Study Questions: Iliad 1-4.
How can Zeus say 'no' to Thetis? How can Hera fail to overhear their conversation? (See Iliad book 1)
STUDY QUESTIONS: ILIAD 1-4.
(Line numbers correspond to translation by Stanley Lombardo's translation)
Hand in answers to the questions that have the same last digit as your University of Arkansas Identification Number.
Please type. No late answers will be accepted.
Due: Monday, September 10, 2004.
1. What is the first word of the Iliad? (1) What is its significance for the rest of the poem (or at least for the first book)?
2. Who drives Agamemnon and Achilles to their quarrel? (10) What does this say about human responsibility? How is sexual jealousy involved?
3. How does Agamemnon treat Chryses? (34) How does he treat Calchas? (112) What else do Chryses and Calchas have in common?
4. If you were the commander-in-chief of the Trojan expedition, would you want to have Achilles under your command? Why or why not?
5. When Athena appears to Achilles, what word does he use to characterize Agamemnon's bad behavior towards him? What is the Greek word? (215)
6. What does the scepter which Achilles throws down represent? (248ff.)
7. What is Nestor's role in the book? What four adjectives would you use to describe him? (263ff.)
8. How is Nestor among the Achaeans like Hephaestus on Olympus (603)?
9. How does Thetis use body language in her request to Zeus? (525ff)
10. How are Chryses' two prayers to Apollo similar to each other? (45, 478) How are they different?
11. What action do the Achaeans commit immediately after the return of Chryseis to her father Chryses? (472) What is its purpose? Why do you think such religious actions were popular with the ancient Greeks?
12. How would you describe the marital relationship between Zeus and Hera? (549-643) How does the text support your opinion?
13. How are Thetis' speech to Zeus (534) and Chryses' first prayer to Apollo (45) alike?
14. Why is Achilles so angry with Agamemnon? Why is Agamemnon so angry with Achilles?
15. What revolutionary activity of the gods against Zeus does Achilles mention to his mother Thetis? (409) What kind of picture of life on Mt. Olympus does this show?
STUDY QUESTIONS: IL/AD 2
16. Why do you think that the Dream takes the form of Nestor? (20ff.)
17. Aside from his shoes and sword, what did Agamemnon carry with him when he got up from his bed? Why do you think he took it? (40ff.)
18. What is the first simile used in this book? (92) Do you think it is appropriate? How so or not?
19. What does the ancestry of Agamemnon's scepter signify in regard to the relation between gods and mortals? (110)
20. How do Athena and Hera keep the Argives from rushing to their ships? (171ff.)
21. How does Odysseus tailor his exhortations to his audiences? What does this say about his effectiveness as a leader? (200ff.)
22. How does the scepter play a role in the Thersites episode? (287)
23. Odysseus describes an omen observed at Aulis before the Trojan War. Who had interpreted the omen at that time? How does the memory of that omen affect the Argives? (307-359)
24. How is the description of sacrifice in book 2 (425) similar to that in book 1 (473)? How do you account for the similarities?
25. When the armies gather, the poet compares them to many things (471ff.). Name four comparisons (similes).
26. Why does the poet invoke the Muses before he recites the list of soldiers? (521)
27. What oter kind of information does the poet include in the catalog of the ships? How do you account for: the existence of the catalog in the epic, and 2) the kinds of information included in it?
STUDY QUESTIONS: ILIAD 3
28. Why does Hector mention Achaean laughter to Paris? (45ff.)
29. How does Paris defend himself against Hector's taunts about "golden Aphrodite's gifts"? (65)
30. Why does Menelaus insist that Priam oversee the truce? (108)
31. Who is Iris? How does her name give us the word iridescent? (123)
32. To what are the Trojan elders' voices compared? Why? How do they react to her sex appeal? (158ff.)
33. What is Priam's attitude towards Helen? How does Helen describe herself to Priam? (170ff.)
34. What physical description of Odysseus does the teichoscopia (view from the wall) show?How does his speech belie his form? (205ff.)
35. How do the Greeks and Trojans involve the gods in their truce? (285ff.)
36. Why does Priam not stay to watch the duel? How does this define his personality? (325)
37. Why does Menelaus not kill Paris in the duel? (368-409)
38. What physical description of Aphrodite does the epic give? (422ff.)
39. What is Helen's reaction to Aphrodite's command? (427ff.)What is Aphrodite's attitude towards Helen? (441ff.)What generalization might you make about the relation between mortals and immortals based on the scene where they converse? What is the power of sex?
40. How do you account for Helen's hateful words to Paris, followed by her worry about his safety? (452ff.)
41. At the end of book three, what does the poet imply about the feelings of the Trojan soldiers towards Paris? (477) How does their attitude compare with Hector's?
ILIAD QUESTIONS: BOOK 4
42. Why does Zeus love Troy, Priam, and the Trojans? (49ff)
43. What are Hera's three favorite cities, and how does this explain her hatred for Troy? (60ff.)
44. With what does the disguised Athena tempt Pandarus? How does this motivate him? (99ff)
45. Comment on the description of Pandarus' bow. (115ff.) Why do you think the poet spends so much space describing it?
46. To what is Menelaus' blood compared, as it stains his body? (152ff.) How does this match the scene of battle?
47. What is Agamemnon afraid that Trojans will say about him if Menelaus dies at Troy? (162-198) How much does he worry about his brother, and how much about himself?
48. How does Machaon, the army doctor, treat Menelaus' wound? Who is his (Machaon's) father? Who supplied his salves? (209-234)
49. How did Agamemnon rouse the Achaeans to battle after Menelaus' wounding? What motivates these soldiers? (239ff.)
50. How does Odysseus react when Agamemnon upbraids him for cowardice? (348ff.)
51. How does Agamemnon compare Diomedes to his father Tydeus? (388ff.)
52. How does Diomedes' reply to Agamemnon' s rebuke contrast with that of his charioteer Sthenelus, son of Capaneus? (428ff.)Which attitude is better for the Argives? Why?
53. Why do the heroes drag their fallen enemies (and their fallen comrades)
out of combat? (502, 551, 575, etc.)