Introduction to Ancient

History
Greek vs. Roman Heroes

Exploring the Hero Achilles

Lesson 4.1 Objectives: Tutor: Neil Hurst

• Learn about The Iliad’s main characters and their Email:
relationships neil.m.hurst@durham.ac.uk
• Learn about Achilles
 Iliad - Main This lesson will be focused on Achilles who is arguably the protagonist
(main character) of The Iliad. However first we need to explore the
Greeks •
text’s main characters and their relationships in more detail.
King of Mycenae
• King of Phthia
The Greeks also known as • Leader of the expedition Agamemnon • Leader of Myrmidons
• Best fighter in Greek
•
the Achaeans are the Character: obsessed with power and
respect Conflict forces
• See later slides for
epic’s central characters. • Epithets: ‘wide ruling’, ‘Lord betwee
more details
Marshal’ n=
The arrows suggest their • Dies: killed by wife and her lover main
Achilles
complicated when returns home
plot
relationships.
• King of Ithaca
• Cleverest hero at Troy
• Character: trickster, will do Lov
Odysseus •
anything to win
Epithets: ‘cunning’, Guide
Support Follow e
s
‘resourceful’, ‘hot headed/
Menelaus •• King of Sparta Patroclus
‘red headed’ Agamemnon’s little brother,
• Captain of Myrmidons
• After Troy: takes 10 years to husband of Helen (start of war)
• • Close
get home but after fighting Character: angry, cuckold, good
warrior companion/cousin/lover of
off wife’s suitors reclaims
• Epithets: ‘red haired’, ‘war like’ Achilles
throne
• • Character: Innocent, loyal,
After Troy: reclaims wife goes
Follow brave
home and lives peacefully
s • Epithets: ‘dear to Zeus;,
Discuss ‘peerless’, ‘gentle’
Guide • Dies: killed by Hector
while wearing Achilles’
armour
Follow
Follow
s
Diomedes s
• King of Argos •
• Odysseus’ frequent Nesto •
King of Pylos
Trusted adviser to
• King of Salamis
Follows • Strongest and biggest of
•
companion
Character: good warrior,
r •
Agamemnon
Character: Wise, old
Greeks
• Character: Friendly, fierce,
noble • Epithets: ‘godly’, ‘sweet
• Epithets: ‘tamer of stupid
spoken’
• Epithets: ‘gigantic’, ‘swift’,
horses’, ‘great • After Troy: Returns
spearman’, ‘master of the home to family and Ajax ‘mighty’
• Dies:: killed by
war cry’ throne
Odysseus
• King of Ithaca
• Cleverest hero at Troy
• Character: trickster, will do
anything to win
• Epithets: ‘cunning’,
‘resourceful’, ‘hot headed/
‘red headed’
• After Troy: takes 10 years to
get home but after fighting
off wife’s suitors reclaims
throne
Diomedes
• King of Argos
• Odysseus’ frequent companion
• Character: good warrior, noble
• Epithets: ‘tamer of horses’,
‘great spearman’, ‘master of
the war cry’
• After Troy: founds 10+ Italian
cities
• King of Mycenae
• Leader of the expedition Agamemnon
• Character: obsessed with
power and respect
• Epithets: ‘wide ruling’, ‘Lord
Marshal’
• Dies: killed by wife and her
lover when returns home
Menelaus
• King of Sparta
• Agamemnon’s little brother,
husband of Helen (start of
war)
• Character: angry, cuckold,
good warrior
• Epithets: ‘red haired’, ‘war
like’
• After Troy: reclaims wife goes
home and lives peacefully
Nestor
• King of Pylos
• Trusted adviser to
Agamemnon
• Character: Wise, old
• Epithets: ‘godly’, ‘sweet
spoken’
• After Troy: Returns home to
family and throne
• King of Salamis
• Strongest and biggest
of Greeks
• Character: Friendly,
fierce, stupid
• Epithets: ‘gigantic’,
‘swift’, ‘mighty’
• Dies:: killed by
Athena/commits suicide Ajax
for violating Athena’s
sanctuary
 • King of Phthia
Achilles • Leader of Myrmidons
• Best fighter in Greek
forces
• See later slides for more
details
• Captain of Myrmidons
• Close companion/cousin/lover
of Achilles
• Character: Innocent, loyal,
brave
• Epithets: ‘dear to Zeus;,

Patroclus •
‘peerless’, ‘gentle’
Dies: killed by Hector while
wearing Achilles’ armour
Odysseus
• King of Ithaca
• Cleverest hero at Troy
• Character: trickster, will do
anything to win
• Epithets: ‘cunning’,
‘resourceful’, ‘hot headed/
‘red headed’
• After Troy: takes 10 years to
get home but after fighting
off wife’s suitors reclaims
throne
 Iliad – Core Greek This lesson will be focused on Achilles who is
arguably the protagonist (main character) of

Characters The Iliad. However first we need to explore the

text’s main characters and their relationships in
more detail.
• King of Mycenae Agamemn
• Leader of the expedition • King of Phthia
• Character: obsessed with power
on
• Leader of Myrmidons
and respect • Best fighter in Greek forces
Conflict
• Epithets: ‘wide ruling’, ‘Lord between = • See later slides for more
Marshal’ main plot details
• Dies: killed by wife and her lover Achilles
BELOW: This is part of Optional Activity 1, Question 1
when returns home
The relationships between these three characters drive
the central plot of The Iliad: Lov
Follow
s e
• In a battle over status Agamemnon takes away Achilles’ ‘prize’ the
Trojan slave girl Briseis
Patroclus
• Achilles refuse to fight
• The Greeks start to loose without Achilles • Captain of Myrmidons
• Patroclus wears Achilles’ armour to frighten the Trojans and encourage • Close
companion/cousin/lover of
the Greeks
Achilles
• Patroclus is killed by Hector, prince of the Trojans and top fighter apart • Character: Innocent, loyal,
from Achilles who thinks he is fighting Achilles brave
• Achilles goes mad/berserk • Epithets: ‘dear to Zeus;,
• Achilles kills many Trojans ‘peerless’, ‘gentle’
• Achilles kills Hector • Dies: killed by Hector while
• wearing Achilles’ armour
 Iliad – Other The three other main Greeks who have a significant effect on the plot of
The Iliad are Odysseus, Menelaus and Nestor.

Main Greeks BELOW: This is part of Optional Activity 1, Question 1

Odysseu • King of Ithaca Main Actions Menelaus • King of Sparta

• Cleverest hero at Troy • Menelaus’ loosing his wife, • Agamemnon’s little
s Helen to Paris prince of Troy brother, husband
• Character: trickster, will do
anything to win gives Agamemnon excuse of Helen (start of
• Epithets: ‘cunning’, for war – this occurs before war)
‘resourceful’, ‘hot headed/ ‘red The Iliad • Character: angry,
headed’ • During The Iliad Menelaus cuckold, good
• After Troy: takes 10 years to duels with Paris for Helen in warrior
get home but after fighting off an attempt to stop the war • Epithets: ‘red
wife’s suitors reclaims throne with no more blood shed, haired’, ‘war like’
ABOVE: Trojan Horse
as outlined in Homer’s Odyssey however, even though • After Troy: reclaims
Main Actions Menelaus is winning the wife goes home
• Councils Agamemnon throughout duel is interrupted by the and
LEFT: Helen of lives
Troy
• Heads an embassy to try to gods and so the war peacefully
persuade Achilles to re-join the continues
fighting
• Sneaks into the Trojan allies’ • King of Pylos Nestor Main Actions
camp with Diomedes at night, • Trusted adviser to • Keeps trying to
kills many and gets valuable Agamemnon advise and calm
intelligence on the Trojan’s plans • Character: Wise, old Agamemnon
• Ends the war, in a section not • Epithets: ‘godly’, • Part of embassy to
described in The Iliad by coming ‘sweet spoken’ Achilles to try to
ABOVE: This is part of Optional Activity 1, Question 1 •
up with the cunning plan for the After Troy: Returns get him to re-join
ABOVE: This is part of Optional Activity 1, Question 1
Trojan horse (see above) home to family and the fight
 Achilles and In Book 9 of The Iliad Odysseus leads an embassy to go and

Agamemnon try to persuade Achilles to re-join the fighting since the

Greeks are losing without him. This is how Achilles responds.
The passage continues on the next slide.

The Iliad, Book 9

‘Olympian-born son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus, I had (310) better tell you point-
blank how I feel and what I am going to do, because I don’t want relays of you coming
here, sitting down and whining and whimpering on at me. I loathe like (Achilles rejects
the offer (1.213)) Hades’ gates the man who thinks one thing and says another. So
now I will tell you how I see matters.
‘I don’t think Agamemnon son of Atreus or the rest of the Greeks will win me over,
since all along men have been given no reward for battling relentlessly with the enemy
day in, day out.
‘The man who stays put gets the same share as the man who fights his best. Cowards
and brave men are given equal respect. (320) The same death awaits the man who
does much, and the man who does nothing.
‘All I have suffered by constantly risking my life in battle has left me no better off than
anyone else. As a bird brings every morsel she finds to her unfledged chicks, however
hard it goes with her, so I have spent many a sleepless night and fought through many
ABOVE: Achilles arguing with a seated
a bloody day, battling with men for the sake of women. Agamemnon, 1st C CE, Pompey Italy.
‘Look: I have captured twelve towns by sea and eleven by (330) land across fertile
Troy. From each of them I won a magnificent haul of treasure, the whole of which I
brought back every time and gave to Agamemnon. To the son of Atreus! Who had
stayed put, by the ships. And I’d hand it all over, and he’d take it and dole it out in
little bits here and there, and keep the lion’s share for himself. Our leading men still
have the prizes he gave them, safe and sound in their possession. I am the only one
he has robbed, the only one. And he has taken the wife I love, too. Well, he can have
her – to his heart’s content. ‘Why do the Greeks have to fight the Trojans? Well, why
did the son of Atreus raise an army and bring it here? Was it not for (340) lovely-haired
 Achilles and LEFT: Red figure

Agamemnon pottery, c. 480 BCE,

The embassy to
Achilles
The Iliad, Book 9
‘No, Odysseus, he’d better work out with you and the rest of the
leadership how to save the ships from going up in flames. After all,
he has already done miracles without me. Look, he’s (350) built a
wall and dug a ditch along it, a fine broad ditch, complete with
stakes! But even so he cannot keep mighty, man-slaying Hector out.
Why, in the days when I took the field with the Greeks, nothing Optional Activity 1 Using the
would have induced Hector to start a fight any distance at all from information on slides 3-7
the town walls. He’d come no farther than the Scaean gate and the
oak-tree – though once he did wait for me there on my own and only
1. Identify - which books of The Iliad
just escaped with his life. the events described on slide 4 (
‘But as it is, I now have no desire to fight godlike Hector. So Agamemnon, Achilles and Patroclus’
tomorrow I am going to sacrifice to Zeus and all the other gods, then relationship
load and launch my ships. First thing in the morning, if (360) you
want to and are interested, you will see my ships crossing the ) and the main actions listed on
teeming Hellespont and my men straining at the oar. And in three slide 5 took place. – Note some of
days, given a good crossing by Poseidon, I will be home in fertile those on slide 5 took place before or
Phthia. I have great wealth there which I left behind when, to my
cost, I came here; and now I will enrich it further by what I bring back
after the events of The Iliad
– the gold, the red copper, the well-girdled women and the grey iron
that fell to me as my ordinary share of booty, for what it is worth. 2. Analyse – why Achilles is angry with
But the prize he gave me, he humiliatingly withdrew – that’s what
lord Agamemnon did to me, that son of Atreus.
Agamemnon according to the
‘Tell him all I say and tell him in public. Then the rest of the (370) passage on slides 6-7.
army can make their feelings clear when he tries to cheat any other
Greek. He is utterly shameless, but still the dog cannot even bring 3. Evaluate – looking at the details of
 The three other main Trojans we need to know in detail because of their
Main Trojans affect on the plot are, Hector/Hektor, Paris and Helen.

The Trojan war began because Paris kidnapped Helen from Menelaus. Hector blames Paris for this and Helen
blames herself. Paris is a weak fighter who relies on arrows and sneak attacks. Paris hides from fighting
instead spending time in his bed chamber with Helen. Instead of Paris taking the lead in fighting Hector leads
the Trojan’s as he is the best warrior in the war apart from Achilles.
• • Prince of Troy • Wife of Menelaus and Paris
Prince of Troy
• • Beautiful • The most beautiful woman in the world
Best Trojan warrior
• • Character: selfish, foolish, vain, • Character: cursed, self-loathing
Character: noble, strong, loyal, sense of
weak • Epithets: ‘long dressed’, ‘daughter of a
duty
• Epithets: ‘tall’, ‘shepherd of the people’, • Epithets: ‘magnificent’, noble house’
‘Alexandros’ • After Troy: Returns home and lives happily
‘man-killing’
• Dies: At Troy killed by Achilles • Dies: killed at Troy by Philoctetes with Menelaus
Hector Paris Helen

ABOVE: Menelaus intends to strike Helen;

ABOVE: Red figure Vase c. 370-360 BCE, ABOVE: Etruscan Funery urn, late 2 to early 1
nd st struck by her beauty, he drops his
Hector's last visit with his C BCE – T swords. A flying Eros and Aphrodite (on
wife, Andromache, and infant he abduction of Helen by Paris from king the left) watch the scene. Detail of an
son Astyanax, startled by his father's Menelaus, Attic red-figure crater, ca. 450–440 BC
Hecto
r • Prince of Troy
• Best Trojan warrior
• Character: noble,
strong, loyal, sense of
duty
• Epithets: ‘tall’,
‘shepherd of the
people’, ‘man-killing’
• Dies: At Troy killed by
Achilles
 Paris
• Prince of Troy
• Beautiful
• Character:
selfish, foolish,
vain, weak
• Epithets:
‘magnificent’,
‘Alexandros’
• Dies: killed at
Troy by
Philoctetes
Helen • Wife of Menelaus and Paris
• The most beautiful woman in the
world
• Character: cursed, self-loathing
• Epithets: ‘long dressed’, ‘daughter
of a noble house’
• After Troy: Returns home and lives
happily with Menelaus
 Iliad – Other Since the action of The Iliad is set at Troy there are many more
Trojans Trojans involved in the plot, the main ones are:

Name Role Role End

Priam King of Troy Wise ruler, worried father, has to watch his sons Killed at altar of Athena when Troy falls
die and nation fall. Collects Hector’s body from
Achilles at end of Illiad
Heccuba Wife of Priam Watches sons killed, worried mother Taken as slave after Tory falls

Andromac Wife of Hector Loyal, worried, mother of Hector’s son Son killed and taken as slave after Troy
he Falls
Aeneas Prince of Troy Good fighter but not as good as Greeks saved by Escapes Troy founds Rome
goddess Aphrodite (his mother)
Cassandr Princess of Tory Cursed by Apollo (for rejecting him) to speak the Taken as slave by Agamemnon after
a future but not be believed fall of Troy, killed by Agamemnon’s
Briseis – Chryseis - Chryses wife
While these three Trojans do not have high status and do not appear
throughout the The Iliad they are very important to the plot since they are the
cause of the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon.

• Chryses - is a Trojan captive of the Greeks given to Agamemnon as a prize to show his
high status.
ABOVE: Red figure pot,
• Chryseis - is a priest of Apollo who asks the Greeks to return his daughter Chryses. Chryseis kneeling before
When they do not he prays to Apollo who sends a plague to the Greek camp until they Agamemnon grasping his
knees in supplication trying to
give Chryses back. ransom his daughter Chryses
back.
• Briseis – is a captive trojan and Achilles’ prize. When Agamemnon is forced to give
 The Trojans RIGHT: The
taking of
Briseis,
The Iliad, Book 1 Roman
fresco from
‘You are a great warrior, godlike Achilles, but don’t imagine you can trick me into Pompey
that. I am not going to be outmanoeuvred or persuaded by you. ‘‘Give up the
girl’’, you say, in order to keep your own prize safe. Do you expect me to sit
tamely by, while I am robbed? No: if the army is prepared to give me a fresh
prize, they must choose one to my taste to make up for my loss. If not, I shall
come and help myself to your prize, or Ajax’s, or maybe I shall walk off with
Odysseus’. And what an angry man I shall leave behind me!
(140) ’However, we can deal with all that later. For the moment, let us run a
black ship down into the bright sea, carefully select her crew, load the animals
Optional Activity 2
for sacrifice and put the girl herself, fair-cheeked Chryseis, on board. And let Using the information on
some adviser be in charge, Ajax, Idomeneus, godlike Odysseus, or you yourself, slides 8-10
Achilles, most impetuous of all Greeks, to offer the sacrifice and win us back
Apollo’s favour.’
… 1. Identify – how did Briseis,
Swift-footed Achilles gave him a black look and replied: (150) ‘You shameless, Chryseis and Chryses cause
self-centred ... ! How can you expect any of the men to comply with you willingly
the argument between
when you send them on a raid or into battle? It was no quarrel with Trojan
warriors that brought me here to fight. They have never done me any harm. Achilles and Agamemnon?
They have never lifted oxen or horses of mine, nor ravaged my crops back home
in fertile Phthia, nurse of warriors. The roaring seas and many a dark range of 2. Analyse – why are Hector,
mountains lie between us.
‘We joined your expedition, you shameless swine, to please you, to get Paris and Helen important to
satisfaction from the Trojans for Menelaus and (160) yourself, dog-face – a fact the story of The Iliad?
you utterly ignore. And now comes this threat from you, of all people, to rob me
of my prize, in person, my hard-earned prize which was a tribute from the army.
It’s not as though I am ever given a prize equal to yours when the Greeks sack 3. Evaluate – using the passage
 While Achilles was the best fighter among all those in the Trojan war, he was also

Achilles
selfish and prideful. He let hundreds of his fellow Greeks die in order to satisfy his
anger against Agamemnon. He only started fighting again not for his fellow
Greeks but to satisfy his personal anger and guilt at the death of Patroclus.
Nevertheless Homer describes Achilles as a great warrior.
Achilles’ epithets
•son of Peleus (Πηληϊάδης Pēlēïádēs)
Iliad Book, 22
•swift-footed (πόδας ὠκύς pódas ōkús; ποδ-άρκης pod-
As Hector paused and considered the matter, Achilles came on at
arkēs; ποδ-ώκεος pod-ṓkeos) him, looking like the god of war, the warrior with the nodding
•breaking through men (ῥηξ-ήνωρ rhēx-ḗnōr) helmet. Over his right shoulder he was brandishing the formidable
•lion-hearted (θῡμο-λέοντα thūmo-léonta) ash spear from Mount Pelion, and his bronze armour glowed like a
•like to the gods (θεοῖς ἐπιείκελος theoîs epieíkelos) blazing fire or the rising sun. Hector saw him and shook.
•shepherd of the people (ποιμήν λαῶν poimḗn laôn) …
Hector’s body was completely covered by the fine bronze armour
he had taken from great Patroclus when he killed him, except for
Iliad, Book 1 the flesh that could be seen at the windpipe, where the collar
Anger – sing, goddess, the anger of bones hold the neck from the shoulders, the easiest place to kill a
Achilles son of Peleus, that accursed man. As Hector charged him, godlike Achilles drove at this spot
anger, which brought the Greeks endless with his spear, and the point went right through Hector’s soft
sufferings and sent the mighty souls of neck, though the heavy bronze head did not cut his windpipe and
many warriors to Hades, leaving their left (330) him still able to speak. Hector crashed in the dust, and
bodies as carrion for the dogs and a feast godlike Achilles triumphed over him:.
for the birds; and Zeus’ purpose was
fulfilled. It all began when Agamemnon
lord of men and godlike Achilles quarrelled
and parted. Which of the gods was it that
made them quarrel? It was Apollo, son of
Zeus and Leto, who started the feud
because he was furious with Agamemnon
for not respecting his priest Chryses. (10)
So Apollo inflicted a deadly plague on
ABOVE: Ancient Greek
Agamemnon’s army and destroyed his ABOVE: Achilles fights Hector, red figure pottery, 490-460 BCE
polychromatic pottery painting (dating
to c. 300 BC) of Achilles during the Trojanmen.
 Achille BELOW: Black figure
pottery, c550 BCE the
LEFT: Black figure
pottery Achilles drags
Hector’s lifeless body

s
goddess Thetis fetches
new armour for her son behind his chariot
Achilles made by the
god of smiths
Iliad, Book 18
Hephaestus Optional
When the famous lame god had finished
every piece, he gathered them up and Activity 3 Using
laid them before Achilles’ mother. She the extracts on
took the glittering armour from
Hephaestus in her arms and swooped Iliad, Book 22 slides 11-12
down like a falcon from snow-clad He spoke and foully maltreated godlike Hector. He sliced
Olympus. into the tendons at the back of both his feet between the
heel and ankle, inserted leather straps and tied them to his 1. Identify – positive
chariot, leaving the head to drag. Then he lifted his famous
armour into (400) the chariot, got in himself, and lashed the
and negative
horses with the whip to get them moving. The willing pair quotes describing
flew off. Dust rose from the body they dragged behind
them; Hector’s sable hair streamed out on either side and
Achilles.
his whole head, so graceful once, lay in the dirt. Zeus now
let his enemies disfigure him in the very own land of his
fathers.
2. Analyse – why is
Iliad, Book 21
Achilles a great
…the eddying River-god Scamander, who in his anger took human warrior?
form and addressed him, speaking from one of his deep pools:
‘Achilles, you are supreme among men both in your strength and
your outrageous deeds. And the gods themselves are always at 3. Evaluate – what
your side. If Zeus really means you to kill all the Trojans, at least
drive them away from me here and do your dirty work on the plain.
seems to be the
My lovely channels are full of dead men’s bodies. I (220) am so primary
choked with bodies that I cannot pour my waters into the bright
sea, and you blindly kill on. Enough! Call a halt! I am appalled, ABOVE: Red figure pottery c. 340-320
motivation for
commander.’ Swift-footed Achilles replied and said: ‘Scamander, BCE Achilles cuts the throat of a Trojan Achilles in all of
as a sacrifice to Patroclus at Patroclus’
child of Zeus, your will shall be done. But I’m not going to stop
tomb these scenes?
 For modern readers it can be a bit of a mystery
Achilles’ Motivation – why Achilles behaves the way he does and why,
despite occasional criticism Homer shows him to
What a Warrior seeks be a great warrior.

To understand this we need to explore two ancient

Ter Detail Greek terms.
m The difference between these two is quite
difficult to understand. But if you could say
Timê Respect and honour due a respectable man in his that:
lifetime. This comes from fulfiling his role, if his role • Timê is short term respect and happiness
is a warrior then he must be a good warrior. • Kleos often includes suffering, pain and
Kleos Glory, fame – this is the immortal fame that certain death but means that your name ‘never’
warrior can gain by being the best dies.
lp us understand more think about it in terms of modern celebrities and leaders instead of ancient warriors: KLEOS

VS.

TIMÊ
 Bearing in mind what we have just learned about
Achilles’ Motivation – timê and kleos the last piece of the puzzle is the
choice that Achilles was forced to make.
Achilles’ Choice BELOW: Red figure pottery c. 470
BCE, Thetis comforts Achilles after Achilles’ mother, the
Patroclus’ death
Iliad, Book 9 goddess, Thetis told
’My divine mother, silver-footed Thetis, says that destiny Achilles he had two
has left two courses open to me on my journey to the
grave. If I stay here and fight it out round Ilium, there is choices:
no home-coming for me, but there will be eternal glory
instead. If I go back to the land of my fathers, my heroic
glory will be forfeit, but my life will be long and I shall be LONG AND
spared an early death. ‘And another thing: I would IGNOMINIOUS
encourage all the rest of you to sail for home too. You are
never going to reach your goal in (420) the steep streets Choice 1: He could
of Ilium. Far-thundering Zeus has stretched out a choose to go home
protecting hand over that town, and its people have
taken heart. from Troy and he
would live a long life,
Iliad, Book 18
’Then let me die immediately, since I let my companion have a good family
be killed when I could have saved him. He has fallen, but only be
far from the land of his fathers, needing (100) my help
to defend him from death. But now, since I shall never remembered by his
see the land of my fathers again, since I have proved loved ones.
no defence for Patroclus or for all my many other
comrades whom godlike Hector killed, but have sat
here by my ships, an idle burden on the earth, a man SHORT AND GLORIOUS
who fights like no other in all the Greek army, though
others are better in debate ... ah, how I wish rivalry Choice 2: He could
could be banished from the world of gods and men, and stay fighting at Troy
with it anger, which makes the wisest man flare up and
ABOVE: Black figure pottery c. 530 BCE, Ajax fights Hector for Patroclus’ body
spreads much (110) sweeter than dripping honey and he would die
 The death of Patroclus means that Achilles has no
Achilles’ Motivation – choice but to fight which he does with extreme
violence and anger. But when Priam comes to him
Achilles’ Regrets to ask for hector’s mangled body back Achilles
seems to reflect on his life and mortality in a way
that suggests he regrets the choice that was
Iliad, Book 24 made.
‘Zeus who delights in thunder has two jars standing on the floor of his palace in which he Final Activity using the
keeps his gifts, evils in one and blessings in the other. People who receive from him a
mixture of (530) the two enjoy varying fortunes, sometimes good and sometimes bad. But information from slides 13-15
when Zeus serves a man from the jar of evil only, he debases him; ruinous hunger drives and your learning from
him over the bright earth and he goes his way respected by no one, god or man. ‘Look at my
father Peleus. From the moment he was born, the gods showered splendid gifts on him, throughout the lesson answer
fortune and wealth unparalleled among men, lordship over the Myrmidons and, though he the following questions and
was a man, a goddess for his wife. But the god also gave him his share of evil – no children
in his palace to (540) follow in his steps, only a single son and he destined for an untimely upload the answers onto the
death. What is more, even though he is growing old, he gets no care from me because I am ‘Achilles’ Motivation’ Padlet
sitting around here in Troy far from the land of my fathers, seeing to you and your children.
‘Now we have heard, venerable sir, there was a time when fortune smiled on you. They say
there was no one to compare with you for wealth and sons in all the lands that are enclosed
between Lesbos out to sea where Macar reigned, Phrygia inland and the vast Hellespont. But 1. Identify – in your own words
ever since the Sky-gods brought me here to be your scourge, there has been nothing but the difference between timê
warfare and carnage round your city. (550) ‘Endure and do not mourn without end.
Lamenting for your son will do no good at all. You will not bring him back to life before you and kelos for ancient Greek
are dead yourself.’ LEFT: Priam begs
Achilles for the
warriors.
release of his son’s
body, 2nd C CE relief
marble 2. Analyse – what did Achilles
RIGHT: Priam realise/feel when Priam came
begging Achilles,
red figure pottery, c. to beg for Hector’s body?
480 BCE