The Iliad - maps and endnotes.pdf

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All line-number references are keyed to the lineation of the translation, except where I indicate
specifically that the reference is to the Greek (as in “see Greek line xxx”).
B O O K 1 S U M M A RY
The allied Greek armies have been encamped on the shore of Troy for just over nine
years, besieging but failing to capture the city, and sacking neighboring towns, killing
the men, looting, and enslaving the women. The most valuable items of loot, including
the most highly prized enslaved women, are shared out among the most powerful war-
riors in the Greek alliance. One of these enslaved women is the daughter of a priest of
Apollo, who prays to the god to get his daughter back. The god responds by sending
plague to the Greek camp. The prophet Calchas explains to the Greek leaders that the
priest’s daughter needs to be returned to her father. Agamemnon, the most powerful
member of the Greek alliance, agrees to return her, but insists on taking another tro-
phy woman for himself from Achilles. Achilles, robbed of his trophy and dishonored, is
furious, and complains to his mother, Thetis, a sea goddess. The goddess asks Zeus to
restore her son’s honor by ensuring that, as long as Achilles absents himself from battle,
the Greeks will lose in battle, and vast numbers of Greeks will die— thus demonstrating
that the Greeks need Achilles to win. Zeus agrees with a nod. The gods on Olympus
enjoy a feast, and a squabble between Zeus and Hera is quickly resolved, thanks to the
intervention of their son, Hephaestus.
1.1
Goddess:
The goddess,
thea,
is unnamed but is presumably the Muse of epic
poetry, Calliope.
1.1
cataclysmic wrath:
“Wrath,”
mēnis,
is an especially intense and destructive kind of
anger; the word is usually used only for gods. This translation distinguishes between
mēnis,
“wrath,” and its cognates, and the various other words for “rage,” “anger,” or
“fury” (such as
cholos).
1.4
noble souls:
The narrator contrasts the “souls,”
psychai,
with the living men (autous),
because the person is identified with the physical self; only a shadow survives in the
underworld. The identification of the corpse with the person may help to explain the
crucial importance of proper burial in the world of this poem.

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