Iliad Modern Scholarship

Homer is perfectly capable of showing people making up their minds without divine intervention.

Jones, Intervention of the Gods

When a god intervenes, it is not simply Homer's way of describing a mental process. The gods enable mortals' free will, reflecting human actions.

Jones, Intervention of the Gods

Though consistently and coherently represented as external beings, [the gods] constitute beings, they constitute forces which...we may take as equally internal.

Silk, Intervention of the Gods

When Homer wants to describe a person acting on impulse or getting a sudden, inexplicable idea, he attributes the action to a god rather than explain the human psychology - no free will. (However, that would mean the characters were perfect)

Silk, Intervention of the Gods

The Gods are frivolous and aimless compared to the humans.

Silk, Personification of the Gods

At the start the heroes quarrel on earth; at the end of Act 1, the Gods quarrel on Olympus. In essence both quarrels are about timē, honour. But the parallel at once becomes a contrast. The heroes' quarrel is set to bring death and destruction: the Gods', by comparison, is aimless and even frivolous. On earth no reconciliation is possible until most of the damage has been done, in heaven the lame god Hephaestus is able to divert Hera's rage with a display of his disability.

Silk, Personification of the Gods

Homer shows us a hero alienated not only from the world of his poem but from the world celebrated by hundreds of years of poetic tradition and cultural values.

Schein, Characterisation of Achilles

Achilles is alienated from traditional Greek values, with this disparity causing the war.

Schein, Characterisation of Achilles

Homeric society collapses due to anger of a few - Agamemnon and Achilles' argument, the chariot race in book 23. It is a warning about the consequences of Achilles. Thumos means heroic energy and anger.

Allan, Anger in the Iliad

Perhaps the main difference between the two heroes is that Hector is represented as quintessentially socially and human, while Achilles is inhumanely isolated and daemonic in his greatness."

Schein, Achilles and Hector

It is this willingness to look death in the face that we find the common ground between the responses of Hector and Achilles to the challenge of heroism.

Clarke, Achilles and Hector

The theme of death is overwhelming in the last two books of 'The Iliad,' with two funerals and reoccurring references to the underworld

Jáuregui, Death in the Iliad

In book 23, Achilles plays the role of umpire and protector of the community's conventions by enforcing rules for contestants and awarding appropriate prizes, which contrasts with Agamemnon's failure to enforce a community-serving value code in book 1

Scott, Achilles and Agamemnon

Hectors family loved and respected him for his non-military virtues, which is evident in their lamentation after his death

Farron, Hector

Hecuba reinforces Hector's humanity by showing his vulnerability in book 22, reminding us that whilst he is a formidable warrior, he is still a child in his mother's eyes. Hecuba guides our emotional response to what happened

Greensmith, Hecuba

The ekphrasis represents the good in life and it's used to make us see war in relation to peace, reminding the audience of what will be lost with the fall of Troy

Taplin, Description of Achilles' shield

Aphrodite often acts like the human characters of the epic, such as when she ignores Helen's feelings and treats her as if she were an object

Farron, Aphrodite

Andromache draws attention to how war destroys the lives of women in book 6, so Hector is aware of this when he claims that "war will be the concern of men" which makes him seem naive

Allan, Role of Women and Characterisation of Hector

It's natural for women to have little influence in war, but Homer uses them to portray the agonies of it. They are constantly frustrated by both war itself and their interactions with their men

Farron, Role of Women

'The Iliad' shows the interdependence of men and women in their rights and responsibilities, as well as regarding women's value/contribution to society (e.g. a simile is used to describe the pains Agamemnon feels as those of childbirth in book 11)

Allan, Role of Women

Comparing the treatment of Greek women to Trojan women, Greek women are traded like prizes/objects in the Greek camp, while women in Troy act more like goddesses such as Hera (e.g. Andromache's interactions with Hector in book 6)

Nicholson, Role of Women

Fate is used as a literary technique to satisfy the audience's desire for order and rationality (foreshadowing,) as well as to create tension and pathos (e.g. Zeus deciding whether to save Sarpedon in book 16.) It's only limited by the major features from traditional legends

Edwards, Fate

Zeus is secure and relaxed in his supremacy among the gods, and all loving in the use of it

Camps, Zeus

The central subject of 'The Iliad' is Achilles' heroic behaviour and its consequences, including the issues of self-control, power, authority and compromise from which comes the oppressive, complex, extreme and magnificent figure of Achilles

Jones, Achilles

The men in 'The Iliad' have the bleak prospect of Hades, no heaven and no reward in the afterlife

Clarke, Death

Homer sees warfare as a necessity in human affairs to play out the struggle for honour even if it means death, but it's an evil the gods have decreed for mankind and not an opportunity for heroism

Edwards, Heroic Code

Paris and his guilt symbolise the certainty of Troy's fall and shadow the coming doom, while Hector contrastingly embodies the tragedy of this and is a pure patriot fighting to save his city, not to defend Paris' guilt

Owen, Hector and Paris

Homer makes us painfully aware that every death is the loss of a specific, named soldier about whom there would be more to know, as well as giving extra detail to create pathos

Graziosi, Death