CLASSICS 2D03 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Chryseis, Chryses, Calchas
13 Jun 2018
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The Iliad – WEEK #8
Homer – The Iliad
Book 1:
• The poet invokes a muse to aid him in telling the story of the rage of Achilles, the greatest Greek
hero to fight in the Trojan War.
• The Narrative begins 9 years after the start of the war, as the Achaeans sack a Trojan-allied town
and capture two beautiful maidens, Chryseis and Briseis
▪ Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Achaean army takes Chryseis as his prize. Achilles,
one of the Achaeans’ most valuable warriors, claims Briseis
• Chryseis’ father, Chryses who serves as a priest of the god Apollo, begs Agamemnon to returns
his daughter and offers to pay an enormous ransom.
▪ When Agamemnon refuses, Chryses prays to Apollo for help
• Apollo sends a plague upon the Greek camp, causing the death of many soldiers
▪ After 10 days of suffering, Achilles calls an assembly of the Achaean army and asks for a
soothsayer to reveal the cause of the plague.
▪ Calchas, a powerful seer, stands and offers his services. Though he fears retribution from
Agamemnon, Calchas reveals the plague as a vengeful and strategic move by Chryses and
Apollo.
▪ Agamemnon flies into a rage and says that he will return Chryseis only if Achilles returns
Briseis as compensation
• Agamemnon’s demand humiliates and infuriates the proud Achilles.
▪ The men argue, and Achilles threatens to withdraw from the battle and take his people, the
Myrmidons, back home to Phthia.
▪ Agamemnon threatens to go to Achilles’ tend in the army camp and take Briseis himself.
▪ Achilles stands poised to draw his sword and kill the Agamemnon when the goddess
Athena, sent by Hera, the queen of the gods, appears to him and checks his anger
• Athena’s guidance, along with a speech by the wise advisor Nestor, finally succeeds in
preventing the duel
• That night, Agamemnon puts Chryseis on a ship back to her father and sends heralds to have
Briseis escorted from Achilles’ tent.
▪ Achilles prays to his mother, Thetis (sea-nymph), to ask Zeus to punish the Achaeans. He
relates to her the tale of his quarrel with Agamemnon, and she promises to take the matter
up with Zeus – who owes her a favor – as soon as he returns from a 13-day period of
feasting with the Aethiopians.
• Meanwhile, Odysseus is navigating the ship that Chryseis has boarded. When he lands, he
returns her and makes a sacrifice to Apollo.
▪ Chryses, overjoyed to see his daughter, prays to the god to lift the plague from the Achaean
camp. Apollo acknowledges his prayer and Odysseus returns to his comrades
• But the end of the plague on the Greeks only marks the beginning of worse suffering.
▪ Ever since his fight with Agamemnon, Achilles refuses to participate in battle, and, after 12
days, Thetis makes her appeal to Zeus.
▪ Zeus is reluctant to help the Trojans, because his wife Hera favors the Greeks but he finally
agrees.
▪ Hera becomes livid when she discovers that Zeus is helping the Trojans, but her son
Hephaestus persuades her not to plunge the gods into conflict over mortals
Book 2:
• To help the Trojans, Zeus sends a false dream to Agamemnon in which a figure in the form of
Nestor persuades Agamemnon that he can take Troy if he launches a full-scale assault on the
city’s walls
▪ Next day, Agamemnon gathers his troops for the attack, but, to test their courage, he lies
and tells them that he has decided to give up the wat and return to Greece. To his dismay,
they run eagerly to their ships
• When Hera sees the Greeks fleeing, she alerts Athena, who inspires Odysseus to call the men
back.
▪ He shouts words of encouragement and insult to goad their pride and restore their
confidence. He reminds them of the prophecy Calchas gave when the Greeks were first
mustering their soldiers back in Greece:
• A water snake had slithered to shore and devoured a nest of 9 sparrows and Calchas
interpreted the sign to mean that nine years would ass before the Greeks would finally
take Troy.
▪ As Odysseus reminds them, they vowed at that time that they would not abandon their
struggle until the city fell
• Nestor now encourages Agamemnon to arrange his troops by city and clan so that they can fight
side by side with their friends and in.
▪ The poet takes this opportunity to enter into a catalog of the army. After invoking the muses
to aid his memory, he details the cities that have contributed to the Greek cause.
• When Zeus sends a messenger to the Trojan court, telling them of the Greeks awesome
formation, the Trojans muster their own troops under the command of Priam’s son, Hector.
▪ The poet then catalogs the Trojan forces
Book 4: (after Book 3, Menelaus and Paris attempted single battle)
• Meanwhile, the gods engage in their own duels
▪ Zeus argues that Menelaus has won the duel and that the war should end as the mortals
had agreed. But Hera, who has invested much in the Greek cause, wants nothing less than
the complete destruction of Troy.
▪ In the end, Zeus gives way and sends Athena to the battlefield to rekindle the fighting.
• Disguised as a Trojan soldier, Athena convinces the archer Pandarus to take aim at
Menelaus. Pandarus fires, but Athena, who wants merely to give the Achaeans a pretext
for fighting, deflects the arrow so that it only wounds Menelaus
• Agamemnon now rallies the Greek ranks. He meets Nestor, Odysseus and Diomedes, among
others, and spurs them on by challenging their pride or recounting the great deeds of their
fathers
• Battle breaks out, blood flows freely. None of the major characters are killed or wounded, but
Odysseus and Ajax kill a number of Trojan figures
▪ The gods also become involved with Athena helping the Achaeans and Apollo helping the
Trojans. The efforts towards a truce have failed utterly
Book 5:
• As the battle rages, Pandarus wounds the Achaean hero Diomedes.
▪ Diomedes prays to Athena for revenge and the goddess endows him with superhuman
strength and the power to distinguish gods on the battlefield
▪ Athena warns Diomedes, however, not to challenge any of them except Aphrodite.
• Diomedes fights like a man possessed, slaughtering all the Trojans he meets.
▪ Pandarus meets a gruesome death at the end of Diomedes’ spear, and Aeneas, the noble
Trojan hero (immortalized in Virgil’s Aeneid), likewise receives a wounding at the hands of
the divinely assisted Diomedes
• When Aeneas mother, Aphrodite, comes to his aid, Diomedes wounds her too, cutting her wrist
and sending her back to Mount Olympus
▪ Aphrodite’s mother, Dione, heals her and Zeus warns Aphrodite not to try her hand at
warfare again.
• When Apollo goes to tend to Aeneas in Aphrodite’s stead, Diomedes attacks him as well.
▪ This act of aggression breaches Diomedes’ agreement with Athena, who had limited him to
challenging Aphrodite alone among the gods.
▪ Apollo, issuing a stern warning to Diomedes, effortlessly pushes him aside and whisks
Aeneas off of the field.
• Aiming to enflame the passions of Aeneas’s comrades, he lives a replica of Aeneas’ body
on the ground
• He also rouses Ares, god of war, to fight on the Trojan side
• With the help of the gods, the Trojans begin to take the upper hand in battle
▪ Hector and Ares prove too much for the Achaeans; the sight of a hero and a god battling
together frightens even Diomedes.
• The Trojan Sarpedon kills the Greek Tlepolemus
▪ Odysseus responds by slaughtering entire lines of Trojans, but Hector cuts down more
Greeks still.
• Finally, Hera and Athena appeal to Zeus, who gives them permission to intervene on the Greek’s
behalf
▪ Hera rallies the rest of the Achaean troops, while Athena encourages Diomedes.
• She withdraws her earlies injunction not to attack any of the gods except Aphrodite and
even jumps in the chariot with him to challenge Ares.
• The divinely driven chariot charges Ares, and, in the collision that follows, Diomedes
wounds Ares.
• Ares immediately flies to Mount Olympus and complains to Zeus, but Zeus counters that
Ares deserved his injury.
• Hera and Athena also leave the scene of the battle
Book 6:
• With the gods absent, the Greek forces again overwhelm the Trojans, who draw back toward
the city
▪ Menelaus considers accepting a ransom in return for the life of Adrestus, a Trojan he has
subdued, but Agamemnon persuades him to him kill the man outright
• Nestor senses the Trojans weakening and urges the Greeks not to bother stripping their fallen
enemies of their weapons, but to focus instead on killing as many as possible while they still
have the upper hand.
Document Summary
Agamemnon, calchas reveals the plague as a vengeful and strategic move by chryses and. Apollo: agamemnon flies into a rage and says that he will return chryseis only if achilles returns. Briseis as compensation: aga(cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:374)o(cid:374)"s de(cid:373)a(cid:374)d hu(cid:373)iliates a(cid:374)d i(cid:374)fu(cid:396)iates the p(cid:396)oud a(cid:272)hilles, the men argue, and achilles threatens to withdraw from the battle and take his people, the. Myrmidons, back home to phthia: aga(cid:373)e(cid:373)(cid:374)o(cid:374) th(cid:396)eate(cid:374)s to go to a(cid:272)hilles" te(cid:374)d i(cid:374) the a(cid:396)(cid:373)(cid:455) (cid:272)a(cid:373)p a(cid:374)d take briseis himself, achilles stands poised to draw his sword and kill the agamemnon when the goddess. B(cid:396)iseis es(cid:272)o(cid:396)ted f(cid:396)o(cid:373) a(cid:272)hilles" te(cid:374)t: achilles prays to his mother, thetis (sea-nymph), to ask zeus to punish the achaeans. When he lands, he returns her and makes a sacrifice to apollo: chryses, overjoyed to see his daughter, prays to the god to lift the plague from the achaean camp. Hephaestus persuades her not to plunge the gods into conflict over mortals.
