Who are the main characters in The Iliad?

Answer 1

The main character of the story is definitely Achilles, since the focus of the epic is on his rage.

Other main characters could be picked from the following:

• Hector, foil to Achilles, the great foe that had to be destroyed
• Agamemnon, basically Achilles's boss who insulted his honor and caused Achilles to sit out of battle and resulted in the death of Patrokolos, etc.
• Paris (Alexander), the guy who stole Helen away and started the war, though this isn't mentioned
• Helen, the abduction of her started this whole thing, not mentioned too much in Iliad though
• Andromache, Hector's wife

Some of the gods could be considered main characters. The ones who seemed to participate the most were Zeus, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, and Hephaestus.

Answer 2

The Greek hero was Achilles and the Trojan hero was Hector.
The hero of the Iliad was Odysseus (also called Ulysses). He ended the war and conquered Troy (also called Ilium) by building a large hollow wooden horse and leaving it outside the gate of Troy. The Trojans, believing it was a gift opened their gates and brought the wooden horse into the city. At night, a group of warriors that had hidden inside the horse came out, opened the gate and allowed the rest of the Greek forces to enter the city and conquer it.

The Trojan Horse is used nowadays to refer to any gifts that ultimately are harmful. We refer to certain types of computer malware (viruses) as Trojan because computers become infected when someone installs an apparently desirable program, such as a game or a free copy of an otherwise costly program, and it actually contains harmful code.

Answer 3

There are many characters within The Iliad, Achilles being the protagonist. Patroclus, his close friend and companion. Who were both Greek, Paris and Hector were two famous brothers of Troy with their father Priam and mother Hecabe also. Many Gods are mentioned within The Iliad also, such as: Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Hephaestus, Hera, Thetis others are also mentioned! :-)

Answer 4

That would depend on which epic you are refering to. The hero of the Odyssey is Odysseus but there are multiple heroes in the Illiad, many of whom die as the story unfolds.

The work focuses on Achilles but many of his actions are far from heroic to a modern reader. There a

re heroes on both sides eg Hector, the leading Trojan hero. With heroes of that age, the primary characteristic is not acting nobly and selflessly. Rather it is great and violent actions and self esteem - the success culture (sometimes called the shame culture, as they could not bear shame and consequently acted in any way necessary to avoid shame, often actions which would be repugnant to us today, but not to people to whom killing, looting, rapine, slavery and treachery and self aggrandisement were a way of life). This Success culture still survives in today's mafia, yakuza and similar ethnic criminals as you see them in the movies.

The list of heroes is long - Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, Achilles, Ajax and so on.

The best thing to do is read it for yourself and then identify heroes not in our terms of courage, self-sacrifice and nobility of action, but rather in their terms of Success by achievement, violence and self-importance.

Answer 5

There are many main characters, but probably the most famous were:

• Achilles
• Hector
• Paris
• Helen
• Menelaus
• Agamemmon
• Diomedes
• Odysseus
• Patroclus

Answer 6

Achilles was the main hero of the Iliad.

Odysseus was the main hero of The Odyssey.

Answer 7

Achilles and Hector.

Answer 8

Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, and Apollo