The Iliad: Greek Epic

Greek Epics vs. Sumerian Epics

As we learned in the Epic of Gilgamesh lecture, epic is the oldest surviving form of literature. By the time the
Greeks had gotten their alphabet sorted out, people had been writing epics for over 2000 years.
Perhaps the rst things written in Greek were two epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Though the Greeks
attributed these stories to the blind poet Homer, we're not even sure there ever was a Homer. It is likely the
tales were centuries old before they were ever written down.

Even in the written version, The Iliad and Odyssey retain signs of the oral tradition that forged them. The very
fact that they are poems tells us that people were meant to recite these massive poems from memory.
Unlike the Epic of Gilgamesh, which took up all of 12 tablets and totaled no more than 3,000 lines, The
Odyssey is four times longer, with over
12,000 lines, while The Iliad is ve times as long, containing 15,000 lines of verse.
To aid in memory, the bards who recited these tales created formulaic stock phrases like
'He fell thunderously and his armor clattered upon him' and stock epithets for characters like 'brave Achilles'
and 'clever Odysseus.' Even with these aids, it is hard to imagine someone memorizing a poem that would
take days to recite in full. The fact that a people committed so long and nuanced a story to memory is a
wonder in and of itself.

The Concept of Xenia

Despite its incredible length, The Iliad is really just about two things. First, the Greek Concept of Xenia, or
hospitality to strangers and second, the Wrath of Achilles, the Trojan War is simply the setting for these
concepts to play themselves out. The concept of Xenia is an unfamiliar one to modern audiences. It is essentially
a divine law, governed by Zeus himself. That these guest-friendships meant something is evident from an
exchange between two combatants on opposite sides of the Trojan War. Diomedes and Glaucus, upon reciting
their lineages, realize that Glaucus' grandfather had once hosted Diomedes' grandfather as a guest. Based upon
that ancient, generations-old friendship, the two agree not to ght each other. Glaucus even goes so far as to
exchange his golden armor for Diomedes' bronze armor in token of that friendship.
Yet though Xenia brought this Trojan and this Greek together, the same law of Xenia had started the Greek
invasion in the rst place.

Paris and Helen

Paris, a prince of Troy, had claimed guest right, through Xenia, at the house of Menelaus, brother to
Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae. Little did Menelaus know that his guest was planning to rob him, not of
jewels or treasure, but of his wife. Menelaus wife was none other than Helen, the most beautiful woman in the
world. Paris had been promised Helen by the goddess Aphrodite, to sway his vote in a divine beauty pageant.
(Don't believe me? Look up the myth of the golden apple.) Paris had come to the house of Menelaus to claim
his prize. By running away with Helen, Paris had done more than violate the sanctity of Menelaus marriage; he
had abused the sacred bond between host and guest. Had Paris simply kidnapped Helen while she was out
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for a stroll, there likely would never have been a Trojan War. It was the fact that he committed this oence
while a guest in Menelaus house that demanded retribution.
That is essentially how the Trojan War started. Yet The Iliad itself does not start with the story of Paris'
violation of Xenia.

The Wrath of Achilles

The Iliad begins with the Wrath of Achilles. Indeed, 'wrath of Achilles' are the rst words of the epic. So
what is Achilles so angry about? Achilles is angry because he has to die. We all have trouble dealing with our
own mortality, but we at least can take comfort in the fact that everybody dies. Achilles has no such
comfort.
Achilles has the goddess Thetis for a mother. As an immortal, Thetis will never grow old or die, but her son
will. This upsets her, so she does everything she can to make her child immortal. When he was born, Thetis
dipped the infant Achilles in the waters of her father, making him invulnerable everywhere but the heel where
she held him.
This invincibility, combined with his divine speed and strength, make Achilles the greatest warrior on the eld.
Yet despite all of her protection, Achilles remains mortal. And as a mortal, the closest thing to immortality
Achilles can hope for is to earn eternal honor and fame. This harkens back to the Sumerian epic, in which
Gilgamesh, distraught at losing the plant of youth, takes comfort in the fact that his legacy will live on in the
city of Uruk.
In short, with an immortal for a mother, Achilles is xated on his own mortality. Yet honor is the only form of
immortality available to mortal men. That is why he has come to Troy, to win honor and glory on the
battleeld.

Agamemnon and Achilles

Yet the leader of this expedition, Agamemnon, king of the great city of Mycenae, dishonors Achilles. As King of
the Myrmidons, Achilles had claimed the Princess Briseis as a prize of war from an earlier battle. Agamemnon
takes Briseis away from Achilles. Despite being a prisoner, Briseis is very upset at parting with Achilles,
suggesting that the two really loved each other. Enraged by this aront to his dignity, Achilles refuses to ght.
What good is dying for glory if his honor can be insulted by a man who is clearly his inferior? In his rage,
Achilles cries to his mommy. Thetis is likewise upset at the mistreatment her baby must endure at the hands of
his inferior. She complains to Zeus himself, who owes her a favor. Though Zeus is angry at the Trojans for
violating Xenia, he agrees to let the Trojans defeat the Greeks, so long as Achilles refuses to ght, so that
Agamemnon will have to appreciate Achilles and beg him to ght for them. To obtain eternal fame, Achilles
must rescue the Greeks from the brink of destruction and lead them to victory.
Zeus is true to his word. To ensure the destruction and slaughter of the Greeks, he sends Agamemnon a
false dream, prophesying the easy destruction of the Trojans at the hands of the Greeks. This is a big break
from the Sumerian tradition in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which dreams are always true, if correctly interpreted.
Emboldened by his dream, Agamemnon begins a disastrous assault on Troy that ends up with the Trojans
ghting the Greeks all the way back to their boats. Fearing defeat, Agamemnon sends an envoy with a peace
oering to Achilles, but Achilles rejects the apology.

The Death of Patroclus

Desperate to turn the tide, Achilles' comrade (and lover), Patroclus dons Achilles armor and leads the
Myrmidons in the hope that the Trojans will think him Achilles and take ight. Though the Trojans are not
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fooled, Patroclus' killing spree still drives the Trojans back to their own walls. In the end, Patroclus is killed
by Hector, who takes Achilles' ne armor as a trophy.
Achilles does not take Patroclus' death well. He is beset with grief and self-loathing, knowing that his own
hateful pride had brought about his lover's death. The Greeks call a cease re for both sides to care for their
dead, which the Trojans accept. After a series of funeral games, and appeals from his compatriots and
Agamemnon, Achilles nally agrees to return to the battleeld, not to repay the insult done Menelaus, but to
avenge Patroclus.
Yet just when he decides to ght, he nds himself without any armor or weapons. Time to cry to mommy again,
this time Thetis outdoes herself. She gets Hephaistos, the god of the forge, to make Achilles the most beautiful
set of armor he has ever seen. The shield alone takes more than a hundred lines to describe.
Before she departs, Achilles mother tells him that if he continues to ght, he will die on the shores of Troy,
but achieve eternal glory. If he refrains from ghting, he will live a long life but one of obscurity. Given the
choice between a long life of no note, and a short one of eternal glory, Achilles chooses to ght. He does not
fear death. He fears being forgotten.

Hector Vs. Achilles

Decked out with his marvelous armor, and happy to die for glory, Achilles goes on a rampage. He kills o the
greatest Trojans and their allies one by one, including a several demigods and a river, until, at last, he is
confronted by Hector.
Yet seeing Achilles unbridled rage, Hector is terried and ees to the walls of Troy. Apollo distracts Achilles by
assuming Hector's form, and leads Achilles on a merry chase.
But Hector does not hide inside the walls of Troy. Despite calls from his friends and family, he decides to stay
outside and confront Achilles. Yet he loses his nerve when Achilles, now madder than hell at having been fooled
by Apollo, comes bearing down on him. Hector ees. Achilles chases Hector around the walls of Troy, until
Athena, disguised as Hector's brother, convinces Hector to turn and ght Achilles with his brother at his side.
Of course, as soon as Achilles arrives, Athena vanishes, and Hector knows he is alone and he's going to die.
Yet he faces his death bravely. After a erce duel, Hector falls. To add insult to injury, Achilles then drags the
dead Hector around behind his chariot, and refuses to relinquish the tattered body to Hector's father Priam. It
takes the combined eorts of gods and men to make Achilles relent. The Iliad ends with the funeral of Hector.

The Death of Achilles

Yet the story of Achilles does not end with The Illiad.
With Hector dead, the fate of Troy was all but decided. Yet Achilles would not get to see it fall. As Thetis
promised, Achilles did not survive Hector long. Yet to his death, Achilles remained unbeaten in single combat.
It was not an honorable duel that ended the life of Achilles. Instead it was an arrow, red by the cowardly Paris
and guided by Apollo that brought the great hero down by striking his one vulnerable spot, his heel. After a
erce battle over Achilles' body, his corpse was brought to his camp, cremated, and placed in the same urn as
Patroclus, while the Greeks held competitions for his magnicent armor.
The Iliad ends with Achilles triumphant, honored and gloriously alive. In The Iliad, Achilles achieved the
immortality he so fervently desired. And in his wrath, he made the people of Troy pay the penalty for their
prince's violation of X e n i a .

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The Odyssey: Greek Epic

Introduction to the Odyssey

Homers second epic, The Odyssey, is a sequel to The Iliad. If The Iliad is all about the wrath of Achilles,
The Odyssey is all about the cunning of Odysseus. The Odyssey follows three story lines, which overlap
and interweave throughout the epic:
The story of Odysseus' son, Telemachus, trying to nd his father.
The story of Odyseus' wife, Penelope, trying to hold o her many suitors.
But the heart of The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus' long and perilous journey home. In this
respect, The Odyssey oers a sharp contrast to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is all about
Gilgamesh leaving home to nd adventure. All Odysseus wants is to go home.

Ajax and Odysseus

After the death of Achilles, the greatest surviving Greek heroes, Odysseus and Ajax, compete for
Achilles' fabulous armor, and, symbolically, the role as the new champion of the Greeks. The contest is
resolved by Odysseus and Ajax delivering speeches on who is the greatest warrior. Though Ajax is
considered the better warrior by most, Odysseus is the better speaker, and he wins the armor, despite
the fact that it was Ajax who recovered Achilles' body and armor from the battleeld in the rst place.
Ajax is so dishonored, he decides to kill Odysseus. But Athena, who really likes Odysseus, drives Ajax
mad. Instead of killing Greeks, Ajax kills a bunch of livestock. In his shame, he commits suicide; while
clever Odysseus goes on to lead the Greeks to victory. It is interesting to note that Agamemnon, the
king who is supposedly the leader of this expedition, is not even in the running for Achilles' armor.
Combine this fact with his earlier shameful behavior - sacricing his daughter for calm seas, taking
Briseis away from Achilles, and generally being a pompous ass - and one begins to get a picture of
what the Greeks thought of centralized authority: that it put lesser men in charge of their betters.
Compare this to the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the imperial king is the hero. While Odysseus is clearly
a better choice than Agamemnon, it is odd that he should've bested Ajax as well. Ajax is very similar to
Achilles: prideful as he is powerful. As such, Ajax would seem the natural successor to Achilles as
champion of the Greeks. Yet it is not another Achilles that the Greeks need to succeed. They don't
need another proud killing machine. They need a brilliant strategist and clever schemer. They need
Odysseus.

Odysseus and Achilles

Thus, from the rst, we realize that Odysseus is a dierent sort of hero. The dierences between
Odysseus and Achilles are clear. Achilles is pure brute strength, an invincible warrior. Odysseus is
intelligent, a clever schemer. To emphasize this point, Odysseus is protected by Athena, the goddess of
wisdom, and herself a child of Zeus and Mentis (literally, thought).
Another dierence is that where Achilles lives only for honor and immortal fame, Odysseus has a much
more practical goal in mind. He wants to get home to his wife and family. With such a goal, his
approach to honor tends to be a bit more pragmatic. Odysseus is not about to die an honorable death
if he can think up an opportunistic way to survive.
Though we might nd some of what Odysseus gets up to disgusting, he is a much more relatable
character than Achilles. Some of us May Day dream of immortal fame and honor from time to time,
but every human being can understand Odysseus' desire to return home to his family after ten years
of brutal war.

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The Trojan horse

That war came to an end when Odysseus comes up with the idea of the Trojan horse. The Greeks build
a gigantic horse of wood, and ll it with a squadron of elite ghters. The rest of the army pretends to
sail away, leaving the Trojan horse behind. The Trojans, thinking this great gift a peace oering, drag
the massive horse into the city and begin to celebrate. When the Trojans are good and drunk, the
Greeks descend from their hiding place in the belly of the horse, attack the guards, and open the gates.
A slaughter ensues, which few Trojans survive.
With Troy sacked, and the pillage divided, it is time to go home. The Greeks are departing to their
respective kingdoms. Odysseus decides to do a little pillaging on the way home.

The Journey Home Begins

He lands at Ismarus, land of the Cicones (also known as the Hittites). Odysseus' men
Destroy the city, kill all the men, and take all the women. Odysseus thinks it is time to leave, but his
men don't listen and get drunk. The Cicones (a.k.a. Hittites) bring reinforcements in chariots, and chase
them out to sea.
This sets the basic pattern for most of Odysseus' problems. Clever Odysseus knows what to do, but his
stupid men ignore him and get him into trouble. It is admirable that Odysseus continues to care for
these idiots and doesn't just leave them ashore somewhere.
As Odysseus and his men are eeing the Cicones, Zeus sends a storm, which blows for ten days,
sending Odysseus and his crew far past their island home of Ithaca, to the land of
The lotus-eaters. Apparently lotus was an ancient euphemism for opium, because Odysseus' men who
eat the lotuses lose any desire to go anywhere or do anything but sit and eat more lotuses. Odysseus
rounds up his crew of lotus junkies and sails on to the island of the Cyclopes.
The Land of the Cyclopes
The land of the Cyclopes is lush but uncivilized. Apparently the Cyclopes are too stupid to farm, but too
powerful to let starve. A hungry Cyclops is a terrifying thing, so the gods keep them fed, and thereby
keep them content. While hunting for food on this island, Odysseus notes a re. He and some of his
men go to investigate, to see if there is someone there to oer them hospitality. Again we see the
importance of xenia in Greek culture.
What they nd is a giant cave full of giant lambs and giant cheeses. They help themselves to the food
until the return of the cave's occupant: a Cyclops named Polyphemus, an uncivilized, one-eyed giant.
Polyphemus leads in his ock and seals the entrance to the cave. Finding themselves trapped Odysseus
appeals to Polyphemus to honor Zeus and respect the rights of a guest. The Cyclops laughs, picks up
two of Odysseus' men, and smashes their brains out. Faced with such overwhelming force, the humans
hide and wait for clever Odysseus to come up with a new plan.
They don't have long to wait. Odysseus tricks Polyphemus into thinking he is still seeking the rights of
hospitality by telling the Cyclops his name and oering him wine. Yet he lies to the Cyclops, telling him
his name is 'Nobody'. Odysseus' real plan is to get the Cyclops drunk. This he accomplishes rather
quickly; apparently, Cyclopes are total lightweights. While the monster sleeps, Odysseus and his men
jam a red-hot pole from the re into his eye. Polyphemus shrieks in pain, attracting the other concerned
Cyclopes. But when his neighbors ask him if he's all right, if someone is attacking him, Polyphemus
screams 'Nobody! Nobody is attacking me! and the confused Cyclopes depart. Odysseus and his men
then escape the cave by clinging to the bottom of Polyphemus' sheep as the blind Cyclops herds them
out in the morning.
Once again we see the importance of xenia in the Greek world, and once again we see the theme
developed of Odysseus' clever brain beating barbaric brawn. Even Polyphemus' divine lineage cannot
protect him from an intelligent fellow like Odysseus.
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Yet Odysseus is too cocky. Having escaped the Cyclops, he cries out his name, so that Poyphemus
might tell others who had blinded him. Unbeknownst to Odysseus, Polyphemus is a son of Poseidon,
the god of the sea. Poseidon now knows Odysseus' name, and he will make the hero of Troy pay for
blinding his son. For a sailor, there is no worse god to make angry.

The Bag of Wind

But for now things seem to be going pretty well. Odysseus sails to the island of Aeolus, the keeper of
the winds. Aeolus gives Odysseus a bag full of wind, which he uses to push his ships toward Ithaca. He
is within sight of his home when his idiotic crew, thinking that the bag full of gold and jewels, open it
and release the winds. The wild winds drive them all the way back to the Island they'd just left. But
Aeolus will not help Odysseus again; he assumes the other gods must hate Odysseus to taunt him so,
and he's not going to make enemies like that.

The Island of Circe

Things go from bad to worse. Odysseus' dwindling crew is eaten by cannibalistic giants called
Laestrygonians. Then they sail on, only to be turned into pigs by the goddess Circe. Odysseus is only
able to secure the release of his men by sharing Circe's bed. Still, the goddess manages to entangle
Odysseus and his men for a year with her charms. When she nally releases them, she does not send
them to Ithaca, as she does not know the way. Instead, she tells them to travel to the underworld to
ask for directions from the dead prophet Tiresias.

Journey to the Underworld

With a favorable wind from Circe, they journey to Oceanus, a place where the sun never shines, at the
edge of the underworld. Homer likely drew inspiration for this journey from the dream of Enkidu in the
Epic of Gilgamesh. The underworld is a sad, dreary place. Upon arrival, Odysseus performs the rite
Circe taught him, pouring fresh ram's blood on the ground, to which the shades of the undead greedily
ock to drink. The ghost of Tiresias gives him directions. He also reveals to Odysseus that Poseidon is
angry with him. Tiresias tells Odysseus about his future, but I don't want to spoil the story. Tiresias is
not the only shade Odysseus encounters. He speaks to the ghosts of his fallen comrades, including
Achilles and Agamemnon. He also chats with his mother, as well as a whole cast of dead mythological
gures: He sees Minos, the great king, dispensing judgment in the underworld; Tantalus, forever
hungering for food just out of reach; and Sisyphus, doomed to forever push a boulder up a hill, only to
have it roll down again. The stories Odysseus hears and the sights he sees would provide material and
inspiration for countless authors to come from the Greek playwrights to Dante and beyond.

Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis, and Cows

Emerging from the underworld, Odysseus and his few men return to the island of Circe to bury their
comrade Elpenor, lest he be buried at sea (a terrible fate for a Greek). Circe warns them they are about
to begin the most dangerous part of their journey. They must sail past the island of the sirens, whose
song draws men to a watery grave. Then they must sail through a narrow passage, past the twin
dangers of Scylla and Charybdis. Scylla is a many-headed monster who devours sailors from above.
Charybdis is a beast that sucks ships to their doom from a hollow deep below the rocks.
To avoid the tempting song of the sirens, Odysseus stus the ears of his crew with wax, though
Odysseus leaves his own ears open so that he might hear the song, and has his men tie him to the
mast to keep him from leaping overboard. Yet there is no guarantee of safety from Scylla and
Charybdis. Odysseus must choose between Scylla, who will likely kill some, and Charybdis, who will
surely kill them all. He chooses the former, and the passage costs the lives of 6 more men.
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Despite this loss, Odysseus is the closest he's been to home, when his crew turns against him. They
want to take a break on the island of Thrinacia, where the sun god, Helios raises his divine cattle. In the
underworld, Tiresias had warned Odysseus that these Cattle of the Sun were not to be touched by
mortal men. Odysseus tries to persuade his men to push on just a little further, but they will not budge.
They land on the island, and Odysseus forbids his hungry men to eat the cattle. They reluctantly agree.
But that night a wind rises, driving away from Ithaca, and the men nd themselves stranded on the
island for a whole month. Nearly starving, his men give in and slaughter the divine bovines. With that,
the fate of Odysseus' remaining crew is sealed. Like the bull of heaven from the Epic of Gilgamesh, if you
kill the Cattle of the Sun, you must die.

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Fooled by promising winds, the cursed men set sail again, only to be driven by Zeus back into the
clutches of Charybdis, who crushes the ship and drowns the crew, leaving only Odysseus alive, to oat
west on a timber to the island of Calypso.

The Island of Calypso

He remains on that island paradise for ve years. Yet he is not happy, trapped there by a goddess
seeking to make him her husband. His nights he spends as her unwilling bedmate. His days he spends
weeping on the beach for his home, at long last, Athena persuades her father Zeus to free Odysseus
from Calypsos clutches. Calypso releases Odysseus at Zeus' command, but refuses him any aid in his
escape.

The Final Journey Home

Free at last, Odysseus builds a raft and sails for home, with the blessings of the gods behind him. But
Poseidon has one last catastrophe up his sleeve. He wrecks Odysseus' raft on the island of Phaecia.
There, Odysseus recounts his tale of woe. The Phaecians are so moved, they oer to sail him to Ithaca
themselves. Excellent sailors, and descendants of Poseidon, the Phaecians are true to their word, and
deliver Odysseus safely to his home. Though on their return journey, Poseidon punishes them by
turning their boat to stone. Nevertheless, after 20 years away, Odysseus is home at last.

The Story of Penelope and Telemachus

On the shore he meets Athena, who catches him up on what's been going on in Ithaca for the past two
decades. Odysseus' wife, Penelope, is hounded day and night by suitors seeking to be the new lord of
Ithaca. In their greed, they consume all the resources of his household. Worse yet, they are plotting to
kill his son, Telemachus. As guests in his house, they have violated every precept of xenia, the law of
hospitality.
Penelope, meanwhile, maintains the interest of all the suitors while choosing none. She dare not insult
men so important, with no husband to protect her. She promises to pick a suitor once she has nished
a large piece of embroidery. All day she spends embroidering at her hoop, and all night she spends
picking out the stitches.

Odysseus' Revenge
Before leaving, Athena disguises Odysseus as an old beggar. So disguised, Odysseus visits an old
servant of his, a swine herd named Eumaeus, who gives Odysseus a place to sleep and plan. The next
day, Odysseus' son Telemachus returns from searching for his father abroad, only to nd him in the
hut of a swine herd. At Athena's advice, Odysseus reveals his true identity to his son and Eumaeus.
Together, they hatch a plot to exact vengeance on the suitors.
Odysseus enters his court incognito, disguised as a beggar. He is oered insult after insult by the
suitors, but he bides his time. Seeing that Penelope has yet to make up her mind, and is unlikely to do
so, the suitors are trying to decide among themselves who should have her. Odysseus proposes an
archery competition and oers his bow for the suitors to use. The suitors cannot even string the thing.
Once they've all tried and tired themselves out, Odysseus takes up his own bow, bends it, and strings it
easily. On cue, Telemachus steps up beside his father in full armor, and the two go on a killing spree.
Eumaeus even locks the gates from the outside, so that not one suitor could escape.
Homers Illiad and Odyssey

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The End of the Journey

Odysseus' trials were long and arduous, but his victory is resounding and complete. Well, almost
complete. When the people of Ithaca learn that the heads of their noble families have been summarily
murdered, they take up arms against Odysseus. But Athena intervenes, by helping Laertes, Odysseus'
father, kill the rebel ringleader. Yet when Odysseus seeks to press his advantage and slay all those who
stood against him, he is halted by a bolt of lightning from Zeus. Even the lord of the land did not have
the authority to kill his own people, even when they rose against him.
Here, at the very end of The Odyssey, we nd the central dierence between Near Eastern and Greek
culture clearly demonstrated. The cultures of the near east were centripetal. Whoever was strongest
always attempted to centralize power. The Greek culture, by contrast, was centrifugal. Driven by a erce
sense of independence and freedom, and emboldened by the protection of mountainous terrain,
Greek city-states were always
Trying to pull away from centralized power and maintain their autonomy. What was true of Greek citystates as a whole was equally true for the citizens of Athens, who would take individual freedom to the
highest levels ever known by founding the world's rst democracy.
History and the Odyssey
The Athenians were not the only ones to draw lessons from this epic. The Iliad and The Odyssey were not
the rst epics of history, nor would they be the last. Yet the depth of their characters, the timelessness of
their themes, and the simple beauty of their tales, have established them as the foundation of Western
literature. Inspired by these epics, the Greeks would go on to invent the genres of tragedy, comedy and
history.
The Iliad and The Odyssey established epic as the core of civilization. Future cultures would return, again
and again, to The Iliad and The Odyssey, knowing that if they wanted to be taken seriously, they would
need an epic of their own.
Once you've nished, watch the next video or jump to other lessons in the same course. All lessons
Have quizzes and more material for you to explore.

Homers Illiad and Odyssey

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