nestor fails to reconcile them. Achilles and the Myrmidons leave the fighting.
Chryseis prepared to be returned. Agamemnon’s heralds seize Briseis.
Achilles appeals for help to Thetis.
Plague ends when Chryseis is handed over.
Thetis supplicates to Zeus and persuades him to make the Greeks start losing, to force them to take Achilles back with compensation and return of Briseis.
Zeus quarrels with Hera, who supports the Greeks. Hephaestus restores the peace.
Proem
poet announces theme
asks the Muse, goddess of memory to ‘sing’ through him
destructive anger of the greatest Greek fighter Achilles –> cause of many deaths
Book 3 - A Duel and a Trojan View of the Greeks
Armies advance to battle. Paris proposes single combat with Menelaus. Hector announces the plan and both sides agree.
Iris tells Helen of impending duel. She goes to walls of Troy and describes Greek heroes to Priam.
Oaths are taken and duel begins. Menelaus cheated of victory by Aphrodite, who rescues Paris.
Aphrodite forces Helen to make love to Paris. Agamemnon declares Menelaus the winner.
Book 4 - The Oath is Broken and Battle Joined
Zeus wonders whether Hera and Athena would agree on peace. They refuse and Athena descends to restart the fighting.
Athena persuades Trojan archer Pandarus to shoot Menelaus. Athena deflects the shot so it only grazes him.
Agamemnon surveys his troops, praising Idomeneus, Ajax, Teucer and Nestor, but rebuking Menestheus, Odysseus and Diomedes.
Battle is joined. Athena and Apollo urge on both sides.
Book 6 - Hector and Andromache
Greeks enjoy some success. Agamemnon and Nestor urge Greeks to show no mercy.
Prophet Helenus advises Aeneas and Hector to rally the Trojans and orders Hector to tell the women to make an offering to Athena to try to stop Diomedes’ rampage.
Glaucus and Diomedes meet in battle.
Hector arrives in Ilium and meets Hecabe. Offering to Athena is made in vain and Hector talks with Paris and Helen.
Hector converses with Andromache with Astyanax.
Hector and Andromache, as if for the last time, and Hector and Paris meet and return to battle.
Book 9 - The Embassy to Achilles
Agamemnon is desperate. Nestor proposes that he makes an apology to Achilles. He outlines the compensation he will offer. Embassy of Phoenix, Odysseus and Ajax sent.
Achilles welcomes and feeds the embassy. Odysseus makes the offer, adding an appeal to Achilles’ sense of pity. Achilles rejects it, saying he will return home the next day.
Phoenix tries to persuade Achilles, remembering how he raised him. He appeals to him in the name of the gods of supplication (Litae) and tells the story of Meleager who also rejected gifts. Achilles says he will think again about returning home.
Ajax appeals in the name of friendship. Achilles considers returning to the battle if the Trojans threaten his ships.
Embassy returns and Odysseus reports its failure. Diomedes comments on how it was always going to be unsuccessful and they must fight on.
Book 10 - Diomedes and Odysseus: The Night Attack
Agamemnon and Menelaus cannot sleep for worry about the Greek situation, so they call a council and check on sentries.
Nestor suggests a night spying mission on the Trojan camp. Diomedes and Odysseus volunteer.
Hector invites a Trojan to spy on the Greek camp. Dolon volunteers. Odysseus and Diomedes catch him, milk him for information and kill him.
Odysseus and Diomedes slaughter the sleeping Thracians and their leader Rhesus, take his horses and return in triumph.
Book 16 - The Death of Patroclus :(
Patroclus tells Achilles that the Greeks are in serious trouble, and Achilles agrees that he can return to battle in his armour.
Ajax retreats and Greek ships are fired.
Achilles prays in vain to Zeus for Patroclus’ safe return. Patroclus advances into battle and sends Trojans into a panic.
Patroclus kills Sarpedon and Hector leads the Trojans back. General fighting. Zeus watches the battle, making Hector flee. Apollo rescues Sarpedon’s body.
Patroclus warned off taking Ilium by Apollo. Patroclus kills Hector’s charioteer Cebriones. Apollo strips Patroclus of his armour. Patroclus stabbed by Eurphorbus and finished off by Hector. Patroclus prophesies Hector’s death at Achilles’ hands.
Book 17 - The Struggle over Patroclus
Menelaus moves in to protect Patroclus’ body and kills Eurphorbus.
Hector leads a Trojan advance, but Ajax drives him off. Glaucus rounds on Hector, who puts on Achilles’ armour. Zeus pities his brief triumph. A full-scale fight develops over Patroclus’ body and a mist descends.
Achilles has heard nothing of Patroclus’ death, but his horses weep for Patroclus. Zeus pities them and foretells Hector will not capture them. More fighting.
Athena encourages Menelaus, who drags Patroclus’ body back to the Greeks. Zeus shakes his aegis and the Greeks retreat. Zeus lifts the mist.
Antilochus runs to give Achilles the bad news. Menelaus and Meriones lift Patroclus’ body and the retreat continues.
Book 18 - Achilles’ Decision
Antilochus brings news of Patroclus’ death. Achilles collapses in grief and Thetis, hearing his cries, arrives with her sea-nymphs to lament. Achilles says he will have his revenge by killing Hector and ignores Thetis’ warning that his death will follow after Hector’s.
Achilles appears on the battlefield and with Athena’s help routs the Trojans with a shout. Patroclus’ body is brought back to the Greek camp.
Terrified by Achilles’ return, the Trojans hold an assembly. Polydamas recommends withdrawal to Ilium. Hector, wrongly convinced that Zeus is on his side, rejects this advice and wins Trojan approval to continue the attack the next morning.
Achilles laments Patroclus, foreseeing his own death but anticipating revenge on Hector. The body is washed, anointed and clothed, and lamentation continues throughout the night. Hera gloats to Zeus over her success in bringing Achilles back into the fighting.
Thetis arrives at Hephaestus’ home and asks for armour.
Hephaestus returns to his forge to make armour for Achilles. The shield is described in detail.
Book 19 - The Feud Ends
Thetis delivers Achilles’ new armour. Achilles summons an assembly, expresses his regret for the past, his willingness to renounce his anger and his desire to return to battle. Agamemnon blames delusion for his actions, describes how even Zeus was deluded by Hera and agrees to hand over the compensation.
Achilles wants to return to battle immediately, but Odysseus insists that the men must be fed.
Agamemnon’s gifts are fetched. Briseis laments for Patroclus. At Zeus’ suggestion, Athena secretly feeds Achilles with ambrosia and nectar.
The Greeks come out for battle - bronze armour flashes, the earth resounds - and Achilles arms himself, taking his father’s spear. The horse Xanthus prophesies Achilles’ death.
Book 22 - The Death of Hector
The Trojans recover within the walls, but Hector remains outside. Apollo mocks the furious Achilles, who races back to Ilium.
Priam and Hecabe appeal to Hector not to take on Achilles. Hector decides that he must fight.
Achilles charges and Hector runs. They complete three circuits of the walls. The scales of destiny weigh against Hector, and Apollo leaves him.
Athena tricks Hector into fighting. Achilles rejects Hector’s suggestion that the loser’s body should be returned, charges and kills him. Hector prophesises Achilles’ death.
Achilles strips the dead Hector, the Greeks stab his body. Achilles tells the Greeks to return to camp, and drags Hector’s body back by the ankles behind his chariot.
Priam and Hecabe lament Hector. When Andromache hears of his death, she faints, recovers and offers a third lament, emphasising her fatherless child Astyanax’s fate.
Book 23 - The Funeral and the Games
The Greeks withdraw to their ships. Patroclus is mourned and his ghost visits Achilles in his sleep.
Firewood is collected, and Patroclus’ body taken in funeral procession. Achilles dedicates a lock of his own hair and the pyre is lit. Aphrodite and Apollo preserve Hector’s body. Winds are summoned to prevent the pyre going out and Patroclus’ bones are gathered and placed temporarily in a golden vessel, awaiting Achilles’ death.
Achilles seats the army in readiness for Patroclus’ funeral games.
The chariot race: Nestor exhorts Antilochus, includes Eumelus’ crash and Antilochus’ manoeuvre against Menelaus, Diomedes’ victory and dispute between Antilochus and Menelaus.
The boxing: Epeius knocks out Euryalus.
The wrestling: Ajax and Odysseus fight a draw.
The foot-race: Athena helps Odysseus beat mini Ajax.
Armed combat: Ajax and Diomedes fight a draw.
Throwing the lump of metal, archery, spear, in which Achilles gives the prize uncontested to Agamemnon.
Book 24 - Priam and Achilles
Achilles cannot sleep for thinking about Patroclus. He drags Hector’s body around Patroclus’ tomb, but Apollo protects it from disfigurement.
The other gods pity Hector, but Hera, Athena and Poseidon remain hostile. Apollo pleads Hector’s case and Zeus instructs Thetis to tell Achilles he must return the body. Achilles agrees.
Zeus tells Priam to take gifts to Achilles and ransom Hector.
Priam, after rounding in his sons, sets off, with an omen from Zeus.
Hermes in disguise accompanies Priam safely to Achilles’ quarters.
Priam’s supplication of Achilles succeeds. They both weep, and Achilles compares Priam’s fate with that of his own father.
Priam’s gifts are unloaded and Hector’s body placed on the waggon. Achilles and Priam eat together. By night, Hermes leads Priam secretly away.
Cassandra sees Priam approaching. Andromache, Hecabe and Helen utter laments. Wood is collected.
Hector is cremated and buried, and a grave-mound set up. A funeral feast is held in Priam’s palace.
