Lecture 7

Question 1

The Troy Cycle

Answer 1

• everything related to the Trojan war (leading events, actual war, aftermath)
• Homers’ texts are the best known texts of the troy cycle

Question 2

Zeus and Leda

Answer 2

• Tyndareus and Leda king and queen of Sparta
• Zeus had sex with Leda as a swan and then her husband and later gave birth to four children
• Castor and Clytemnestra (Tyndareus)
• Pollux and Helen (Zeus)
• Helens birth could be the start of the Troy Cycle

Question 3

Wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Answer 3

• Thetis married off so she can’t have a relationship with a god and thus producing a child more powerful than the gods. Marrying her off keeps them all safe from being overthrown
• Thetis is a sea goddess and human

Question 4

Eris

Answer 4

• goddess of discord
• angry because not invited to the wedding
• takes a golden apple and writes for the fairest and throws it into the middle of the wedding
• Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all claim its thiers
• Zeus throws it off Olympus to earth and they follow

Question 5

Paris

Answer 5

• apple falls in front of him
• Goddess make him decide who should get it.
• Bribe him and he accepts Aphrodite’s best and he gets the most beautiful woman, Helen.

Question 6

Abduction of Helen

Answer 6

• already married to Menelaus and this caused problems because Tyndareus was afraid all the kings would attack him to marry Helen or that they’d attack who he chose.
• Oath of Tyndareus: made them swear to abide by his decision and to not rebel and that they’d go after anyone who stole Helen.
• could explain the war
• Paris steals her and violates xenia

Question 7

Xenia

Answer 7

• guest friendship
• if you go stay at someone’s house you make a promise to not kill them and that they won’t kill you and you won’t steal from them.

Question 8

Myth and Timelessness

Answer 8

• all this started at wedding of Achilles’ parents
• he was present at the wedding as a child and a teen when the war started
• He’s about as close to the gods as humans get
• no one can stand up to him in battle
• Prophecy: if Achilles fights in the battle, he will die according to Thetis so she convinces him to hide. He goes to an island full of women disguised as one of them.
• Odysseus goes to this island and tricks Achilles into coming back with him to the war (shows women armor and only one is interested)

Question 9

Iphigenia

Answer 9

• Agamemnon is going to lead the troops
• oracle says he must sacrifice his favorite daughter to get the winds to sail to Troy.
• tricks Iphigenia by saying he’s going to marry her to Achilles then he kills her
• his wife, Clytemnestra is pissed

Question 10

Where does the Iliad start?

Answer 10

• 9 years into the war
• Medias Res
• not really about the war at all
• covers 20 days in the 10th year

Question 11

Beginning

Answer 11

• poet invokes a muse to begin the poem
• Achilles and Agamemnon are fighting
• a lot of people are going to die because of Achilles’ anger who is a Greek
• Zeus is causing this to happen
• Achilles is angry because Agamemnon stole his prize (Chryseus)
• Agamemnon is supposed to give her back to appease Apollo but he refuses so Chryses prays to Apollo who sends a plague and all the Greeks start dying
• then he sends Chryseus back
• Agamemnon then takes Briseis who was Achilles’ prize (second most beautiful woman)
• Achilles wants to kill Agamemnon but Athena stops him
• Achilles goes to Thetis and asks her to talk to Zeus
• Zeus listens because he owes her a favor and he does what Achilles wants and makes the Greeks start losing

Question 12

Achilles Characterization

Answer 12

• quick to anger
• morally gray in Greek sense
• character flaw