Due Friday, September 14:
Iliad 9-12
Answer the numbers that are the same as the last digit as
your U of A Identification Number. Please type. No late answers will be
accepted.
ILIAD 9
1. Whom does Agamemnon blame for the need to sail home? How does Diomedes
oppose his plan? (1-53) What is Diomedes’ attitude towards Agamemnon at
the end of the book? (721)
2. Why does Agamemnon decide to make amends with Achilles? (100-125)
3. What gifts does Agamemnon offer to Achilles to make him want to return
to the war? What is the point of offering so much stuff? (120ff.)
4. What is Achilles doing when Ajax, Phoenix, and Odysseus find him?
(195) How does this match the traditional understanding of a “hero”?
5. What is Achilles’ first reaction to the appearance of his friends?
What does this say about Agamemnon’s choice of messengers? (200ff.)
7. What did Phoenix do for Achilles when Achilles was a baby? How would
you describe their relationship? (445ff; 498ff.)
8. How does Achilles’ relationship with Phoenix compare with the one
between Achilles and Aias, or between Achilles and Odysseus?
9. Why does Phoenix tell Achilles the allegory of the Prayers? (511)
10. Why does Phoenix tell Achilles the story of Meleager and Cleopatra?
(548ff.) What is the point? And why does it not work?
Iliad 10
11. How does Nestor motivate the Achaians to volunteer for a night mission
against the Trojans? (211)
12. Why does Diomedes choose Odysseus as his partner in the night mission?
(228ff.)
13. What type of gear do Odysseus and Diomedes wear
when they set out to spy on the Trojans? How does it differ from the
daytime battle garb of the heroes? (262ff.)
14. How does Hector motivate the Trojans to volunteer for a night mission
against the Achaians? (313ff.)
15. What does Dolon’s request tell us about him? (333)
16. What is the effect of Odysseus’ lie at 397?
17. How does Dolon distort the truth to try to save his life? (403)
18. Why did Dolon give so much information about the Trojans to Odysseus
and Diomedes? (427ff.)
19. What religious use of Dolon’s gear does Odysseus make? (473ff.)
20. How are horses important in this book? (cite
two sets of horses).
ILIAD 11
21. Who is Eris, and what is her role in this book? What does she do?
(3, 74-75)
22. Why does the poet gives such a lengthy description of Agamemnon’s
arming of himself? (15ff.)
23. What does Zeus do when the Greeks are ready to fight? (53) How does
this action help set the tone of this book?
24. What had Achilles once done to Priam’s sons Isus and Antiphus? (105)
What does Agamemnon do?
25. Why does Agamemnon refuse the supplication of Peisander and Hippolochus?
(128ff)
26. To what does the poet compare Agamemnon during his killing rampage?
How effective are the images in these similes? (119, 138, 167, 190, 260,
290)
27. How does Zeus act as “stage manager” of the action? (198,
353, 573)
28. What is the effect of the poet suddenly addressing the Muses in the
midst of this battle? (237)
29. Why is the simile at 312 particularly effective, in light of the
similes about Agamemnon earlier in this book? How does the simile at 315-316
continue this contrast?
30. What kind of contrast does the poet set up between Paris and Diomedes?
What two kinds of warriors are they? (390ff)
31. Why was Patroclus’ response to Achilles “the beginning of evil”
for him? (641)
32. What is unusual about Nestor’s cup? (663ff)
33. What does Nestor remind Patroclus that Peleus did when he sent Achilles
and Patroclus off to war? What suggestion does Nestor offer to Patroclus?
(806ff)
34. How does Patroclus act as physician? What kind of training did he
have? (858-891)
ILIAD 12
35. The book begins with a description of a future event. Why will the
Achaean wall fall, and who will cause its destruction, and by what means?
What does this tell us about the relationship between mortals and immortals,
and between nature and the gods?
36. How does the simile describing Sarpedon’s advance set the stage for
his actions? (309)
37. What is Sarpedon’s own justification for entering battle? What does
this say about a hero’s self-identity? (320ff)
38. How was Hector able to lift easily a stone heavy enough to require
two men of the present day to put it into a cart? How does this fit in with
Zeus’ plan to give Achilles honor? (468ff)
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