Hi!
Hopefully the information below will help you make sense of the Iliad. I highly suggest making notes in the margins of your book if you have not already done so. Taking notes on a separate sheet is good, too, but can get lost more easily. Either way, I suggest that you take notes as you go, to help you recall information.
1. Reasons to watch Troy for fun but not for correct content:
No Trojan horse in the Iliad
No sack of Troy in the Iliad
No sex scenes with Briseis in the Iliad
Phoinix and Ajax are not in the Embassy to Achilles in the movie
Priam and Achilles DO NOT die in the Iliad
Troy is missing the funeral games for Patroklos and Hektor
No gods on battlefield in Troy
2. Hard time recalling each book? Try to give the books a title. For example, I titled book 3 "Helen reviews the champions, Menelaos and Paris fight". Or, for book 5 I have "Diomedes' killing rage".
3. Questions to think about as you go:
What kinds of functions do the gods perform?
What powers do they have? what do they lack?
**What is the relationship between gods and men?
How do the humans think of the gods?
Is the relationship consistent?
Background of Trojan war in Greek mythology:
Story of the Apple of Discord
Wedding of Thetis & Peleus (WHO is Thetis?)
ERIS (personnification of strife) throws a golden apple into the wedding party with a note "to the fairest" attached.
Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite ALL think it's for them, which causes an argument
Judgement of Paris
Goddesses want to know who deserves the Apple of Discord
They ask Paris, son of Priam (Trojan King)
Each offers him a gift to bribe him
Aphrodite offers the most beautiful woman: Helen of Sparta, married to Menelaos
Paris steals Helen from Sparta
BOOK ONE: Make sure to read & focus on the following
Chryses & Invocation of Apollo (lines 1-52)
a. Who is Chryses? Chryseis?
b. Why is he angry at Agamemnon? (lines 8-33)
c. What does he ask Apollo to do? (line 35-52)
d. Prayer & offering scene (445-475)
Achilles & Agamemnon
a. Why is Achilles angry at Agamemnon? (105-194)
b. What/Who does Agamemnon steal from Achilles? (180-187)
c. What does Achilles try to do? Who stops him? (187-195)
d. What is Achilles' response to Agamemnon? (292-303)
e. What does Achilles do after this? (350-427)
f. What does his mother Thetis do? (495-530)
Achilles & Athena
Think about relationships between gods & men here.
How does Athena appear to Achilles?
What is his response to her?
Achilles
Why does he think he's special?
Agamemnon?
Why does he think he's special?
Book 14:
Hera's arming scene... 153-223
Aphrodite lends her the "zone"
Women's arming scene is a bit of a parody on Book 2's Catalogue of ships.
Also compare to arming scenes of Patroklos and Achilles
Seduction of Zeus...292-360
Is Zeus really omniscient/omnipotent?
How do the divine affairs parallel human affairs?
What can this scene tell us about Greek social norms for women?
