Mortals and gods, how many of these 30 Iliad Characters did you come up with? Which others would you add? Picture © Clipart.com
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How Many Major Characters in the Iliad Can You Remember?
By N.S. Gill, About.com GuideFebruary 17, 2011
Mortals and gods, how many of these 30 Iliad Characters did you come up with? Which others would you add? Explore Ancient / Classical History
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Comments
Somebody forgot Diomedes, which is surprising since there was an entire chapter about the daring midnight raid he and Odysseus perpetrated on the Trojans. Also, he was the one who wounded Aphrodite (with Athena’s help,) in the battle where all the immortals joined in. And he figures prominently in the rest of the epic, too.
And let’s not forget Teuker, the plucky archer who sniped at Trojans from behind Aias’ giant shield! The two had the same father, Telamon.
Also, add Idomeneus, king of the Cretans and ally to the Argives (Greeks). His wisdom in counsel and skill at arms was highly respected.
As for immortals, I would add Ares (the war god, of course,) his sister Eris (”strife”) who started the Trojan war in the first place (although I don’t think she makes a physical appearance in the Iliad, but she is mentioned, and is definitely a “major character,”) and Xanthus the river god who fights for the Trojans, but is nearly boiled away when he faces Hephaestus.
Thanks for the additions. I thought I was missing a few central characters.
As to who wrote down the Iliad for the first time; I am confused. I thought the theory was that Homer was a bard who recited the poem, that other bards took up the tale over time at that it was finally written down in the 8 century BC. I thought some dictator in AThens (Pictaturus?) had it written down. However, I’m reading Nagy and he seems vague on this point. Any idea on the first historical reference is to a written copy of the first, best story in the world?
Bill
Homer is sort of a shorthand. We don’t know that there was a Homer. The legends were passed down for hundreds of years before the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer were written. There is a lot of material you could read on the subject. This article from when I started at About.com — with pages from Kris Hirst (archaeology) may help: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa090198.htm