The term 'epic' refers to a 'word, story, poem'"; a "lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation"(1).
The Iliad (Song of Ilium) is an epic poem that tells of the last weeks of the Trojan War: a clash between two ancient civilizations, the Greeks and the Trojans, and the impact of this clash on both cultures. Though the epic poem serves as a kind of mythos for the historical evolution of Greece's early history, the narrative conveys enduring and human themes concerning "social relationships and feelings, especially our incompatible desires for honor and violence, and for peace and a home" (222).
The historical background of the Iliad begins in about 2000 B.C.E., on the island of Crete. The inhabitants, a people called the Myceneans, initiated a great empire of enormous 'fortified cities' constructed around 'central central palaces.' The tools and weapons that they used were mostly made of bronze--thus historians refer to this period of Mycenean industry as the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age endured for approximately 600 years until the civilization disappeared in around 1200 B.C.E. All traces of the Mycenean culture, including the syllabary--a method of writing in which syllables were designated by symbols--vanished. A dark period ensued, until writing was reintroduced by the Phoenicians.
Although 'literature' and writing, in the traditional sense of the words, disappeared during this period of 'darkness,' Greeks kept alive their historic and mythic past through an oral tradition: legends and myths about a glorious past were transmitted verbally from generation to generation. In the case of the Iliad and its sequel, the Odyssey, recitation of either of these epics would have lasted several hours--much longer than any one bard could manage at once. Scholars believe that perhaps these epics were the productions of an "oral poet or poets who became literate" and were thus able to record the content of each epic in writing (223). As posterity would suggest, these epics have exercised a pervasive power not just in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, but in the modern world of literature as well.
Background Synopsis of the Iliad
The epic poem the Iliad is also referred to as the Song of Ilium, as Ilias is another title for Troy. Our text provides a compact synopsis of the epic, which begins in medias res: the actual action of the epic commences in the final year of the war.
"Paris, a prince of Troy, son of King Priam, had to judge which of three goddesses should be awarded a golden apple: Athena, goddess of wisdom; Hera, the queen of the gods--a representative of power; or Aphrodite, goddess of sexual desire. He chose Aphrodite, and as his reward she gave him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, as his wife. Unfortunately, Helen already had a husband: Menelaus, brother of the powerful general Agamemnon. When Paris took Helen with him back to Troy from Mycenae, Agamemnon and Menelaus mustered a great army, a coalition drawn from many Greek cities, including the great heroes Achilles, the fastest runner and best fighter, and Odysseus, the cleverest of the Greeks. So began a war that lasted ten years, until Odysseus finally found a stratagem to enter the city walls of Troy. He built a wooden horse, filled it with Greek armed men, and tricked the Trojans into taking the horse into the city. The Greek soldiers leaped from the horse and killed the male inhabitants, captured the women, and razed the city to the ground" (223-4).
Themes:
Rage (Particularly that of Achilles': "his rage against the Greeks shifts into an inhuman aggression against the Trojans")
Heroic Code (Death for Glory)
Indecision
Homecoming
Respect
Honor
Fate
Conflict
-between mortals and gods
-among men
Hierarchy
Mortality
Loss
Ransoming of Human Bodies
Characters: Achaeans (Greeks)
Achilles: Leader of the Myrmidons (minions); Son of Thetis, a nymph
Agamemnon: King of Mycenae; Greek leader
Odysseus: Commander and king of Ithaca
Menelaus: King of Sparta
Helen: Wife of Menelaus
Diomedes: King of Argos
Ajax the Greater: King of Salamis
Ajax the Lesser: Partner to Ajax the Greater
Patroclus: Achilles' companion
Nestor: King of Pylos, advisor to Agamemnon
Clytemnestra: Wife of Agamemnon
Characters: Trojans
Hector: Son of King Priam of Troy
Aeneas: Son of Aphrodite
Priam: King of Troy
Paris: Lover to Helen
Polydamas: Commander 'whose advice is ignored'
Hecuba: Priam's wife
Helen: Daughter of Zeus, wife of Menelaus
Andromache: Wife of Hector, Mother to Astyanax
Cassandra: Priam's daughter
Briseis: Trojan woman whom the Greeks captured; Achilles' spoil
The gods' role in the Iliad provides a sharp contrast to the mortal participants of this war: they, unlike their mortal counterparts, can "participate in the war but cannot die." Thus their resilience makes readers acutely aware of the impermanence of life. In other ways, they mirror humankind's follies and mistakes, because "there are conflicts about hierarchy, just as there are on earth: sometimes the lesser gods refuse to recognize the authority of Zeus, just as some Greek chieftains sometimes refuse to bow to Agamemnon. But on Olympus, all quarrels end in laughter and drinking, not death. The most important fact about all the warriors in the Iliad is that they die" (226). Yet, before departing this world, mortals must face the pain of loss, uncertainty, war, violence, grief.
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