by Homer
1.263–68 Peirithoös and Dryas . . . slaughtered them: Peirithoös, Dryas, Kaineus, Exadios, and Polyphemos are all of the Lapith tribe in Thessaly. Their battle with the Centaurs, wild creatures that were half-man and half-horse living in the mountains of Thessaly, was a favorite subject in later Greek art. The Greek word used of the Centaurs here, phêr, literally “wild animals” is Aeolic, reflecting a native Thessalian tradition.
1.402–4 the Hundred-Handed One . . . Briareos . . . Aigaion: The poet Hesiod (Theogony, vv. 148–53) tells of three hundred-handed brothers—Briareos (meaning “strong”), Cottus, and Gyes—who are sons of Ouranos and Gaia (or Heaven and Earth). In the Iliad’s mythology, however, the father in question is perhaps Poseidon. There are a number of examples in Homeric epic of a person or thing having both a divine and human name. The incident Achilles references was a revolt against Zeus by the Olympians (in Hesiod’s poem the revolt was by the Titans, the generation of gods older than Zeus). As the commentator G. S. Kirk observes, “much remains obscure.”
1.423 the river of Ocean: Like a mighty river, Ocean encircles the Earth, and is the source of all other rivers.
1.538 the old man of the sea: Nereus, the father of Thetis and her sister Nereids.
1.594 the Sintian men: Inhabitants of the island of Lemnos who were said to be originally from Thrace.
2.103 Hermes, the messenger and slayer of Argos: The first appearance of a common epithet for Hermes, a messenger of the gods also known as “the runner.” The Greek word Argeïphontes is generally taken to mean “slayer of Argos,” a monstrous giant with one hundred eyes. Among other interpretations, some take the word to mean “swift to appear.”
2.157 who wields the aegis: This fearsome if obscure talisman of divine power is wielded by Zeus, Athena, and Apollo. Literally it means “goatskin,” but it has been suggested that the aegis was originally a thunderbolt, and goats are linked with some northern thunder-gods. In the Iliad the aegis is uncertainly described as a kind of shield with shaggy tassels.
2.157 Unwearied One: Athena is called by the ancient title Atrytone five times in the epic; different texts differ as to whether this should be capitalized as a formal epithet, or left as a simple adjective. The term is thought to mean “unwearied,” “weariless.”
2.336 Gerenian: Apparently, Gerenia was a place associated with Nestor.
2.651 equal to Enyalios: Another name for Ares.
2.718 Philoctetes: Abandoned on Lemnos on account of his noxious wound, Philoctetes was later sought out by the Achaeans, who had learned of a prophecy that Troy could not be taken without his bow and arrow, which he had inherited from Heracles.
2.782 Typhoeus: The monster offspring of Tartarus and Gaia who attempted to overthrow Zeus, but Zeus defeated him and cast him beneath the earth.
3.6 Pygmy men: Literally “fistlike men.” A popular subject in Greek art, the battle of Pygmies with cranes may have been the subject of a lost Egyptian folk tale.
4.2 lady Hebe: Daughter of Zeus and Hera whose name means “youth,” Hebe is an attendant to the gods.
4.8 Athena who stands guardian in Boeotia: In the Greek she is Athena Alalkomeneïs; the latter word refers to a cult site in Boeotia, dedicated to a local hero, Alalkomeneus.
4.101 Lycian Apollo: In the Greek Apollo’s epithet, Lukegenes, could be derived from lukos (“wolf”), or Lycia, a region in Southwest Anatolia, with which Pandaros is associated.
4.219 Chiron: The most civilized of the wild centaurs who dwelt in the wooded mountains of Thessaly, Chiron was the mentor of many heroes, including Achilles, to whom he taught his healing arts.
4.365 Tydeus: The father of Diomedes, Tydeus was one of the Seven Against Thebes, the band of heroes who marched against the tyrant of Thebes, one of the sons of Oedipus (who is referred to later at 23.679), when he refused to relinquish power to his brother. All Seven were killed, and it was left to their sons, the Epigoni (“Descendants”) to capture the city. Tydeus, a hero of old, was associated with many feats.
4.385 Thebans from the city of Cadmus: Literally Cadmeians, men of Cadmeia, or Thebes (not to be confused with Egyptian Thebes), a Greek city in Boeotia named after its founder, Cadmus.
4.515 Tritogeneia: an obscure epithet of Athena, variously explained by associations with Lake Tritonis in Libya; by the several rivers Triton in Greece; by the sea deity Triton; or by tritos, Greek for “third.”
5.236 single-hoofed: A common attribute of horses, referring to their uncloven hoofs, which form a “single” unit.
5.266 Ganymede: The most handsome man on earth and one of the sons of Tros, one of the founding kings of Troy, Ganymede was snatched away by Zeus to be cup bearer to the gods.
5.333 city-sacking Enyo: Enyo is a goddess of war, associated with Ares.
5.392 powerful son of Amphitryon: This is Heracles, son of Zeus by Alkmene, whose mortal husband was Amphitryon. Zeus’ fathering of Heracles by a mortal woman incited Hera’s undying fury. This is the first of many references to Heracles in the Iliad.
5.401 Paiëon: A god of healing whose name appears as far back as the Linear B tablets. In later tradition he is merged with Apollo, who takes the title Apollo Paiëon. A paiëon, or paean, becomes a song of praise to Apollo.
5.638ff Heracles they say . . . : A reference to one of the many feats of Heracles (Hercules in Latin). The story is embedded in a longer mythological narrative that begins with Zeus’ punishment of Apollo and Poseidon for rebellion against him. Dispatched by Zeus to work as servants for Laomedon, the grandson of Tros and the father of King Priam, the two gods were set to build the walls of Troy. When they sought due payment, Laomedon refused, and in retribution Poseidon sent a monster to terrorize the land. Laomedon then offered the semi-divine horses descended from those given to his forebear Tros (in recompense for the abduction of Ganymede to Olympus) to whomever could kill the monster. Heracles did this, but Laomedon reneged again, attempting to pass off mortal horses for the divine. Heracles then attacked and sacked Troy, killing Laomedon and all his sons, save Priam.
5.741 The Gorgon: A snake-haired monster whose dread gaze, even dead, turned men to stone.
5.845 cap of Hades: A cap of invisibility belonging to Hades, god of the underworld, the “unseen one.”
5.898 the fallen Titans: In the Greek these are the Ouraniones, or children of Ouranos (Heaven), also known as the Titans, whom Zeus overpowered and consigned to the depths of Tartaros.
6.132 nurses of raving Dionysus: Here, the god of wine is a mere baby, whom, according to tradition, his father Zeus handed to nymphs to raise in the glens of Mount Nysa.
6.168 gave him baneful signs: The only reference to writing in the Homeric poems. See the introduction, where these lines are discussed.
6.216 Oineus: King of Calydon and the father of Tydeus, hence grandfather of Diomedes.
6.319 eleven cubits length: A cubit is the approximate length of a forearm (pêku), or about seventeen to twenty inches.
7.452–53 that wall, which I and Phoebus Apollo built for the warrior Laomedon: A reference to the legend referred to above (5.638ff.), that Apollo and Poseidon built the walls of Troy while in servitude to King Laomedon.
7.468 Euneos son of Jason: One of three references in the Iliad (the others being at 21.41 and 23.747) to Jason, the hero of the saga of the Argonauts.
8.363 I kept on saving his son Heracles who was worn down by the trials set by Eurystheus: Another extended reference to Heracles (see note 5.638ff. above). Heracles, despised by Zeus’ wife Hera, was compelled to serve his brutal cousin King Eurystheus, performing a series of “trials” (the Greek word, athloi, literally means “contests”), including descending into Hades to bring back Cerberus, “the hound of hateful Hades” (v. 365), who guards the entrance to Erebus, or the Underworld. The twelve labors of Heracles are not yet standardized in the Iliad.
8.479 Iapetos and Cronus: Titan sons of Ouranus and the fathers of, respectively, Prometheus and Zeus; Zeus overthrew them and confined them
in the depths of Tartaros.
8.480 Helios Hyperion: The sun.
9.142–45 Orestes . . . Chrysothemis and Laodike and Iphianassa: The son and three daughters of Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra. The names of the daughters do not accord with well-known classical tradition, which knows of Iphigenia and Electra.
9.188 Eëtion: Here, king of Thebes and father of Andromache; there are several men by this name mentioned in the Iliad.
9.405 Pytho: Another name for Delphi, the oracular site sacred to Apollo, who is sometimes referred to as Pythian Apollo for his slaying of a great python. Pytho is also mentioned in the Catalogue of Ships, at 2.519.
9.571 Erinys: The Fury; one of the Furies (in Greek Erinyes), vengeful spirits beneath the earth, agents of the gods of the underworld.
Book 10, the Doloneia: Even in antiquity there was question as to whether this very Odyssean interlude represented by the entirety of Book 10 originally belonged to the Iliad. Modern opinion runs the whole gamut, from those who believe it is Iliadic, to those who believe it is the work of Homer but not original to the Iliad, to those who believe it to be the work of an unrelated hand. See Bryan Hainsworth, The Iliad: A Commentary, Vol. III: books 9–12 (Cambridge, 2000), 151–55. To the ear of this translator, the book sounds Homeric, but not native to the Iliad. That said, it is not badly integrated into the Iliad’s action, and it gives audiences a chance to see Odysseus, that favorite hero of the Trojan War, in action.
11.1 Tithonos: Priam’s half-brother, whom Dawn took to be her lover.
11.270 the spirits attending birth-pain: In Greek, these are the Eileithyiai, possibly meaning “the goddesses who come,” either because their coming signifies the onset of birth-pain or because they come in time of need; but there is much evidence that they are pre-Greek. Compare with 16.187.
11.682 Neleian Pylos: Pylos the city of Neleus, Nestor’s father.
11.690 Heracles had committed outrages: According to legend Heracles fought Neleus, Nestor’s father, who was the son of Poseidon, at Pylos; Poseidon came to his son’s rescue.
11.709 two Moliones: This means “the two sons of Molos,” Molos being their mother (or possibly referring to their mother’s father). In the Iliad the brothers Kteatos and Eurytos are simply twins, but later tradition has them as Siamese twins. They are named in the Catalogue of Ships at 2.621.
11.750–51 Molione boys, from the line of Aktor, had not their father, the wide-ruling Earth-Shaker Poseidon: Poseidon was the real father of the twins, Aktor being their human father-in-name.
13.4–6 Thracians . . . Mysians . . . Hippemolgoi . . . the Abioi: All four are pastoralist tribes of the northern steppes. Hippemolgoi literally means “Mare-milkers.”
13.669 Achaeans’ harsh fine for deserters: A reminder that not every man at Troy was there for glory.
14.201–4. Ocean, the source of the gods, and mother Tethys: Elsewhere in mythology, Ocean and Tethys are children of Ouranos and Gaia (Heaven and Earth), the ultimate “source” of gods. Here, the implication is that Oceanos and Tethys are the primordial source. Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of Zeus and his sister Hera, gave Hera to Ocean and Tethys for safekeeping, while Zeus did battle with their father and the other Titans.
14.250ff. Heracles, that overbearing son of Zeus: Following Heracles’ sack of Ilion (5.638ff., above), Hera induced Sleep to visit Zeus, so that she could torment his hated son with yet another trial, this time by driving him off course at sea, to the island of Kos.
14.279 Tartaros: The lowest part of the underworld—no place on earth is lower. 14.290–91 a clear-voiced bird, which in the mountains the gods call chalkis, but men kymindis: This is a kind of large owl, possibly the eagle-owl, and another example of the dual terminology used by gods and men (see note for 1.402–4).
14.296 in secret from their beloved parents: Zeus and Hera are brother and sister as well as husband and wife. Evidently, their sexual relationship began while in their parents’ home.
14.434 Xanthos, which is born of immortal Zeus: The river Xanthos, also called Scamander, is born of Zeus in that Zeus, the god of weather, fills the river with rain.
15.87 Themis of the lovely cheeks: The Greek word themis means “accepted practice,” “custom,” “that which is permitted or decent.” Significantly, the goddess Themis presides over orderly feasting. She is asked by Zeus to call a key assembly at 20.4.
15.204 the Furies: The Erinyes (see note to 9.571), here in the plural, punish various transgressions, especially violations of family bonds and order, such as disrespect for an older brother.
16.175 whom the daughter of Peleus bore, beautiful Polydora: Polydora, the half-sister of Achilles, lay with the river god Spercheios; Spercheios was the principal river in Achilles’ homeland, Phthia.
16.184 Hermes the healer: Hermes’ epithet akákêta is usually taken to derive from a verb meaning “to heal”; other interpretations have it meaning something along the lines of “without guile,” or an association with a cult located on Mount Akakesion in Arcadia.
16.187 Eileithyia, the goddess who causes pain in birth: At 11.270 the “spirits attending birth pain” are called Eileithyiai in the plural form; here a single goddess is named, a daughter of Zeus and Hera.
16.233–35 Lord Zeus of Pelasgian Dodona . . . with unwashed feet: This most solemn prayer evokes Zeus of Dodona, a sanctuary sacred to Zeus in northwest Greece, known for its oracle, which spoke through the leaves of a sacred oak; in its antiquity it rivaled the oracle at Delphi. The Pelasgians were a prehistoric tribe whom ancient writers regarded as indigenous to Greece. The Selloi (there is good support for reading “Helloi” here), the priests interpreting the oracular pronouncements, may have gone barefoot so as to draw strength from the earth. Long without a temple or other major structure, Dodona evokes the open-air, direct worship of the great god of the sky and storms. Its substantial ruins can be seen today some twelve miles southwest of modern Ioannina.
16.543 at the hands of Patroclus: Glaukos’ words indicate that the Trojans and their allies now realize that Achilles has not returned to battle after all, and recognize that the warrior in Achilles’ armor is Patroclus.
18.39–49 There was Glauke . . . daughters of Nereus: The names of these thirty-three Nereids are “speaking names,” which—like the names of many of the minor warriors—evoke their attributes. Roughly, they translate as Glauke/Gleaming, Thaleia/Blooming, Kymodoke/She Who Calms the Sea, Nesaie/Girl of the Island, Speio/Cave, Thoë/Swift, Halia/Of the Salt Sea, Kymothoë/Swift-Wave, Aktaia/She of the Shore, Limnoreia/Guardian of the Harbor, Melite/Honey Sweet, Iaira/Fleet, Amphithoë/Very Swift, Agauë/Wondrous, Doto/Giver, Proto/First Lady, Pherousa/She Who Bears the Ships, Dynamene/Enabler, Dexamene/Protector, Amphinome/Rich in Pasture, Kallianeira/Beautiful, Doris/Gift of the Sea, Panope/All-Seeing, Galateia/Milk White, Nemertes/Unfailing, Apseudes/Truthful, Kallianassa/Beautiful Lady, Klymene/Famous, Ianeira/Strong, Ianassa/Strong One, Maira/Sparkler, Oreithyia/Mountain Rushing, and Amatheia/Sandy.
For further discussion of these names, see Mark W. Edwards, The Iliad: A Commentary, vol. 5, Books 17–20 (Cambridge, 1991), 147ff.
18.489 alone has no part in the baths of Ocean: The constellation Arctos, the Bear, also known as the Wagon and the Big Dipper, never dips below the horizon into the Ocean.
18.570 the mournful harvest song: Or “the Linos-song.” Linos was the son of Apollo and one of the Muses. According to one account, he was killed by his father, who was jealous of his singing. The Linos-song seems to have been a mournful lament. Linos may also have been a vegetation god of eastern origin, who dies in the autumn; here his song seems to be associated with harvest-time.
19.119ff but stopped the childbirth of Alkmene: Alkmene was seduced by Zeus, who deceitfully took the form of her husband; as a consequence, she became pregnant with Heracles. Hera’s first act of vengeful wrath was to ensure that Eurystheus, also of the line of Zeus, would be firstborn on this day, and therefore the more powerful of the two men. See al
so note on 5.392.
19.327 Neoptolemos the godlike in beauty: This is the only mention in the Iliad of Achilles’ son, Neoptolemos, whose name is Greek for “new war.” His mother was the daughter of a king of Scyros, where according to tradition Thetis had hidden her son, so as to escape his fated death at Troy.
20.145ff. to the wall of godlike Heracles: Yet another reference to the story of the sea monster sent by Poseidon when Laomedon reneged on his payment to the gods, and Heracles’ slaying of the monster and subsequent sack of Troy (see also 5.638ff. and 7.452–3).
20.297ff And why does this guiltless man suffer agonies now: Although of the royal house of Troy, descended from Zeus’ son Dardanos, Aeneas was not a son of Laomedon, and therefore not tainted by Laomedon’s guilt in cheating Poseidon and Apollo of their wages. A later tradition held that descendants of Aeneas still ruled in the Troad. The survival of Aeneas after the fall of Troy was the basis for the Roman legend celebrated by Vergil in the Aeneid.
21.42 Eëtion of Imbrios: Not the Eëtion who is Andromache’s father (in the Greek text, this is line 21.43).
21.194 the august river Achelous: The Achelous in northwest central Greece is the longest river in Greece (another Anatolian Achelous is referred to at 24.616).
21.443–44 when to bold Laomedon we came from Zeus to serve as laborers for a year: This differs from the earlier reference to the year of servitude (7.452–3), which has both gods toiling on the walls.
21.483–84 a lion among only women, and granted you to kill which of these you like: The sudden death of a woman was attributed to the arrows of Artemis; so Andromache recalls the death of her mother at 6.428.
23.441 without swearing to an oath: That he did not intentionally foul Menelaos. He is indeed required to take the oath (at 23.581ff.).