Troy and the Trojan War: Outline 2 (Iliad, Books One to Twenty-four)
I. Introduction
A. Mythological Causes of the War
1. Wedding of Peleus and Thetis.
2. Eris not invited; the golden apple to "the most beautiful."
3. The contest: Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
4. Paris the judge: the bribes.
5. Helen and Menelaus, king and queen of Sparta.
6. Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and king of Mycenae, becomes the leader of the Greek expedition.
a. Agamemnon offends Artemis; the fleet is becalmed at Aulis; Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigeneia.
b. Clytemnestra's revenge after the war: the Oresteia of Aeschylus
B. The Greek and Trojan Gods
1. Anthropomorphism.
a. Gods have human form; they eat, drink, make love, get angry, jealous, etc.
b. They are immortal although they can be wounded.
c. They are not omniscient, omnipotent, nor omnipresent like the God of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
d. Required Reading: Lombardo, Introduction xxv-xxix.
2. The gods take sides.
a. Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, and Artemis fight for the Trojans.
b. Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Hephaestus fight for the Greeks.
c. Why? The contest.
C. The Heroic Culture.
1. Miraculous birth or infancy of the hero
a. Achilles, Heracles, Perseus.
2. The hero has a special relationship to a god.
3. Great in warfare or a beast (monster) slayer.
a. Achilles and Hector vs. Heracles and Theseus
4. Indispensable.
a. Philoctetes and Achilles
5. Invulnerable (almost).
6. Highest good: glory.
7. Highest evil: shame.
8. Required Reading: Lombardo, Introduction xxi-xxv; xxix-xlviii.
II. Books One to Three
A. Book 1
1. The anger of Achilles
a. Concubine of Agamemnon, Chryseis.
b. Her father a priest of Apollo; the plague.
c. Agamemnon returns Chryseis but takes the concubine of Achilles, Briseis.
d. Achilles withdraws from the war and asks his mother Thetis to give victory to the Trojans. Zeus agrees.
2. Note the Iliad is the story of the anger of Achilles not the story of the Trojan War.
B. Book 2
1. Zeus sends a deceptive dream to Agamemnon.
2. The debate about ending the war.
3. Trojans mass for battle
4. The catalog of ships.
a. A real list of the participants???
C. Book 3
1. Single combat between Paris and Menelaus to resolve the war; a cease-fire..
2. The teichoskopia: Helen views the Greeks.
3. Paris losing in the duel but rescued by Aphrodite.
III. Books Four to Six
A. Book 4
1. Athena persuades Pandarus, a Trojan archer, to shoot at Menelaus and thus break the treaty.
2. The war begins again; dead lie side by side.
B. Book 5
1. The victories of Diomedes with the help of Athena.
2. Wounds Aeneas, Aphrodite, and even Ares.
a. The character of Ares.
C. Book 6
1. Diomedes and Glaucus meet; friendship and exchange of gifts
2. Hector returns to the city to placate Athena.
a. Meets Helen and Paris; their marriage ten years later.
b. Meets his wife Andromache and their son Astyanax (Scamandrios); the heroic ethos.
IV. Books Seven to Nine
A. Book 7
1. Hector and Ajax in duel; Ajax is better.
2. Paris refuses to return Helen.
B. Book 8
1. Zeus forbids the gods to intervene and goes to Mount Ida.
2. Trojans are winning.
C. Book 9
1. Agamemnon tries to appease the anger of Achilles.
a. Restore Briseis and give many other gifts including his own daughter in marriage.
2. The embassy: Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix, Achilles' tutor.
3. Achilles refuses.
a. The prophecy of Thetis: long life but obscurity or short life but glory.
b. He abandons the heroic ethos.
V. Books Ten to Twelve
A. Book 10
1. Odysseus and Diomedes become spies.
2. Dolon, the Trojan spy.
B. Book 11
1. Greeks losing.
2. Nestor: laudator temporis acti.
a. Advises Patroclus to don the armor of Achilles.
C. Book 12.
1. Hector and Sarpedon, a son of Zeus, storm the Greek camp to capture and burn their ships.
VI. Books Thirteen to Fifteen
A. Book 13
1. Poseidon defies Zeus and rallies the Greeks.
B. Book 14
1. Hera seduces Zeus so as to put him to sleep and permit more gods to help the Greeks.
2. Trojans driven away from the Greek camp.
a. Hector wounded.
C. Book 15
1. Zeus awakens.
2. Apollo heals Hector and he again approaches the Greek ships.
VII. Books Sixteen to Eighteen
A. Book 16
1. Patroclus persuades Achilles to lend him his armor.
2. Patroclus kills Sarpedon.
3. Apollo helps Hector kill Patroclus.
B. Book 17
1. Struggle for the body and armor of Patroclus.
C. Book 18
1. Achilles vows to return to the battle and kill Hector.
2. Thetis asks Hephaestus to make new armor for Achilles.
a. Description of the armor: a world at peace.
3. Trojans see Achilles and decide to return to the city, but Hector remains outside the walls.
VIII. Books Nineteen to Twenty-one
A. Book 19
1. Achilles and Agamemnon reconcile at the assembly.
2. Achilles puts on his new armor
B. Book 20
1. Gods enter the battle with the permission of Zeus.
C. Book 21
1. Achilles slaughters many Trojans.
2. The River Scamander is choked with corpses and becomes angry with Achilles.
3. The gods fight among themselves.
IX. Books Twenty-two to Twenty-four
A. Book 22
1. Hector and Achilles meet in single combat.
2. Hector's flight: Homeric imagery.
a. Athena deceives by pretending to be his brother Deiphobus.
3. Hector's proposal to honor the body of the defeated champion is rejected.
4. Hector slain by Achilles and his corpse dragged around the walls of the city.
5. The laments of his parents and wife
B. Book 23
1. Funeral of Patroclus.
a. Achilles kills 12 Trojan princes to accompany the spirit of Patroclus.
2. The funeral games.
C. Book 24
1. Priam with the help of Hermes enters the Trojan camp to ask Achilles to return the body of his son.
a. Reminds Achilles of his father Peleus.
2. Achilles relents and accepts the ransom and returns Hector to Priam.
3. The funeral of Hector and the laments of his parents and wife..