Homer’s poems are primarily about
human choices and
human characters.
Houses of Atreus and Tyndareus
Tyndareus, King of Sparta, supports the cause of Agamemnon for the kingship of
Mycenae and leads an army that drives Thyestes (Agamemnon’s uncle) out and
makes Agamemnon the King of Mycenae.
• The wife of Tyndareus was Leda, with whom Zeus, in the guise of a swan,
had slept.
• Leda bears four children [2 in 2 eggs?]:
• Castor and Clytemnestra, fathered by Tyndareus.
• Polydeuces (Pollux) and Helen, fathered by Zeus.
• Tyndareus marries his daughter Clytemnestra to Agamemnon as a powerful
alliance. I.e., he links the houses of Sparta and Mycenae.
• But Helen was so beautiful that everyone wanted to marry her: how to choose
her husband without making enemies of everyone else?
The Oath of Tyndareus
The clever Odysseus proposes a solution to Tyndareus’ Helen
problem.
• His price: the hand of Tyndareus’ niece Penelope, who turns
out to be a perfect match (see Odyssey!).
• All of the suitors are to swear an oath that if anyone
violates Helen’s honor, then they all must help to punish the
offender.
• Those who won’t swear cannot woo her, and since all want her,
they all take the oath: Helen then chooses (?)
• Who, by the way, didn’t try to win her hand?.
• Menelaus will be Helen’s choice.
Paris of Troy
Troy, greatest city in Asia Minor, was very close to the Hellespont.
• Paris/Alexander was one of the 50 sons of Priam, King of Troy, and Hecabê.
• When Hecabê was pregnant with Paris, she dreamed she was about to give birth to a
torch.
• A prophet told her that her son would destroy the city.
• Paris was exposed on Mt. Ida.
• Shepherd saved him (sound familiar?).
• Shepherd named him Paris.
• Defeated bandits: later named Alexander.
• Later returned to city, recognized and accepted.
• His brother Hector was Troy’s best fighter, but Paris was the most handsome of
men.
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
• Thetis a sea goddess, daughter of Nereus.
• Zeus lusted for her, but he was told by Prometheus that her son
would be greater than her father.
• Zeus ultimately lets Heracles unbind Prometheus for this knowledge.
• Zeus, thus, has Thetis married off to a mortal named Peleus (why
Peleus is not clear).
• If the father is mortal, then Thetis’ son will pose no threat to Zeus.
• Peleus was a minor king in Thessaly: brother to Telamon, who is the
father of Ajax: second most powerful fighter at Troy after Achilles.
• Son of Peleus and Thetis: Achilles
apples
Hera throws her a great wedding, grateful that Zeus did not sleep with her.
• Eris, the goddess of Strife, bitter because she was not invited, turns up anyway
and throws a golden apple into the crowd.
• Apple is engraved: “To the Fairest”.
• Hera, Athena, Aphrodite each claim it; Zeus says that Paris should be the
judge.
• Hermes brings the three goddesses to Paris and explains his assignment.
• Goddesses each disrobe, then also offer him bribes:
– Hera offers political power.
– Athena offers him glory as a soldier.
– Aphrodite offers him the most beautiful woman in the world.
• The most handsome Paris chooses Aphrodite, who promises him the most
beautiful woman in the world.
• But Helen is already married!
The Abduction of Helen
Some time later Paris journeys to Sparta for Helen (Achilles has to
grow up … ?).
• Menelaus welcomes him as a guest, but Paris violates xenia and
abducts his wife (Menelaus is away attending a funeral).
• Helen seems to have been not unwilling to go.
• Menelaus then invokes the Oath of Tyndareus and assembles Helen’s
former suitors.
• His brother Agamemnon, the strongest king in Greece, will lead the
expedition
The Assembling of the Heroes
The Greek heroes assemble to sail to Troy, but their prophet Calchas foresees
problems.
• First, they cannot win without Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, the
greatest of Greek fighters.
• He was too young to be a suitor for Helen, so he never took the Oath of
Tyndareus.
• He fights solely for immortality through fame.
• Second, the winds will not let them depart without Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his
own daughter Iphigenia.
• Artemis angry at Agamemnon for his boasts while hunting, demands the
sacrifice of his virgin daughter, Iphigenia.
• Clytemnestra will have this as part of the reason for killing Agamemnon when he
returns home
Achilles’ Heel
A much later story says that Thetis dipped Achilles in the Styx, the
river of the Underworld, and so made him invincible.
• His only weak spot: his heel, which Thetis had held when she dipped
him.
• Achilles will die because of an arrow shot by Paris that wounds him in
the heel.
• Maybe this manner of death is the source of the dipping in the Styx
story.
• Homer does NOT seem to know the Styx story, or he intentionally
ignores it.
The Iliad of Homer
Achilles is the central hero of the Iliad, the greatest surviving
Greek account of the Trojan War.
• The Iliad was judged by the Greeks to be their greatest piece of
literature.
• Alexander the Great supposedly slept with a copy of it under
his pillow.
• The Iliad is NOT the story of the Trojan War, but the story
about the character and choices of Achilles, whom Homer calls
the “Best of the Achaeans.”
The Iliad: Plot and Character
The plot is the story of the wrath of Achilles during about one
month in the tenth year of the Trojan War.
• This wrath causes Achilles to navigate a series of choices and
to come to a new understanding about the world.
• The development of his character is the central element in
the story.
• The Trojan War is the background, but Achilles and his wrath
are the focus.
The Origin of Achilles’ Wrath
The Iliad begins with Chryses, a priest of Apollo, coming to the Greek camp and
asking for his daughter Chryseïs back.
• She had been captured in a village raid around Troy, and she was Agamemnon’s
prize after the victory.
• Homeric warriors take their status from the prizes they receive for their
fighting.
• Agamemnon rudely refuses to give up his prize (geras).
• Chryses calls upon Apollo to help him, and Apollo, angry at Agamemnon’s
treatment of his priest, sends a plague upon the Greeks.
• At a public assembly of the soldiers, Achilles asks Agamemnon to seek counsel to
find out why Apollo is so angry.
• Calchas the seer reveals that Chryseïs must be given back to end the plague.When it is revealed that Apollo is upset about Agamemnon’s treatment of
Chryses, Achilles challenges him to give back Chryseïs to her father.
• Agamemnon eventually does give up Chryseïs, but then he takes Achilles’ war-
prize, a woman named Briseïs.
• Achilles momentarily contemplates killing Agamemnon on the spot.
• Achilles feels so dishonored that he withdraws from the fighting and wants the
Greeks to start losing so that Agamemnon can see how much he needs Achilles.
• Achilles thus brings harm to his own, as heroes in Greek myth often do.
• His mother Thetis senses his anguish and comes to comfort him.
• Thetis then goes to Zeus to ask him to have the Trojans win until he is
honored appropriately.
• Hera gets upset when she sees Thetis with Zeus, but Hephaestus calms her down
by playing the divine bartender.
The Iliad: Main Theme
One main theme of the Iliad is exploring the difference between gods
and men.
• Compare the beginning and end of Book 1.
• Men fight and die after a quarrel, but gods feast and laugh.
• Iliad: what does it mean to be mortal?
• Homer: the acceptance of one’s mortality and one’s connection with
one’s fellow man.
• Mortals have to make choices, and mortals live or die as a result of
these choices.
• Which choices are worth dying for and which are not?
• Gods can’t die, and so they can’t be tragic or heroic.
The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles
The issue is at play here is also about who makes a better leader.
• Agamemnon feels that since he is the leader of the expedition, he
should be the leader, and all should follow his guidance.
• Achilles feels that, since he is the best fighter and works the
hardest, he should be given more respect.
• Traditional authority (Agamemnon) vs. individual excellence
(Achilles).
• How can an amazing individual work within an established cultural
system?
