Introduction
One of the most enduring scenes of the Trojan war comes not from Homer but Virgil: the sack of Troy. However, at the heart of this brief but brutal description lies the fundamental concept which attracts us to Homer's poem: the rage of men fighting for honour, heroism, vengeance, personal gain, survival, and licensed savagery.
Chapter 1. The City of Troy
The myths, legends, facts and fictions behind the city as the setting for Homer's famous siege. This opening chapter explores the evidence behind what we know and what we don't about Troy. It examines the searches of key archeologists, from Schliemann to Dorfman, and the likely realities behind the story's central motifs, such as the Trojan Horse.
Chapter 2. The Warrior Kings
The ethos of the Bronze Age warrior kings, who were bound to their neighbours by coalitions, treaties and intermarriage. Keen for honour, glory and loot, these proud aristocrats had reputations to protect, legacies to build and money to keep their kingdoms prosperous. The focus is on the Mycenaeans and Hittites, and the city of Troy which fell between them.
3. The Role of Women
The rage of Achilles centres around the retraction of an item of war booty - the slave girl Briseis. For warrior kings, slave women were a precious commodity worth travelling for, alongside typical spoils such as copper, bronze and gold. But there was more to the role of women in Bronze Age world than instruments of war or objects of subjection, as the examples of Helen and Andromache show us. Discuss the cultural female models from Troy, Sparta and Mycenae.
4. The Savagery of the Siege
Homer paints the siege of Troy with savage strokes. Men's teeth are smashed out, heads hewn in two and carcasses are fought over by men behaving like wild dogs (Patroclus and Hector). But behind the brutality, Homer reminds reader of the destructive futility of war and the personal history and humanity of each individual who falls on the Troad. Set 500 years before it was written, Homer is often accused of anachronisms in his descriptions of weaponry and war in the Iliad. What was the reality in the Bronze Age setting and how did ideals of honour and heroism in warfare prevent Hector succeeding in a Trojan victory.
5. The Death of Patroclus
The slaying of Patroclus by Hector is the turning point of the war, which spurs Achilles back into action for the Greeks. However, his grief over his fallen cousin raises the question over whether the two were also lovers. Homosexuality was accepted, encouraged and even obligatory among soldiers of ancient Greece (Sparta). However, the themes of solidarity and comradeship of warriors is how Homer sells us Achilles' grief.
6. Gods, Men and Homer
The Iliad narrates the deeds of heroic figures, but nothing happens without divine prompting. Homer's descriptions of the gods, with the appropriate titles, offices and duties made the Iliad one of the seminal religious texts of the day. But what was the power of the gods in determining the fate of the Homeric heroes?
7. The Iliad Influence
Warriors and kings from Homer's Greece, looked to the Iliad to inform their ideals of heroism and reason. The tale rang out as a warning to future generations of the futility of war and rage. And yet, the learned classical Greeks could not prevent themselves from annihilation during the bloody Peloponnesian War. In the end, it would take a strongman who slept with a copy of the Iliad to reunite the broken Greek civilization - Alexander the Great.
Bibliography
Index
