Princess Danielle V.

Florendo 4th Year- Sycamore

Assignment#5

Characters of Iliad
THE IMMORTALS 1) ZEUS King of the gods who tried to maintain neutrality in order to make sure fate wasnt thwarted; known for his erotic escapades which resulted in many godly & heroic offspring 2) HERA jealous wife & one of the 3 sisters of Zeus; the goddess of power, women & marriage; major defender of Greeks; supports Achilles chiefly because she loathes the Trojans evidently because Paris insulted her 3) Aphrodite goddess of love & beauty love goddess who won the apple of strife that started things in motion; others say that she arise from the sea foam which comes from Uranus genitals, others say shes Zeus & Diones daughter; fights in support of the Trojans; ruthlessly threatens Helen to do her building and in a way the Trojan War is due to her manipulation; the power of love she governs is able to bring men to battle. Her magic weapon is her girdle. Whoever wears it instantly becomes so attractive that people cant help falling in love with her. Because of her beauty, other gods fear that jealousy will interrupt the peace among them & lead to war so Zeus marry her to Hephaestus who is not viewed as a threat. Her sadness in marriage causes her to frequently seek out the companionship of her lover Ares. 4) Achilles a Greek Hero of the Trojan war, the central character of Homers Iliad; the most handsome of the heroes assembled against Troy; leader of the myrmidons; a great warrior possessed of fierce ideals & emotional disturbance; son of Peleus & Thetis; His mother, when he was born, had intended to make him invulnerable by dipping him into the River Styx, but she was careless and didnt notice that the water did not cover the part of the foot by which she was holding. Since he died due to an arrow shot into his heel, the term Achilles heel has come to mean a persons principal weakness. 5) Athena also referred to as Pallas Athena; wise goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice, & skill; protector of Achilles; one of the main Greek supporter; virgin patron of Athens; Athenians built the Parthenon in her honor 6) Thetis silver-footed sea nymph; one of the 50 Nereids; daughter of Nereus & Doris; mother of Achilles; wife of Peleus; Zeus desired her but she rejected his advances. The goddess Themis revealed that she was fated to bear a son who was mightier than his father. Fearing his dominion, Zeus gave her as a bride to a mortal Peleus. All the gods attended the wedding except goddess Eris. She asked Hephaestus to make her son a shield. 7) Eris goddess of strife, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia; her opposite was Harmonia; the dwarf planet Eris is named for the goddess; shes the only one not invited in the wedding of Peleus & Thetis 8) Iris The messenger god in Iliad; the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky. Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other,[1] and into the depths of the sea and the underworld. 9) Hephaestus god of fire; brother of Ares; lame & ugly blacksmith of the gods a fact that often caused him to be jealous. He made many magical weapons for the gods & heroes, including his own wifes girdle, Hermes helmet & sandals, Achilles armor, Eros bow & arrow One day, he found Aphrodite & Ares kissing each other. He made a net from a mythical unbreakable material called adamant, which he threw over the couple, and called on the other gods to come & make fun of them while they were trapped. 10) Ares member of the 12 Olympians; son of Zeus & Hera; hot-headed; the cold-blooded & blood thirsty god of war; aided the Trojan side & was sometimes pictured as the war itself; often drawn in a chariot by fire-

breathing stallions, Ares, the savage god of war, wasnt popular among the other Olympian gods, with the exception of Aphrodite. His sacred bird was the vulture & he almost always wore a helmet & carried a spear. His children were Deimos & Phobos, the spirits of terror & fear. He often preferred to live in his home country of Thrace than dwell with the other gods in Olympus. 11) Poseidon Sea god who supported the Greeks, naturally; brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia, 12) Helen daughter of Zeus & Leda, stepdaughter of Tyndareus; the most beautiful woman in Achaea; cousin of Penelope; sibling of Timandra, Clytemnestra, Castor, Nestor, & Polydeuces; half-sister of Athena and Aphrodite; her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War; described by Dr. Faustus in Christopher Malowes eponymous play as having the face that launched a thousand ships 13) Apollo has been recognized as a god of light & the sun; truth & prophecy; medicine, healing, & plague; music, poetry, & the arts. Hes the son of Zeus & Leto; twin brother of Artemis; a defender of Troy & supporter of Hector in the battle; through the priestess of Delphi, known as Pythia, answering the questions put to her; his symbols were a lyre made by Hermes & a bow which he used to rain down plagues. When King Agamemnon captured Chryseis,a daughter of a priest of Apollo, during the Trojan War, he sent down a rain of arrows on the Greeks. During the plague that followed, many brave soldiers died but he stopped firing his arrows only when Agamemnon freed Chryseis & allowed her to return to her father. 14) Artemis daughter of Leto & Zeus; sister of Apollo; goddess of hunt; was also on the side of the Trojans; a man-hater 15) Hermes He wasnt yet the messenger god in Iliad, but he was sent to help Priam get to Achilles to ask for the corpse of his beloved son Hector. The Mortals 1) Priam Old & wise king of Troy; husband of Hecabe; fathered daughter, Cassandra, & 50 sons, among whom where Hector & Paris. 2) Hecuba/Hecabe Trojan Matriarch; wife of Priam; mother of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, & 16 others 3) Hector The lead Trojan prince whom Achilled killed; his corpse is dragged around in the sand [but by grace of gods without destruction] for days while Achilles vent his grief & anger; eldest son of Priam & Hecuba; peace-loving, brave, thoughtful; a good son, husband & father, and totally has no darker motives; a descendant of Dardarus, the founder of Troy 4) Andromache daughter of Eetion, ruler of the Cilician City of Thebe; Hectors wife & mother of Astyanax; Neoptolemus takes her as a concubine [with whom she has a sons, Molossus, Peilus & Pergamus] & Hectors brother Helenus as a slave; when Neoptolemus dies, she marries Helenus with whom she has her son Cestrinus & becomes queen of Epirus. She eventually lives with Pergamus in Perganum where she dies of old age 5) Paris a.k.a Alexander/Alexandros; son of Priam & Hecuba who plays a cowardly role in Iliad & is helped by the Trojan gods; best known is his elopement with Helen; fatally wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow, as foretold by Achilles mother. 6) Peleus son of Aeacus, King of Aegina; one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece; He & his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, serving in the expedition against the

Amazons, his war against King Laomedon, & with him in the quest for the Golden Fleece; father of Achilles; 7) Odysseus Also Ulysses; legendary Greek King of Ithaca & hero of Homers Odyssey; husband of Penelope & father of Telemachus; son of Laertes & Anticlea; renown for his guile & resourcefulness; famous for the 10 eventful years he takes to return home after the Trojan War & his famous Trojan Horse trick. 8) Menelaus legendary king of Sparta, the husband of Helen, & the central figure in the Trojan War; son of Atreus & Aerope and brother of Agamemnon 9) Agamemnon Son of King Atreus of Mycenae & Queen Aerope; brother of Menelaus; husband of Clytemnestra; the commander-in-chief of the Greek army in the ensuing Trojan War 10) Ajax the Great also Aias; is described as second only to Achilles; the only one of the Greek heroes who doesnt receive assistance from any of the gods; great grandson of Zeus; Achilles close friend; personally rescued the armor & body of Achilles after the latter is killed by Paris; doesnt fare so well in his competition with Odysseus over that armor at the behest of Athena, Agamemnon awards the prize to Odysseus 11) Patroclus son of Menoetius, grandson of Actor, king of Opus, and Achilles beloved comrade 12) Diomedes also Diomed; son of Tydeus & Deipyle and later becomes king of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus; is regarded alongside Ajax the Great as one of the second-best warriors of all the Achaeans; his paternal uncle Heracles & his close companion Odysseus are the favored heroes of Athena 13) Nestor son of Neleus & Chloris; becomes king of Pylos after Heracles killed Neleus & all of Nestors siblings; his wife is eiher Eurydice or Anaxibia whom he has 8 children 14) Briseis a mythical queen in Asia Minor at the time of the Trojan War; Her character lies at the center of a dispute between Achilles & Agamemnon that drives the plot of the story; was unjustly taken by Agamemnon from Achilles 15) Clytemnestra wife of Agamemnon; daughter of Tyndareus and Leda; sibling of Timandra, Helen, Castor, Nestor, & Polydeuces; in ancient Greek legend, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos 16) Myrmidons The legendary people of Greek history; They were very brave and skilled warriors commanded by Achilles; known for their skill in battle and loyalty to their leaders; Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Thessalian Phthia, who was the son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthia. She was seduced by Zeus in the form of an ant. 17) Achaeans one of Homers three interchangeable terms for Greeks, also Argives and Danaans