Reading Assignment #1: the Iliad

Reading Assignment #1 Study Questions: The Iliad
1. What is the main conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles in Book 1?
a. Achilles and Agamemnon’s conflict is a bit of a long story that is loaded with lots of details.
b. Agamemnon took Chryseis, Apollos’s priest’s, Chryses’s, daughter, as plunder during a raid on Troy. Agamemnon did not accept Chryses respectful plea for his daughter’s freedom in exchange for a wealthy sum. Chryses then prays to Apollo for vengeance and justice. Apollo responds to this prayer and casts a plague on Agamemnon’s people, the Achaeans (Greeks), which causes men and animals to die mysteriously for nine days. On the tenth day, Achilles calls the Greeks to an assembly and learns that Agamemnon’s treatment of Chryses is the cause of the plague. He also is told how to end the plague and atone for sin. Agamemnon becomes extremely angry that he has to give up Chryseis, and insists that one of the Achaeans give him a prize in order to compensate for his loss. This demand seriously angers Achilles and causes him and Agamemnon to argue. Agamemnon eventually makes a threat that if Achilles and the Achaeans do not give him appropriate compensation that he would take a prize for himself, which he does. Agamemnon takes Achilles’ prize, a girl names Briseis. This is considered a huge act of disrespect, sending Achilles into a rage. He basically almost kills Agamemnon until the goddess Hera sends Athena to stop him and tell him that he will be justly compensated for Agamemnon’s dishonor towards him. Achilles pretty much ends up walking away from killing Agamemnon, but promises him that one day the Achaeans will come begging him for help, and Agamemnon will swallow his pride.
2. Who is Calchas, and what is his role in Book 1?
a. Chalchas is a great prophet who tells Achilles how to end the plague of death on the Acheans. Calchas tells him that the plague was sent by Apollo as a means of punishment for Agamemnon’s treatment of Chryses. Agamemnon refused to respond to Chryses’s respectful plea to free his daughter in exchange for a wealthy ransom fee, not granting Chryses his request. In order to basically make atonement for Agamemnon’s actions, Chryseis must be given back without accepting any ransom and a hundred sacred bulls must be given to Chryses for a sacrifice.
3. In the encounter between Glaucus and Diomedes in Book 6, what do we learn about household and kinship bonds?
a. I think that their encounter shows that family bonds, history, and friendship can prevail even in the worst circumstances, such as a war. Household and kinship bonds are placed at a higher value than the war. I thought it was interesting how they promised not to fight each other because there would be plenty of other men from either side for them to fight and kill.
4. How is Hector presented to the reader (audience) in Book 6?
a. Hector seems to be presented as a man with great authority to carry out Helenus’s plan. He also is portrayed as the one who the people go to for news on the war, support, and comfort. Also, he is portrayed as a great husband and father, a man with great compassion and love and devotion to his city. He displays his deep love and care for others as well as his characteristics of a loving father in his prayers that although Troy is lost, that his son might grow to greatness. He also is persevering and encouraging to others, which is displayed in his hopeful message that he speaks to the people of Troy as he faces the battlefield.
5. Identify and briefly describe the three appeals of Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax in Book 9, "The Embassy to Achilles."
a. Odysseus – He tells Achilles that the Achaeans are in trouble and need their greatest fighter (Achilles, who had earlier refused to fight). He basically re-presents an offer made to Achilles by Agamemnon that is meant to appeal to Achilles’s desire for honor and fame.
b. Phoenix – He helped raise Achilles. He asks Achilles to listen to him, telling him the story of a man who was wronged and then refused to defend his country because of his pride. The man ended up eventually going to war for fear of his wife’s safety. However, he received little honor because he had let so much suffering happen to his people because of the war. Phoenix basically tells Achilles to not make the same mistake that this man did.
c. Ajax – He takes more of an angry, blunt approach. He speaks of the custom of the price that is to be paid for wrongful death—blood. Achilles rejects him as well, reminding him of the promise to not fight until Trojans burn the Achaean’s ships.