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University of Colorado at Boulder Honor Pride and Its Role in Legacy Discussion

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It is a free writing paper that needs to connect the story/characters to a theme in the illiad by homer. I have supplied a brief summary and character list but quotes will be needed as well.

Iliad

Nine years after the start of the Trojan War, the Greek (“Achaean”) army sacks Chryse, a town allied with Troy.
During the battle, the Achaeans capture a pair of beautiful maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. Agamemnon, the
leader of the Achaean forces, takes Chryseis as his prize, and Achilles, the Achaeans’ greatest warrior, claims
Briseis. Chryseis’s father, Chryses, who serves as a priest of the god Apollo, offers an enormous ransom in
return for his daughter, but Agamemnon refuses to give Chryseis back. Chryses then prays to Apollo, who
sends a plague upon the Achaean camp.

After many Achaeans die, Agamemnon consults the prophet Calchas to determine the cause of the plague.
When he learns that Chryseis is the cause, he reluctantly gives her up but then demands Briseis from Achilles
as compensation. Furious at this insult, Achilles returns to his tent in the army camp and refuses to fight in the
war any longer. He vengefully yearns to see the Achaeans destroyed and asks his mother, the sea-nymph
Thetis, to enlist the services of Zeus, king of the gods, toward this end. The Trojan and Achaean sides have
declared a ceasefire with each other, but now the Trojans breach the treaty and Zeus comes to their aid.

With Zeus supporting the Trojans and Achilles refusing to fight, the Achaeans suffer great losses. Several days
of fierce conflict ensue, including duels between Paris and Menelaus and between Hectorand Ajax. The
Achaeans make no progress; even the heroism of the great Achaean warrior Diomedes proves fruitless. The
Trojans push the Achaeans back, forcing them to take refuge behind the ramparts that protect their ships. The
Achaeans begin to nurture some hope for the future when a nighttime reconnaissance mission by Diomedes
and Odysseus yields information about the Trojans’ plans, but the next day brings disaster. Several Achaean
commanders become wounded, and the Trojans break through the Achaean ramparts. They advance all the
way up to the boundary of the Achaean camp and set fire to one of the ships. Defeat seems imminent,
because without the ships, the army will be stranded at Troy and almost certainly destroyed.

Concerned for his comrades but still too proud to help them himself, Achilles agrees to a plan proposed by
Nestor that will allow his beloved friend Patroclus to take his place in battle, wearing his armor. Patroclus is a
fine warrior, and his presence on the battlefield helps the Achaeans push the Trojans away from the ships and
back to the city walls. But the counterattack soon falters. Apollo knocks Patroclus’s armor to the ground, and
Hector slays him. Fighting then breaks out as both sides try to lay claim to the body and armor. Hector ends up
with the armor, but the Achaeans, thanks to a courageous effort by Menelaus and others, manage to bring the
body back to their camp. When Achilles discovers that Hector has killed Patroclus, he fills with such grief and
rage that he agrees to reconcile with Agamemnon and rejoin the battle. Thetis goes to Mount Olympus and
persuades the god Hephaestus to forge Achilles a new suit of armor, which she presents to him the next
morning. Achilles then rides out to battle at the head of the Achaean army.

Meanwhile, Hector, not expecting Achilles to rejoin the battle, has ordered his men to camp outside the walls of
Troy. But when the Trojan army glimpses Achilles, it flees in terror back behind the city walls. Achilles cuts
down every Trojan he sees. Strengthened by his rage, he even fights the god of the river Xanthus, who is
angered that Achilles has caused so many corpses to fall into his streams. Finally, Achilles confronts Hector
outside the walls of Troy. Ashamed at the poor advice that he gave his comrades, Hector refuses to flee inside
the city with them. Achilles chases him around the city’s periphery three times, but the goddess Athena finally
tricks Hector into turning around and fighting Achilles. In a dramatic duel, Achilles kills Hector. He then lashes
the body to the back of his chariot and drags it across the battlefield to the Achaean camp. Upon Achilles’
arrival, the triumphant Achaeans celebrate Patroclus’s funeral with a long series of athletic games in his honor.
Each day for the next nine days, Achilles drags Hector’s body in circles around Patroclus’s funeral bier.

At last, the gods agree that Hector deserves a proper burial. Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort King Priam,
Hector’s father and the ruler of Troy, into the Achaean camp. Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take pity on
a father bereft of his son and return Hector’s body. He invokes the memory of Achilles’ own father, Peleus.

Deeply moved, Achilles finally relents and returns Hector’s corpse to the Trojans. Both sides agree to a
temporary truce, and Hector receives a hero’s funeral.

Achilles- Greek demi-god hero, son of Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis. Most powerful warrior in this epic.
Headstrong and stubborn. Known for his wrath.
Briseis-A war prize of Achilles. When Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis to her father, he appropriates
Briseis as compensation, sparking Achilles’ great rage.

Agamemnon-King of Mycenae and leader of the Achaean army; brother of King Menelaus of Sparta. Arrogant
and often selfish, Agamemnon provides the Achaeans with strong but sometimes reckless and self-serving
leadership. Like Achilles, he lacks consideration and forethought. Most saliently, his tactless appropriation of
Achilles’ war prize, the maiden Briseis, creates a crisis for the Achaeans, when Achilles, insulted, withdraws
from the war.

Menelaus-King of Sparta; the younger brother of Agamemnon. While it is the abduction of his wife, Helen, by
the Trojan prince Paris that sparks the Trojan War, Menelaus proves quieter, less imposing, and less arrogant
than Agamemnon. Though he has a stout heart, Menelaus is not among the mightiest Achaean warriors.

Paris-A son of Priam and Hecuba and brother of Hector. Paris’s abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of
Menelaus, sparked the Trojan War. Paris is self-centered and often unmanly. He fights effectively with a bow
and arrow (never with the more manly sword or spear) but often lacks the spirit for battle and prefers to sit in
his room making love to Helen while others fight for him, thus earning both Hector’s and Helen’s scorn.

Hector-A son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, Hector is the mightiest warrior in the Trojan army. He mirrors
Achilles in some of his flaws, but his bloodlust is not so great as that of Achilles. He is devoted to his wife,
Andromache, and son, Astyanax, but resents his brother Paris for bringing war upon their family and city

Helen-Reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the ancient world, Helen was stolen from her husband,
Menelaus, and taken to Troy by Paris. She loathes herself now for the misery that she has caused so many
Trojan and Achaean men. Although her contempt extends to Paris as well, she continues to stay with him.

Diomedes-The youngest of the Achaean commanders, Diomedes is bold and sometimes proves impetuous.
After Achilles withdraws from combat, Athena inspires Diomedes with such courage that he actually wounds
two gods, Aphrodite and Ares.

Andromache-Hector’s loving wife, Andromache begs Hector to withdraw from the war and save himself before
the Achaeans kill him.
Patroclus-Achilles’ beloved friend, companion, and advisor, Patroclus grew up alongside the great warrior in
Phthia, under the guardianship of Peleus. Devoted to both Achilles and the Achaean cause, Patroclus stands
by the enraged Achilles but also dons Achilles’ terrifying armor in an attempt to hold the Trojans back.

Priam-King of Troy and husband of Hecuba, Priam is the father of fifty Trojan warriors, including Hector and
Paris. Though too old to fight, he has earned the respect of both the Trojans and the Achaeans by virtue of his
level-headed, wise, and benevolent rule. He treats Helen kindly, though he laments the war that her beauty
has sparked.

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