Iliad

Achilles is angry, Zeus has a plan, human choice is at stake.

The Seven: As a Reminder

  1. Bible: OT (Genesis, Exodus) & NT (Matthew, John)

  2. Homer: Iliad and Odyssey

  3. Plato: Apology and Crito

  4. Aristotle: Ethics and Politics

  5. Founders: Locke’s Second and American documents

  6. Totalitarians: 1984 and The Abolition of Man

  7. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings

Back to the Curriculum Page

Philology in Five

At first, don’t overthink philology’s five steps. Start simple:

  1. What language is this book written in?

  2. What is its structure?

  3. What is its view of God?

  4. What is its view of human beings?

  5. How does this all effect how I ought to live my life?

Philology in Five

Practical Tips

  1. Finish what you start: Pick an amount to read in one sitting, and read it.

  2. Takes notes elsewhere: No underlining, no highlighting.

  3. Read for yourself: Don’t rely on others. Read it yourself first.

  4. Keep going: Don’t stop when you’re confused. Keep going.

  5. Come back: Philosophic readers come back to these books many times throughout life.

Review the Main Tips Page

Homer’s Iliad: Intro

  1. Homer’s Iliad, composed in a distinctive poetic dialect of ancient Greek, is a Muse-framed literary laboratory of human possibility, centering on the anger and subsequent choices (and “choices”) of the strongest human being in the Homeric world, Achilles. Nine years ago Achilles and his friends (“the Greeks”) had agreed to travel to Troy to help their friend Menelaus retrieve his wife, Helen, and all these years later they are still engaged in a protracted war (the Trojan War). I emphasize: Achilles and his friends came voluntarily to help Menelaus their friend. In the opening pages watch Agamemnon closely, and listen to Achilles carefully to discover why he becomes angry.

  2. We learn from the proem that Achilles is angry and that Zeus has a plan. Most translations indicate that Zeus is enacting his “will” or something similar. That is not correct. Zeus has a plan: the Greek word is βουλή, boule. It is very important. So the poem gives us the world’s most powerful human enraged (Achilles) and the world’s most powerful anyone planning (Zeus). This is not a coincidence, and you should pay attention to Achilles and Zeus more than anyone else as you read.

  3. Pay attention to the absence of laws.

  4. Register all the personal names and remember that these lives are at stake in Achilles’ anger and Zeus’ planning…and then just keep reading.

  5. Forget Greek history and focus on the story.

  6. Forget Greek religion and focus on the characters.

  7. In Book 1 Agamemnon is the pure tyrant, ruling others for his own pleasure rather than their good. And Zeus acts on a might makes right ethos vis-à-vis his wife, Hera. Note these specific actions and file them away as typologies, too. But be open to the possibility that these characters don’t always act like that. Because they are persons not animals.

  8. Philosophic ideas of great concern to modern citizens that Homer gives us in Book 1 alone: tyranny, freedom of speech, the life worth living and dying for, private property, violence, equality, merit, coercion and consent. See if you can find the situations where these topics are at stake or that provoke us to think about these ideas.

  9. You can read the Iliad as a three-part mini series: Books 1—8, then Books 9—15, then Books 16—24. Each mini episode begins with a major choice by Achilles and ends with a major choice by Zeus.

  10. Go see for yourself.

How to Read the Iliad: Checklist

The Iliad and the Odyssey are separated into 24 books, which you should think of as chapters. Keep your Philology in Five framework and notebook next to you.

  1. ___ Read Book 1

  2. ___ Read Book 2

  3. ___ Read Books 3—5

  4. ___ Read Books 6—8

  5. ___ Read Books 9—12

  6. ___ Read Books 13—15

  7. ___ Read Books 16—18

  8. ___ Read Books 19—21

  9. ___ Read Books 22—24

  10. Complete your Philology in Five. Tip: When doing your theological analysis, remember that the Iliad’s narrator invoked the Muse at the book’s beginning.

Final Exam: Homer Iliad

Answer: Why should a would-be tyrant of the American people hope to ban the Iliad, or at least pray that you do not take it seriously as a citizen of a free republic?

Parameters:

  • Typed, single spaced

  • 11 point font

  • 1 inch margins

  • Name and title in heading not body

  • 2 page minimum, 3 page maximum

Target: A successful exam will:

  1. America: Clearly articulate the relevant theological, anthropological, and ethical ideas on which the American republic is founded as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

  2. Tyrant: Define a tyrant with respect to the above American ideals.

  3. Text: Now help readers see why someone who aspires to exert tyrannical power over the American people would hope to ban the Iliad. What is in the Iliad, or what ideas does the Iliad get us thinking about, that a tyrant would not want us to see or think?