The epic features of the Iliad

An epic is a long narrative poem and The Iliad upholds this quality. The Iliad
was originally composed in Greek language and was translated widely by
various other languages including English, The Iliad is a primary epic. In all
orally composed epic poems, we have certain features in common. First of all,
they are partly based on some historical events. The Iliad deals with the
Trojan War that was a historical event, describing the tales of the battles and
events of Trojan War. Other features of an epic lie in its exalted narrative style,
its unity of action, rapidity, the art of beginning, the use of the supernatural,
the ornamental simple, the recurrent epithet etc. The Iliad accommodates all
these features.

The opening of an epic is usually an invocation to some supernatural power or

gods and goddesses. The Iliad then begins with such an invocation. The poet
seeks the help of a goddess so that he can successfully narrate this story. The
first line of the Iliad is: The wrath, sing goddess, of peleus son Achilles.

A primary epic is originally composed to/be sung or recited to music. The

first line of The Iliad shows this intention of oral nature. In an epic, and
particularly in a primary epic, there are supernatural agents who are involved
in human affairs. In The Iliad we find a significant number of gods and
goddesses influencing human affairs. Gods and goddesses even have their
human offspring Achilles, for example, is the son of Thetis, the sea nymph. The
very cause of Trojan War as The Iliad narrates was the cause of Aphrodite’s
involvement with Paris, the Trojan prince. Gods and goddesses even quarrel
and fight among themselves about human affairs. They often appear to their
favorites in human shapes. The presence of such supernatural agencies in The
Iliad is one of the striking features of its epic nature.

The epic story usually is not a common story of day-to-day affairs. It has some
national or international significance. Thus the war between the Trojans and
the Greeks (Achaeans) was a matter of existence of glory or fall. The Iliad does
not end with the fall of Troy, but obviously the story indicates that Troy must
fall. We can categorize The Iliad as an epic by the uses of catalogues, the story
uses catalogues of things and characters there are many lists both long and
short for example in book one there is a list of the ships that sailed from
Greece to Troy. Apart from this aspect, a primary epic is generated by periods
of upheaval, of struggle and adventure. The narration of Trojan War is a clear
indication of this upheaval or adventure

An epic poem has an epic hero who possesses immense stature and strength.
In fact, epic heroes are larger than life demigods or heroes. In The Iliad,
Achilles exhibits godlike qualities that are more than human, he lift the latch
of the door of his stockade require the strength of three soldiers but Achilles
lift it with one hand . Hector, another hero is almost parallel to Achilles. As
usual, both in primary and secondary epics, single combat are a common plot
device.
Thus Achilles and Hector face each other in mortal combat. They use mortal
weapons like shields, spears etc, that are also epic elements. An epic whether
primary or secondary has a distinctive narrative style such as the use of
elevated languages which are revealed through the use of various kinds of
figures of speech like similes metaphors, stock phrases, epithets or repetitions
etc. The Iliad abounds with such figures of speech. Epithets like soft-footed
Achilles "ox-eyed Hear" "Cloud-gathering" Zeus are common.

In conclusion we can say that The Iliad possesses characteristic features of an

epic poem. It is composed in a grand style. It includes an epic hero,
supernatural machinery, war (Trojan War) great issues like honor and dignity,
the great significance of national interest etc. So we can call Iliad an epic or a
primary epic

The Iliad celebrates war and the men who wage it: man-killing Hector, lord of men
Agamemnon, and swift-footed Achilles, whose rage is cited in the poem’s famous
opening line. However, the same invocation also mentions the ―countless losses‖
suffered as a result of the Trojan War (1.2). While much of The Iliad celebrates
the splendor of military victory, the poem also honestly depicts the costs of war,
which significantly undermines the idea that war is a wholly glorious endeavor.
The battle scenes contain many passages focusing on the brutal destruction of
the human body. In the very first battle sequence, we see the Achaean
Antilochus kill a man, sending his bronze spear ―smashing through his skull‖
(4.533). Homer doesn’t merely say that the spear kills the victim: He emphasizes
that it literally shatters the man’s skull, forcing the reader to confront the terrifying
and grotesque ways that human bodies are mutilated during war. The
descriptions become even more gruesome as the fighting continues. We see
Damasus’s brains ―splattered all inside his casque,‖ a spear piercing a man’s
bowels, and another spear slicing a man’s liver (12.214). The specific body parts
being maimed here symbolize other, equally damaging effects of battle. The
brain, for example, represents human beings’ capacity for rational thought, a
capacity that is destroyed by war. The violation of the bowels and the liver,
organs that process the body’s waste, release filth into the dying men’s bodies,
further degrading them.

Homer also draws attention to the way war not only destroys but dehumanizes
the Achaean and Trojan soldiers, bringing out their base, animalistic natures. He
describes the men as groups of animals rushing into battle. The soldiers are
flocks of geese, wild boars, hounds—numerous, fierce, and determined hunters
of other men. Though the victorious warrior will emerge as a hero and a great
man, he reaches his goal by behaving in a brutal, inhuman way.

While the men behave like animals on the battlefield, they nevertheless
experience human emotions when they are forced to deal with the difficult
choices and losses inflicted by war. Soon after Hector returns to his wife,
Andromache, and his young son, Astyanax, he is obligated to return to battle,
despite his love for his family and his wife’s prophecy that the war will soon cost
him his life. Though heavy-hearted, Hector insists on going back, claiming that he
must win ―great glory‖ for his father and himself, for he has learned the ancient
world’s masculine code ―all too well‖ (6.527–529). In this episode, Homer
presents us with a culture where the pursuit of military glory directly conflicts with
devotion to one’s family, and in pursuing the former, Hector must abandon the
latter. But family members are not the only losses the soldiers must endure: They
also experience great anguish when they lose their fellow warriors on the
battlefield. When Achilles learns of Patroclus’s death, for example, he is stricken
with grief, yelling at the gods as he claws at the ground and tears at his hair.
Achilles’ intense feelings of grief soon give way to rage, and Homer describes
how the hero loses ―the will to live, to take [his] stand in the world of men‖ until he
can vanquish Hector (18.105–106). Achilles goes on to slaughter Hector in one
of the poem’s most violent passages. Patroclus’s death upsets Achilles’ concept
of the world order. Now he fights not for glory or out of envy, but because he
simply cannot live until he kills his foe. Grief and rage have become inextricably
linked for Achilles, and war is no longer a noble or glorious endeavor but simply
the symptom of incomprehensible loss.

The tension between the glory of war and its simultaneous costs fuels The
Iliad, as characters must constantly grapple with the difficult, arduous choices
their culture demands of them. In this way, it resembles another central theme
in The Iliad: the uneasy relationship between human action and divine
intervention, which is likewise set out in the poem’s opening stanza. While
Achilles’ rage is initially presented as the chief cause of the fighting, Homer also
claims that the war is a result of ―the will of Zeus . . . moving toward its end‖ (1.7).
The question of how far human beings’ free will extends remains an open one
throughout the poem, and Homer never comes down clearly on one side or the
other. The Iliad ultimately depicts a deeply dualistic world, where glory must be
balanced with agony and individual action with a lack of ultimate control. The
Iliad has remained a touchstone for Western culture because it honestly explores
essential conflicts of the human condition without condescending to its readers
by providing easy answers. Its raw power and beauty has ensured that we’ve
kept mulling over its challenges nearly three millennia later.