AD THE hin BK. 1 & Il) — Plot/ Themes Homer’s Iliad begins with a private quarrel between Achilles aint “Agamemnon. in a raid on the Trojans. the Greeks have captured two beautiful enemy maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. Agamemnon, the commande Chief of the Achaean army, intended to take Chryseis as is war booty, while Achille, the greatest Gneck amor, claims Briseis. Chronicling the deeds of great heroes who helped form a society in me past the Iliad is an epic poem which bridges up history of pre-existing materials in the form of floating coherent plot of his epic. Chryses, Chryses's father and a priest of Apollo, bess Agamemnon to return his daughter in and literature. Homer actually consolidates a large amount folk-tales,-sagas and lepends, and organizes them into a u of aeons Carsom: When Agamemnon refuses, Apollo sends a plague upon the Greek camp. eausing the casualties of many soldiers. On the tenth day of the plague, Achilles can wait no longer for his leader ‘Usurping his authority he cals an assembly of the army, and asks fora soothsayer to determine the cause of Apollo's anger. Calchas, a powerful seer, volunteers to explain the cause of such pestilence on comlition of 4s personal protection, When he reveals thatthe plague is a strategic move and that itis the outcome of Agamemnon's arrogance not to mete out the bereaved father. Aeamemnon is furious at public dismrace Ite insists that ithe is forced to surrender his rightful war prize, then he must be repaid with Actilles’ war prize Because of his hurt humility and indignity, Achilles threatens to withdraw all his troops from batle and draws out is sword to kill the Achaean commander. Hera, the queen ofthe gods, sends Athena to check Achilles’ anger. Athena's guidance as well as the duel. To appease Apollo, Agamemnon returns hi Achilles in despair prays to his mother Thetis, wise counsel of Nestor finally sneceeds in preventing the war prize, and gains Achilles’ girl without any difficulty the sea-goddess, asking her to influence Zeus to impart ‘The initial quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, mediated by Nestor, parallels at the end the quarrel between Zeus and Hera, mediated by Hephaestus. The human clash highlights one of the mas dominant aspects of the ancient Greek’s value system: the vital importance of personal honour. The quanel among the gods breaks down into a humorous scene that ironically accentuates the seriousness of the hurman quarrel. The hubris of both Achilles and Agamemnon — overweening pride — requires them to react in foolish ways: Agamemnon in taking Achilles’ captive and Achilles in withdrawing himself ftom bate Bots, Pronttize their selfish motifs and individual glories over the well-being of the state A second important aspect of the plot is the nature of the relationship between the gods and men, When Agamemnon refuses ¢o give up his booty, Apollo comes down to devastate the Achaeans with his cabal mbolie representation of plague. Later, Athena intervenes and calms the overwrought Achilles, a Symbolic representation of reason contolling the will Finally, Thetis, Achilles’ goddess mother, pleads Zeus to punish Agamemnon andthe Achacans for their actions against her son, Zens’ decision to fiver a Trojans initially leads to a quarrel among the gods that humorously reflects the quarrel among the mortals, The Iliad is a systematic pulse of action, following the rhythms of change and retreat, of force and eaction, and its plot moves as the heart beats, expanding and contracting,ot LPT : THE IDIAD (BK. 1 & 1) — Invocation s-1on is an introduction, a formal device for invoking powers before introducing a grand subject. In an 2s culture, the hymns begin with invocations of the names of the gods or goddesses to whom they ate nuidised The benedictory exordium was befieved to have a magic value. The Greek poetic prayer contains thr. ssciid parts: an invocation, a justification and a conclusion, and formulates the request such as in the prayer to hho vswidess Athena in the Iliad. Classical literary convention typically requires such an introductory address to the iss, aid epic tradition the invocation was usually addressed 10 Calliope, muse of epie pasty, or to Cl, nays « Chustory werent Ap While Odyssey consists of a ten-line invocation, Homer opens his epic The Tliad with a sevencline verse- panstuph, Here he not only states the theme of his pocm, but also inyokes the muse or goddess of poetry who is asked! 10 “sing” the tale. In addition to being an introduction to the entire poem, the prologue contains most of the lemeuts of Homeric style working at their highest intensity. The fact that not the invoker, but the invoked only is labored testifies to Homer's method of objective narratorial design. The imperative structure at the opening line asserts submissive confidence, meekness and humility of Homer, the greatest of all poets: Anger — sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus...” ‘he first Hines of an ancient epic usually offer a capsule summary of the subject the poem will treat, and the isn of tad conforms to this established pattem. Indeed, Homer announces his subject m the ver cous) te very frst Hine: ‘anger’. Homer also imduces into this human quality two other related concepts of pride i) wut, uhat will nake up a major theme of the work as a whole. He then locates the rage wi “Achilles son cimeates its consequences — ‘brought the Greeks endless sufferings’, links it to higher forces and Zeus’ purpose’, and notes its origin — when “Agamemmon lord of men and godlike Achilles sna Hed and parted’, te , 4 carwcay cea f ‘Although these lines purport to focus on human emotion, they interpret and unfold this in accordance with suc e:pvession of Zeus’s will. Homer cotiécives the entire epic as a medium through which a divine being — 9 Inuse speaks. The poem as a whole docs not undertake to deal with the Trojan War. The muse ss asked to begin che s ny at the time when Agamemnon and Achilles first ‘quarrelled and parted’ — nine years back in the ten- sear vonthet, Nor does Homer mention the consequences of war — the fall of Troy or the Greek victory, referring outy 0 Zeus’s will. This signifies that Homer uses war not only for a setting of his poem, but also as a fountain source of illustrating his statements on life, death and fate. The poem remains fundamentally focused on the contisct within a single man, and the opening passage conveys this focus to the reader. ‘The text which begins with the broad spectacle of war narrows to a petty conflict at the personal level wen Agamemnon, the commander-in-chief of the Achaean army, and Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior. indi dual senses of pride and honour blind both the warriors to the greater good. Their hubris — overweening pede — leads them to react in foolish ways, Agamemnon in taking Actilles’ captive and Achilles in withdrawing jumsclf and his troops from battle, Homer shows how a noble human trait can be subverted by emotion into pettiness and icrationality To sustain the flow of the opening seven lines, Homer develops and modifies the sense by the tubo dination of clauses and the adroit use of conjunetions, prepositions and relative pronouns. The reversal of the reguiat word-order enables him to placé the object of the opening sentence at the beginning, One of the key ‘attics of Homer’s language is the use of omamental epithets. By invoking to the holy muse, Homer does not ‘ore lis audience but rather stirs them, evoking their honourable heritage.THE IDIAD (BK. I & I) — Anger of Achill IHTAD Achilles is the protagonist of Homer's epic iad, and his blazing wrath constitutes its subject and plot, as the ‘opening line says “Anger — sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus...” Ht is Achilles’ anger which determines and directs the entire plot stricture ofthe epie: first towards Agamemnon ‘who has cheated and insulted him, and secondly towards Heotor who has killed his friend in battle. The two destructive fits of anger begin and end the action of the epic, and define multifarious aspects of Aches character. Although the Trojan War as a whole figures prominently in the work, Achilles’ wrath ultimately Provides the plot with background rather than subject-matter. es Homer invokes the muse of epic poetry to aid him in telling the story of Achilles’ anger and the great war for Helen and Troy. He further induces in anger a human quality, which invites pride and honour, and this is Central to the plotted action of the epic as a whole. Initially, Achilles’ anger seems a reasonable response to the arrogance of Agamemnon, the commander of the Achaean army. But as the poem progresses, it becomes clea that righteous anger can degenerate into petty hatred or escalate into uncontrollable rage. Homer scruinizes the origins and end of this wrath, and this microcosmic conflict between warring individuals parallels the mecrecosmic conflict between warring peoples at a larger scale, Achilles’ two rages are sharply contradictory: the quarrel with Agamemnon discloses a childish, primitive selfishness, partly to be condoned by the Greek codes of conduct. The second springs from love. and is Paradoxically rooted in Achilles’ selfishness, for Patroclus epitomized a number of notions —- devoted friend fellow warrior, servant and psychological opposite whose unselfish devotion complemented Achilles aropance ‘and impatience. Petroclus was also something like Briscis, the prize gitl, and Hecior’s killing him is a parallel to Azamennon's claiming Briseis. Achilles loves things and people for the honour and glory they invite. Driven bya thirst for honour and power, he is with the Greek forces to win prizes for himself. To be an ally to Agamemnon and Menelaus is his secondary option. It is Achilles* fate to lose all that he Joves, and to have to fight for them after he has lost them. So far as calamity awakens his understanding and changes his relationship to the world, Achilles is @ tagie hgure, The death of Patroclus Prompts him to get reconciled with Agamemnon at the mediation of Nestor. Not only does Achilles show generosity when he releases others fiom the eruelty of his anger, but also he submits to the fate stoically when he goes to avenge for Patrochus. His superhuman. strength proves the mightiest warrior in the Achaean army, but his violent blood-thirst, inordinate wrath and ungovernable pride continue to consume him and befog his understanding. His hurt pride so Poisons him that he not only betrays his nobility and integrity by abandoning his comrades, but also Prays that the Trojans will slaughter them, all because he has been slighted at the hands of Agamemnon. Half-divine and halhuman, Achilles is perpetually goaded to action by anger and impulsiveness. Like a Child never amenable to reason, his lovable as well as laudable qualities distinguish him from the vest or waa characters, Unlike Agamemnon who corumits wrongs out of self-serving cunning, Achilles is wholly consumed by his emotions. Unlike Hector whose love isthe forgetfulness of the self, self isthe centre of love in Achilles, In spite of his passionate nature, his emotions do not degenerate into savagery. Iti not the loss of a beautiful sit: hat distessed Achilles isthe loss of honour and glory. Extremely sensitive to selftespect, he felt shocker public humiliation by a person, whose family wrongs he was fighting for The plot of The liad concems itself with the anger of Achilles — how it begins, how it cripples the Achaean army, and how it finally becomes redirected towards the Trojans. His likes and dislikes, pecons ana Prejudices are the focal concems of the heroic age of which the lion-hearted Achilles is a briliant product