Question: Iliad Book I - Who? What? Where?
You've decided to read about Troy in a translation of the original version -- the Iliad, by Homer. Perhaps you're reading an online translation of the Iliad from The Internet Classics Archive. Almost immediately, you face a serious problem -- you don't know who, what or where Homer is talking about. Here are a few tips for book I. There is a link at the bottom to notes for the rest of the Iliad.
Answer:
- Peleus - Achilles' father and the husband of the nymph Thetis (mother of Achilles).
- Achaeans - name for the Greeks. Other names for the Greeks: Dorians, Argives (people of Argos), and Danaans.
- Hades - the Underworld and the name of the god of the Underworld.
- Atreus - the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Son of Atreus generally means Agamemnon.
- Jove = Jupiter = Zeus
- Leto - Mother of Artemis (= Diana) and Apollo
- Chryses - a priest of Apollo whose daughter Chryseis has been taken by Agamemnon as a war prize.
- Olympus - the home of the gods.
- Tenes - king of Tenedos, son of Apollo. Tenedos is neutral but Achilles kills Tenes.
- Sminthe - an epithet of Apollo.
- Priam - king of the Trojans.
- Phoebus - another name for Apollo.
- Calchas - prophet or seer for the Greeks. Tells Agamemnon to return Chryseis. The father of Calchas -- Thestor -- was also a seer.
- Clytemnestra - wife of Agamemnon, sister of Helen and the Dioscuri.
- Achilles, Ajax, Ulysses = Odysseus - the 3 top Greek heroes.
- Idomeneus - leader of the Cretan forces on the Greek side.
- Phthia - Home of Achilles.
- Myrmidons - troops of Achilles
- Briseis - Achilles' war prize.
- Minerva = Athena. Along with Juno = Hera, she was on the Greeks' side.
- Pylos - in the Peloponnese, an area ruled by Nestor.
- Nestor - an old Greek king of Pylos and the oldest warrior.
- Talthybius - a Greek herald.
- Eurybates - another Greek herald.
- Thebe - a city near Troy, where Chyrseis was found.
- Pallas - a name for Athena (Minerva).
- Neptune = Poseidon - sea and horse god who later plagued Odysseus on his homeward voyage.
- Briareus = Aegaeon is a hundred-handed monster.
- Saturn = Cronus/Cronos - the father of the Olympian gods and goddesses.
- Cilla - town near Troy.
- God of the silver bow - another epithet of Apollo.
- Lemnos - island in the Aegean.
- Sintians - first inhabitants of Lemnos
- Vulcan = Hephaestus - blacksmith of the gods.
- Lord of thunder - an epithet of Zeus.
- Hecatomb - sacrifice of 100 oxen.