THE ILIAD

The Iliad can be translated as 'the matters of Ilium' (=Troy). It is the epic poem most
ancient preserved of Western literature composed of 15,691 verses (hexameters
dactylics), distributed in 24 cantos or rhapsodies that vary between 400 and 900 verses each.

-ARGUMENT: it narrates the events that occurred over 51 days in the tenth and final year.
from the Trojan War1, interspersed with legendary motifs in which war is seen
wrapped, beginning with the abduction of Helen, wife of the king of Sparta, by the prince Paris,
son of Priam, king of Troy, and ending with all the successive appearances of the gods
Olympic.

-TOPICS:- (central) Achilles' heel, “the one with swift feet”.

the friendship between Achilles and Patroclus that guides the heroic epic (although without
break the destiny to which the gods themselves must bend
the just, noble, and heroic revenge.

But, above all, against the backdrop of a campaign launched by the Greeks against
Troy emphasizes the idea of man's weakness, subjected to superior powers.

- CHARACTERISTICS:

Linear development of events from the initial situation of confrontation.

Abundance of narrative passages alternated with descriptive ones. Alternation of tension and
distention.
Unity of the work around the anger of Achilles2the young king of the Myrmidons. But the
"humanization" of Achilles by the events of the war is also an important theme of the
story.
The center of the work is the narrative action, to the detriment of space and time.
imprecise.

In light of the archaeological discoveries, it seems undeniable that the Trojan War was a historical fact.
localized around 1250 B.C. In 1870, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated the hill of Hisarlik
(Turkey), where he believed the city of Troy was located, finding the remains of the ancient city of New Ilium and underneath.
which found other ruins, and beneath these, others more. Each of these ruins gave way to the remains of different
cities that seemed to have been inhabited in different eras. Schliemann intended to find Homer's Troy.
But, over the years, he and his collaborators found seven buried cities and later two more. Without
embargo, it remained to be decided which of these ten cities was Homer's Troy. It was clear that the highest layer
profound, Troy I, was prehistoric, the oldest, so old that its inhabitants did not yet know the use of
metal, and that the layer closest to the surface, Troy IX, had to be the most recent. Some historians believe that
Troya VI or Troya VII must be identified with the Homeric city, because the earlier ones are small and the
later are Greek and Roman settlements. Other historians believe that the tales of Homer are a
fusion of stories of sieges and expeditions of the Greeks of the Bronze Age or the Mycenaean period, and that not
they describe real events.
2
Achilles, of semi-divine origin: son of King Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis, was bathed by his mother as a newborn.
in the waters of the Stygian lagoon to make him invulnerable. However, a small portion of the heel by which
Thetis held him, he did not receive that protection and the 'Achilles' tendon' became the vulnerable point that,
Finally, I would kill him. However, in the Iliad, the death of Achilles is not narrated; it is in the Odyssey where Menelaus...
he tells the young Telemachus (son of Ulysses) how Achilles was killed by an arrow from Paris, guided in turn by the
God Apollo.
Neither does the famous episode of the Trojan horse appear in The Iliad, but is briefly described in The Odyssey.
the one in which Homer narrates Odysseus's return to the island of Ithaca. Subsequently, other writers expanded on the episode.
 Tension achieved through successive moments of narrative tension and release.
Divine anthropomorphism: the gods take sides with Greeks and Trojans.
fickle.
Use of the epic epithet, comparisons, and active descriptions.

THE ODYSSEY
THE ODYSSEY can be translated as 'the affairs of Odysseus' (= Ulysses). It is an epic poem.
divided into 24 cantos. Chronologically posterior to The Iliad, since its central theme is the
return of Ulysses to his homeland-kingdom, Ithaca, after the Trojan war. In contrast to the linear simplicity of
The Iliad, this work is much more complex in variety and episodes and much more
imprecise in that many secondary events seem to have a greater emphasis than the
mainly at many moments.

It consists of an argumentative structure divided into 2 parts (and 3 narrative axes):

PART 1:

In The Telemachia (songs I to IV), the protagonist is Telemachus, the son of Odysseus.
We are told that, of the Achaean heroes who fought in Troy, some have died and others have
returned home. Telemachus searches for his father (at that moment, held by the nymph
Calypso). All the gods, except Poseidon whose son, the Cyclops, was killed by Odysseus, pity him.
and Athena, her protector, obtains from Zeus that Hermes goes to the island of Ogygia, to give to
Calypso ordered the release of her imprisoned lover. Athena, in the guise of Mentor,
ancient guest of Odysseus advises Telemachus to go with Nestor in Pylos and Menelaus in
Sparta, in search of news about her father.
Meanwhile, Penelope's suitors, the wife of the hero who is presumed to be a widow, are
they are delivered in the palace of Odysseus to the pleasures of the feast. Telemachus denounces these facts and
he finds no support for his journey until Athena, in the guise of Mentor, helps him.
During his journey, Telemachus hears praises of his father.
The tale abruptly returns to Ithaca as the suitors plot an ambush for the return.
from Telemachus...

*2ND PART: the true “Odyssey” divided into two episodes:

The tales of the court of Alcinous (songs V to XII). Narratives surrounding the adventures
the adventures of the hero Ulysses/Odysseus recounted by him before the court of the Phaeacian king Alcinous, in the
island Esqueria (where it arrives after a violent storm unleashed by Poseidon and is
helped by Princess Nausicaa
Sea dangers: Scylla and Charybdis, the Cyclopes, the land of the Lotus-Eaters, the episode of the
mermaids...
Women who want to turn him into a husband: the nymph Calypso, the sorceress Circe...
The revenge in Ithaca (chants XIII to XXIV): Odysseus has left the land of the Phaeacians and arrives
in Ithaca. The swineherd Eumaeus welcomes him hospitably without recognizing him, as he pretends to be
by a Cretan. Later, he introduces himself to his son, and both agree on a plan of action.
against the suitors. Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, enters the palace being the subject of
maltreatment by the suitors. This is followed by the interview between Odysseus and Penelope and the new
recognition by his old nurse Euryclea.
Finally, we come across the final episodes like the arc trial, the revelation of
his identity, the slaughter of the suitors, and the recognition of the husbands, ending the
poem with the recognition of Odysseus by his father Laertes and the combat that
both hold against the parents of the suitors to finally impose peace in Ithaca.

Numerous Eastern roots have been pointed out in the Homeric poems and in their heroes; without
embargo, although reasons for these traditions are taken into account, harshness and elements are eliminated.
fantastic, adding a new humanity to the hero. Heroes like Patroclus and Hector are
creation of Homer. These embody spiritual elevation, fidelity, love for the master,
to the homeland, to the friend. This is the new work of Homer, interspersed with scenes of cruelty.
primitive originating from the environment of traditional epic with its praise of valor and cunning
of the warrior.

The Homeric hero is immersed in an intensity and drama that leads us to a tension.
growing, an almost tragic spirit, in that the central theme of this poetry is the
suffering and the hero's destiny.

The Homeric heroes form a group of first-rate men who persist in the
country of memory, which is the delmythos, memorable narrative, and the delkleós, fame and the
song. They are well endowed with rarity, preeminence based on a multitude of qualities but
they are human beings, after all, equipped with flaws and weaknesses: they experience fear, they hesitate,
they suffer and become anxious, opposing to their own figure a very human type of hero who cries for
his sorrows or those of a friend, also recognizing that crying in misfortunes is a
gesture typical of a noble man.

Qualities of 'areté':

The hero symbolizes the pinnacle of human greatness and their struggle to confront
Death is so fascinating that it attracts the gaze of immortal gods.
Courage or braverythus exalting human life to a level where it reaches its maximum meaning.

Physical beauty Generally big, beautiful, and strong, constituting a world apart.

Moral virtue The Homeric hero feels free from all political power: his independence
personal has no limits. Therefore, while the fear of the gods, the strength of the
more powerful and the feeling of laid-off (honor, respect) weighs on the man
Homeric, he is free to obey.
Virility and They represent the positive aspect of the warrior function.
fortress

Eloquence They must be good speakers.

Sense of the Warriors capable of providing their sovereign both the service of the podium and the
honor of the weapons.
Intelligence The cunning, the pillaging, and the deceptions exalted his extraordinary ability.
the prevailing values in the times when the myths were formed.

Features Gigantism or dwarfism, sex changes, physical defects, mutation in animals,

exceptional gluttony, sexual excess -reaching incest-, bloody violence, etc.

Among all these virtues, some particularly adorn a specific hero.

Let's review some of them:

Achilles, the most pious hero of the poems, whose fidelity to the gods and his scruples in the
the execution of the rituals makes the inhabitants of Olympus unable to stop loving him; although, when
accepting his imminent death, instead of satisfaction, what he feels is a sensation
tragic of uselessness, for he himself is, at the same time, an instrument of tragedy both for others
as for itself.

Agamemnon, who alongside Achilles, also represents the tragic state of discontent.
with himself as with the order of the things that surround him. Although, in the face of the noble and heroic
the first door, he appears as a braggart, becoming a toy of the gods,
although he believes he is protected by the divinity. Homer presents him as the chief who in life
he is a military man, a powerful prince, but in private he is a man like others, whose
spiritual weakness contrasts with external power.

Ulysses, who represents balance, skill, and above all, cunning, as a victim of
destiny shows a new aspect: the man deeply connected to the homeland (pointing us
a new type of hero: one who fights to survive by using disguises, the
fraud and deception). He tries to be a hero and fights even against supernatural dangers,
but the result is, again, only the pathos.

Héctor is also a toy of the gods, but unlike Agamemnon, he has nothing.
of a braggart, but rather his courage bursts forth at every moment being terribly human, for the
that if Agamemnon represented the comic aspect, Hector alongside Achilles represents the side
tragic.

And finally, Paris, the loving and beautiful man par excellence, but understood this beauty
as a 'divine gift', which leads him to be characterized as frivolous and cowardly, when in
reality its authenticity pathos is in a pure misunderstanding; thus it contrasts with Hector,
loved by men, but abandoned by the gods, while Paris, hated by the
men are loved by the gods (Menelaus, for his part, would be the antithesis to beauty of
Paris, the failure).