Q. Comment on the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles in book 1 of The Iliad.
A king vs. a hero, a bully vs. a thinker, a warrior vs. a lover. These describe the two most important and very different Achaean heroes, Agamemnon and Achilles, in Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. The conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon is one of the major plot lines in the Iliad. Agamemnon is a powerful king of the Achaeans, and he’s also powerful through family and marriage. His younger brother is Menelaus of Sparta, who won the hand of Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman ever. Helen falls in love with the Trojan prince Parisand runs away with him. So Agamemnon, who commands considerable power, gets his ships together and sails for the city of Troy. The ensuing Trojan War lasts 10 years but ends in victory for Agamemnon and Menelaus. He marries Clytemnestra, Helen’s twin sister. Together, they have four children. When he cannot get a favorable wind to sail for Troy, Agamemnon sacrifices his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. … (Read More)
Q. Bring out the Epic characteristics in The Iliad with reference to Book 1.
The Iliad is a primary epic. It was originally composed orally and after centuries of oral transmission it was finally written down.In all orally composed epic poems, we have certain features in common. First of all, they are partly based on some historical events. The iliad deals with the Trojan War that was a historical event. Ithaca Mycenae, the countries of Odysseus and Agamemnon were states in the historical times in Greece. Other features of an epic lie in its exalted narrative style, its unity of
action, rapidity, the art of beginning, the use of the supernatural, the ornamental simple, the recurrent epithet etc. The Iliad accommodates all these features. … (Read More)
Q. Explain the Significance of the Intervention of the Gods in the affairs of men in book 1 of The Iliad.
Greek mythology has systematically included the intervention of gods and goddesses in matters of the mortal world, and Homer’s The Iliad is no different. The poem is littered with divine intervention, with both positive and negative outcomes for humans involved. Edith Hamilton states that “the first written record of Greece is the Iliad. Greek mythology begins with Homer, generally believed to be not earlier than a thousand years before Christ.” SethL. Schein claims that “one of the most characteristic features of the Iliad is the gods.” The gods and their relations with men play an important role in the poem. Throughout the poem, Homer represents the gods as intervening in human affairs and by this way they change the destiny of human life. This intervention of the gods is an important part of the poem and an effective way of Homer’s method, because without their
intervention the poem would not have continued. … (Read More)
