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Summary The Iliad - literary techniques and composition
The literary techniques and composition of the Iliad, including specific terminology and examples used throughout the epic
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Literary techniques and compositionComposition – the bard
- Disagreements on the date where the text became fixed – agreed that the poem began as an oral
poem
No clear conclusion as to how this would have happened
- Would have taken 3 days to perform – likely that people would have returned on consecutive days to
listen
- Greek world 700 BC – people would not tend to have travelled far from their birth place
Only public source of information from the outside community would have been the stories told
by a visitor/returning traveller – link between an individual’s fame and the songs of the bard
How important is book 23?
Plot
- Book 22 – very dramatic and violent death of hector
Lull is needed between the climatic killing and Priam’s dramatic visit to Achilles’ hut
Funeral games provides relaxation and a touch of humour
- Achilles’ appearance in the public setting of the games in b23 contrasts with his distress on the
seashore at the beginning of b23 and meeting with Priam in b24
- Games as a reminder of the first part of the Iliad – major heroes were competing tow in
For sport and not war – story would make sense without the games but they are important in the
way the events unfold
Characters – Achilles’ development
- Beginning of book – Achilles sees Patroclus’ ghost and realises that he should hold a funeral for
Patroclus
Becomes reconciled with Patroclus’ death – grief and anger towards hector remain
- Reconciles himself to his own death – marks spot for a grave mount for Patroclus and himself
- Has a balances approach in the contest to dealing with the competitors’ arguments – contrast with
earlier approach
- Reconciles with Agamemnon
- Change of Achilles’ focus during the latter part of b23 and his return to social values – makes his
decision to return in b24 possible and credible
Shows concern for fairness
Tells ajax and Idomeneus to stop quarrelling
Sympathetic to Antilochus (warrior who had been sent to inform him of Patroclus’ death)
Slaughters 12 young trojan men on the funeral pyre – strong indication that despite his
acceptance of death he is still so full of rage that he is driven to inhuman behaviour
Reinforcement of characters
- Agamemnon – plays little part is the contests but is offered a prize by Achilles for his excellence
- Menelaus – fouled by Antilochus in the chariot race and suffers in the same way Achilles did in b1
Laments his lose of timē (valuing of a here’s achievements by public praise and honour, essential
for sense of self-worth)
Accepts the apology rather than being consumed with rage – could be homer indicating his
approval
- Odysseus – holds his own against ajax in a wrestling match
Two heroes both excel – one in strength and one in intelligence Achilles wisely calls a draw
- Nestor – gives his advice in another over-long speech
Achilles gives him a prize out of respect for his old age
- Antilochus (son of nestor) – uses his youth as an excuse for his behaviour in the chariot race
, Themes
- Reconciliation
- Anger
- Mortality
- The nature of a hero
- Timē
- Intervention of gods
- Importance of eating
- Age and youth
Time-frame of the narrative
- Iliad assumes that the audience knows the story of the trojan war – knowledge would have been
acquired over hundreds of years of storytelling by bards with different tales and characters being
developed and elaborated as the tales were transmitted
- Iliad embraces story of 10-year trojan war but all the events narrated take place in a timescale of
about 50 days
Days are not equally distributed throughout the 24 books – b1 covers a period of 23 days, b2-23
cover 4 days, end of b23 and b24 cover 25 days
Within time divisions – some long periods are dismissed in the matter of a line whereas other are
related in fine detail
- Effect of the time-frame is a dynamic narrative where we zoom in and out of action
Information about the past:
- Helen’s abduction in b3 as Paris reminds her of it
- Achilles as a baby told by phoenix in b9
- Background of relationship between Achilles and Patroclus through Patroclus’ ghost in b23
- Achilles telling Priam the story of his parents’ marriage in b24
Being reminded of the future:
- Hector talking to Andromache of the day when Priam and his people will be destroyed and she will be
taken to Argos as a slave in b6
- Hector as Troy’s protector – death in b22 signals the city’s forthcoming destruction and downfall
- Andromache foresees the death of Astyanax and with Thetis the death of Achilles in b24
- Achilles prepares Patroclus’ body for the funeral pyre as though he is preparing his own funeral
- Priam is led into the Greek camp by Hermes (the god who leads the dead to the underworld)
Homeric question
- People who favour the theory that multiple people wrote the Iliad found inconsistencies to support
their case
- Apollo and Athene are in the action of b1 but Thetis says the gods are feasting in Ethiopia for 12 days
- Priam asks Helen to identify the Greek leaders – it is the 10 th year of the siege, we would expect him to
be familiar with them
- Why does phoenix stay in Agamemnon’s hut and not Achilles’ hut (b9)
- Why suddenly decide on a single combat between the husbands as a resolution in the 10 th year of a
war
- If Paris is so despised by the trojan’s why have they not just handed him over to the Greeks
Structure
- Most powerful argument in support of Iliad being a work that was consciously composed is the
structure
Ring composition
- Ring composition – the symmetrical arrangement of content, with scenes/images forming a sort of
mirror image
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