GODS OF THE ILIAD

The Role and Personalities of the Gods from the Iliad

Abstract

The poem “the Iliad” is amongst the epic works in the English literature. The paper discusses the characters and personalities of the various Greek gods and goddesses and their most important role in this classic narrative. The tale encompasses several power characters that keep the reader mesmerized till the very last word. Despite its focus on the quarrel of only two of its warriors, both of them Greek, Homer nevertheless conveys the full range of human emotions that prevail in war, even as he provides a vivid portrait of Mycenaean culture

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Summary and background1

Character Analysis of the Gods in the Iliad3

Aphrodite3

Phoibos apollo4

Ares4

Artemis4

Pallas athene5

Hades5

Hephaistos5

Hera6

Hermes6

Poseidon6

Thetis7

Zeus7

Conclusion7

End notes9

The Role and Personalities of the Gods from the Iliad

Introduction

The Iliad is one of the most popular epic poems that give a magnificent narration of the Trojan War that took place at Troy. The poem was composed by Homer in the 8th century BCE, five hundred years after the war. The Trojan War was of great significance to the later Greeks since it marked the victory of their ancestors. The tale encompasses several power characters that keep the reader mesmerized till the very last word. It is for this reason that this powerful narrative has flourished over the centuries, carrying the memories of Troy to the present day.

Summary and background

The Iliad of Homer occurs in about 56 days in the ninth year of the war, when an uneasy stalemate reigned between the two sides. The Greeks could not breach the Trojan armies or walls, but the Trojans could not drive the Greeks from their beaches. It was into this circumstance that the wrath of the gods would change the fortunes of men.

The Greeks had plundered a nearby city to gain supplies and in the process captured the daughter of a priest of Apollo, the god of light and learning. The priest in tears appealed to his god for aid, and Apollo descended on the Greeks with a vengeance, slaying men left and right with his invisible arrows of death. The god of learning was a hard and cruel god, perhaps a reminder that scholarship can be a heartless enterprise.

When the Greeks discovered their dilemma, the warrior Achilles demanded that Agamemnon return his prize to her father to avert the wrath of god. Rather than lose face before the angry god and his own army Agamemnon agreed, but took Achilles' prize of war, the beautiful Briseas of the lovely cheeks, as recompense. This enraged Achilles, who withdrew his army from the war, and this, in turn, gave the Trojans the opportunity to ravage the weakened Greek forces.

For thousand of lines of poetry, Homer plays out the result of this disastrous argument. Men die like cattle on both sides and at one point man-killing Hector comes close to burning the ships of his enemies and even the great warriors are wounded, while Achilles sulks in his tents listening to his former allies die in ...