(THE ILIAD) BY HOMER

By:Ladarren.p.

THE ILIAD POEM • (August 2008)The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song

of Ilium) is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.

HOMER• In the Western classical tradition, Homer ( ; Ancient Greek: , Hómēros), is

the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

• When he lived is controversial. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC;1 while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC.2

THE ODYSSEY• The Odyssey (Ancient Greek: , Odysseia) is one of two major ancient

Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.1

The Trojan War• In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by

the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer.

ANCIENT GREECEAncient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600 AD). Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era.1 Included in Ancient Greece is the period of Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Classical Greece began with the repelling of a Persian invasion by Athenian leadership. Because of conquests by Alexander the Great, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea.Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western culture

GREEK MYTHOLOGY• Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the

ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece and are part of religion in modern Greece and around the world as Hellenismos. Modern scholars refer to, and study the myths in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

TROY(VIDEO)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31I-B9E013s&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active/

ZEUSZeus

1King of the GodsGod of the Sky, Thunder and Lightning and Law,

Order and JusticeAbodeMount OlympusConsortHera, and othersParentsCronus and

RheaSiblingsHestia, Hades, Hera, Poseidon and DemeterChildrenAres, Athena, Apollo, Artemis,

Aphrodite,2 Dionysus, Hebe, Hermes, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Perseus, Minos, the Muses, the GracesRoman equivalentJupiterIn the ancient Greek

religion,

ZUES (Continued) Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In

most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione.2 He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus

HERA• was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of

Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her. Hera's mother was

Rhea and her father Cronus.• Hera was known for her jealous and vengeful nature, most notably against

Zeus's lovers and offspring, but also against mortals who crossed her, such as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess, earning Hera's hatred.

APOLLO• is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in

ancient Greek and Roman religion, Greco–Roman Neopaganism, and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.

APRODITE• is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her

Roman equivalent is the goddess . Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia

• Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers, both gods like Ares, and men like Anchises. Aphrodite also became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.

HADES• was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an

elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead. In Greek mythology, Hades is the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea. According to myth, he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans and claimed rulership over the cosmos, ruling the underworld, air, and sea, respectively; the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, was available to all three concurrently.

ARES• was the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son

of Zeus and Hera.1 In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.2

ATHENA • is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice,

just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes.4 Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and is the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens (Athena Parthenos), in her honour

HERMES• An Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, Hermes was the son of

Zeus and the Pleiade, Maia, a daughter of the Titan, Atlas. The second youngest of the Olympian gods, he was born before Dionysus.

• Hermes was the herald, or messenger, of the gods to humans, sharing this role with Iris. A patron of boundaries and the travelers who cross them, he was the protector of shepherds and cowherds, thieves,3 orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, weights and measures, invention, and of commerce in general.4

POSEIDON• was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker,"1 of the earthquakes in

Greek mythology.2 The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades.2 Poseidon has many children. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena

HEPHAESTUS• He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else,

according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek eyes. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and he was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly in Athens. The center of his cult was in Lemnos.1 Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's hammer, an anvil and a pair of tongs, although sometimes he is portrayed as not known to all.

THETIS• is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the

goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus (whose name suggests the "first", the "primordial" or the "firstborn").

• When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris (Hesiod, Theogony), and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis.

THEMIS• She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of

divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put". To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies".1 Moses Finley remarked of themis, as the word was used by Homer in the 8th century, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-century Greek Dark Ages: