The Iliad

Books 1-4

Reading Check

1. He has arrived to pay a ransom for his daughter Chryseis. (Book 1)

2. “the best of the Achaeans” (Book 1)

3. Athena (Book 1)

4. Paris (Book 3)

5. They sacrifice a lot to him. (Book 4)

Short Answer

1. Achilles becomes angry that Agamemnon takes Briseis from him. (Book 1)

2. Ideas about honor drive many of the characters’ decisions. As an example, students could list Agamemnon’s sense of honor in being the leader of the Greek army, Achilles’s sense of honor being diminished by his prize being taken, Chryses’s honor being disrespected when the Achaeans at first refuse to return his daughter, Odysseus’s rhetoric of disgrace in convincing the Achaeans to stay, and Hector’s insults toward Paris. (Books 1-4)

3. Helen’s leaving her husband and coming to Troy sparked the war. (Book 3)

4. Since Paris disappeared in the middle of the duel, Agamemnon declares Menelaus the leader by default, meaning that the Trojans have to return Helen. (Book 3)

Books 5-8

Reading Check

1. He can see all of the gods on the battlefield. (Book 5)

2. The Trojan side (Book 5)

3. He is afraid of his helmet. (Book 6)

4. Zeus (Book 8)

Short Answer

1. Diomedes’s grandfather had hosted Glaucus’s grandfather, and they are governed by the rules of “guest-friendship.” (Book 6)

2. Hector has been the leader of the Trojans, even though Paris is the reason for the start of the war. When Hector visits with Andromache and Astyanax, he worries that the visit will be his last. He also fears that, should the Trojans lose, his wife will be enslaved by a Greek leader. (Book 6)

3. It encourages nine to volunteer to fight Hector. (Book 7)

Books 9-12

Reading Check

1. Nestor (Book 9)

2. Odysseus (Book 10)

3. To hold back until Agamemnon is injured (Book 11)

Short Answer

1. He plans to sail home because he heard a legend that he will either live a long but boring life or a short but glorious one. (Book 9)

2. Hector tells him that he trusts the plans of Zeus, not birds. (Book 12)

Books 13-16

Reading Check

1. Poseidon (Book 13)

2. Patroclus (Book 16)

3. Apollo (Book 16)

Short Answer

1. The Trojans see it as approval of their endeavors. The Greeks see it as an answer to Nestor’s prayers and a sign that they can press on. (Book 15)

2. He continues on to try to take Troy. (Book 16)

3. It suggests that Zeus does not control mortal fates, but only oversees the implementation of them. (Book 16)

Books 17-20

Reading Check

1. Greater Ajax (Book 17)

2. Hephaestus (Book 18)

3. The Greeks need to eat. (Book 19)

Short Answer

1. The armies see him wearing Achilles’s armor. (Book 17)

2. She did not tell Achilles that Patroclus would die. (Book 17)

3. Hector killed Patroclus. (Book 18)

4. Apollo teases Aeneas about being afraid to face Achilles, but because Aeneas’s fate is to escape and continue his life, the gods help him escape. (Book 20)

Books 21-24

Reading Check

1. The Xanthus River (Book 21)

2. The other gods resent him. (Book 22)

3. To be buried with Achilles (Book 23)

4. Apollo (Book 24)

Short Answer

1. He encourages a priest to fight Achilles, then spirits him away in a mist so that he himself fights Achilles, giving Trojans time to get into the city. (Book 21)

2. He feels that he has acted with “reckless pride” and that he’d be ashamed to face the Trojan men if he were to retreat. (Book 22)

3. Thetis does because the gods are angry with him. (Book 24)