The document summarizes key details about Achilles from Homer's Iliad, including his parentage, training under Chiron, role in the Trojan War where he killed Hector in vengeance for Patroclus' death, and his own death at the hands of Paris guided by Apollo. It also briefly outlines the fates of other major figures involved in the Trojan War like Odysseus, Aeneas, Menelaus, Agamemnon, and Priam.

1. Achilles in the city of Troy
=
Blasphemy

2. “Inspired by the Iliad”
 Sing to me, Muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of
Peleus… (μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος)
 First word: RAGE
 Menelaus & marriage to Helen
 Suitors’ pact to defend the husband
 Helen & Paris
 “The face that launched a 1000 ships”
Achilles in Corfu- The
Gardens of Achilleion

3. Achilles
 Son of Peleus (king of the
Myrmidons) & Thetis (sea-
nymph)
 The golden apple at their
wedding: “To the fairest”
 Hera, Aphrodite, Athena
 ἄχος (= grief) + λαός (=
people)
 Dipped into the river Styx
 Statius (1st cent. CE)
 Mentor: Chiron
Paul Reubens’ oil painting (~1630-1635):
Thetis dipping the Infant Achilles into
the River Styx

4. Involvement in Trojan War
 Myrmidons brought 50 ships of 50 men (Eudorus was
one of his captains)
 “Swift-footed Achilles” (πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς)
 The prized captive Briseis
 In movie, combination of Cassandra (daughter of Priam,
sister of Paris/Hector, prophetess who was cursed by
Apollo) & Briseis (priest’s daughter)
 Patroclus- “cousin”
 Borrows Achilles’ armor
 Hector takes the armor

5. Triumphant Achilles.
Painting by Franz Matsch
(1892)
Achilles v.
Hector
 “the greatest warrior the world has ever known”
 After Patroclus’ death, Thetis has Hephaestus make armor for
Achilles for his battle with Hector
 Achilles’ aristeia (even attacks river-god Scamander)
 Achilles in divine armor v. Hector in Achilles’ armor
 Appeal of Priam for the return of his son’s body (24.503-506)
 Nay, have thou awe of the gods, Achilles, and take pity on me,
remembering thine own father. Lo, I am more piteous far than he,
[505] and have endured what no other mortal on the face of earth
hath yet endured, to reach forth my hand to the face of him that
hath slain my sons.”

6. The Burning of Troy.
Painting by
Death of Achilles Francisco Collantes
(~1759-1762)
 Killed by an arrow of Paris, guided by Apollo
 Various versions, but all give no honor to Paris
 Funeral games for Achilles’ armor: Ajax v. Odysseus
 Odysseus wins; Ajax goes crazy (via Athena), commits
suicide
 Neoptolemus receives
 Prophecies for Troy’s fall
 Heracles’ bow
 Philoctetes, to kill Paris
 Neoptolemus/Pyrrhus
 Trojan Horse
 Odysseus

7. How’d they all end up?
 Achilles/Hector/Ajax: dead at Troy
 Priam: dead at the altar of Zeus by Neoptolemus
 Menelaus: returns with Helen to Sparta
 Agamemnon: returns with Cassandra to Mycenae
 Killed by Aegisthus/Clytemnestra (Helen’s sister)
 Cassandra foresaw this. Died also
 Odysseus- read the Odyssey
 10 years to get back to Ithaca
 Aeneas: escapes to Italy- read the Aeneid
 His descendants found Rome