- 1. “A wooly menace, a Dream” (10) What a charming term. What translation do your texts have for Book 2 line 10?
- 2. What two things are surprising about the behavior of Zeus in Book 2?
- 3. “But I'm going to test them first with a little speech,
The usual drill—order them to beat a retreat in their ships.
It's up to each one of you to persuade them to stay.” (78-80)
What is Agamemnon thinking? What sort of psychology IS this? How many points does he make about why they should attack? Would you have wanted to go home or fight? What seems to be Odysseus's philosophy about returning home?
- 4. “But he coiled and got her by the wing as she shrieked.
..The very god who revealed him turned him to stone.
An unmistakable portent from Zeus, son of Cronus….This great portent is a message from Zeus.” (342-350).
What portent do you see being revealed here? Might it have more than one meaning?
- 5. swarming like insects over the beach, like bees
That hum from a hollow rock in an endless line
And fly in clusters over flowers in spring,
Grouping themselves in aerial throngs. (92-95>
What is this an example of? What role does it play in The Iliad, what is its purpose?
- 6. “His wife, cheeks torn, was left in Phylace,
His house half-built. A Dardanian killed him…” ( 810-811).
The book ends with what’s called The Catalogue of Ships. Have you counted up the numbers? What is the purpose of such vignettes as we see in this quote? How is that replicated in our media today?
- 7. At the end of Book 2, we are prepared for battle. “Athena sweeps among the men…stiffening their hearts, so that for each of them to die in battle was sweeter than going home.” (183). We will want to watch and see if we can determine what Homer's definition of what it means to be a human being is revealed and how it is revealed.
- 8. Philosophy in the Iliad: The Dialectic between two ways of resolving conflict:
Force and Words
- Using the idea of this dynamic, how many other examples can we find in The Iliad which show how Force abandons Words and how Words abandon Force?
- Which commander shows more respect for others as ends in themselves rather than as means to an end, Achilles or Agamemnon?
- Is it possible to wage war or command troops in battle without using others as an end?
- 9. How will Achilles or Agamemnon, or Hector or Priam be able to keep their humanity in the inferno to come? Will the gods help or hurt? These are some of the issues we will want to watch, a million things going on at once! How can you lead men into battle and consider them as an end and not a means to an end? Which commander comes closest to this goal? Give us your thoughts!
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