RE233 Lecture 1: 1
Document Summary
The iliad begins in medias res (in the middle of the subject). It is not a chronicle of the trojan war, but a study of rage. In other words, it deals with a particular and all too human emotion and experience: rage (wrath, anger) driven by, the contemporary reader might say, too much testosterone this, not the war as such, is its subject matter. Book 1 launches us immediately into the action. The iliad narrates the events of a short period of time near the end of the trojan war: the focus is on the greek hero achilles, his anger at. Agamemnon, and the consequences of that anger for himself and for all those fighting at troy. Achilles"s armor, temporarily turning the trojans back, but then dies at hector"s hands. In book 20, achilles returns to battle, driven to avenge his dead friend, and kills hector.
