Full Title: The Iliad

Author: Homer
Type of Work: Poem
Genre: Epic
Language:Ancient Greek
Time and place written: Unknown, but probably mainland Greece, around 750 b.c
Date of first publication: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown
Point of view: The narrator speaks in the third person. An omniscient narrator, he
frequently gives insight into the thoughts and feelings of even minor characters, gods
and mortals alike.
Tone: Awe-inspired, ironic,lamenting,pitying
Tense: Past
Setting (time): Bronze Age (around the twelfth or thirteenth century b.c.); The Iliad
begins nine years after the start of the Trojan WarSetting (Place): TroyProtagonist:
Achilleus

THE GODS
On the side of the Greeks are:

On the side of the Trojans are:

Athena

Aphrodite

Hera

Apollo

Poseidon

Artemis

Hermes

Ares

Hephaestus

Zeus

Thetis

Hera, the patron goddess of women and the home, and Athena, goddess or war
and wisdom, are opposed to the Trojans because Paris said that Aphrodite was more
beautiful than them. She is a great supporter of the Greeks, helping Diomedes after
Achilles refuses to fight, andshe loves Odysseus most of allthis is more evident in the
Odyssey. She is the goddess whostands by Achilles as he faces Hector in front of the
Trojan walls. Poseidon, the god of the sea, is also against the Trojans, but for a different
reason. He's mad because Laomedon, an ancient king of Troy (and the father of Priam,
its current king) once enslaved him and made him build the city's walls and then
refused to pay him.
Even though Apollo, god of poetry, archery, healing, and a whole lot of other
stuff, was also enslaved at that time, and also cheated out of his pay, he is backing the
Trojans. He was also the god of plague and was known as the destroyer of rats and
locust, and according to Homers Iliad, Apollo shot arrowsof plague into the Greek camp.
Apollo being the god of religioushealing would give those guilty of murder and other
immoraldeeds a ritual purification. Sacred to Apollo are the swan, the wolfand the
dolphin. His attributes are the bow and arrows, on hishead a laurel crown, and he
carries a lyre. But his most famousattribute is the tripod, the symbol of his prophetic
powers.He was Troys greatest supporter, and it took Zeus to stop himfrom defending
Hector when Achilles came to find him. So is Aphrodite, the goddess of love, whose
heart is still going pitter-patter because of Paris's original flattery. Ares, the god of war,
is also on the Trojan side. This fierce and handsome god loved and was beloved by
Aphrodite. When Aphrodite loved Adonis, Ares in his jealousy changed himself into a
bear, and killed his rival. He switched sides from the Greeks to the Trojans for her.
Athena never forgave him for that betrayal. The savage character of Ares makes him
hated by the other gods and his own parents. In the Iliad, he appears surrounded by the
personifications of all the fearful phenomena and effects of war.
Those who remain more neutral are Zeus, the king of the gods, who controls the
sky and the weather, Hephaistos, the god of fire and metal-working, and Hades, the god
of the underworld. These gods can swing one way or the other on specific occasions as

a favor as when Thetis convinces Zeus to help the Trojans, or when the same
goddess gets Hephaistos to make a snazzy new suit of armor for her son Achilles.