Answer to Question #302286 in English for Garg

Question

Discuss the epic conventions in The Iliad? How do they reflect the Greek worldview?

Answer 1

The epic conventions in the Iliad include the story beginning in the middle of the action, the evocation of the Muse, and the declaration of the theme of the story in the opening lines. Choices made by great individuals, like Achilles, changed the outcome of the war too.

The Iliad is filled with war legends and divine interventions that tug at one's heart strings and mystify the mind. In the times of ancient Greece, The Iliad was used like a modern-day Bible. That being said, epic conventions are used to teach lessons and morals. While there are many epic conventions demonstrated throughout The Iliad, the two that are most prominent are the intervention of the gods and the long, formal speeches given by many characters. Many characters, such as Hector before he killed Patroclus and Nestor when the Greeks' greatest warriors were fighting, gave long, formal speeches.

In medias res, the name of the epic convention or literary device by which the story begins during the action is “in medias res,” which in Latin means “in the middle of things.” The start of the action in an epic comes after the evocation of the Muse, who is the goddess of poetry.

In the Iliad, Homer evokes the Muse with the lines “Sing it now, goddess, sing through me the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief.” In ancient Greece, the epic convention of evocation was the means by which the speaker of the story channeled the divine inspiration of the Muse. The speaker of an epic poem was believed to be the vessel for divine inspiration and therefore warranted the audience’s attention.

The theme of the story is then presented within the evocation. In the Iliad, the theme of the story is presented in the opening lines as Homer describes “the rage of Achilles.” This epic convention told the audience what the story was going to be about. By making the theme obvious at the beginning of the epic, the audience could then fully appreciate the story itself as it unfolded.