The Name Behind the Pen

Homer is the name given to the supposed unitary author of the early Greek poems the Iliad and
Odyssey. It is now generally believed that they were composed orally by at least two separate aoidoi
from the 8th and 7th century BC, though at least one recent scholar has argued for a single bardic
composer. Some scholars think the name does not refer so much to a single poet, but rather to the
imaginary ancestor of the guild of the Homeridal, whom later tradition associated with the conservation
of the two poems. The name Homer is often used as a handy convention, by those who do not believe in
single authorship of the Homeric poems. Homer’s works begin the Western Canon and are universally
praised for their poetic genius. By convention, the compositions are also often taken to initiate the
period of Classical Antiquity.

EPIC

ILLIAD
The iliad (Ancient Greek, Ilias) is, together with the Odysseus, one of two ancient Greek epic poems
attributed to Homer. The Trojan War was waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia
Minor (present-day Turkey), by the armies of Achaeans, after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband
Menelaus, king of Sparta. Ancient Greeks believed that the Trojan War was a historical event. They
believed that this war took place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and that Troy was located in the vicinity
of the Dardanelles in what is now north-western Turkey. By modern times, both the war and the city
were widely believed to be non-historical. In 18701, however, the German archeologist Heinrich
Schliemann excavated a site in this area, which he believed to be the site of Troy, and at least some
archaeologist agrees. There remains no certain evidence that Homer’s Troy ever existed, still less that
any of the events of the Trojan War cycle took place. Many scholars would agree that there is a
historical core to the tale, though this may simply mean that the Homeric stories are a fusion of various
stories of sieges and expeditions by the Greeks of the Bronze Age or Mycendean period.

Origin of the War

According to Greek mythology, Zeus had become king of the gods by overthrowing his father Cronus;
Cronus in turn had overthrown his father Ouranos. Zeus was not faithful to his wife (and sister) Hera and
had many relationships from which many children were born. Since there were too many people
populating the earth already, he came up along with either Momos or Themis with the idea of the
Trojan War in order to depopulate the Earth, especially of his demigod descendants.

The Apple of Discord

There was a wedding of a human king Peleus, son of Aiakos, and Thetis a sea nymph who would become
the parents of Achilles, a great general of the Greek army. In this wedding, all the gods and goddesses
were invited except Eris (Discord) which was stopped at the door by Hermes on Zeus’ order. Insulted,
she threw from the door a gift of her own: Her gift was a golden apple on which were inscribed the
words Te Kallisti, (to the fairest). The apple was claimed by Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. They quarreled
bitterly over it, and none of the other god would venture an opinion favoring one, for fear of earning the
enmity of the other two. Eventually, Zeus ordered Hermes to lead the three goddess to Paris, a prince of
Troy, who, unaware of his ancestry, was being raised as a shepherd in Mount Ida, because of a prophecy
that he would be the downfall of Troy. The goddess tried to bribe the shepherd.
Athena offered Paris wisdom, skill in battle, and the abilities of the greatest warrior; Hera offered him
political power and control of all of Asia, and Aphrodite offered him the love of the most beautiful
woman in the world. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite and after several adventures, returned to
Troy and was recognized by his family.

The Elopement of Paris and Helen

Unfortunately, the most beautiful woman on earth then was Helen who was already married to
Menelaus, king of Sparta. Her mother was Leda, who had been seduced (or raped) by Zeus in the form
of a swan.

On a diplomatic mission to Sparta, Paris fell in love with Helen. Menelaus had to leave for Crete to bury
his uncle Crateus. Paris with Aphrodite’s help, kidnapped or seduced her and sailed to Troy carrying part
of Menelaus’ treasure. Hera, still jealous over his judgment sent a storm. The storm made the lovers
land in Egypt where the gods replaced Helen with a likeness of her made of clouds, Nephele. Then the
ship landed in Sidon before reaching Troy. Paris, fearful of getting caught, spent some time there and
then sailed to Troy.

Paris’ abduction of Helen had several precedents. Io was taken from Argos, Europa was taken from
Phoenician, Jason took Medea from Colchis, and the Trojan princess Hesione had been taken by
Heracles who gave her a Telamon of Salamis. Paris was emboldened by these examples to steal himself
a wife from Greece, and expected no retribution, since there had been none in the other cases.

Menelaus Called the Greek Kings and Princes

Menelaus asked Agamemnon to uphold his oath. He agreed and sent him Nestor along with other
emissaries to all the Greek kings and princes, who were called to make good their oaths and retrieve
Helen.

This oath was given by the kings and princess of the Greeks for they were also former suitors of Helen.
The father of Helen, the former king of Sparta was afraid to whom he would give his daughter to
marriage for fear the others would retaliate violently. To solve the problem, they made an agreement
to allow Helen to choose her husband and require Helen’s entire suitor to make an oath that they would
defend the marriage of Helen, regardless of whom she chose. Helen chose Menelaus.

Since Menelaus and Helen’s marriage was violated, the kings and princes were bound to help Menelaus
to besiege Troy and retrieve Helen. Thus, this was the beginning of war.

Achilles
To Peleus and Thetis a son was born, named Achilles. It was foretold that he would either die of old age
after an uneventful life or die young in a battlefield and gain immortality through poetry. Furthermore,
Calchas had prophesized, when Achilles was nine that Troy could not fall again without his help. As an
infant, Thetis tried to make Achilles immortal. First, she held him over fire to burn away his mortal parts
every night and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day. Peleus who had already lost six sons this
way, discovered this and stopped it. Then she bathed him in the River Styx, making him invulnerable,
wherever he had touched the water. She had held him by the heel, so that part remained mortal, and so
he remained human and not a god (hence, the expression Achilles heel for an isolated weakness). He
grew up to be the greatest of all mortal warriors.

Achilles’ Campaigns
The Greek or Achaeans besieged Troy for nine years. Troy was never completely besieged, thus it
maintained communications with the interior of Asia Minor. Reinforcements continued to come until
the very end. Also the Achaeans controlled only the entrance of Dardanelles; Troy and her allies
controlled the shortest point at Abydos and Sestus and communicated with allies in Europe.

Chryses, a priest of Apollo and father of Chryseis, came to Agamemnon to ask for the return of his
daughter. Agamemnon refused and insulted Chryses, who prayed to Apollo to avenge his ill-treatment.
Enraged, Apollo afflicted the Achaean army with plague. Agamemnon was forced to return Chryses to
end the plague and took Achilles’ concubine Briseis as his own. Enraged at the dishonored Agamemnin
had inflicted upon him, Achilles decided he would no longer fight. He asked his mother Thetis, to
intercede with Zeus, who agreed to give the Trojans success in the absence of Achilles, the best warrior
of the Achaeans.

After the withdrawal of Achilles, the Achaeans were initially successful. Both armies gathered in full for
the first time since the landing. Menelaus and Paris fought a duel, which ended when Aphrodite
snatched the beaten Paris from the field. The truce was broken, the Achaean army nearly reached the
wall, and Diomedes, with assistance of Athena, nearly killed Aeneas, and wounded the gods Aphrodite
and Ares. Through the next days, however, the Trojans had the upper hand. They were stopped at the
Achaean wall by Poseidon. The next day, though with Zeus’ help, the Trojans broke into the Achaean
camp and were on the verge of setting fire to the Achaean ships. An earlier appeal to Achilles to return
was rejected, but after Hector burned Protesilaus’ ship, he allowed his close friend and relative Patroclus
to go into battle wearing Achilles’ armor and leading his army. Patroclus drove the Trojans back all the
way to the walls of Troy and was only prevented from storming the city by the intervention of Apollo.
Patroclus was then killed by Hector (with Apollo’s help), who took Achilles’ armor from the body of
Patroclus.

Achilles, maddened with grief, swore to kill Hector in revenge. He was reconciled with Agamemnon and
received Briseis back, untouched by Agamemnon. He received a new set of arms, forged by the god
Hephaestus, and returned to the battlefield. He slaughters many Trojans and nearly killed Aeneas, who
was saved by Poseidon. Achilles fought with the river Scamander, and a battle of the gods followed. The
Trojan army returned to the city, except for Hector, who remained outside because he was tricked by
Athena. Achilles killed Hector, and afterwards he dragged Hector’s body from his chariot and refused to
return the body to the Trojans for burial. The Achaeans then conducted funeral games for Patroclus.
Afterwards, Priam came to Achilles’ tent, guided by Hermes and asked Achilles to return Hector’s body.
The armies made a temporary truce to allow the burial of the dead.

The Death of Achilles

Achilles himself was not destined to a long life. Having by chance seen Polyxena, daughter of King
Priam, perhaps on the occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans for the burial of Hector, he
was captivated with her charms and to win her in marriage, it is said (but not by Homer) that he agreed
to influence the Greeks to make peace with Troy. While the hero was in the temple of Apollo negotiating
the marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which guided by Apollo, fatally wounded him in
the heel. This was his only vulnerable spot; for Thetis, having dipped him when an infant in the river
Styx had rendered every part of him invulnerable except that by which she held him.

The Trojan Horse

After the tenth year, it was prophesized that Troy could not fall without Heracles’ bow (which was with
Philoctetes in Lemnos). So Odysseus and Diomedes retrieved Philoctetes, whose wound was healed.
Philoctetes then shot and killed Paris.

Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus went to spy inside Troy, but was recognized by Helen. Homesick, Helen
plotted with Odysseus. Later, with Helen’s help, Odysseus and Diomedes stole the Palladium.

The end of the war came with one final plan. Odysseus devised a new ruse – a giant hallow wooden
horse, an animal that was sacred to the Trojans. It was built by Epeius, guided by Athena, from the wood
of a cornel tree grove sacred to Apollo with the inscription:

The Greeks dedicated this thanks-offering to Athena for their return home.

The hollow horse was filled with soldiers led by Odysseus. The rest of the army burned the camp and
sailed for Tenedos.

When the Trojans discovered that the Greeks were gone, believing the war was over, they “joyfully
dragged the horse inside the city, “ while they debated what to do with it. Some thought they ought to
hurl it down from the rocks, others to burn it, while others said they ought to dedicate it to Athena.

Both Cassandra and Laocoon warned against keeping the horse. But Cassandra, given the gift of
prophecy by Apollo, was also cursed by Apollo to never be believed. Then serpents came out of the sea
and devoured, either Laocoon and one of his two sons, Laocoon and both his sons, or only his sons, a
portent which so alarmed the followers of Aeneas that they withdrew to Ida. The Trojans, decided to
keep the horse and turned to a night of mad revelry and celebration. Sinon, an Achaean spy, signaled
the fleet stationed at Tenedos when “it was midnight and the clear moon was rising” and the soldiers
from inside the horse emerged and killed the guards.

The Achaeans entered the city and killed the sleeping population. A great massacre followed which
continued into the day.

Neoptolemus killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard. Menelaus killed
Deiphobus, Helen’s husband after Paris’ death, and also intended to kill Helen, but overcome by her
beauty, threw down his sword and took her to the ships.

Antenor, who had given hospitality to Menelaus and Odysseus when they asked for the return of Helen,
and who had advocated so was spared along with his family. Aeneas took his father on his back and fled
and according to Apollodorus was allowed to go because of his piety.
The Greeks then burned the city and divided the spoils. Cassandra was awarded to Agamemnon.
Neoptolemus got Adromache, wife of Hector and Odysseus, Hecuba, Priam’s wife.

The Achaeans threw Hector’s infant son Astyanax down from the walls of Troy, either out of cruelty and
hate or to end to royal line, and the possibility of a son’s revenge. They (by usual tradition Neoptolemus)
was sacrificed the Trojan princess Polyxena on the grave of Achilles as demanded by his ghost, either as
part of his spoil or because she had betrayed him.

Discussion Guide

1. Greeks believed that gods and goddesses are like humans. Give some human characters shown
by them in the epic.
2. Discuss the personality of the following main characters:
a. Achilles e. Paris
b. Priam f. Menelaus
c. Hector g. Odyssey
d. Helen
3. Who among them have the noble characters? Why?
4. Was it right for the Achaeans to destroy Troy? Why?

I. Vocabulary. Choose the best answer

1. The other gods would not venture an opinion favoring one for fear of earning an enmity of the
other two.
a. Envy b. Hostility c. Friendly d. Entry
2. Zeus wanted to depopulate the Earth especially his demigod descendants.
a. god like b. female god c. male god d. angel
3. She bathed him in the river Styx making him invulnerable against any attack.
a. harmful b. unvalued c. impossible to harm d. brave
4. Achilles was disguised as a girl
a. pretended b. showed c. disqualified d. disgraced
5. Paris abduction of Helen had several precedents.
a. deduction b. marriage c. courting d. kidnapping
6. Paris abduction of Helen had several precedents.
a. president b. pattern c. percent d. presents

7. Paris though that stealing a wife would have no retribution.

a. enemy b. contribution c. punishment d. correction
8. The Achaeans besieged Troy for nine years.
a. surrounded b. attacked c. destroyed d. befriended
9. He agreed and sent him Nestor along with other emissaries.
a. representatives b. soldiers c. officers d. mariners
10. It was prophesized that Troy could not fall without Heracles’ bow.
a. prepared b. proven c. foretold d. understood

II. Arrange the story into correct order by numbering 1-10

a. Helen was abducted to Troy.
b. There was a plan of Zeus to depopulate the earth.
 c. The Greeks burned their camp and sailed to Tenedos.
d. Eris threw a golden apple with the inscription TO THE FAIREST.
e. The Trojan Horse was left and taken inside Troy.
f. Soldiers in the Trojan Horse massacre the sleeping population and sacked the city.
g. Menelaus and the allied Greek force besieged Troy.
h. Hera, Aphrodite and Athena claimed to be the fairest.
i. Hector was killed by Achilles.
j. Paris chose Aphrodite to be the fairest and Aphrodite rewarded him Helen as wife.

THE ODYSSEUS
The Odysseus (Greek: Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the
poet Homer. The poem is commonly dated circa 800 to 600 BC. The poem is, in part a sequel to
Homer’s Iliad and mainly concerns the events that befall the Greek hero Odysseus in his long journeys
after the fall of Troy and when he at last returns to his native land of Ithaca.

It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten year Trojan War. During this twenty-year
absence, his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope must deal with a group of unruly suitors who have
mo9ved into Odysseus’ home to compete for Penelope’s hand in marriage, since most have assumed
that Odysseus has died.

OUTLINE OF THE PLOT

Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, was a baby when Odysseus set out for Troy. At the point where the
Odysseus begins, ten years after the Trojan War ended. Telemachus is about twenty and is sharing his
missing father’s house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and with a crowd of boisterous
young men, “the Suitors,” whose aim is to persuade Penelope to accept her husband’s disappearance as
final and to marry one of them.

The goddess Athena (who is Odysseus’ protector) discusses Odysseus fate with Zeus, king of the gods, at
a moment when Odysseus’ enemy, the sea-god Poseidon, is absent from Mt. Olympus. Then, disguised
as a male stranger, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her
hospitality; they observed the Suitors dining rowdily, and the singer Phemius performing a narrative
poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius’ theme, the “Return from Troy” because it reminds her of
her missing husband, but Telemachus rebuts her objection.

Next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca and demands a ship and crew.
Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as Odysseus’s friend, Mentor) he departs for the Greek
mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in
Pylos. From there, Telemachus rides overland to Sparta, where he finds Menelaus and Helen, now
reconciled. He is told that they returned to Greece after a long voyage by way of Egypt; there, on the
magical island of Pharos, Menelaus encountered the old-sea Proteus, who told him that Odysseus is a
captive of the mysterious goddess Calypso. Incidentally, Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus’
brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek at Troy, murdered on his return home by
his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
Meanwhile Odysseus, after wandering about which we are still to learn, has spent seven years in
captivity on the goddess Calypso’s distant island. She is now persuaded by the messenger god Hermes
to release him. Odysseus builds a raft. It is wrecked (the sea-god {Poseidon in his enemy) but he swims
ashore on the island of Scherie, where, naked and exhausted, he falls asleep. Next morning, awakened
by the laughter of the girls, he sees the young Nausicaa, who has gone to the seashore with her maids to
wash clothes. He appeals to her for help. She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents
Arete and Alcinous. Odysseus is welcomed and is not a first asked for his named. He remains several
days with Alcinous, takes part in an athletic competition, and hears the blind singer Demodocus perform
two narrative poems. The first is an otherwise obscure incident of the Trojan War, the “Quarrel of
Odysseus and Achilles;” the second is the amusing tale of a love affair between two Olympian gods, Ares
and Aphrodite. Finally, Odysseus asks Demodocus to return to the Trojan War theme and tell of the
Trojan Horse, a stratagem in which Odysseus had played a leading role. Unable to hide his emotion as he
relives this episode. Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He then begins to tell the amazing story of his
return from Troy:

After a piratical raid on Ismarus in the land of the Cicones, he and his twelve ships were driven
off course by storms. They visited the lazy Lotus-Eaters and were captured by the Cyclops
Polyphemus, escaping by blinding him a wooden stake. They stayed with Aeolus, the master of
the winds; he gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds, a gift that should have
ensured as safe return home, had not the sailors foolishly opened the bag while Odysseus slept.
All the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ships back the way they had come.

After pleading in vain with Aeolus to help them again, they re-embarked and encountered the
cannibal Laestrygones. Odysseus’ own ship was the only one to escape. He sailed on and visited
the with=goddess Circe, whose magic portions turned most of his sailors into swine. Hermes met
with Odysseus and gave him a drug called moly, an antidote to Circe’s potion. He persuaded
Circe to release his men, and later slept with her. They stayed on Circe’s island for a year. Then,
guided by her instructions, they crossed the Ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of
the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead and summoned the spirit of the old prophet
Tiresias to advise him. Next Odysseus met the spirit of his own mother, who had died of grief at
his long absence; from her he learned for the first time news of his own household, threatened by
the greed of the suitors. Here too, he met the spirits of famous women and famous men;
notably, he encountered the spirit of Agamemnon, of whose murder he now learned.

Returning to Circe’s island, they were advised by her on the remaining stages of the journey.
They skirted the land of the Sirens, passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and the
whirlpool Charybdis and landed on the island of Thrinacia. There Odysseus’ men – ignoring the
warnings of Tiresias and Circe – hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Hellos. This
sacrilege was punished by a shipwreck in which all but Odysseus himself were drowned. He was
washed ashore on the island of Calypso, where she kept him as her lover, and he had only now
escaped.

Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians, who are skilled mariners, agree to help
Odysseus on his way home. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbor on
Ithaca. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own former slaves, the swineherd Eumaeus. Odysseus
now plays the part of a wandering beggar in order to learn how things stand in his household. After
dinner, he tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself; he was born in Crete, had led a party of
Cretans to fight alongside other Greeks in the Trojan War, and had then spent seven years at the cour of
the king of Egypt, finally, he had been shipwrecked in Thesprotia and crossed there to Ithaca.

Meanwhile Telemachus, whom we left at Sparta, sails home, evading an ambush set by the suitors. He
disembark on the coast of Ithaca and makes for Eumaeus’ hut. Father and son meet; Odyessus identifies
himself to Telemachus (but still not to Eumaeus) and they determined that the suitors must be killed.
Telemachus gets home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus now returns to his own house, still
disguised as a beggar. He experiences the suitors’ rowdy behavior and plans their death. He meets
Penelope; he test her intentions with an invented story of his birth in Crete, where he says, he once
meet Odysseus. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned
something there of Odysseus’ recent wanderings.

Odysseus’ identity is discovered by the housekeeper, Eurycleia, when he undresses for a bath and
reveals an old thigh wound; he swears her to secrecy. Next day, at Athena’s prompting, Penelope
maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus’ bow.
He takes part in the competition himself; he alone is strong enough to string the bow and therefore
wins. Immediately, he turns his arrows on the suitors, and all are killed. Odysseus and Telemachus kill
(by hanging) twelve of their household maids, who had slept with the suitors; they mutilated and kill the
goatherd Melanthius, who had favored them. Now at last Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope. She
is hesitant, but accept him when he correctly describes to her the bed he built for her when they
married.

Next day, he and Telemachus visit the country farm of his old father Laertes, who likewise accepts his
identity only when Odysseus correctly describes the orchard that Laertes once gave him.

The citizens of Ithaca have followed Odysseys on the road planning to avenge the killing of the Suitors,
their sons. Their leader points out that Odysseus has now caused the deaths of two generations of the
men of Ithaca – his sailors, not one of whom survived, and the suitors, whom he has now executed. The
goddess Athena intervenes and persuades both sides to give up the vendetta.

I. Vocabulary. Match column A with column B.

A B

1. Boisterous a. medicine
2. Fate b. to change move
3. Sacrilege c. revenge
4. Rebut d. disfigure
5. Venerable e. noisy
6. Reconcile f. destiny
7. Potion g. disrespect of sacred
8. Maneuver h. deny
9. Vendetta i. worthy of respect
10. Mutilate j. reunite
II. Choose the best answer among the choices given.

1. How long had Odysseus been absent from his home?

a. 5 years b. 10 years c. 15 years d. 20 years

2. How many years did Odysseus travel back to Ithaca after the Trojan War?
a. 5 years b. 10 years c. 15 years d. 20 years

3. Which of the following is not true in the adventure of Odysseus?

a. He became a captive of Calypso c. They were captured by the Cyclops
b. Their ship was driven off course by the storm d. They encountered pirates in the sea

4. Who helped Odysseus to reach Ithaca?

a. Egyptian b. Phaeacian c. Greeks d. Cretans

5. How old was Telemachus when Odysseus arrived in Ithaca?

a. 5 years b. 10 years c. 15 years d. 20 years

6. Who among the goddesses helped Odysseus?

a. Athena b. Hera c. Aphrodite d. Penelope

7. What competition was used in order for Odysseus to reveal him and kill the unruly suitors?
a. swimming b. running c. archery d. chariot driving

8. What appearance did Odysseus assumed to disguise him?

a. beggar b. old man c. suitor d. warrior

9. The proof that Odysseus showed that made Penelope believed him was the description of their:
a. dress b. bed c. house d. wedding ring

10. Who is the known author of Odysseus?

a. Aristotle b. Homer c. Socrates e. Plato