Summary of the Iliad....plz.!?

Question

Summary of the Iliad....plz.!?

Answer 1

Rage! Sing Muse of the rage of Peleus' son.

The epic begins in the tenth year of the Trojan War.  The Greeks are encamped on the beach and suffering beneath a plague unleashed upon them by the distant deadly archer, Apollo.  The Greeks hold a council to determine what offense they committed and how to appease Apollo.  A seer tells them that the slave girl seized by Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces, is also the daughter of one of Apollo's priests.  The priest offered ransom to buy back his daughter, but Agamemnon spurned him.  In retribution the plague was unleashed and it will only be lifted when the girl is returned, with no ransom paid.  

    Agamemnon complains, Achilles criticizes him and the two enter into an exchange of insults.  Agamemnon agrees to return his prize, but takes Achilles' slave girl as compensation.  Achilles prepares to kill the presumptuous king, but is stopped by Athena.   Instead, Achilles removes himself from the field of battle.  For the last ten years the Trojans have hid behind their walls for fear of Achilles and with him gone from the fighting the Trojans and Achaeans clash on the field of battle. . .

Great start huh?  Now read the book.

Answer 2

Read it...it's a good book.

Answer 3

Beware Greeks bearing gifts

Answer 4

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/summ... :

Plot Overview

Nine years after the start of the Trojan War, the Greek (“Achaean”) army sacks Chryse, a town allied with Troy. During the battle, the Achaeans capture a pair of beautiful maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean forces, takes Chryseis as his prize, and Achilles, the Achaeans’ greatest warrior, claims Briseis. Chryseis’s father, Chryses, who serves as a priest of the god Apollo, offers an enormous ransom in return for his daughter, but Agamemnon refuses to give Chryseis back. Chryses then prays to Apollo, who sends a plague upon the Achaean camp.

After many Achaeans die, Agamemnon consults the prophet Calchas to determine the cause of the plague. When he learns that Chryseis is the cause, he reluctantly gives her up but then demands Briseis from Achilles as compensation. Furious at this insult, Achilles returns to his tent in the army camp and refuses to fight in the war any longer. He vengefully yearns to see the Achaeans destroyed and asks his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, to enlist the services of Zeus, king of the gods, toward this end. The Trojan and Achaean sides have declared a cease-fire with each other, but now the Trojans breach the treaty and Zeus comes to their aid.

With Zeus supporting the Trojans and Achilles refusing to fight, the Achaeans suffer great losses. Several days of fierce conflict ensue, including duels between Paris and Menelaus and between Hector and Ajax. The Achaeans make no progress; even the heroism of the great Achaean warrior Diomedes proves fruitless. The Trojans push the Achaeans back, forcing them to take refuge behind the ramparts that protect their ships. The Achaeans begin to nurture some hope for the future when a nighttime reconnaissance mission by Diomedes and Odysseus yields information about the Trojans’ plans, but the next day brings disaster. Several Achaean commanders become wounded, and the Trojans break through the Achaean ramparts. They advance all the way up to the boundary of the Achaean camp and set fire to one of the ships. Defeat seems imminent, because without the ships, the army will be stranded at Troy and almost certainly destroyed.

Concerned for his comrades but still too proud to help them himself, Achilles agrees to a plan proposed by Nestor that will allow his beloved friend Patroclus to take his place in battle, wearing his armor. Patroclus is a fine warrior, and his presence on the battlefield helps the Achaeans push the Trojans away from the ships and back to the city walls. But the counterattack soon falters. Apollo knocks Patroclus’s armor to the ground, and Hector slays him. Fighting then breaks out as both sides try to lay claim to the body and armor. Hector ends up with the armor, but the Achaeans, thanks to a courageous effort by Menelaus and others, manage to bring the body back to their camp. When Achilles discovers that Hector has killed Patroclus, he fills with such grief and rage that he agrees to reconcile with Agamemnon and rejoin the battle. Thetis goes to Mount Olympus and persuades the god Hephaestus to forge Achilles a new suit of armor, which she presents to him the next morning. Achilles then rides out to battle at the head of the Achaean army.

Meanwhile, Hector, not expecting Achilles to rejoin the battle, has ordered his men to camp outside the walls of Troy. But when the Trojan army glimpses Achilles, it flees in terror back behind the city walls. Achilles cuts down every Trojan he sees. Strengthened by his rage, he even fights the god of the river Xanthus, who is angered that Achilles has caused so many corpses to fall into his streams. Finally, Achilles confronts Hector outside the walls of Troy. Ashamed at the poor advice that he gave his comrades, Hector refuses to flee inside the city with them. Achilles chases him around the city’s periphery three times, but the goddess Athena finally tricks Hector into turning around and fighting Achilles. In a dramatic duel, Achilles kills Hector. He then lashes the body to the back of his chariot and drags it across the battlefield to the Achaean camp. Upon Achilles’ arrival, the triumphant Achaeans celebrate Patroclus’s funeral with a long series of athletic games in his honor. Each day for the next nine days, Achilles drags Hector’s body in circles around Patroclus’s funeral bier.

At last, the gods agree that Hector deserves a proper burial. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on a father bereft of his son and return Hector’s body. He invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus. Deeply moved, Achilles finally relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a temporary truce, and Hector receives a hero’s funeral.

For further information these sites will help you:

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitN...

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iliad/

Answer 5

The Iliad begins with these lines:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκεν,

Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles the son of Peleus,

the destructive rage that sent countless ills on the Achaeans...

The first word of Homer's Iliad is the ancient Greek word μῆνις (mēnis), fury, rage, or wrath. This word announces the major theme of the Iliad: the wrath of Achilles. When Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces at Troy, dishonors Achilles by taking Briseis, a slave woman given to Achilles as a prize of war, Achilles becomes enraged and withdraws from the fighting until Book XIX. Without him and his powerful Myrmidon warriors, the Greeks suffer defeat by the Trojans, almost to the point of losing their will to fight. Achilles re-enters the fighting when Patroclus is killed by the Trojan prince Hector. Achilles slaughters many Trojans and kills Hector. In his rage, he then refuses to return Hector's body and instead defiles it. Priam, the father of Hector, ransoms his son's body, and the Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.

Homer devotes long passages to frank, blow-by-blow descriptions of combat. He gives the names of the fighters, recounts their taunts and battle-cries, and gruesomely details the ways in which they kill and wound one another. Often, the death of a hero only escalates the violence, as the two sides battle for his armor and corpse, or his close companions launch a punitive attack on his killer. The lucky ones are sometimes whisked away by friendly charioteers or the intervention of a god, but Homeric warfare is still some of the most bloody and brutal in literature.

The Iliad has a very strong religious and supernatural element. Both sides in the war are extremely pious, and both have heroes descended from divine beings. They sacrifice to the gods and consult priests and prophets to decide their actions. For their own part, the gods frequently join in battles, both by advising and protecting their favorites and even by participating in combat against humans and other gods.

The Iliad's huge cast of characters connects the Trojan War to many ancient myths, such as Jason and the Argonauts, the Seven Against Thebes, and the Labors of Hercules. Many ancient Greek myths exist in multiple versions, so Homer had some freedom to choose among them to suit his story. See Greek mythology for more detail.

The action of the Iliad covers only a few weeks of the tenth and final year of the Trojan War. It does not cover the background and early years of the war (Paris' abduction of Helen from King Menelaus) nor its end (the death of Achilles and the fall of Troy). Other epic poems, collectively known as the Epic Cycle or cyclic epics, narrated many of these events; these poems only survive in fragments and later descriptions. See Trojan War for a summary of the events of the war.

[edit] Synopsis

As the poem begins, the Greeks have captured Chryséis, the daughter of Apollo's priest Chryses, and given her as a prize to Agamemnon. When Agamemnon threatens Chryses as he attempted to ransom his daughter, Apollo sends a plague against the Greeks. At an assembly called by Achilles, the Greeks compel Agamemnon to restore Chryséis to her father to stop the sickness. Agamemnon agrees reluctantly but also takes for himself Briséis, whom the Achaeans had given to Achilles as a spoil of war. This causes Achilles, widely seen as the best warrior of the war, to withdraw from the fighting.

In counterpoint to Achilles' pride stands the Trojan prince Hector, son of King Priam, a husband and father who fights to defend his city and his family. With Achilles on the sidelines, Hector leads successful counterattacks against the Greeks, who have built a fortified camp around their ships pulled up on the Trojan beach. The best remaining Greek fighters, including Odysseus and Diomedes, are wounded, and the gods favor the Trojans. When the Trojans finally threatened the Greek ships with fire, Achilles allows Patroclus, impersonating him by wearing his armor, to lead the Myrmidons back into battle. The death of Patroclus at the hands of Hector brings Achilles back to the war for revenge, and he slays Hector in single combat. Hector's body is abused for days until his father, King Priam, comes to Achilles alone (but aided by Hermes) to ransom his son's body, and Achilles is moved to pity. The funeral of Hector ends the poem.

[edit] Book summaries

Book 1: Nine years into the war, Agamemnon seizes Briseis, the concubine (prize) of Achilles, since he has had to give away his own; Achilles withdraws from the fighting in anger; in Olympus, the gods argue about the outcome of the war

Book 2: Agamemnon pretends to order the Greeks home to test their resolve; Odysseus encourages the Greeks to keep fighting; Catalogue of Ships, Catalogue of Trojans and Allies

Book 3: A truce is observed as Paris challenges Menelaus to single combat over Helen while she watches from the walls of Troy with Priam; Paris is quickly overmatched by Menelaus, but is rescued from death by Aphrodite, and Menelaus is seen as the winner.

Book 4: The truce is broken and battle begins

Book 5: Diomedes has an aristeia (a period of supremacy in battle) and wounds Aphrodite and Ares with the assistance of Athena

Book 6: Glaucus and Diomedes greet each other during the fighting; Hector returns to Troy and speaks to his wife Andromache



Iliad, Book 8, lines 245-253, in a Greek manuscript of the late fifth or early sixth century ADBook 7: Hector battles Ajax

Book 8: The gods withdraw from the battle

Book 9: The Embassy to Achilles. Agamemnon sends Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix to Achilles to obtain his help; his promises of honour and riches are spurned

Book 10: The Doloneia. Diomedes and Odysseus go on a night mission, kill the Trojan Dolon, and ambush a camp of Thracians.

Book 11: Paris wounds Diomedes; Achilles sends Patroclus on a mission

Book 12: The Greeks retreat to their camp and are besieged by the Trojans

Book 13: Fighting before the ships; Poseidon encourages the Greeks

Book 14: Hera helps Poseidon assist the Greeks; Deception of Zeus

Book 15: Zeus stops Poseidon from interfering; Hector brings fire to the ships

Book 16: Patroclus borrows Achilles' armour, enters battle, kills Sarpedon and then is killed by Hector

Book 17: The armies fight over the body and armour of Patroclus. Books 16 and 17 are collectively called the Patrocleia.

Book 18: Achilles learns of the death of Patroclus and receives a new suit of armour. The Shield of Achilles is described at length

Book 19: Achilles is reconciled in form with Agamemnon and enters battle

Book 20: The gods join the battle; Achilles drives all the Trojans before him

Book 21: Achilles does battle with the river Scamander but is led astray by Ares

Book 22: Achilles kills Hector outside the walls of Troy and drags his body back to the Greek camp

Book 23: Funeral games for Patroclus

Book 24: The Ransoming of Hector. Priam, the King of the Trojans, secretly enters the Greek camp. He begs Achilles for Hector's body. Achilles is moved to pity and grants it to him, and it is taken away and burned on a pyre

[edit] Famous passages

Catalogue of Ships (Book 2, lines 494-759)

Teichoscopia (Book 3, lines 121-244)

Deception of Zeus (Book 14, lines 153-353)

Shield of Achilles (Book 18, lines 430-617)

[edit] After the Iliad

Although the Iliad scatters foreshadowings of certain events subsequent to the funeral of Hector, and there is a general sense that the Trojans are doomed, Homer does not set out a detailed account of the fall of Troy. For the story as developed in later Greek and Roman poetry and drama, see Trojan War. The other Homeric poem, the Odyssey, is the story of Odysseus' long journey home from Troy; the two poems between them incorporate many references forward and back and overlap very little, so that despite their narrow narrative focus they are a surprisingly complete exploration of the themes of the Troy story.

[edit] Major characters

Main article: List of characters in the Iliad

See also: Category:Deities in the Iliad

The Iliad contains a large number of characters. The latter half of the second book (often called the Catalogue of Ships) is devoted entirely to listing the various commanders and their contingents. Many of the battle scenes in the Iliad feature minor characters who are quickly slain. See Trojan War for a detailed list of participating armies and warriors.

The Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί) - the word Hellenes, which would today be translated as Greeks, is not used by Homer. Also called Danaans (Δαναοί) and Argives ('Aργεĩοι).

Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, and leader of the Achaeans

Achilles, King of the Myrmidions, foremost Achaean warror, he clashes with Agamemnon and sits out much of the combat. After the death of Patrolocus, he returns to battle and slays Hector.

Odysseus, King of Ithaca, the most clever Achaean commander. The hero of the Odyssey

Ajax the Greater, a large warrior, second only in fighting prowess to Achilles

Menelaus, King of Sparta and husband of Helen

Diomedes, the youngest Achaean king; he is king of Argos.

Ajax the Lesser, another Achaean leader, frequently partnered with Ajax the greater

The Trojan men

Hector, son of the Trojan king Priam and the foremost warrior of Troy, slain by Achilles

Aeneas, son of Anchises and Aphrodite

Paris, son of King Priam, he is the lover who stole Helen and started the Trojan war

Priam, the aged king of Troy

Polydamas, a young Trojan commander who sometimes figures as a foil for Hector by proving cool-headed and prudent when Hector charges ahead. Polydamas gives the Trojans sound advice, but Hector seldom acts on it.

Agenor, a Trojan warrior who