The Iliad Books 1-4 PDF

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This document has answers for questions focusing on books 1-4 from the ancient Greek story "The Iliad." by Homer translated by Robert Fitzgerald....

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The Iliad Books 1-4 HUMN115 Troy and the Trojan War Book 1 1.Is Achilles justified in his anger toward Agamemnon? Is he justified in withdrawing from the war? I believe that Achillies' anger is justified toward Agamemnon. This is because Agamemnon acted completely unreasonable towards Achilles. This is shown in the text when Agamemnon says to Achillies,, “...the army will award a prize to me and make sure that is measures up, or if they do not, I will take a girl myself, your own..” (Homer, Fitzgerald 10) Agamemnon is acting like Achilles owes him something when he doesn't owe him anything at all. It was Agamemnon fault for not returning Khryseis go at first, it was his own. Achilles is also justified in withdrawing from the war because it wasn’t the mess that he created, and among that, Agamemnon didn’t give a reason for Achilles to do him a favor and help him fight. Achilles' defence can be seen when he says, “...when I came here to fight, I had no quarrel with Troy or Trojan spearmen they never stole my cattle or my horses.” (Homer, Fitzgerald 10) He later goes on to say that he only joined to please Agamemnon and his brother, but after the way Agamemnon has been treating him there’s no reason for him to stay and help anymore. 2. What do you think about Achillies praying to his mom to punish all the Greeks? Does Achilles praying to his mom, Thetis, to punish all the Greeks belittle him in your eyes? I believe that Achillies praying to his mom to punish all the Greeks was not appropriate. I do understand his fear and wanting vengeance upon Agamemnon, but I do not understand why it is also geared towards all the Greeks when, one, not all of them were fighting and two, the ones who don't control Agamemnon behavior. Achilles actions do not belittle him in my eyes, they just confuse and upset me. Book 2 3. How do the gods interfere with the mortals? The gods often use mortals first for their own amusement. They also usually tend to use mortals as a pawn in either some squabble that they are having or to deal with some sort of family matter. For example, when Agamemnon insulted the son of Thetis, the goddess begged Zeus to abandon the trojans and with the help of the gods the greek army was almost destroyed and many soldiers died because the son of a god got his feelings hurt. 4. What does Odysseus remind the men? How does this affect the men? Odysseus reminds the men of the prophecy and that they would win after nine years. This gives the men hope and reason to keep fighting on. 5. Who is Nestor and what does he encourage Agamemnon to do and why?

Nestor is a counselor to the Greeks in their war against Troy, and in the first two books he gives Agamemnon advice on two different occasions. The first time he advised Agamemnon was to make peace with Achilles in book one. He told Agamemnon to give back the girl that Agamemnon won from Achilles. In book 2 he told Agamemnon to rally the troops by their clan and city so they could all fight together side by side in the war. Book 3 6. We meet Paris here. What is your opinion of him and why? Personally, I think that Paris was a terrible person for what he did. First of all he stole the beautiful Helen which is what started the entire war, but when he was called on to fight for the war that he created he hid deep in the ranks of his army out of the way of the mess he made. 7. Why are even the Trojan disgusted with Paris’ behavior? The other Trojans were also disgusted with the behavior of Paris because they knew that he was the one who forced them into this unneeded war. Book 4 8. Why does Athena deflect the arrow aimed at Menelaus after she convinces Pandarus to shoot it? After Athena told Pandarus to shoot his arrow at Menelaus, she made herself look like a Trojan soldier to deflect the arrow so it wounds Menelaus instead of killing him in order to give the Achaens more of a reason to fight. 9. How does Helen feel at this point? At this point Helen feels hatred towards herself. She wishes that she died the day she came to Troy. 10. Why is it important to take the body of the fallen soldiers back to the lines? It is important to take the body of a fallen soldier back to their soldier because the bodies of the opposing side are often desecrated, and the soldier's armor is taken as a trophy. This is usually prevented by bringing the bodies back to their lines....