U S Tuneral

TuneraGurmg twtIVU Ur
durmgaa iweivu
Summary
Book-I
the past who helped
Re-counting
om asociet the conducts ofgreatheroes from
poem. As such
the epic
stands as a
the
d d I S an epic
 bridge between history and literature. As was thee tw.
traditio
in ep
thelliad opens in medias res, meaningin the middle of things
ep
the action is always preceded by the poet's invocatio g
oddess) of poetry. 1n this imvocation, Homer stato he
wrath, or the and its
anger, ofAchilles effects-and theme
the muse so that he can properly recount the requests the
story. The reader ad
story. The.
h
carried to the point where the trouble originally arose,
story of the lliad actually begins: in the middle ofwar which iWhere
During one of Achaian
where M
the (Greek) army's many raids
located near Troy, the Achaians captured two on s

beautiful enem
Chrvseis and Briseis. The troops awarded these
dens
commander-in-chief of the army, and to Achilles,girls to Agamem
Agamemnon, the
to
the Achaians
warrior.
Chryses, the father of
geates
Chryseis, pleads for her return h
Agamemnon denies the plea.
Consequently, Chryses
brings a plague on the Achaian camp. On the tenth prays to Apollo
bu
wh
Achilles can wait no longer for day of the plague
King Agamemnon to act to end the
Usurping Agamemnon's authority, Achilles calls an plague
and he suggests that a assembly of the army
of Apollo's soothsayer be caled upon to determine the cause
anger. Kalchas, an Achaian
the cause of the soothsayer, volunteers to explain
pestilence, only if he is
but
Achilles agrees to this condition. guaranteed personal protection
When the
soothsayer reveals that the plague is the result
Agamemnon's refusal to return o
furious that he has been Chryseis to her father, Agamemnon s
He insists that publicly named as being responsible for the
if he isforced to surrender plag
then he must be
repaid with Achilles' war
Chryseis, rightful pri
his war

However, Achilles is
prize, Briseis.
Agamemnon stunned by the public having
demand disgrace o
he
feels Agamemnon hasBriseis, and he refuses to
made him undergo in accept the y thal
in ldiers
ies
Thus, he announces full view of all
He will not fight, and,that he is withdrawingng all ofof his
his troops
troo from ban
country as soon as furthermore, he and his men willi
own their
will to
return

Nevertheless, possible.
Chryseis, his war Agamemnon decides to appease Apollo; he will
retun

and then he prize. He sends her ues

appea
sends his heralds safely aboard
tboard aa ship heading ft
him.
Surprisingly, Achilles surrenders
to
collect Briseis sniy war
prize)

thegirl
(Achi difficulty
hilles'

girl without
withou aany
 English Honours, Semester-I (Core-l & Core-II) [ 193]
B.A. E n g l i s h

in despair, prays to his mother, Thetis, the sea-goddess

Ichilles,

age her
herinfluence with Zeus to ensure that the Trojan armies
use

erto soldiers. Achilles

Achaian hopes
that this result will cause
ellow
repay the wrong that the
his
fèat
for
Agamemnon
and so King did to

hilles. Olympos, and the king of the gods agrees to

Zeus on
Thetis visits
he expresses a fear that his wife, Hera, will be
Trojans,. although
dthe because she isjealous of Thetis and hates the Trojans and hence
noved
ano win the war. Readers discover that Hera does
enat bear to see them but sh fears Zeus' wrath even more, and so she
annot
the Trojans,
deed hate
protests. The
firs book ends with a banquet of the gods in
iets her
eus palace.
ook-lI
Zeus. fulfilling his promise to Thetis that he will help the Trojans,
absolutelyis
nds a fraudulent dream of hope to Agamemnon. Agamemnon
once and for all in
onvinced by his dream that he can defeat the Trojans his council
rle the next morning. So, full of false hope, he and plan a
massassault on Troy.
But, to test of his army before he begins this mass
the loyalty
nine years of war is
assault, Agamemnon announces to the soldiers that
more than enough; they should return home. To his great surprise, his
troops react to his suggestion with loud Breaking ranks, they
enthusiasm.
the efforts of
TUn to prepare their ships for the trip home. Only through halted. Then
Ody sseus. guided by Athena, is the mad rush to the ships
Uaysseus convinces the Achaians that it is far more honorable to remain
and conquer Troy. Wise old Nestor adds his voice to that of Odysseus,
2nd the army agrees to stay and fight.
Offering a sacrifice to Zeus, Agamemnon orders the army to prepare
tself for the attack. He then holds a splendid review of the whole Achaian
thus giving Homer an opportunity to enumerate all of the Achaian
ny,
Contingents and their heroes.
When news of the Achaian maneuver is received in Troy, Hektor
S his troops to prepare to meet the Achaians on the plain in front ot
Troy.n e n , as the Trojan troops march through the city gates, Homer
gives review of the Trojan leaders and the cities that have sent
military assistance to them.
QCritically analyse the Book-I
Ans. In of poem the liad.
Book I, the initial quarrel between Agamemnon andAchilles,
mediD
ated yby Nestor, is paralleled at the end of the book by the quarrel
 [194.
mediated
tos.
by Hephaistos The
Zeus and
Hera,
quarre
thatiironically
that
between

breaks down
into a
humorous scene
among
gods
of the
human arrel. Homer's techr
quarrel. Homer's technique
of reate,
of tuates
ate the
seriousness

carlier scene with a later

o n e is used

is a basis for the

throughomue

entire work.
lliad In peatfact,ing an
structural technique thi
out
Homer starts
by whole poem is
telling us that this
is whole

Achilles and how that anger cost the Achianc

lot of
about thethe
of
anger
Homer tells
that it is Apollo who
us whole thing.lives.
started the whole .
This Then
of Apollo, to
up Agamemnon
comes
gy
Chrses, who is priest a

his daughter to be
returned to him. Agamemnon tells him tha asks
kst for
e girl is
to get lost. Chryses prays
to Apollo to punish the Acho girn
hisand
giving back his daughterand so Apollo starts shooting the Achaians with
his silver bow (basically that means the Greeks started getting sick\ TL
goes on for nine days and then Achilles has had enough and calls a meein
find out what the hell is going on. This dude Kalchas who is eting
soothsaver
1o

a
(means he in touch with the gods) tells them Apollo is
making themdie
because Agamemnon wouldn't give back the daughter of that priest
Agamemnon is pissed because he doesn't think he should have to give up
the girl.
Agamemnon and Achilles start to argue. Achilles says to give the
girl back. and Agamemnon says, ifI have to give her back...I'm taking
vOur woman, Briseis. Achilles gets mad because he has been
ten y ears for
fighting for
Agamemnon and is sick ofit. Agamemnon won't back down
znd demands
Achilles woman. Achilles is about to kill Agamemnon when
Athena (Goddess of
steps in to
wisdom) stops him. Then, this old dude, Nestor,
try and calm things down but he fails.
Agamemnon frees tn
one gri, Chry seis and takes Achilles' woman.Achilles bails and
gni.any more. Then, Achilles goes off weeping to him won
hetis,
who is a sea mommy, 1ne
goddess. He asks her to ask Zeus
wIn the warwhile Achilles is not if he will make the Trojans
him o
come back.
Thetis
fighting so Agamemnon
geEs to do it goes to Zeus and asks him. Hei
to piss because his wife, Hera, and he likes
her off supports the Achaians a *
In the
sdifferent pa:t few decades,ades, some
sted

approach to the psych

different approach 19to god/humanpsychological
studies have sug entirely

the god relationship in th liad. An

psycholovist Julian and human
relationshi
relations has been ofte
redby
Breakdown of the Jaynes in The Origin rigin of
1SNess i n the

presents the idea thatBicameral Mind of Conscie

O. M i f f l i n , 1 9 9 0 ) . J a y n e s

and that modern (Houghton

carlier man had1odern consciousness M e i n

consciousne
abicameral mind, is of recen
relativelyhjitera literally

nd, one
one chamber
cna"
rofwhich
 Englis
Honours,
Semester-I
(Core-1& Core-11) [ 195]
K A

decisions orthought action was nceded. Jaynes

boo
ok dealing with pre-modern minds. Therefore, when
as
Aal
hilles
ISa not to draw his sword to kill/Agamemnon, the speaker
ca t l s

f Achilles' brain. Jaynes idea accounts for the

A c h i t

one side of
e as a way in
which these carly men accounted for
ofthegods their own
hintneir
withi
brains.
own brain:
heard

they
analyse
the Book II of poem the Iliad,
ally
into two large segments: Agamemnon's dream
Ilisdivided
t
the men after they try to return to the ships, and the
ung
raly
ofthe Greek
kings, heroes, and ships that have come to
atalogue

action ofthe epic, serving

ecatalogue is
a significant break in the
characters involved in the rest poem as well asa
ofthe
sofallthe fighting have preceded the opening ofthis
of
that eight years
also of interest to
historians and otherscholars
he catalogue is 150 places and characters as a
source for
Sits descriptions ofover Bronze Age Greece.
information about
DE together found in these two catalogues of
Analysis of the information
value to historians, linguists, and
armies has been great
of
ing an important and
little-known period of
ielogists in reconstructing catalogues in the Iliad
is a
reek history. The presence of these of
his poems on a foundation
nampleofthe way Homer composed
iarialand literary tradition. that Zeus sends
II involves the false dream
hefirst partof Book does not advise or aid the
human,
4Temnon. In this instance, the god Greeks.
deceives him in an effort to
inflict injury on the
EUlly dream that he thinks he
false
nore than a hint in Zeus' use ofthis of the Greeks over
vet the victory
tl ate and be able to prevent intervention shows that
the gods are
, More obviously, Zeus' have on
aways concernd their actions may
with the consequences
ans. destruction for both Greeks
The false dream causes death and
thinking. That
rojans, but that fact does not enter into of Zeus'
mans areetmortal is of little importance to the immortal gods.
Agam further calls into question nis
reaction to the dream
S Second,
as yaa
cy aleader. First, dream without question.
he accepts the
es tesFTSt,
to them the prospee
men's desire for battle by offering who have
w a r . To
men
ing homeinstead of continuing in the than eight years, tne
away from home, wives, and children for more of
tmns to be anda nearriot
worth far more than glory and honor,
 men rushing to the ships ensues. Third, it is not Agamemnon hut c
and Nestor who bring the men's hearts and minds back to war an
honor.
Ddyssey
personal
This issue of war and men's honor is brought into
to distinct
distinct focww
through the speech of Thersites and Odysseus' response to it. Ther
a physically misshapen Greek warrior, argues forcefully and effective nersites,
that the war is not worth fighting and that Agamemnon is a flawed
flawed lead
leade
constantly taking the largest share of loot for himself and having
alienated Achilles in the process. His argument, strong as it is, is no mateh
for the verbal attack that Odysseus makes on Thersites. Odysseus make
the point that Thersites is a commoner and has no business speaking ou
against kings and nobles. Odysseus further implies that Thersites hasno
personal pride or honor because he does not wish to fight. Also, Thersites
lack of honor is reinforced symbolically by his deformed appearance
Odysseus punctuates his attack by slapping Thersites on the back witha
scepter, raising a welt and causing tears to flow. This public humiliation
and marking of Thersites ends all talk ofreturning home. Pride and honor
require soldiers to fight. Only the deformed in mind and body would
argue otherwise.
Also in Book II, Homer begins to utilize the epic or extendedsimile
more frequently. These similes are used throughout the work more
frequentlythan the more common simple simile. For example, in line 544
Homer compares the armies to "flocks ofwinging birds, geese or cranes,"
and then adds the specific appearance of the birds and the precise place
round the Cayster outflow" -where the birds flock. Other such
similes may extend to a page or more in length. These similes, when
examined, add much detail and comment on the individual scenes in which
they occur. Analysis of specific similes produces a deeper understanding
of the work as a whole.