Iliad Scholarship

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Taplin on Death and Destruction
The Iliad is a poem whose whole direction moves inexorably​ towards death and dissolution, the end of fine men and of a fine​ city, leaving the women to a life of slavery.
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Morwood on Old Men
Nestor tries the men’s patience to its ends as he goes on long tagents. This is a symbol of their respect towards him, as they endure his extended reminisces. Clearly his sane intervention here is in part a means of stressing how far beyond reason the two
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Taplin on Glory
Undying glory is ultimately achieved through the recording of actions and words that are handed down in poetry: it is the epic poetry itself that decides what is immortalized and what not. So inclusion in the poem is the final criterion of whether or not
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Allan on Anger and Heroism
The major heroes of epic poetry possess much thumos not only in the sense of having the greatest vitality and courage, but also in being most prone to taking offence and feeling anger at their enemies.​ But the Iliad, through Book 23, show that if men can
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Rieu on War
The Iliad was written not to glorify war (though it admits its fascination) but to emphasise its tragic futility.
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Edith Hall on Anger
Anger is the first word of the poem, and it’s not just Achilles’ anger but everyone’s anger that drives the poem​
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Rieu on Speeches
Homer does not tell us about his characters, but allows them to reveal themselves to us through speeches and actions
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Graziosi on The Gods' Relationships with the Mortals
The gods are also on a learning curve that they should not care so much about the mortals
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Hall on Conflict within the Armies
The Greeks are highly rivalrous and competitive; excellent but not co-operative. This poem is about Greeks vs. Greeks, not Greeks vs. Trojans.​
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Jenkyns on the Gods' Power
The gods do not have a sense of the numinous in the Iliad. ​
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Barker on Mortality
The most important theme of the Iliad is Achilles’ growing recognition of his mortality​
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Farron on Women
It's natural for women to have little influence in war, but Homer uses them to portray the agonies of it. They are constantly frustrated by both war itself and their interactions with their men
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Hammond on Suffering
War is not the main subject of the Iliad, nor heroism, but human suffering and death. The young men, for all their godlike greatness, die; the old men, the women and children suffer and grieve: the gods, exempt from pain, look on.
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Schein on the Heroes
Perhaps the main difference between the two heroes is that Hector is represented as quintessentially social and human, while Achilles is inhumanly isolated and daemonic in his greatness
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Jones on the Heroes
The heroes are not unthinking fighting machines. They would rather not have to fight at all.
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Haynes on Women
Men lose their lives, women lose everything else.
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Hall on Women
It is the women's job to express the pain
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Haynes on Women and Suffering
Homer uses Andromache to embody what is at stake when a city loses a war. She embodies suffering.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Nestor tries the men’s patience to its ends as he goes on long tagents. This is a symbol of their respect towards him, as they endure his extended reminisces. Clearly his sane intervention here is in part a means of stressing how far beyond reason the two

Back

Morwood on Old Men

Card 3

Front

Undying glory is ultimately achieved through the recording of actions and words that are handed down in poetry: it is the epic poetry itself that decides what is immortalized and what not. So inclusion in the poem is the final criterion of whether or not

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

The major heroes of epic poetry possess much thumos not only in the sense of having the greatest vitality and courage, but also in being most prone to taking offence and feeling anger at their enemies.​ But the Iliad, through Book 23, show that if men can

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

The Iliad was written not to glorify war (though it admits its fascination) but to emphasise its tragic futility.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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