Tales from the Iliad

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In order to understand the structure of </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Iliad</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> we must keep fast hold of the guiding clue which is supplied by the author Homer in the first line of his poem. The subject he tells us is the </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Wrath of Achilles</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. The motive of the greatest of epics is </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>wrath</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-blind unreasoning fury which knows no law and acknowledges no right. Keeping this in view we are able to explain what seems at first sight to be a strange anomaly in the conduct of the story-the absence of the hero from the scene of action during three-fourths of the narrative. For Achilles is not less the hero of </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Iliad</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> than Odysseus is the hero of </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Odyssey</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and in both cases the character of the man determines the structure of the poem.</span></p>