THE ILIAD
Study Guide
Book 1
Thought Questions:
* What does Agamemnon do to create the problem?
* Why is Achilles so angry at Agamemnon?
* What do the Achaeans do to appease Apollo?
* What kind of relationship do Thetis and Achilles have?
* What is Hera’s reaction to Zeus’ agreement with Thetis?
* The book introduces us to most of the main characters. What kind of initial reaction
do you have to each?
1. About whose bitterness is this book?
2. What incident causes Apollo to send a plague to kill the Achaeans?
3. Why does Agamemnon not want to give back Chryseis?
4. What kind of relationship do Achilles and Agamemnon have?
5. What does Agamemnon want in return for returning Chryseis?
6. What do the Achaeans do to appease Apollo?
7. How is Achilles' housing described?
8. Why can't Thetis go immediately to ask Zeus for help?
9. What does Thetis ask of Zeus?
10.What kind of pose does one have to do when begging Zeus something?
11.What gesture does Zeus give which shows he will help?
12.Why did Achilles believe that Zeus would help?
Book 2
Thought Questions:
*What view of Zeus' attitude toward both Achaeans and Trojans is given around
line 45?
*How does Agamemnon's plan almost backfire, but how is everything turned
around?
*What view of social class is suggested by the incident between Thersites and
Odysseus?
*What view of revenge is given around line 420?
*What imagery does Homer create of the armies moving toward Troy?
*What do these geographic details tell us about the terrain of the land?
The ships>Scamander (the river) plain>Scamander meadow>Thicket Ridge>Troy
1. What dream does Zeus send Agamemnon?
2. What human form does the dream take?
3. How does Agamemnon test the men?
4. Who does Athena go to to convince everyone that they should fight?
5. How long have the men been there, according to Odysseus?
6. What did the omen with the snake and the sparrows mean, according to Calchas?
7. What leader joins in inspiring the men?
8. How are the Trojans warned about the advancing Greek armies?
Book 3
Thought Questions:
* What opinion does Hector have of his brother Paris?
* What significance is Paris' line, "Not to be tossed aside,/the gifts of the gods, those glories.../whatever the gods give of their own free will--/how could we ever choose them for ourselves"?
* How would you contrast the two brothers, Hector and Paris?
* What does Antenor tell us about the original negotiations to get Helen back?
* Is Helen a sympathetic character?
* What is Homer suggesting about the power of lust over humans when Aphrodite sends Helen to the bedroom to comfort Paris?
Study Guide:
1. How are the two forces described as they come together?
2. What makes Paris shrink back into the ranks, "as one who trips on a snake in a
hilltop hollow recoils..."?
3. What had to be done first before an agreement could be made?
4. What is Helen doing when we first see her?
5. What does Iris fill Helen's heart with?
6. What happens in the fight between Paris and Menelaus?
7. How is Paris saved?
8. What reaction does Helen have regarding Paris?
9. At end of the book, where are Paris and Helen?
10. What decision does Agamemnon make at the end?
Book 4
Thought Questions:
* What city does Zeus say he loves best? What cities does Hera praise?
* In what way does the book suggest that men are truly the pawns of the gods?
* How effective is Homer's first description of blood in the book...Menelaus' wound (lines 160- 167)?
* How does Homer help his listener/reader know the main leaders?
* How does the ancestor worship of the Achaeans show itself?
1. What argument begins the book?
2. How is the truce broken?
3. What is Athena's role in the breaking of the truce?
4. Whose final rush into battle "sprang from his chariot fully armed and hit the ground," and begins the description of the fight?
5. What immortal being spurs on the Trojans from far on the city's heights?
6. What immortal being spurs on the Achaeans from in the battle?
Book 5
Thought Questions:
* How would you visually portray Diomedes from the beginning descriptions of the book?
* The Greek gods cannot die, but what limitation do they have regarding suffering and pain?
* Which side are the following gods on? Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Athena
* Why do you think Homer gives the background of many of the people killed?
* What is the importance of taunting the enemy such as what we see in the encounter with Tlepolemus and Sarpedon?
Study Guide:
1. What physical change does Athena give Diomedes at the beginning of the book?
2. What ability does Athena give Diomedes regarding the gods?
3. What of Aeneas' does Diomedes want?
4. How is Pandarus killed?
5. How is Aeneas saved?
6. How does Aphrodite get to Mt. Olympus?
7. What does Dione describe in great detail to Aphrodite?
8. What is ichor?
9. What god protects Aeneas against Diomedes, shouting, "Think, Diomedes, shrink back now!...We are not of the same breed..."?
10. Who treats Aeneas back to health in the Pergamus?
11. How does Apollo make people think Aeneas was still there?
12. What do Athena and Hera set out to do in their chariots?
13. What does Ares do after being wounded by Diomedes?
Book 6
Thought Questions:
* The encounter between Menelaus and Adrestus begins a motif of pleading for ones life. What becomes the formula for this action and response?
* What purpose does the encounter between Glaucus and Diomedes serve?
* What view do we have of the religious beliefs of the Trojans?
* What do we learn about the effects of war from the speeches of Andromache and Hector?
* In what way does Andromache bring a sense of humanity to the entire book?
Study Guide:
1. Why is Adrestus killed?
2. What advice does Helenus give Hector?
3. What hero grandfather does Glaucus describe as having killed the Chimaera and fought the Amazons?
4. How were Glaucus' wits shown "stolen away" in the deal with Diomedes?
5. What instructions does Hector give Hecuba?
6. How does Hector treat Helen?
7. Where is Andromache when Hector has his final meeting with her?
8. What is Astyanax's reaction to his father's armor?
9. What does Andromache do in reaction to Hector's leaving?
10. How does the book end?
Book 7
Thought Questions:
* What commonalities between the Achaeans and Trojans do you find in this book?
* Is Zeus' advice to Poseidon a way of explaining to Homer's contemporaries why the Achaean fortifications are no more?
Study Guide:
1. What two immortal beings conspire to stop the fighting and make Hector fight one-on-one?
2. What agreement does Hector make with the Achaeans?
3. How is Great Ajax chosen?
4. What unusual about Great Ajax's shield?
5. Which of the following actions comes first in the fight between Hector and Ajax? (a) they throw rocks, (b) they throw spears, (c) they hurl insults
6. Who wins the fight?
7. What final act ends the encounter?
8. Why do they stop fighting?
9. What concession does Paris make in their council meeting?
10. What do the Acheans do the next day after burning their dead?
Book 9
Thought Questions:
* Looking over the riches Agamemnon proposes giving Achilles, what can one say the Achaeans found important?
* Achilles' housing is alternately referred to as a tent and a lodging. From the various descriptions and actions of things that happen there, can you get a picture of how he lives?
* What emotions does Achilles have toward Briseis? Check lines 406-419.
Study Guide:
1. How do the Achaeans react to the Trojans' watch?
2. What does Agamemnon agree to give Achilles?
3. Who are the three important people that consititute the envoy to Achilles?
4. What is Achilles doing when the envoy arrives?
5. What are Achilles' plans for the next day?
6. What two fates await Achilles according to his mother?
7. Phoenix tells two lengthy stories. Who is the first one about?
8. Where is Achilles at the end of the book?
Book 14
Thought Questions:
* What does Hera do, which suggests what Achaean women did, to become alluring?
* How did the gods make an oath that was binding?
* Several times Homer talks about men's eyeballs falling out of their sockets in being killed or their heads being severed and rolling like balls at someone's feet. What effect do these have on you, the reader?
Study Guide:
1. Why did the ships of Diomedes, Odysseus, and Agamemnon have better
defenses than the others?
2. What suggestion regarding the ships does Agamemnon give which arouses Odysseus' anger?
3. What advice does Diomedes give the others?
4. What's unusual about the doors to Hera's rooms?
5. What does Aphrodite give Hera to help her?
6. How does Hera convince Sleep to help her?
7. What does Zeus have to do on the mountain before Hera will give herself to him?
8. How does Poseidon learn that Zeus is asleep and no threat?
9. What happens to Hector which causes him to "vomit dark clots"?
Book 15
Thought Questions:
* What story does Zeus tell of his punishment of Hera for her treatment of Heracles?
* If Zeus can predict the future outcome (lines 67-89), what does that suggest about Homer's view of free will?
* How do the other gods view Zeus?
Study Guide:
1. What agreement does Zeus demand Hera make with him?
2. What makes Poseidon agree to stop fighting?
3. How does Apollo help the Trojans regarding the trench and the rampart?
4. How do the Achaean leaders react to Hector's advance?
5. What symbolic physical appearance of Hector happens as he charges ahead ready to burn one of the ships?
6. What does Ajax use to protect the ships?
Book 16
Thought Questions:
* Why does Achilles not want Patroclus to have too much success?
* Once again, the question arises, do men have free will or is their destiny set from long before they are born?
* What do the unique deaths of Sarpedon and Patroclus suggest about their importance?
Study Guide:
1. What caution does Achilles give about Patroclus getting too much glory?
2. What causes Ajax to finally give up defending the ships?
3. What's the only weapon of Achilles that Patroclus didn't take?
4. Where do the new troops that Patroclus leads into battle come from?
5. What does Achilles use to pray to Zeus?
6. How does Hera convince Zeus not to save Sarpedon?
7. How is Sarpedon's death and after death different than other men?
8. Who helps Glaucus return to battle to protect Sarpedon's body?
9. In what ways is Patroclus' death unique in the book
Book 17: Menelaus's Finest Hour
Thought Question:
*** Are men just the playthings of the god(s) as the books suggest?
Study Questions:
1. In protecting Patroclus's body, who is the first Trojan killed that brags how he deserves the armor?
2. What god creates problems by spurring on and helping Hector?
3. Why is Glaucus willing to let Hector face defeat?
4. Which Achaean doesn't help Menelaus protect the body?
(a) Ajax
(b) Diomedes
(c) Idomeneus
(d) Agamemnon
5. What military strategy do the Acheans adopt which helps them lose fewer men than the Trojans around Patroclus's body?
6. What one thing had Thetis not told Achilles?
7. What unusual thing do Achilles' horses do when Automedon takes them away?
8. Who is sent back to the shore to try to get Achilles to join in the battle?
9. What's the last image of the book?
Book 18: The Shield of Achilles
Thought Questions:
*** Does Thetis act with the same resolve as Hecuba in sending her son to battle?
*** How do we know how deeply Achilles feels for Patroclus?
*** Are the handmaids "all cast in gold but a match for living, breathing girls" one of the first references to what we know as robots?
Study Questions:
1. Who, besides Thetis, comes to mourn with Achilles?
2. What prophecy does Thetis tell Achilles again about the death of Hector?
3. What does Thetis go to get?
4. What urges Achilles on into battle to save Patroclus's body?
5. What two things does Pallas Athena do for Achilles to frighten the Trojans?
6. What was Polydamas's proposal?
7. What actions are performed with Patroclus's body?
8. Why does Hephaestus say he will help Thetis?
9. What's unusual about the shield forged for Achilles?
Book 19: The Champion Arms for Battle
Thought Questions:
*** How does Homer convey the depth of Achilles's feelings for Patroclus?
*** The Greeks who knew the story of the Trojan war would know that the according to tradition, the war could not have been won until Achilles's son Neoptolemus came to help. What view of him do we get in Achilles speech?
Study Questions:
1. How does Thetis protect Patroclus's body?
2. What excuse does Agamemnon give for the troubles?
3. Why had Ruin been cast from Mt. Olympus?
4. What does Odysseus feel is important for the men to do before they go into battle?
5. What oath does Agamemnon make regarding Briseis?
6. What vow had Patroclus made to Briseis regarding Achilles?
7. What does Zeus have Athena do to make Achilles ready for battle?
8. What was unusual about Achilles's spear?
9. What unusual occurence happens with Achilles's horses?
10. What future does Achilles know as he goes into battle?
Book 20: Olympian Gods in Arms
Thought Question:
*** Once again note the ritualistic insulting of the opponent as Aeneas and Achilles square off. What seems to be Aeneas's concerns in his comments?
Study Questions:
1. Why does Zeus decide to let the gods fight?
2. Which gods fight for Trojans?
3. Which gods fight for the Achaeans?
4. What does Poseidon do which causes Hades to cringe and scream?
5. Which god tries to spur Aeneas on to face Achilles?
6. Where do the two sets of gods end up?
7. How is Aeneas saved in his confrontation with Achilles?
8. Whose death spurs Hector on to fight Achilles?
9. How is Hector protected by Apollo?
10. How is Tros's attempt to save his life similar to an earlier episode with Achilles?
Book 21: Achilles Fights the River
Thought Questions:
* How is Lycaon's encounter similar to Tros'? What does it suggest about how inhuman
Achilles has become?
* What are the human qualities each of the gods seems to exhibit?
* Are we intended to see a similiarity between Zeus's watching his children fighting from
Olympus and Priam watching his children from the "god-built heights"?
Study Questions
1. How did Lycaon know Achilles?
2. Does Achilles kill everyone he meets?
3. Why does Xanthus take human shape?
4. How is Achilles saved from Xanthus?