Ancient Literature Week 6 (Sept. 26-30)

Questions from Mythology on The Iliad
Part 4, Chapter 1 in Mythology
1. What is the first sentence in the Iliad? (you can find this on-line at the website I gave you earlier www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook.html ) *Based on this one line what do you think the Iliad is about?
2. What is the last line in the Iliad?
3. According to myth, what was the origin of the Trojan War?
4. What bribe did each goddess offer Paris?
5. Why were the young princes of Greece willing to fight Troy to win back Helen for Menelaus? (page 259)
6. Why did Odysseus not want to fight to regain Helen? (page 260)
7. How did he try to get out of it?
8. How was he found out?
9. What else do you already know about Achilles?
10. Why did Achilles’ mother not want him to fight at Troy?
11. How did she try to hide him and how was he found?
12. Identify the following immortals and mortals and their significance to the Iliad.
Agamemnon:
Artemis
Iphigenia (include what lie her father told her mother):
Priam:
Hecuba:
Hector:
13. Who were the two greatest fighters at Troy—one for Troy & one for Greece? 14.*What action by the Greeks angered Apollo? (p. 263)
15. What action did Apollo take against the Greeks?
16. What was the quarrel between Achilles & Agamemnon?
17. Why did Thetis, the mother of Achilles, want Zeus to aid Troy in the war?
18. On page 264 we are told that the gods took sides in this war. Aphrodite, Athena, Hera, Apollo, Ares, Poseidon, and Artemis are discussed. Who did each side with and why?
19. On page 273 we are told that the gods actually joined in the fighting by fighting each other. Who fought whom?
20. What two men were selected to fight each other and determine the outcome of the entire war? Why?
21. What was the outcome?
22. Why did Hera who opposed Troy not want Troy to surrender Helen?
23. Was Hector’s prayer on page 268 answered? (Answer is on page 289)
24. What did Agamemnon want to do after Zeus entered the battle on the side of Troy?
25. What did Nestor convince Agamemnon to do?
26. Why did Achilles finally enter the battle?
27. Who Killed Hector?
28. Did this end the war?
29. What did the killer do with Hector’s dead body?


Questions on The Fall of Troy (from Mythology)
Part 4, Chapter 2 from Mythology
1. Describe the death of Achilles.
2. How was it decided who would get the arms of Achilles?
3. How did Ajax die?
4. Why was Ajax buried and not burned on the a funeral pyre and buried in an urn?
5. What did the Trojan prophet Helenus say was necessary for Troy to fall?
6. Who had them?
7. When Philoctetes finally went into battle who was the first man he wounded with Hercules’ bow and arrow?
8. Did the death of Paris result in the defeat of Troy?
9. Then the Greeks “learned” that unless they removed a statue of Athena called the Palladium from Troy, Troy would never fall. After removing the Palladium, what was the Greeks next plan to defeat Troy?
10. How did Odysseus trick the Trojans into taking the horse into their city?
11. Who killed Priam?
12. Which two members of the Trojan royal family were sacrificed by the Greeks
after the fall of Troy? How was each sacrificed?
13. What happened to the women and children of Troy?
14. How did Helen escape from Troy?