How does iliad start

Eris was, of course, offended by the slight and created a sure way to cause as much strife as possible. There were three goddesses, each of whom believed that the apple was meant for her: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite. The goddesses took their dispute to Zeus, who wisely refused to judge the matter, knowing it would only cause trouble for him. Zeus decided that the handsomest man on earth should decide the contest, and the handsomest man on earth turned out to be none other than Paris, who was now about twenty years of age.

So all three goddesses went to Troy and asked Paris to decide which one of them was the most beautiful and should be awarded the golden apple. Each goddess secretly promised a gift to Paris if he should pick her. Athena offered to make sure he was always victorious in battle, Hera promised to make him ruler of the world, and Aphrodite promised to give him the most beautiful woman in the world.

Paris naturally awarded the apple to Aphrodite. There was just one catch: the most beautiful woman in the world happened to be Helen of Sparta, and she was already married to Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Paris decided to take a trip to Sparta [ map ]. Paris was accepted into the house of Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Because of the laws of guest-friendship [see Xenia ], Paris was invited to stay as long as he wished.

He left his wife and household, instructing them to make sure Paris was treated well. Aphrodite took the opportunity to send Eros to shoot Helen with his arrow and Helen fell in love with Paris.

When Menelaus found his wife and wealth gone, he was quite angry. In addition to his personal desire for vengeance, Menelaus knew that Paris had violated the laws of xenia, and that Zeus punished those who violated these laws. So Menelaus called upon his brother, Agamemnon, who was the king of Mycenae [see Argos on map ] and the richest and most powerful of all the Greek kings. Together, Menelaus and Agamemnon called on all the other Greek kings to join an expedition to Troy to bring Helen back to Sparta.

But why would the other kings want to join such a dangerous expedition? Before Helen and Menelaus married, nearly every eligible bachelor in Greece wanted to marry her, since she was the most beautiful woman in the world. The suitors all agreed and swore an oath. Consequently, Troy was without divine protection and, in fact, Poseidon became its enemy. According to legend, Priam and Hekuba had forty-nine children, including the warrior Hektor, the prophetess Cassandra, and the young lover, Paris also known as Alexandros.

Deiphobus is also one of the children of Priam and Hekuba. When Hekuba was pregnant with Paris, she had a dream that Paris would be the cause of the destruction of Troy. An oracle and a seer confirmed that this son would indeed be the cause of the total destruction of the noble city of Troy.

Therefore, for the sake of the city, Hekuba agreed to abandon her newborn infant to die by exposure on Mount Ida, but Paris was saved by shepherds and grew up as a shepherd, ignorant of his royal birth. On the Greek side, the story of the Iliad begins with the wedding of Peleus, a mortal, and Thetis, a goddess. These two become the parents of Achilles. At their wedding, Eris, the goddess of strife, throws down a golden apple with the message, "For the Fairest.

After a long conference on Mount Ida, Paris, the poor but royal shepherd is chosen to be the judge of the dispute between the three goddesses. They all offer bribes to Paris. Hera offers him rule over all of Asia. Athena offers victory in battle and supreme wisdom. But Aphrodite, knowing her man, offers the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, wife of Menelaos, the ruler of Sparta.

Paris proclaims Aphrodite the fairest of all and anticipates his prize. The initiation of strife, in the form of Eris and her apple, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, introduces an idea that runs throughout the Iliad.

Strife, metaphorically embodied in a goddess in the legend, is the motivating factor in most of the major events in the epic. Strife provokes the war. Strife with Agamemnon over a slave girl causes Achilles to withdraw from battle. Strife between various groups and individuals sharpens the action of the poem. Finally, the resolution of strife provides an ending for the poem.

Eris is rarely mentioned in the Iliad , but her presence is almost palpable. Before going to the court of Menelaos to secure Helen, Paris establishes his legitimacy as a son of King Priam of Troy. Only then does Paris travel to Sparta, where for ten days he is treated royally as the guest of Menelaos and Helen. After ten days, Menelaos has to travel to Crete to conduct business. In Menelaos' absence, Paris abducts Helen and returns with her to Troy.

Various accounts of this event make Helen either a willing accomplice to Paris' scheme or a resisting victim of kidnapping. In the Iliad , Helen's constant references to herself as a bitch and prostitute leave little doubt that Homer sees her as a culpable accomplice in the abduction. Word of Helen's abduction reaches Menelaos in Crete. Auden Young Auden Young 4, 19 19 silver badges 40 40 bronze badges. In our age of spoiler alerts, we tend to think of narrative as pitched to the reader who is reading it for the first and perhaps only time; but oral-traditional narratives, right down to The Three Little Pigs, are pitched to an audience that already knows the story and delights in its very familiarity.

The Homeric precedent of starting an epic narrative in the midst of things was followed by secondary literate epic poets including Virgil and Milton, and influentially endorsed by Horace in his Ars Poetica, where the phrase is in medias res.

The very best book I've seen on the structure of the Iliad , including this issue of Homer's narrative "attack" as those other singers call the business of beginning to sing , is Oliver Taplin's astonishing Homeric Soundings. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Gareth Rees Gareth Rees Well, I learned something new today about the Iliad.

Never read anything close to the original text, only major retellings. Perhaps you would please say what you think is the best translation. I've been dithering around, and tend to differentiate between those that actually begin with that key word "rage. Peter Shor Peter Shor 6, 2 2 gold badges 20 20 silver badges 45 45 bronze badges.

I think your last sentence hits the mark. The context of Greek literature consisting as it did of its mytho-historical underpinnings was ever-present and available to the audiences of the day.

Professor Kitto suggests that this relieved writers of the need for lengthy exposition. They could jump into a story at any point with the confidence that the audience would be right with them. Robusto: Exactly. But if there hadn't been another epic poem describing those nine years, how would the audience have known about them? The oral tradition would certainly have been there, and don't forget how much the mythology and its Olympian internecine warfare pervades the work.

Apollo acknowledges his prayer, and Odysseus returns to his comrades. But the end of the plague on the Achaeans only marks the beginning of worse suffering. Ever since his quarrel with Agamemnon, Achilles has refused to participate in battle, and, after twelve days, Thetis makes her appeal to Zeus, as promised.

Zeus is reluctant to help the Trojans, for his wife, Hera , favors the Greeks, but he finally agrees. Hera becomes livid when she discovers that Zeus is helping the Trojans, but her son Hephaestus persuades her not to plunge the gods into conflict over the mortals.

Like other ancient epic poems, The Iliad presents its subject clearly from the outset. Although the Trojan War as a whole figures prominently in the work, this larger conflict ultimately provides the text with background rather than subject matter.

By the time Achilles and Agamemnon enter their quarrel, the Trojan War has been going on for nearly ten years. Instead, it scrutinizes the origins and the end of this wrath, thus narrowing the scope of the poem from a larger conflict between warring peoples to a smaller one between warring individuals. But while the poem focuses most centrally on the rage of a mortal, it also concerns itself greatly with the motivations and actions of the gods. Even before Homer describes the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, he explains that Apollo was responsible for the conflict.

In general, the gods in the poem participate in mortal affairs in two ways. First, they act as external forces upon the course of events, as when Apollo sends the plague upon the Achaean army.

Second, they represent internal forces acting on individuals, as when Athena, the goddess of wisdom, prevents Achilles from abandoning all reason and persuades him to cut Agamemnon with words and insults rather than his sword.