The Iliad


 * Homer
 * 8th century BCE
 * Like the  Odyssey,  the  Iliad  tells the story of the Trojan War.
 * Its original readers, the ancient Greeks, would have been familiar with the background myths.
 * The  Iliad  begins with the Trojan War in its tenth year and ends before the capture of the city.
 * Focuses on the internal conflicts between the Greeks, rather than the war between the Trojans and Greeks.
 * Achilles vs. Agammenon
 * “Rage:/ Sing; Goddess, Achilles’ rage,/ Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks/ Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls/ Of heroes into Hades’ dark,/ And left their bodies to rot as feasts/ For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done./ Begin with the clash between Agammenon/– The Greek warlord– and godlike Achiles.”
 * The first word of the poem is “Rage,” and that is what the major theme of the poem is. Menis – wrath of gods.
 * War, honor, and agression.
 * Is it war propaganda or about the tragedy of war?
 * Exchange of honor for death?
 * **The gods of the  Iliad  very human in their motives, behavior, actions, and words, which is a great contrast to the God of The Book of Job, who is a mysterious being that man cannot understand.