"Rage-Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses...
".
The poet thus invokes a muse to aid him in telling the story of the rage of Achilles, the greatest Greek hero of the Trojan War.
For nearly 3 000 years, these verses open like the rumble of the drum in Homer's Iliad relating the events of the final year of the Trojan War, the consequence of Helen's abduction by the Trojan prince Paris from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
The narrative thus begins nine years after the onset of the war when Agamemnon reluctantly gives up his captive Chryseis to her father to appease Apollo's anger but demands Briseis, Achilles' prisoner as compensation.
After an altercation between the great hero and his commander-in-chief Agamemnon, Achilles abandons fighting.
There follows a series of setbacks for the Achaeans until Patroclus, the hero's beloved companion is killed by the Trojan prince, Hector.
Enraged Achilles returns to combat to avenge him and ultimately the unfortunate Trojan succumbs to a violent death.
The Iliad is largely one of continuous, bloody and often appalling violence that is direct, plain and rapid.
Yet the epic ends when old Priam of Troy comes to Achilles' tent to reclaim his son's body "Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles- as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age!" Achilles not only respects Priam's plea by returning Hector's body but also allows the Trojan people a reprieve from battle in order to honor and grieve their hero thoroughly and properly.
The poem ends with Achilles' change of heart that seems to emphasize the central theme of the poem that of the hero's indignation.
Nevertheless Homer chooses to conclude the Iliad not with the death of Achilles or the fall of Troy but rather with the decline of Achilles' mighty wrath.
Thus the Iliad explores the greatest concerns of man: the limits of the human condition, the relations of individuals with their gods, honor, war and fatality of death.
This most ancient poem of the western world and one of the major works of humanity inspired epic geniuses like Virgil, Dante, Milton or more recently, Derek Walcott, the Caribbean author and remains one of the fundamental foundations for the western thought.
For the Ancient Greeks, this epic was their history book since the Trojan war was authentic and some of them believed to be the descendants of these Homeric heroes like Alexander, the Great, who traced his origins to Achilles.
But the reality is more complex for this work is not "a true story" and does not represent a realistic picture of the daily life in Greece during the Bronze Age.
It was the result of an oral poetic tradition that was prevalent for 500 years between the height of the Mycenaean civilization, from 1300 -800 BC.
".
The poet thus invokes a muse to aid him in telling the story of the rage of Achilles, the greatest Greek hero of the Trojan War.
For nearly 3 000 years, these verses open like the rumble of the drum in Homer's Iliad relating the events of the final year of the Trojan War, the consequence of Helen's abduction by the Trojan prince Paris from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
The narrative thus begins nine years after the onset of the war when Agamemnon reluctantly gives up his captive Chryseis to her father to appease Apollo's anger but demands Briseis, Achilles' prisoner as compensation.
After an altercation between the great hero and his commander-in-chief Agamemnon, Achilles abandons fighting.
There follows a series of setbacks for the Achaeans until Patroclus, the hero's beloved companion is killed by the Trojan prince, Hector.
Enraged Achilles returns to combat to avenge him and ultimately the unfortunate Trojan succumbs to a violent death.
The Iliad is largely one of continuous, bloody and often appalling violence that is direct, plain and rapid.
Yet the epic ends when old Priam of Troy comes to Achilles' tent to reclaim his son's body "Remember your own father, great godlike Achilles- as old as I am, past the threshold of deadly old age!" Achilles not only respects Priam's plea by returning Hector's body but also allows the Trojan people a reprieve from battle in order to honor and grieve their hero thoroughly and properly.
The poem ends with Achilles' change of heart that seems to emphasize the central theme of the poem that of the hero's indignation.
Nevertheless Homer chooses to conclude the Iliad not with the death of Achilles or the fall of Troy but rather with the decline of Achilles' mighty wrath.
Thus the Iliad explores the greatest concerns of man: the limits of the human condition, the relations of individuals with their gods, honor, war and fatality of death.
This most ancient poem of the western world and one of the major works of humanity inspired epic geniuses like Virgil, Dante, Milton or more recently, Derek Walcott, the Caribbean author and remains one of the fundamental foundations for the western thought.
For the Ancient Greeks, this epic was their history book since the Trojan war was authentic and some of them believed to be the descendants of these Homeric heroes like Alexander, the Great, who traced his origins to Achilles.
But the reality is more complex for this work is not "a true story" and does not represent a realistic picture of the daily life in Greece during the Bronze Age.
It was the result of an oral poetic tradition that was prevalent for 500 years between the height of the Mycenaean civilization, from 1300 -800 BC.
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