1. Why is the first word of the poem "rage"? What else do we learn in the very first lines?
2. What are the characters, motives, and reasoning of Agamemnon and Achilles? How many causes, immediate or underlying, can you find for their quarrel? How would you divide up responsibility for the quarrel between the two leaders?
3. What role do the gods have in determining the action of the poem? What do the poet's descriptions of the world of the gods contribute to the poem? (Consider these for all other books as well.)
4. What repetitions of phrases and scenes do you note here and in later books? What is the effect of such repetitions?
5. What do you think of Nestor?
1. What kind of people are Paris and Helen?
2. What does the poet suggest about who is responsible for the war?
3. Why is the duel between Paris and Menelaus here, after Achaeans and Trojans have been fighting for nine years?
4. What is accomplished by the scene where Helen and the old men watch from the wall?
1. Why does the poet include the rather odd conversation between Glaucus and Diomedes?
2. Whom does Hector meet in Troy? What interactions does he have with each of them?
3. What is the relationship between Hector and Andromache? What does their scene contribute to the poem?
1. Why are Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix the envoys sent to Achilles? How do their arguments differ? What does each accomplish?
2. A psychologist might say that Achilles is having an "existential crisis" here. Why? What is going through his mind?
3. Why does Phoenix tell the long story about Meleager?
1. What effect does Hera's seduction of Zeus have on the narrative?
2. Why does Homer include another invocation at the end of this book?
1. Why does Achilles let Patroclus go into battle?
2. Note that the poet addresses Patroclus directly several times. Why?
3. Why does Zeus not save Sarpedon? What does this suggest about the power of fate and the gods?
4. What is the role of Apollo in Patroclus' death?
5. The long passage is which a hero defeats all before him is called an aristeia. What is the effect of Patroclus' aristeia?
1. What does Achilles' reaction to Patroclus' death tell us about him?
2. What do you make of Hephaistos and his workshop?
3. What kinds of things are on the shield Hephaistos makes for Achilles? What is their significance?
1. Why does Hector stand and face Achilles? In what ways is Hector like Patroclus? How is he different?
2. What are we to make of Achilles here? Is he justifiably enraged, or over the brink?
3. What is the role of Athena in Hector's death?
4. Why do the Trojans lament as if Troy were burning?
5. Why is Andromache not watching the duel like everyone else? What is the effect of the poet's description of her reaction to Hector's death?
1. What is the role of Hermes here?
2. Why is Achilles finally persuaded to be kind to Priam?
3. Has Achilles changed since the beginning of the poem?
4. Why does the poem end with Hector's funeral, if it is about the rage of Achilles?
5. What is the content and the effect of the funeral dirges of Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen?
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