The Iliad
Homer
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
The wrath of Achilles
Was Achilles right to withdraw from the fighting after Agamemnon took Briseis?
Keep the conversation going
- What does his quarrel with Agamemnon say about honour among the Greeks?
- Who pays the price for his anger?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
Was Achilles right to withdraw from the fighting after Agamemnon took Briseis?
Keep the conversation going
- What does his quarrel with Agamemnon say about honour among the Greeks?
- Who pays the price for his anger?
What makes Hector the most human hero in the poem?
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- What did you make of his farewell to Andromache and their son at the walls?
- Does he fight for glory, for Troy, or for his family?
How do Jove, Minerva and the other gods shape the war, and does that make the heroes less responsible?
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- Which divine intervention struck you most?
- Do the gods seem better or worse than the mortals?
Why does Achilles let Patroclus go into battle in his armour?
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- How did you feel about Patroclus's death?
- What does Achilles's grief reveal about him?
Does the poem glorify war, mourn it, or both?
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- What did the many named deaths, each with a brief life story, do to you as a reader?
- Who in the poem seems to see the war most clearly?
How did you react to the duel between Achilles and Hector, and to what Achilles does to Hector's body?
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- Is Achilles's revenge justice, madness, or grief?
- Why can't he let Hector go?
What happens between Priam and Achilles when the old king comes to ransom his son?
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- Why does Achilles weep with the father of the man he killed?
- What does that scene say about the whole poem?
Why do you think the poem ends with Hector's funeral, not with the fall of Troy?
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- What do the laments of Andromache, Hecuba and Helen add?
- Is there any hope at the end of the Iliad?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.