1. What is the significance of the first line? What does it mean to invoke a Muse?
2. Define the term epithet and give some examples.
3. What is the metre of the Iliad and why does this matter to our understanding of its composition?
4. What is a formulaic phrase? Give examples. What is a formulaic scene? Give examples.
5. What is ring composition? Give an example.
6. What is a Homeric simile? Give an example.
7. When was the Iliad composed?
8. What is the setting of the poem?
9. What led to the Greeks' presence outside of Troy?
10. Identify Achilles, Agamemnon, Apollo, Chryses, Chryseis, Odysseus, Clytemnestra, Hera, Zeus, Diomedes, Calchas, Briseis, Nestor, Patroclus, Thetis, Hephaestus, Ares, Athena, Priam, Helen, Paris (Alexander), Hector, Thersites, Iris, Andromache, Astyanax, Menelaus, Machaon, Aeneas, Sarpedon, Glaucus.
11. What is the Epic Cycle?
12. Why is Apollo angry in Book 1? How does he show it?
13. Why is Achilles angry in Book 1? What does Athena do and say to restrain him?
14. Why is Agamemnon angry in Book 1? How does he show it? What authority does he have?
15. Define the terms kleos, time, aristeia, xenia.
16. What things are said about Helen? Who says these things?
17. Give some examples of ritual in the first six books of the Iliad.
18. What is the role of the women in the first six books of the Iliad?
19. Summarize the action and episodes of each book. Do you notice any patterns?
20. What can you say about the interactions between gods and humans?