Great Books - Midterm Review

• Homer


  Born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. Famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey. Believed to be blind.
• Demodocus


  Mirrors the life of Homer
• Homer's works provide insights into ancient Greek culture and history
• The Iliad


  Tells the story of the Greek struggle to rescue Helen, a Greek queen, from her Trojan captors
• The Odyssey


  Takes the fall of the city of Troy as its starting point and crafts a new epic around the struggle of one of those Greek warriors, the hero Odysseus
• The Iliad was written

  8th century BCE
• The Odyssey

  About Odysseus' 10-year struggle to return home after the Trojan War
• The Iliad recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the Greek siege of the city Troy
• The extraordinary length of Odysseus return trip, which should take a matter of weeks, is due to his many antagonists, including the god Poseidon, the many mythical creatures he encounters, and Odysseus' often greedy and lazy crewmen
• The Iliad


  • Portrayal of the epic subject matter of the Trojan War, the stirring scenes of bloody battle, the wrath of Achilles and the constant interventions of the gods
• Achilles


  Protagonist of the Iliad, the story centers on his rage and anger against Agamemnon. The son of the immortal sea-nymph Thetis and the Phthian King Peleus. Achilles is by far the greatest warrior of the Trojan War.
• Agamemnon


  King of Mycenae and leader of the Achaean armies. Agamemnon is the wealthiest of any of the Achaean kings and also commands the largest army. However, his leadership can be questionable at times. He quarrels with Achilles, and more than once he suggests that the Achaeans should sail for home in defeat.
• Nestor


  An old and wise king of Pylos on the Achaean side in the Trojan War.
• Paris


  Trojan prince, son of Priam and brother of Hector. Cowardly but successful with women, before the events of the Iliad Paris was asked to judge whether Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite was the most beautiful. He chose Aphrodite and, as a reward, she helped him to steal Helen from Menelaus, beginning the Trojan War.
• Odysseus


  Achaean leader of the forces from Ithaca. Odysseus is known for his cunning and his persuasive language.
• Achaians


  Super-ancience name of the Ancient Greek.
• Priest Chryses

  A priest of Apollo in a Trojan-allied town, father of Chryseis and Briseis
• Chryseis


  The daughter of the Chryses, who is taken captive by the Achaeans and given to Agamemnon.
• Briseis


  The source of ill-feeling between Agamemnon and Achilles. Briseis had been awarded to Achilles as a war-prize, but then Agamemnon wanted her because he had been obliged to give up his.
• Apollo


  The son of Leto and Zeus and the brother of Artemis. He's on the Trojan side and sends plague arrows to the Greeks.
• Thetis


  Achilles' mother, a sea-nymph. Thetis cares greatly for her mortal son. And is determined to fulfill his wishes before he dies.
• Zeus


  The king of the gods, Zeus' power greatly exceeds his fellow immortals. The fate of the war is changed when Zeus promises Thetis that he will give glory to Achilles by turning the war against the Achaeans. Here is his wife, and Apollo, Athena, and Ares among his many children.
• Calchas


  The seer who told Agamemnon that he had angered the gods and must fix things by returning Chriseis is to her father. When Agamemnon obliged, he insisted that he receive Achilles' prize Briseis instead.
• Hephaestus


  The blacksmith of the gods. In return for an old favor from the nymphs, Hephaestus makes a wonderful shield for the nymph Thetis' son, Achilles.
• Odysseus

  King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, and the advisor and speaker during the Trojan War.
• Telemachus


  Son of Odysseus and Penelope, the prince struggles to gain his own maturity while attempting to deal with the problems of the palace.
• Penelope


  Odysseus's wife and Telemachus' mother. Penelope is known for her fidelity to her husband Odysseus, despite the attention of more than a hundred suitors during his absence.
• Zeus

  The weigher and middleman of all disputes
• Athena


  Goddess of war, strategy, and wisdom. She is Zeus's daughter, believed to have been born directly from his brain, representing her connection to the intellect.
• Calypso


  A beautiful goddess who falls in love with Odysseus and holds him captive for seven years on the island Ogygia.
• Ciconians


  People that take revenge on Odysseus's crew.
• Lotus Eaters


  People who grow and eat the somnolent lotus flower.
• Polyphemus


  Is the cyclops blinded by Odysseus, and Poseidon's son.
• Circe


  A beautiful witch from the island Aeaea who turns Odysseus's crew into pigs.
• Sirens


  Creatures disguised as beautiful women whose beautiful singing lured sailors to jump into the sea and drown.
• Scylla and Charybdis


  These are two sea monsters that represent the dangers of the ocean.
• Utnapishtim


  A simple and devout man. He listened to the dream in which Ea told him to build a great ship before the flood, and spent a great deal of time and effort to protect his family.
• Enlil


  A proud and impulsive god. Irritated by the noisiness of human cities, he convinces the other gods that mankind should be destroyed by a flood.
• Ea


  Before the great flood, the god Ea tells Utnapishtim to build an enormous boat to preserve mankind. Ea is also the god who criticizes Enlil for sending the flood as an excessive punishment for mankind's noisy cities.
• Shamash, Adad, Shullat and Hanish, Nergal, Ninurta, Annunaki, Ishtar

  Minor characters in the story