Illiad Characters

Front 1

Agamemnon

Back 1

King of Mycenae brother of King Menelaus.strong but sometimes reckless and self-serving leadership. lacks consideration and forethought. appropriation of Achilles' war prize, the maiden Briseis, creates a crisis for the Achaeans

Front 2

Patroclus

Back 2

Achilles' beloved friend

Front 3

Odysseus

Back 3

He helps mediate between Agamemnon and Achilles during their quarrel and often prevents them from making rash decisions.

Front 4

Nestor

Back 4

oldest Achaean commander. Although age has taken much of Nestor's physical strength, it has left him with great wisdom

Front 5

Menelaus

Back 5

While it is the abduction of his wife, Helen, by the Trojan prince Paris that sparks the Trojan War,

Front 6

Peleus

Back 6

Achilles' father and the grandson of Zeus.

Front 7

Priam

Back 7

King of Troy and husband of Hecuba, Priam is the father of fifty Trojan warriors, including Hector and Paris. Though too old to fight, he has earned the respect of both the Trojans and the Achaeans by virtue of his level-headed, wise, and benevolent rule

Front 8

Hecuba

Back 8

Queen of Troy,

Front 9

Paris

Back 9

Paris's abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, sparked the Trojan War. Paris is self-centered and often unmanly. He fights effectively with a bow and arrow (never with the more manly sword or spear) but often lacks the spirit for battle and prefers to sit in his room making love to Helen while others fight for him

Front 10

Helen

Back 10

Helen left her husband, Menelaus, to run away with Paris. She loathes herself now for the misery that she has caused so many Trojan and Achaean men.

Front 11

Andromache

Back 11

Hector's loving wife, Andromache begs Hector to withdraw from the war and save himself before the Achaeans kill him.

Front 12

Astyanax

Back 12

Hector and Andromache's infant son.

Front 13

Glaucus

Back 13

nearly fights a duel with Diomedes. The men's exchange of armor after they realize that their families are friends

Front 14

Chryseis

Back 14

Chryses's daughter, a priest of Apollo in a Trojan- allied town

Front 15

Briseis

Back 15

A war prize of Achilles. When Agamemnon is forced to return Chryseis to her father, he appropriates Briseis as compensation, sparking Achilles' great rage.

Front 16

Chryses

Back 16

priest of Apollo in a Trojan-allied town; the father of Chryseis, whom Agamemnon takes as a war prize.