The Iliad by Homer | Summary & Analysis

[Music] calling Homer's epic poem The Iliad legendary would be an understatement thousands of years old and getting back to the oral tradition that is spoken storytelling that predates writing and the mass proliferation of books The Iliad is a long winding tale that documents the Trojan War and the roles of a few key mortals and gods and a few hundred bit players its history its mythology and it's an ancient story of adventure now not much is known about Homer the author he's the poet to whom ancient Greeks attributed epic poems the Iliad and its sequel The Odyssey most of what is understood about Homer is actually taken from the perspective of the poems themselves scholars believe Homer lived around the late eighth or early ninth century BCE in Ionia what is now a city in Turkey he is often depicted as blind and he may not have even been real at all now Homer belonged to an oral poetry tradition based on the writing style of the poems these stories were passed down to memorization and were sung by a poet bard for an audience and all this is important to the context of the Iliad the lines between what really happened and what was embellished what was magic and mysticism and what was a device or metaphor to explain the world all around ancient Greece they all blur together to create a story that has truly arguably more than any other like it which stood the test of time also important to the context is understanding the Trojan War a real war believed to have been caused by Paris's seduction and theft of Helen from Agamemnon but scholars speculate that the conflict may have had more to do with the dispute over trade routes and the strategic location of Troy at the Hellespont it is believed to have been fought in the 13th or 12th century BCE the ancient Greek city-states were fiercely independent and perpetually at war with one another Homer describes the Aegean army as originating for more than a hundred and fifty different locations now archaeological evidence found in the ancient city believed to be Troy supports its destruction in war around 1250 BCE the Iliad and Homer's other major work the sequel The Odyssey were historical accounts of heroic events the structure of homers epics come from the long tradition of oral poetry so work like this transports readers to a different time when stories and heroic myths were passed through communities by storytellers with their own spins and styles these poems are not memorized word for word poets improvise from a base narrative structure the characters whether historic mortals or representative omnipotent God figures of which there were many set an example for Greeks of how to live life honorably their messages remained influential through Roman times and beyond the poet knows the characters and major points of the story and composes the words during the performance and buries them based on context and individual style the repetition of passages and familiar phrases might seem boring to modern readers but a master like Homer creatively combines these formulaic elements in a spectacular range of ways repetition helps listeners quickly recognize and mentally organize elements of the poem to better understand the overall story the Iliad and the Odyssey are some of the oldest surviving compositions in any language and both works continue to remain relevant in academia and literature today as for the story in the introduction readers learn the Trojan War has been raging for ten years it's being fought over Helen being seduced by Paris a Trojan Prince and stolen away from her husband Menelaus a Greek Apolo inflicts a plague I mean you can army after one of his priests daughters was stolen by King Agamemnon during the rising action these series of pride driven captures continue as Agamemnon takes Perseus from Achilles Achilles pride wounded refuses to fight for his Achaean army and actually ask Zeus to punish the Akins because of Agamemnon's slight to him now mortals and gods fight and are wounded in battle gods take sides even switching back and forth sometimes gods cannot die when they are wounded they often return to Zeus but countless mortals do diabetes which are brutal and violent and the gods protect their favored warriors eventually Zeus forbids the other gods to interfere in the war at all but Zeus is help Hector the mightiest Trojan warrior of all breaks through the Akiane to their ship hoping to burn them Hector kills Petropolis in battle and then takes the armor achilles had given his friend and wears it around as a sign of disrespect achilles learning his beloved friend has been killed finally joins the battle and the gods return to the fighting during the climax of kilise chases and then kills hector in single combat he barbarically drags around Hector's corpse refusing to return it to his people the Trojans have been bested and Achilles has sealed his fate he will die a glorious death soon it is promised having avenged the death of Patroclus now during the falling action King Priam begs Achilles for his son Hector's body and Achilles moved returns Hector's body to his father during the resolution of the Iliad Hector is at last honorably buried in Troy and the wounds pride have dealt so many characters are healed at last the Iliad is a window into the past not just because of its centuries-old tale of battle and honor but be cuz of the traditions of storytelling themselves a retelling of fantastic oral traditions where mortals were moved by the work of gods in a world of moving an interlocking face symbols like a Qian ships eating the shield of Achilles battle armor and the Eagle of Zeus each speak to deeper much grander themes war humanity honor and pride gods and fate each of which intertwine the wills of the Gods with the actions and decisions of men homers colossal II influential masterwork continues to be read taught debated and interpreted to this day literally thousands of years after its first publication [Music]

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Id: -QPXpCqwHec

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2017