Achilles

The main character of the Iliad

Leader of the Myrmidons. He is the greatest

warrior among the Greeks and is the son of
the nymph, or water goddess, Thetis and
Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons.

His humanity stems from his great passion.

 Agamemnon

Commander-in-Chief of the Greek armies.

Son of Atreus, king of Mykenai, brother of
Menelaos and most powerful Greek king.

His humanity stems from his broad

mindedness that makes him a weak king.
 Menelaos

Son of Atreus. Brother of Agamemnon.

Lord of Lakedaimon or Sparta.

He was the husband of Helen

 Paris

A prince of Troy. Son of Priam and Hekuba.

Husband of Helen. He seems content to allow
the Trojans to fight for him.

His smoothness and glibness are not admired

by the warriors of either side, and they often
accuse him of cowardice.
 Diomedes

“Lord of the battle cry“.

Son of Tydeus.
He accompanies Odysseus on a bloody
spying mission to the Trojan camp.

He ranks among the finest and bravest of

the Achaian warriors; he is always wise
and reasonable and is renowned for his
courtesy and gallantry.
 Odysseus

"Seed of Zeus“.

Son of Laertes. Lord of Ithaka. Famed

for his wisdom and trickery.

The shrewdest and most subtle of all the

Achaians and a brave warrior besides, as
he demonstrates on many occasions.
 Nestor
"Gerenian Nestor”.

King of Pylos and a wise counsellor.

The oldest of the Achaian warriors at Troy.

He has all the wisdom and experience of age

and is a valuable asset in the council.
Although he can no longer fight, he remains at
the front line at every battle, commanding his
troops.
 Hektor
The Prince of Troy, the son of King
Priam and heir to the Trojan throne.

He is known as one of the greatest warriors

in all of antiquity, the first among Troy, and
the leader of the city's defenses during one of
the most epic wars ever fought. Throughout
his life he was admired by friend and foe
alike for his courage, his strength, his nobility
and his devotion not only to his people, but to
his family, his friends and his deities.
 Helen
“The face that launched a thousand
ships”.

Daughter of Zeus and Leda and step-

daughter of Tyndareus. Former wife of
Menelaos who eloped with Paris,
causing the Trojan war

She is the most beautiful woman in the

world; however, she is self-centered.
 Iphigenia
Daughter of Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra who is sacrificed by her
father so that the Greek fleet will be
allowed to sail to Troy.

She was a tragic heroine. She was the

first person to have her life flipped
upside down because of the Trojan
War.
 Clytemnestra
Queen of Mycenae. Wife of
Agamemnon. Mother to Iphigenia.
Sister to Helen of Sparta.

She was not a murderer in her own

eyes, she was an executioner. She had
punished and murdered the murderer of
his own child.
The Achaians, under King Agamemnon, have been fighting the
Trojans off and on for nine years, trying to retrieve Helen, the
wife of Menelaos, and thus Agamemnon's sister-in-law. Paris, a
son of the king of Troy, kidnaps Helen, who becomes the
legendary "Helen of Troy" and "the woman with the face that
launched a thousand ships."
 Yet, after years of Achaian attacks, Troy remains intact, and the
Trojan army remains undefeated. The same cannot be said for the
Achaian army. At present, the Achaian troops are dying from a
mysterious plague. Hundreds of funeral pyres burn nightly. Finally,
Achilles, the Achaians' most honored soldier, calls for an assembly to
determine the cause of the plague.
 A soothsayer reveals to the army that King
Agamemnon's arrogance caused the deadly plague; he
refused to return a woman who was captured and
awarded to him as a "war prize." Reluctantly,
Agamemnon agrees to return the woman, but, as
compensation, he says that he will take the woman who
was awarded to Achilles, his best warrior.
 Achilles is furious, and he refuses
to fight any longer for the
Achaians. He and his forces retreat
to the beach beside their ships, and
Achilles asks his mother, the
goddess Thetis, if she will ask
Zeus, king of the gods, to help the
Trojans defeat his former
comrades, the Achaians. Zeus
agrees to do so.
 The two armies prepare for
battle, and Paris (the warrior
who kidnapped Menelaos'
wife, Helen) leaps out and
challenges any of the Achaians
to a duel. Menelaos challenges
him and beats him, but before
Paris is killed, the goddess
Aphrodite whisks him away to
the safety of his bedroom in
Troy.
A short truce is called, but it is
broken when an over-zealous
soldier wounds Menelaos.
During the battle that follows,
Diomedes, an Achaian,
dominates the action, killing
innumerable Trojans and
wounding Aphrodite, a
goddess.
The Trojans seem to be losing, so Hektor returns to Troy
to ask his mother to offer sacrifices to Athena. She
performs the rituals, but Athena refuses to accept them.
Meanwhile, Hektor discovers Paris safe in his bedroom
with Helen, and shames him into returning to battle.
Then Hektor visits with his wife and their baby son. It is
clear that Hektor is deeply devoted to his family, yet
feels the terrible weight of his responsibility as
commander-in-chief of the Trojan army.
During the fighting that continues, the Achaians begin to falter, and at
one point Athena, Zeus' daughter, fears that the entire Achaian army
may be slaughtered. Thus, she and Apollo decide to have Hektor
challenge one of the Achaian' warriors to a duel in order to settle the
war. Telamonian Aias (Ajax) battles Hektor so valiantly that the
contest ends in a draw, and a truce is called.

During this break in the fighting, the dead of both armies are buried
and given appropriate funeral rites, and the Achaians fortify their
defenses with a strong wall and a moat-like ditch.

The fighting resumes, and so many Achaians are slaughtered that

Agamemnon suggests that his troops sail for home, but finally he is
convinced that he must return to the fighting. Messengers are sent to
Achilles, asking him to return to battle, but Achilles is still sulking
beside his ships and refuses to fight.
Soon Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus,
and old Nestor are all seriously wounded,
and Achilles realizes that the Achaians are
in danger of imminent defeat. Therefore,
he sends his warrior-companion,
Patroklos, to find out who the seriously
wounded are.

Patroklos talks with old Nestor, one of the

wisest of the Achaian soldiers. Nestor asks
Patroklos to dress in Achilles' armor and
return to battle. The Achaians, he says,
will rejoice and have new faith in their
death struggle against the Trojans when
they think that they see Achilles returning
to the battle. In addition, the Trojans will
so fear the wrath of the mighty Achilles
that they will be easily defeated. Patroklos
promises to ask Achilles for permission to
use his armor and ride into battle disguised
as the mighty warrior.
 Meanwhile, Hektor leads a massive Trojan surge against the Achaian wall that
stands between the Trojans and the Achaian fleet of ships, and the wall is
successfully smashed. The tumult is so deafening that hell itself seems unloosed.
Achilles is watching and realizes that his wish may be granted: The Achaians
are about to be annihilated. He sends Patroklos into the fighting, disguised as
Achilles himself. The Achaian army rejoices at what they think is the return of
Achilles to the fighting, and the Trojans are so terrified that they are quickly
swept back to the walls of Troy.
 Patroklos' valor seems superhuman. He has killed nine Trojans in a single
charge when Apollo strikes him with such fury that Hektor is able to catch him
off-guard and thrust a spear through his body. Then some of the most intense
fighting of the war follows in a battle to claim Patroklos' body. Finally, the
Achaians rescue Patroklos' corpse, and Hektor captures Achilles' armor. Then
the Achaians return to the beach, guarding their ships as best they can.
 Achilles is filled with overwhelming grief and rage when he learns that his
warrior-companion, Patroklos, has been slaughtered. His mother, Thetis, comes
to him and advises him that it is fated that he will die if he tries to revenge
Patroklos' death. But she says that if Achilles decides to revenge Patroklos' death,
she will outfit him in a suit of new armor, made by one of the gods.
 Achilles chooses: He will defy certain death and the Trojans in an attempt to
punish them for what they (and he) did to Patroklos. Thus, he returns to battle in
his new armor and is so successful that he and the Achaians rout the Trojans. He
savagely kills Hektor, the Trojans' mightiest warrior. Achilles' anger is not sated,
however. He ties Hektor's corpse to his chariot and circles Patroklos' burial
mound every day for nine days.
Hektor's parents are so grieved at the barbaric treatment given
to their son's corpse that Priam, Hektor's father, goes to
Achilles and begs for his son's body. Achilles is moved by
Priam's pleas and by the memory of his own father.
Consequently, he agrees to cleanse and return Hektor's body.
Hektor's body is given the appropriate cremation rites,
and then with mourning and weeping for the noble
warrior, the Trojans place his remains in a golden
casket and place it in a burial barrow.
http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~demilio/2211unit1/names.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/canalysis.html

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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Helen_of_Troy.jpg

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