2. • Greek poet Homer,
credited with being the
first to write down the
epic stories of The Iliad
and The Odyssey, the
impact of his tales
continues to reverberate
through Western culture.
3. The Greek poet Homer
• His work shows a
knowledge of the
Greek World and
Near East
4. Homer’s born
• Guesses at his birth date range from
750 BC all the way back to 1200 BC,
the latter because The
Iliad encompasses the story of the
Trojan War, so some scholars have
thought it fit to put the poet and
chronicler nearer to the time of that
actual event.
5. Where He Was Born
• Once again, the exact location of
Homer’s birth cannot be pinpointed,
although that doesn't stop scholars from
trying. It has been identified as Ionia,
Smyrna or, at any rate, on the coast of
Asia Minor or the island of Chios. But
seven cities lay claim to Homer as their
native son.
6. What He Was Like
• Virtually every biographical aspect
ascribed to Homer is derived entirely
from his poems. Homer is thought to
have been blind, based solely on a
character in The Odyssey, a blind
poet/minstrel called
Demodokos.
7. • A long disquisition on how
Demodokos was welcomed into
a gathering and regaled the audience
with music and epic tales of conflict
and heroes to much praise has been
interpreted as Homer’s hint as to
what his own life was like.
8. • Tradition has it that Homer was
blind, but the evidence for this
idea is unreliable. This evidence is
based on the portrayal in
the Odyssey of a blind minstrel
who sings a poem about the fall
of Troy.
9. Most Scholars Now Agree on the
Following . . .
• Homer did exist
• He was an oral
poet
• He was
illiterate
10. Background of the Iliad
• Scholarship generally dates the composition of
the Iliad at about 800 B.C. At that time, Homer
would have been writing about the
Mycenaeans, a people who lived in Greece
four to five hundred years earlier, although
the picture he paints in the epic shows aspects
of society from all of the periods between
1400 and 800 B.C.
11. Iliad
• Iliad means “a poem of Ilium.”
• The Iliad is an epic poem written by the
Greek poet Homer. It tells the story of the
last year of the Trojan War fought
between the city of Troy and the Greeks.
• It is estimated that the Iliad was written
around the 8th century BC.
• The Iliad has 15,693 lines.
12. Iliad
Or as some of the Greeks
refer to, the “Bible of the
Greeks,” tells of the prince
of Troy, Paris, who decided
to kidnap the Greek
princess, Helen, because
the goddess Aphrodite
promised him a beautiful
wife.
13.
14. Theme
•The accidentle leads to a
decade long war, filled with
betrayal, vengeance, anger,
and of course, death.
16. • There was a prophecy given about Achilles’
destiny while he was still a boy. A prophet
named Calchas prophesied that the city of
Troy could not be taken without Achilles’
help. Thetis knew that, if her son went to
Troy, Achilles would die an early death, so she
sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in
Scyros where he was hidden, disguised as a
young girl. Achilles' disguise was finally
discovered by Odysseus. Achilles went
willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host
of his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by
his tutor Phoenix and his close friend
Patroclus.
17.
18. How the Trojan War Started
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
(grandson to Zeus and a sea nymph)
Eris – goddess of discord, not invited
Eris crashes party - starts trouble
Golden apple – “To the fairest”
Hera, Athena, Aphrodite – claim it
19. An important feast was taking
place at the home of the gods
and goddesses, Mount
Olympus.
20. The evil goddess of Discord,
Eris, was angry that she was not
invited, so she decided to make
trouble. She
threw a golden apple into the crowd.
On the apple were the words “For
the Fairest.”
21.
22. Of course, all of the
goddesses wanted the
apple because each
believed that she was
the fairest. The choices
were narrowed down
to three: Aphrodite,
Hera, and Pallas
Athena.
23. The three goddesses
asked Zeus to decide
which one of them
should get the apple,
but he refused to
have anything to do
with the matter
24.
25. Zeus told the three goddesses to go to
Mount Ida, near Troy, where they would
find the young prince Paris. Zeus said
that he was an excellent judge of beauty.
Paris was a prince, but was doing
shepherd’s work outside of Troy because
his father, King Priam was warned that
Paris would one day be the ruin of his
country.
26. Paris was surprise when he
saw the three
goddesses. The goddesses
each offered
Paris a bribe to convince him
that they
deserved the apple.
31. The fairest woman in
the world was Helen.
Every young prince in
Greece wanted to
marry her. However,
Helen was already
married to Menelaus,
brother of
Agamemnon.
32. • First, the priest Chryses comes to ask
their leader, King Agamemnon, to
release his daughter, whom
Agamemnon was holding captive.
When Agamemnon refuses, the
priest prays to the god Apollo to
send a plague against the Achaians.
33. A thousand ships carried
the Greek Army to Troy.
The war went on for ten
years. Neither side was
able to win victory over
the other. Both sides lost
many great warriors.
34.
35. •Just after Menelaus,
Achilles, and Agamemnon
(three Greek kings) had
found Troy and began to
engage the Trojan army in
a fight, Achilles became
very angry at Agamemnon.
36. • Achilles refused to fight, and
returned home in a pout. All
of the rewards the Greeks had
to offer could not entice him
to return to battle; however,
he allowed his best friend –
Patroclus – to fight in his
place.
37. • When Achilles received word
that his friend Patroclus was
killed by Hector – the Trojan
hero – he returned to battle,
swearing revenge on Hector. He
killed Hector and dragged his
body behind a chariot to further
dishonor him.
38. • Only after Hector’s father –
Priam, king of Troy – came to
Achilles and begged for the
body of his son did Achilles
release his anger and give up
Hector’s body for a proper /
honorable burial.
43. Real World
• Religion
• Gods and Goddesses are a daily
presence in people's lives
• the mortals honor the gods with
sacrifices, but they expect favors in
return
