The Iliad

The Iliad

by CTCWeb Editors

The Iliad in Art

Vase painter found their inspiration and themes for their vases in Homer’s stories. The Muses worked through the painters who used the information from the Iliad and the Odyssey to recreate the stories through pictures. Some of these vase paintings illustrate the antagonistic relationship between Achilles and Hektor, the fate of Ajax and rivalries between Trojans and Achaeans throughout the Iliad. Students should use the citations below to read the story of the Iliad through pictures.

Vase Subject

Boston 13.186	Paris abducts Helen
Cincinnati 1962.386-388	Confrontation of Helen and Paris
Berlin inv. 30036	Helen meets Paris in Sparts for the first time. Aphrodite and Persuasion are present.
Boston 95.44	The marriage of Menelaos and Helen
Berlin F 1737	Odysseus and Menelaos come to collect Achilles to participate in the Trojan War
Louvre G 146	Agamemnon leads Briseis away

During the Iliad

London E 258	Achilles and Briseis
London F 157	Odysseus kills Dolon
London B193	Ajax and Achilles playinga board game
Harvard 1977.216.2244	The assembly of the gods.
Munich 1426	Achilles and Hektor fighting over body of Troilos.
Würzburg L 508	Achilles and Hektor fighting
Boston 97.368	Achilles and Memnon, Memnon falls back wounded and near death
Berlin F 2278	Achilles tending to Patroklos’ wounds
Boston 97.368	Diomedes wounds Aeneas with a spear. Aeneas tries to defend himself with his sword but is helpless.
Louvre G 115	Menelaos battles against Paris and Ajax battles against Hector.
Florence 4209	Achilles pursues Troilos
Munich 2044	The battle over the body of Patroklos, stripped of his armor
Florence 4209	The funeral games of Patroklos
Boston 01.8027	Achilles receives his armor from his mother, Thetis
Boston 63.473	Achilles drags Hektor's body past the tomb of Patroklos.
Harvard 1972.40	The ransoming of Hektor's body. Priam visits Achilles.
Vienna 3710	The ransoming of Hektor's body
Munich 2618	The ransoming of Hektor's body

Post Iliad

Philadelphia MS 3442	Achilles' death
Munich 1470	Ajax carries the dead body of Achilles
Malibu 86.AE.286	Ajax and Odysseus dispute for the arms of Achilles. The suicide of Ajax.
Louvre E 635	The Suicide of Ajax
Vienna 3695	Ajax and Odysseus quarrel over the armor of Achilles
London B 280	Aeneas carries Anchises
Naples 2422	The death of Priam
London E 336	Menelaos seizes Helen
Boston 13.186	Menelaos seizes Helen
Toledo 1967.154	Menelaos seizes Helen

Assignment

Choose three portrayals of scene from the Iliad from the above list. Then answer the following questions based on your observations.

1. How closely do the artistic portrayals of scenes from the Iliad follow the Homeric text? List those things that are different between the image and the text.

2. What other author mentions the events of the Iliad that you have chosen in their text? (Hint: Look in the Encyclopedia entries for the characters from the Iliad.)

3. Do the authors make reference to Homer in their text when re-relating an event from the Iliad?

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