The Story
The Iliad, or The Song of Ilium, starts with the arrival of the Argives on Trojan land. They are there to recapture Helen, the wife of Menelaus, that had been stolen away by the sons of Priam. Agamemnon, the leading king, insults Achilles by taking one of Achilles' captured prizes, a young woman. Achilles then refuses, as a point of honour, to join the Argives in battle and even goes so far as to petition the gods for the Argives to lose without him. Then the battle ensues and is going against the Argives, the Trojans are having their way with the battle. The battle reaches the ships and Achilles friend is killed by Hector. Achilles joins the battle, vowing to take down Hector, and has a great impact on the state of the fighting. He eventually kills Hector, in single combat, but is not happy with that as revenge and proceeds to desecrate his body, while putting on elaborate funeral games for his friend. He does eventually return Hectors body to his father, who the buries him with dignity.
Reflections
One of the things that struck me is that Homer has clearly never seen a chariot in use: their use in the poem is nonsensical. They are only there to take the combatants to each other and then to be dismounted to fight. In reality, they would have fought from the chariot and only dismounted if the chariot was damaged, much more damage could be done this way. This suggests that the text was written down much later, when the phalanx had taken over, as the most powerful formation for war; with their long spears, chariots could not get close and fell out of common usage in the Greek world.
Homer also uses a preponderance of names. Minor characters that are just there to get killed are named. Every prince, of every nation involved, and all divisions in the boats, all are named. George RR Martin didn't uses as many names even in the Song of Ice and Fire.
Achilles is seen as the righteous hero, breaking faith with Agamemnon, when he was betrayed by him, and yet avenging his friend when his is killed by Hector. Nothing Agamemnon did could bring Achilles back into the fight but after his friends death, nothing would keep him from his revenge or from honoring his friend with a games.
Comparisons
The Iliad is the second epic poem on the list, which surprised me a little; when originally writing the list, I had expected it to be the first. The Iliad is harder to read than The Epic of Gilgamesh.
In the Iliad it is about who did what, it is focused on the people and who they are. By contrast the Epic of Gilgamesh focuses on what was done, focusing on the events that the characters went through.
Both texts began life as oral stories, but they filled different roles societally. The Iliad played the part of a common past for the Panhellenic tribes and is a literal who's who. At the time is was written down, it would have been used as a touchstone of a common past for all Greeks. Both texts speak of a heroic past, where the men were stronger and the gods intervened more readily.
Have you read the The Iliad? If so what did you think?
Does this inspire you to read the The Iliad? If so tell me what you think when your done!
Buy a copy of The Iliad
Read my post on The Epic of Gilgamesh
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