While some of the female characters in Homer's The Illiad are powerful goddesses, others are merely helpless mortal women. Hera is one of the most powerful forces in the poem. She holds more power over Zeus, and the other characters, than many of the male gods. "You'll set me curry-worrying with...

Homer is an indefinite figure of mystery, a halo in a dark shadow. Homer was a Greek poet, accredited with writing The Illiad, The Odyssey, and a few other works of literature. His epic poems were broken down into books to make easier to memorize, since he would recite the whole poem in one day,...

After King Agamemnon admits the errors of his ways he sends Phoenix, Ajax, Odysseus, Odius and Eurybates on their way to sway the mighty Achilles to fight. They find the mighty Achilles in the Myrmidon shelters playing his lyre singing of famous deeds and heroes. With Odysseus in the lead they appro...

In book VI, Hector returns to battle despite the pleas of those he loves. Compare Hectors behavior with Achilles' refusal to fight after he has been shamed. Both are heroes. What is heroic about each decision? Do you approve of one more than the other? Why? If so, what values do they have th...

In the 8th century Homer brought the world the epic tale of war, love, and human spirit. He named this outstanding poem The Iliad. The Iliad begins in the tenth and final year of the great Trojan War. This is the war the Greeks sailed in a fleet of one thousand ships, lead by Agamemnon the king of k...

September 3, 2002 1. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings: "The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere for...

The Iliad is the quintessential epic. It is full with gods, goddesses, heroes, war, honor, and glory. However, for just a short while near the very conclusion, Homer avoids all of those epic qualities. The banquet scene in Book XXIV is the most touching, the most "human" scene in the entire poem...