Iliad: Books 1-12
Notes by russell
1

I have read and read this attractive edition of The Iliad. I do so again for its own sake, but also because I wish to explicitly incorporate elements of it into my novel The League of Berries and Laurels, and this service for structured note taking should help with that. Many years of improvements can be made to this manifest over many years of readings.

A good resource for classics is the website Perseus.

13

Book 1

It might behoove me to record a genealogy wherever possible.

My Genealogy from the Iliad Using Mermaid

Peleus - son-> Achilles

Zeus -+-> Leto -son-> Apollo

The priest Chryses comes to free his daughter.

15

Atreus -son-> Agamemnon

Apollo rains arrows down on the Danaans because Chryses prays to him, mentioning the fair shrine he made and the fat thigh pieces of bulls and goats he burned, which is a pretty good return on investment. Many are killed.

21

Agamemnon -- married to --> Clytemnestra

26

Βρῑσηΐς Brīsēís nominative -> Βρισηΐδα in the dative?

27

What is the origin of the diaeresis ï in Briseïs name? Was this a later phonetic inclusion, or is it indicative of something about the original Greek?

Writing action in literature is very difficult, and the Iliad is the ur-text for this small aspect of literary writing, as it is for most every aspect of literature. To carry the action one act to the next often cheapens the plot, the characters involved in the action, and the writing. The introduction of contemplation is a powerful thing, but without the mimetic scheme of the introduction of discourse with the gods, even contemplation can feel fallow, or out of keeping with the action, and fails to represent reality.

31

An oath, the first, I think, is made upon a staff that is described as no more able to grow leaves or shoots.

33

The term shepherd of men is interesting in consideration of Christ's appellation, although they are not likely related.
From Wikipedia:

Dryas, a leader of the Lapiths against the Centaurs, and a participant of the battle that began at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia, where he killed the Centaur Rhoetus, who had killed his fellow Lapiths Corythus and Euagrus just before that.[10][11] In Iliad 1, Nestor numbers Dryas among an earlier generation of heroes of his youth, "the strongest men that Earth has bred, the strongest men against the strongest enemies, a savage mountain-dwelling tribe [i. e. the Centaurs] whom they utterly destroyed", and call him "shepherd of the people".[12] No trace of such an oral tradition, which Homer's listeners would have recognized in Nestor's allusion, survived in literary epic.

35

Achilles establishes a foundational principle of free citizenry, although it has gone through many permutations and mutations on its way to its present inheritors. The individual's relationship to leaders is not to do as they say in every instance, but rather according to argument and the individual's discretion.

42

Βρισῆος - Briseus

43

Briseus is Brisïes' father.

Achilles recounts how Thetis warded off Cronus' destruction and entreats her to ask Zeus to come to his aid because of this.

47

Odysseus' and Chryses' tribute to Apollo, return of Chryseis.

53

she leapt into the deep sea from gleaming Olympus is such an expedient and jarring close to their discourse. Still it seems replete. ἅλα (a(/la) is sea - βαθεῖαν (baqei=an) is deep

57

Hephaestus warns of Zeus' power and recounts his fall to Lemnos where the Suntan people took care of him.

At the end of every book, I will post a link to my genealogy that is current through the book. These can then be reviewed to see when a character was introduced.

The Iliad: Genealogy Book 1

61

Book 2

Book 2 on Perseus

Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon with the intent of revenging Achilles for Thetis.

69

Here is described the provenance of Agamemnon's scepter forged by Hephaestus.

73

Agammemnon, in a speech starting on page 69, suggests they depart, even though they outnumber the Trojans. He uses a strange figure of wine bearers to articulate the disparity in men.
The Argives are eager to go, but Hera instructs Athena to go among them and waylay their departure.

The aegis of the Atrytone, I believe, is a moth.

75

Odysseus tries to intercede, but Agamemnon is driven on by destructive Dream.

79

Odysseus scolds Thersites.

85

The portent of the serpent that slithered out from the altar of the hecatomb to devour sparrows.

89

Nestor proposes dividing up the Achaeans into tribes and clans so that they can know who among the leaders and men are cowards.