the iliad themes

Question 1

How do the characters emerge as worthy/despicable in the epic?

Answer 1

Based on their degree of competence + bravery in battle

Question 2

What does Paris get for not fighting?

Answer 2

He receives the scorn of his family + Helen

Question 3

What does Achilles get for fighting?

Answer 3

He wins eternal glory by rejecting the option of a long, comfortable life at home

Question 4

Give 2 examples of warlike deities

Answer 4

• Athena
• Ares
• Apollo

Question 5

Which gods are used as comedic relief + why?

Answer 5

• Aphrodite
• Artemis
  Because they run from aggression

Question 6

What does fighting prove?

Answer 6

Ones honour + integrity

Question 7

What does avoiding fighting prove?

Answer 7

Demonstrates laziness, ignoble fear + misaligned priorities

Question 8

What else does the Iliad show people about war?

Answer 8

Men die gruesome deaths, women become slaves, a plague breaks of in the Achaean camp

Question 9

What do both armies regret?

Answer 9

The fact that the war even began

Question 10

What does Achilles point out?

Answer 10

All men, brave or cowardly, meet the same death in the end

Question 11

What does Homer never imply?

Answer 11

That the fight is a waste of time or human life

Question 12

What does Homer portray about both sides of war?

Answer 12

Each side as having a justifiable reason to fight + depicts warfare as respectable + glorious

Question 13

What may the epic respect more than family bonds?

Answer 13

The pursuit of kleos (glory) that one wins by performing great deeds

Question 14

What does Homer constantly force his characters to choose between?

Answer 14

Their loved wants and kleos

Question 15

What do the most heroic characters choose?

Answer 15

Kleos

Question 16

What does Andromache plea of Hector + how does he respond?

Answer 16

Pleads him not to risk orphaning his son
He says fighting in the front ranks represents winning his father great glory

Question 17

What does Paris choose to do?

Answer 17

Be with Helen instead of fight in the war

Question 18

What does Achilles debate + what does he do instead?

Answer 18

Debates returning home to live in ease w his aging father, but he remains in Troy to win glory by killing Hector, avenging Patroclus

Question 19

What makes Hector + Achilles’ decisions graver?

Answer 19

They both know their fate ahed of time

Question 20

What values do the heroes prize highly?

Answer 20

Values of honour, noble bravery + glory

Question 21

What is destined of Troy?

Answer 21

Troy is destined to fall

Question 22

What does the text announce?

Answer 22

Priam + his children will die

Question 23

What does Homer make clear about death?

Answer 23

Even the greatest men cannot escape death

Question 24

What happens to the greatest men?

Answer 24

They yield death sooner

Question 25

What should mortals try and do?

Answer 25

Live as honourably as possible, so they're remembered

Question 26

What will happen if mortals' physical bodies can't survive?

Answer 26

Their words and deeds can

Question 27

How does Hector respond when Andromache expresses concern of him dying in battle?

Answer 27

"And fate?" "No one alive has ever escaped yet"

Question 28

How is fate used in the epic?

Answer 28

As a narrative means to foreshadow future events + thematic means to underline significance of heroism

Question 29

What fate does Achilles accept?

Answer 29

A short, heroic, glory-filled life

Question 30

What do gods have the power to do?

Answer 30

Challenge fate

Question 31

What do the gods contemplate doing for Sarpaedon?

Answer 31

They contemplate saving him to prevent his fated death

Question 32

What is confirmed once Patroclus kills Sarpaedon?

Answer 32

Patroclus killing Sarpaedon confirms Patroclus' own death and Achilles rejoining the war