Zeus has departed for the time being and poseidon is now involved. The following texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only. Book describes the continuing battle between the greeks and trojans. The iliad book 1 summary the poet prays to the muse, the goddess of poetic inspiration.
Line numbers that appear in the margin refer to the fagles text. Information on the first book of the iliad of homer. Homers epic poem the iliad tells the story of the trojan war and the epic heroes and gods, including achilles, hector, odysseus, athena, ares, paris. To repay the indignity chryses has suffered, apollo, the mouse god, rains arrows of plague on the greek forces for 9 days. At the beginning of book 14, top achaean commander agamemnon must once again be talked out of giving up and sailing away.
The trojan war, as youll know from the backstory section of our summary of book 1, involved a massive army of achaians a. Nestor grabs his sons shield and heads out to the battle. Their stated goal was to get back helen, the wife of the achaian king menelaos, but. The iliad begins with the poet calling on the muse to sing of the wrath of achilleus and its consequences. Built on the groundwork of the iliad, madeline millers pageturning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic trojan war marks the launch of a dazzling career. Odysseus turns on the word of the king and berates him, calling him a disaster. Check out our revolutionary side byside summary and analysis. Read an overview of the entire poem or a line by line summary and analysis. Chapter summary for homers the iliad, book summary.
Heres where youll find analysis about the poem as a whole. Poseidon, eager to help the achaeans and realizing that zeus has. I have never seen such a succinct and complete synopsis before. On a previous encounter, achilles captured lycaon and. Thus disguised, he encourages the two aeantes great ajax and little ajax, when they are named as a pair and gives them new strength before he flies away. Homers epic poem the iliad tells the story of the trojan war and the epic heroes and gods, including achilles, hector, odysseus, athena, ares. The poet invokes the muses the help him write about achilles rage. Nestor was sitting over his wine but the cry of battle did notescape him and he said to the son of aesculapius what noblemachaon is the meaning of all. Book 1 book 2 book 3 book 4 book 5 book 6 book 7 book 8 book 9 book 10 book 11 book 12 book book 14 book 15 book 16 book 17 book 18 book 19 book 20 book 21 book 22 book 23. Little ajax knows then that some god has spoken to them, and the aeantes spirits rise. Because there is so much action, it might be hard to keep track of it all.
Chapter summary for homers the iliad, book 14 summary. The gods, meanwhile, were gathered with zeus on the golden councilfloor, drinking toasts of nectar from gleaming cups that lovely hebe filled while they gazed down on troy cronos son was swift to taunt hera with mocking words, and said slyly. Achilles kindness to priam in book xxiv ends the warriors. Book 14 book 15 book 16 book 17 book 18 book 19 book 20 book 21 book 22 book 23 book 24. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of the iliad and what it means. Set during the trojan war, the tenyear siege of the city of troy ilium by a coalition of greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the. Books 1 to 4 of the iliad trace the events from the breaking out of the quarrel between achilles.
Apollos priest chryses comes to the achaian camp and asks to ransom back his daughter chryseis, who has been captured. Homer wrote the iliad as an outside source in a third person omniscient perspective. Homer is the author of the iliad and the odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient greek epic poet. The achaeans agamemnon king of mycenae, leader of the greeks achilles. An xml version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer perseus any modifications you make. Achilles singlehandedly splits the trojan forces, driving one half towards the city and one half into the river. The first three books of the iliad introduce us to the plot, some of the main characters, and important elements and themes of epic poetry e. Line numbers at the top of the page refer to the greek text.
Ilias is an epic poem by the ancient greek poet homer, which recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the trojan war and the greek siege of the city of troy which was also known as ilion, ilios or ilium in ancient times. This study guide consists of approximately 114 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of the iliad. These free notes consist of about 101 pages 30,062 words and contain the following sections. Cite this study guide have study documents to share about the iliad. In book 21, achilles continues his killing spree and the.
The iliad takes place in the tenth year of the trojan war. Greeks who crossed the sea to lay siege to troy, a city in modern turkey. Books 12 books 36 books 79 books 1012 books 15 books 1618 books 1922 books 2324 a note on line numbers. He wants her to tell him about the rage of achilleus, and how it hurt the achaians. Book 14 of the iliad follows the story of nestor speaking to diomedes, odysseus and agamemnon about how the battle is going. In the tenth year of the trojan war, tensions are running high among the achaians a superancient name for the ancient greeks. Book 14 of the iliad starts with the achaean nestor finishing up his care for the injured machaon. Agamemnons rejection of chryses in book i leads to all of the events of the iliad.
Zeus, happy with the wars progress, takes his leave of the battlefield. Summary and analysis of book 14 of homers iliad, with a focus on the theme of love. The iliad free essay, term paper and book report the iliad by homer translated by robert fagles andy bolton february 23, 2006 the iliad is an epic attributed to being written by homer. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis. Many people have noted connections between the last book and the first because both involve a father seeking the return of a child. Achilles follows the trojans into the river, hacking them to pieces with his sword. While achilleus still refuses to return to battle, his friend, patroklos, persuades him to let him fight in his place. The reconciliation that ends the first wrath of achilles and the actions that initiate the second both occur in book xix. Get a detailed summary and analysis of every chapter in the book from. So the son of menoetius was attending to the hurt of eurypylus within the tent, but the argives and trojans still fought desperately. Homer calls upon the goddess of poetry and inspiration the muse to sing of achilleus anger.
As the plot unfolds, a simple quarrel between two warriors sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Poseidon comes down to the battlefield and takes the form of calchas the seer. This work is licensed under a creative commons attributionsharealike 3. Book 14, line 76 agamemnon laments that the walls are useless and again expresses his desire to retreat to greece, that it is better to flee death than to feel its grip. That rage made the achaeans furious and because of it many became birds and dogs prey.
Books sixteen to twentytwo all quotations from the iliad are from the translation of richmond lattimore, university of chicago press, 1951like book nine, book sixteen marks a crucial turning point in the iliad. The wrath of achilles is finally assuaged in book xxiv. He asks her to begin with the fight between achilleus and agamemnon. Rodents do spread plague, so the association between a divine mouse function and delivering plague makes sense, even if the greeks werent completely aware of the connection. Book 20 robert fagles translation analysis segue from previous book and to the next book in book 19, achilles is still grieving over the death of patroclus and still refuses to eat. Homers epic poem the iliad tells the story of the trojan war and the epic heroes and gods.
Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system. Hera sends a mist to confuse and slow the retreat of the men going back towards the city. The free the iliad notes include comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. Book xiv continues the great battle near the achaian ships but adds a new. Chryses, priest of apollo, comes to the greek camp to ransom his daughter, chryseis, held captive by agamemnon. See a complete list of the characters in the iliad and indepth analyses of achilles, agamemnon, and hector. The introduction includes a plot summary of the whole trojan war, of which the iliad only covers a small portion. Book 14 of the iliad is one of the more interesting sections of homers epic tale. This contains a book by book summary and analysis of homers epic poem. This lesson will summarize book of homers the iliad. Summary the achaians are forced to take refuge behind their wall while the. Find a summary of this and each chapter of the iliad. Menelaus has two goddesses to aid him, hera of argos and alalcomenean athene. First, the priest chryses comes to ask their leader, king agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom agamemnon was holding captive.