Character and Characterisation: Achilles and Hector

Homer: Iliad: Characterisation

In this course, Professor Richard Jenkyns (University of Oxford) explores the theme of characterisation in Homer's Iliad, focusing in particular on fourteen key characters. In the first module, we think about what we mean by the terms 'character' and 'characterisation', focusing in particular on the distinctiveness of Achilles and the ordinariness of Hector. After that, we think about the designation 'major' and 'minor' when talking about character, and consider the importance of two characters that appear just once in the poem: Thersites and Phoenix. In the third and fourth modules, we consider the different roles of several characters from both the Greek and Trojan forces, before turning in the fifth module to the figures of Thetis and Helen, two strangely anomalous characters who seem to sit somewhere between mortal and immortal. We end the fifth module by thinking of the importance of female characters more generally, focusing in particular on the very end of the poem.

Character and Characterisation: Achilles and Hector

In this module, we think about what we mean when we speak about 'character' and 'characterisation', focusing in particular on the distinctiveness of Achilles and the ordinariness of Hector.