Iliad Scholarship

Michael Silk (Achilles)

Achilles is an uncomfortable and destructive presence in the heroic world

Michael Silk (hero)

For a hero to be pitied by a god is a great compliment

Farron (women)

Homer uses every women in the Iliad to display the agonies of war as well as displaying their helplessness and inability to determine what will happen to their men

Peter Jones (hero and gods)

The men who need the Gods most are not weak and powerless but strong and heroic. Gods being creatures of power only support winners. One is a hero only because the Gods supported you.

Emma Greensmith (Hekabe)

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

John Scott (Hektor and glory)

It is only as a man, a son and father that Hector wins respect but he must have some form of military glory which is why Patroclus is created

Baker & Christensen (theme)

The most important theme in the Iliad is Achilles' growing recognition of his morality

Graziosi (Andromache & leaders)

Ancient readers would have been outraged at Andromache's suggestion to Hector in book 6, because Homeric leaders should act as protectors of their people, not stay safe inside Troy's walls as others die. She violates the very language of the epic here

Jenkyns (Achilles)

Achilles is notably different from everyone else in the poem

Hauser (Achilles and revenge)

When Achilles makes the decision to go back into battle, he doesn't do it out of glory, but out of revenge for Patroclus

Silk (war)

War means glory, war means suffering

Matthew Leigh (fate)

No character in the Iliad succeeds in reversing the path of fate

Denis Feeney

The gods in the Iliad experience love, anger and vengeance, emotions that ground them in the human realm