lecture 22 & ch. 20, 21

Question 1

Who is the son of Peleus and Thetis?

Answer 1

ACHILLES

Question 2

What was the catalyst of the Trojan War?

Answer 2

Paris abducting Helen and Menelaus invoking the oath of Tyndareus.

Question 3

After invoking the oath, all the suitors bring their ships and crew and go to Troy, but someone is missing. Who is missing? Why did they not go? How did they try and get out of it?

Answer 3

ODYSSEUS - did not want to go as his wife, Penelope, just had baby Telemachus.

HIS ROUSE:
- When the Greeks show up to Ithaca to retrieve Odysseus, Odysseus retrieves madness.
- Odysseus is in his field with his plow going everywhere, attempting to be perceived as mad because his path had no rhyme or reason.
- Palamedes goes to Penelope and asks to hold their baby. He then takes baby Telemachus, assesses where Odysseus’ path, and places the baby into Odysseus’s path.
- If Odysseus was truly mad, he would plough over his baby, but he isn’t, so Odysseus moves out of the way to avoid running over his child.
- By avoiding his child, he reveals that he was pretending and now he has to go to Troy.

Question 4

Who is Calchas?

Answer 4

A seer that provides prophecies to the Greeks.

Question 5

Before leaving for Troy, the seer Calchas reveals that a prophecy requires the Greeks to obtain a significant variable. What is the variable?

Answer 5

THEY NEED ACHILLES

Question 6

Once all the Greek heroes are present, they stop in Aulis before arriving in Troy. However when they try to set sail again, the wind is not blowing so they cannot set sail. Why are the winds not blowing? What must be done so that the winds can blow again?

Answer 6

1. Calchas explains that Agamemnon has offended Artemis and because of this offence, Artemis is withholding the wind.
2. Calchas also explains that for Agamemnon to make things right with Artemis, he must sacrifice his daughter.

Question 7

How does Agamemnon deceive his daughter into arriving at Aulis so he can sacrifice her?

Answer 7

1. Agamemnon lies and says that his daughter will be married to Achilles.
2. When Clytemnestra and Iphigenia arrive, Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia, therefore appeasing Artemis.

Question 8

When the Greek Army arrives at Troy, they know that the first Greek to set foot on the soil is destined to die. Who takes one for the team? How does he die?

Answer 8

PROTESILAUS - Hector kills him.

Question 9

What is the main topic of Homer’s Iliad?

Answer 9

The anger of Achilles and the consequences that come from his anger.

Question 10

Although the Iliad was written by the Greek Homer, he sympathizes with the Trojans. How does Homer make the audience sympathize with them?

Answer 10

1. By use of Hector and his family’s dynamic.
   - ex. When Hector is leaving to fight in the war, Andromache, his wife, and Astyanax, his enfant son, beg him to not fight.
2. And by Hector’s motivations.
   - ex. he explains that he is not only obligated to his wife and family but he is obligated to his city.

Question 11

In Homer’s Iliad, what is Hector’s deepest wish?

Answer 11

He prays that his son will be a better, stronger man than he is.

Question 12

Provide brief bullet points of what occurs in the Iliad.

Answer 12

1. Agamemnon has taken the daughter of a priest has booty.
2. The priest prays to Apollo, who then sends a plague.
3. Achilles calls an assembly where they all agree that the priest’s daughter must be returned but Agamemnon refuses.
4. If Agamemnon is to return the priest daughter, then he will take Achilles’ betrothed.
5. Achilles is pissed, refuses to fight, and prays that Zeus will allow the Trojans to begin winning to teach Agamemnon a lesson.
6. The Trojans begin to win, Agamemnon provides an offer to Achilles to get him to fight again. Achilles
   refuses.
7. Patroclus, Achilles’ bestie, begs for Achilles to fight but he is stubborn. So Patroclus asks if he can wear Achilles’ armor to give the Greeks a bit of breathing room in the war, Achilles agrees.
8. Patroclus’ plan works, but Hector kills him.
9. Achilles is even more pissed, enters the battlefield, mows down the Trojans, fights Hector and kills him (understanding that he will be next to go).
10. Achilles drags Hectors body around behind his chariot until Priam goes to Achilles’ tent, begging for his sons body. Achilles relents.

Question 13

When the Iliad opens, what is the state of the war?

Answer 13

The Iliad takes place during the 9th year of war, Where the Greeks and the Trojans are at a bit of a standstill.

Question 14

Who kills Achilles?

Answer 14

Paris shoots an arrow that is guided by Apollo which kills Achilles.

Question 15

What causes Ajax to go mad? What is the result?

Answer 15

After the death of Achilles, there is strife in the Greek camp for who gets to claim Achilles’ armor.
- Ajax and Odysseus both want it, but the Greeks grant Odysseus the armor.
- Ajax is pissed, Athena causes him to go mad.
- He slaughters livestock believing it to be Agamemnon and Menelaus.
- When he comes to, he feels so ashamed about the dishonor he has caused himself that he commits suicide.

Question 16

What are the 4 main narrative points seen in the Arms of Achilles?

Answer 16

1. Trojans are suffering, Amazonians arrive as reinforcements.
2. Paris kills Achilles with Apollo guiding his arrow.
3. Strife in the Greek camp over who gets Achilles’
   armor.
4. The madness of Ajax and his resulting suicide.

Question 17

There are four things needed, according to prophecy, that will cause Troy to fall.

Answer 17

1. Neoptolemus, son of Achilles and Deidameia, must be present.
2. Philoctetes and his (Heracles’) bow.
3. The Palladium - An icon of Athena, that acts like a protective force, must be removed from Troy.
4. The famed Wooden Horse.

Question 18

Who is usually credited for the fall of Troy? Why?

Answer 18

ODYSSEUS
- He snuck into Troy and retrieved the palladium.
- He designs THE wooden horse.

Question 19

What is the plan that ultimately results in the Trojans defeat? Explain.

Answer 19

THE HORSE - The Greeks make the Trojans believe that they have given up and left.
1. The Greek “sail off” to Tenedos, having left the horse on the beach with Greek soldiers hidden inside.
2. The Trojans see the Greeks are no longer occupying the beach and they inspect the horse.
3. Sinon, a Greek, explains to the Trojans that the Greeks gave up and left him behind.
4. Laocoon, Trojan, doesn’t believe Sinon. He throws a spear at the horse and immediately after, snakes approach him and devour him as well as his sons.
5. The Trojans believed this to be a sign that Laocoon offended the god that this horse belongs to and decide to take the horse into the city, believing the Greeks had in fact left.
6. The Trojans party and celebrate. When they fall
asleep, Sinon gives the Greeks a sign, the Greeks
descend from the horse and begin pillaging and burning Troy.

Question 20

After the Greeks have invaded the city of Troy, what are the two great war crimes committed against the
Trojans?

Answer 20

1. Neoptolemus murders Priam on an alter.
2. Ajax (diff Ajax) rapes Cassandra.
   - She takes refuge in the temple of Athena and:
   — sometimes he drags her away from the temple and then assaults her,
   — sometimes he assaults her IN the temple.

Question 21

The Trojans celebrating, believing they won the Trojan War becomes the precursor for what?

Answer 21

GREEK WAR CRIMES

Question 22

The Greeks didn’t know
where Achilles was located because Thetis had hidden him, how did the Greeks find him?

Answer 22

1. Calchas could locate the Achilles was on Scyros, but couldn’t identify where specifically.
2. Odysseus contrived a plan; he and Diomedes went to the palace and pretended to be sellers of feminine trinkets for the kings daughters to fawn over, BUT a shield and sword were placed nearby.
3. While the daughters were looking at the trinkets, a trumpet blast sounded from the shore as if announcing an attack.
4. One “daughter” immediately grabbed the shield and sword and leapt to the top of the table, shouting to let him go at the “invaders.”
5. Odysseus and Diomedes went ah. yes. this must be Achilles. come with us. Achilles went hell yeah.

Question 23

The Greeks don’t know
where Troy is, instead they land at the shore of Mysia. What happens on this
island?

Answer 23

1. King Telephus, son of Heracles, tried driving them away.
2. During the fight, Achilles wounded him.
3. The Greeks, understanding that they were not a Troy, left, and returned to Aulis.
4. The wound Telephus received would not heal. He received a message from an oracle, “only that which harmed you can cure you.”
5. Telephus voyages and finds the Greeks on Aulis. He agrees to lead them to Troy if Achilles would heal him.
6. Achilles interprets the message correctly, heals Telephus and Telephus leads the Greeks to Troy.

Question 24

Philoctetes was abandoned by the Greek while they were travelling to Troy. Why did they do this?

Answer 24

After correcting the winds, the Greeks set sail but again, stopped at an island.
- Philoctetes had his ankle bitten by a snake.
- The wound got so infected, he was in so much pain, that he was disrupting the crews ability to make sacrifices.
- The Greeks abandoned Philoctetes on Lemnos, but they eventually must go back and collect him.

Question 25

Who is the betrothed that Agamemnon claims he will take if he cannot have Chryseis, daughter of the priest.

Answer 25

Briseis, Achilles betrothed.

Question 26

Who was the most important Trojan to escape the sack of Troy?

Answer 26

AENEAS - with his son, Ascanius, and carrying his father, Anchises.