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ILIAD (ILL-ee-uhd)
Homer’s
epic poem of the Trojan War
Common
clues: Trojan War epic;
Story of Achilles; Homeric epic; Troy story; Classics 101 text;
Old war story
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
52140 / 86800
News:
The
poetry of war
Video:
Truth
of Troy – Trojan War Story
The
Iliad tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium,
i.e. the Trojan War, and is, along with the Odyssey, one of the
two major Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer, a
supposedly blind Ionian poet. Scholars dispute whether Homer
existed, and whether he was one person, but it is clear that the
poems spring from a long tradition of oral poetry. The Iliad and
the Odyssey are traditionally dated to the 8th century BC, but
many scholars now prefer a date of the 7th century BC (e.g.
Martin West) or even the 6th century BC (e.g. Richard Seaford).
The epics are considered by most modern scholars to be the oldest
literature in the Greek language, though some classical Greeks
thought that the works of the poet Hesiod were composed earlier.
“The
Rage of Achilles” by
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Apollo
has sent a plague against the Greeks, who had captured Chryseis,
the daughter of the priest Chryses, and given her as a prize to
Agamemnon. Agamemnon is compelled to restore Chryseis to her
father. Out of pride, Agamemnon takes Briseis, whom the Athenians
had given to Achilles as a spoil of war. Achilles, the greatest
warrior of the age, follows the advice of his mother, Thetis, and
withdraws from battle in revenge and the allied Achaean (Greek)
armies nearly lose the war.
In
counterpoint to Achilles' pride and arrogance stands the Trojan
prince Hector, son of King Priam, with a wife and child, who
fights to defend his city and his family. The death of Patroclus,
Achilles' dearest friend or lover, at the hands of Hector, brings
Achilles back to the war for revenge, and he slays Hector. Later
Hector's father, King Priam, comes to Achilles alone (however he
was aided by Hermes) to ransom his son's body back, and Achilles
is moved to pity; the funeral of Hector ends the poem.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Iliad".
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