updated 7-24-04

Chapter 19b:
The Journey to Troy
Helen on the Wall
The Anger of Achilles
Hector and Andromache
The Embassy to Achilles
The Death of Hector
The Pleas of Priam
pages 525-546

Each of the later sections of this chapter focuses on a character or on interactions between characters.  In our earlier readings, many of the deities and heroes seem predictable and flat.  In fact, most of our attention was focused on the action.  

In Antigone we see characters revealing their inner struggles as they interact with each other on a stage.  However, to modern students, even these characters seem to spend most of their time talking, with most of the action and drama being confined to the last few scenes of the play.  And except for Creon, the characters don't seem to change very much during the course of the play.

In the Iliad, Homer's epic version of the story of the Trojan War, we begin to see characters who seem truly human, whose motives are complex, and whose problems have no easy answers.   It is perhaps our sense that these people are like us that make this one of the most famous stories ever told.

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1.  Choose one of the prominent characters in the story of the Trojan War.

2.  Choose an adjective that you feel best describes the most important or interesting quality of that character.  Remember that although many of the characters have several important qualities, you should focus on just one of them for this paper.

3.  Write a short paper--not more than two pages--that tells why you chose this quality as the most important or interesting.  Use two or three passages that show this quality in action to help you explain your choice.