2. Homer’s Mini Bio:
It is believed that
Homor was blind and
lived on the island of
Chios in the
Mediterranean,
where other poets
or rhapsodists resided.
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/3a_p1.html)

3. Homor’s Tales:
Homer wrote two of the most important literary
works, The Iliad and The Odyssey.
His stories were first recorded soon after the
Greeks invented their alphabet around 700 B.C.
Because he used a basic story pattern, his
stories were easily memorized and told for
entertainment.

4. The Illiad: the story of how a
beautiful woman, Helen, is taken
from her husband, the king of
Troy, which starts the Trojan War

5. The Odyssey: the journey of
Odysseus, King of Ithaka,
as he tries to get home
to his family following
the Trojan War

6. Setting of The Illiad:
Time: Around 1200 B.C.
Place: The Illiad tells the story of the fall of
Illium, the ancient Greek city commonly referred
to as Troy. The epic covers the last six weeks of
the ten-year war between the Greeks and the
Trojans.

7. Character Relationships in The Iliad:
Trojans:
Priam, King of Troy and Queen Hecuba
-daughters: Polyxena, Cassandra
-sons: Hector, Paris

8. Greeks (Achaeans):
Menelaus, King of Sparta, and wife Helen
Agammemnon, King of Mycenae: (brother of
Menelaus); and wife Clytemnestra
-daughter Iphegenia (niece of Helen)
Achilles: soldier; mother is the goddess Thetis who
married a mortal
Pratroclus: solider and best friend of Achilles
Ajax: soldier
Odysseus, King of Ithaka

9. Guiding Question:
In Scene 1, the narrator refers to The Illiad as a
story of “the tragic consequence of a single act”.
What is “that single act”
that starts the
Trojan War?