The Iliad — Book 2 — The Great Gathering of Armies

• Reading time: about 45 minutes

• line 63: Atrides=Agamemnon, son of Atreus.

• A false dream comes to Agamemnon, and then Agamemnon plans a false test.

• Don’t get mixed up. The book starts with Zeus sending a false dream to Agamemnon that he should attack Troy. Remember that this is just Zeus’s trick to hurt Agamemnon in order to help Achilles revenge. Agamemnon believes the dream and announces his plan to his chiefs.
• But then, on line 87, Agamemnon announces to the chieftains that he wants to test his troops (who are like bees–line 103) by telling them that the Achaeans will never win the war and that they should just pack up and sail home. To his surprise, the troops race to the ships to leave.
• Hera is shocked and races to Athena to prevent this mess. Athena goes to Odysseus and tells him to do something to stop the troops. Odysseus runs around stopping people till he get to Thersites.
• Thersites: this terrific portrait of Thersites (246ff) inspired Shakespeare, who wrote his satire of the Iliad, Troilus and Cressida, based on Thersites’s character here.

• Thersites
  • Thersites is the one non-aristocrat among the Achaeans, and they despise him. Martin Mueller points out that Thersites has no right to speak, despite the fact that what he says is exactly what Achilles said.

• Lines 1-300 The psychology and sociology of Agamemnon, the troops, Thersites, and Odysseus
  • We have this fascinating psychological and sociological perspective of the Achaean army here in the first 300 or so lines. We see the interaction of Agamemnon and his fellow leaders, the strategies of leadership that agamemnon and then Odysseus employ, the reaction of the troops, and the place of the outcast figure, Thersites.
  • What observations do you have of the interaction of the Achaeans here? [Discuss Iliad Bk02 Q02]

• Odysseus the leader. 282ff.

• Notice how Odysseus takes command of the chaos that Agamemnon’s foolish plan caused. Notice how he deals with Thersites, then the troops, and finally Agamemnon himself. What are the traits of Odysseus’s character that come out in this scene? [Discuss Iliad Bk02 Q01]
• Nestor seconds Odysseus call for constancy, to stick to the original plan until they take Troy. Notice that Nestor brings Agamemnon back to his senses and even brings about a change of mind in Agamemnon. Agamemnon realizes his fight with Achilles was over something trivial, a girl (line 448).
• Nestor asks for a muster of the troops (line 518), which Agamemnon agrees to.

You can skip lines 572-894

• The Trojans

• Ilium=Troy
• Priam=the king of Troy. Hector=Priam’s son and greatest Trojan fighter. Aeneas=another great Trojan fighter who survives the war and goes to found Rome. Read all about it in the Latin epic, The Aeneid by Virgil.