Thetis: Although the Olympian gods frequently sire or conceive children with mortals, Thetis is the only goddess married to a mortal. The prophecy that Thetis's son would be more powerful than his father was enough to deter Zeus from marrying her (Zeus, you may remember, gained divine rule by overthrowing his father Kronos). Hera's jealousy, alluded to in Book I, is not, therefore, unfounded.
     Think about the implications of Thetis's being the legal wife of Peleus. How does her marital status tie her more closely to the human realm than that of the other gods? (You might compare Persephone's marital status in the Hymn in this regard.) Can we understand Thetis's "shrill cry" in response to her son's grief to be more human than divine? Compare Zeus's sorrow at the loss of Sarpedon with Thetis's sorrow for her son. Think about how Thetis's compassionating with Achilles in his grief produces consolation (the way that funerals produce consolation).

Architecture: Compare the architecture of Priam's house (Book 6: 242-250) and that of the Greek encampment (Book 8: 220-226). What do these different spatial arrangements say about the values of the communities that inhabit them? What do they say about the individuals who inhabit them? (Nota bene: in the ancient world, daughters would never have remained in their fathers' homes after marriage. Indeed, often once married, many daughters never saw their families of origin again.)

Doloneia (Book 10): As we said, spying is a necessary profession, but not a noble one. Communities/nations tend to honor the battle courage and valor of those they fight against, but they don't honor enemy spies. Communities/nations, which constitute themselves in part by overtly acknowledging a set of shared values--the principles or ethical code in which they believe, and in which they are willing to go to war to defend (or to extend elsewhere)--tend to be made uneasy by covert operations. Cross-culturally, and to varying degrees, often depending upon historical circumstances, spying is generally held to be a necessary evil.
     Why was Book 10--which is generally considered by scholars to be of later composition than the rest of the poem--included in the Iliad? What sorts of ideas and conflicts represented elsewhere in the poem are made clearer (or less clear) by its inclusion?

Agamemnon and Paris: With the exception of Thersites (Book 3: pp. 81-83) and Dolon, Agamemnon and Paris are perhaps the most despicable of the Greeks and Trojans, respectively. Look at Book 9, lines 266ff and lines 285ff. What do Agamemnon and Paris have in common?

Vaunting: Book 13, particularly, is full of vaunting, which many modern readers find distasteful. Why do you think? In what sort of a culture is vaunting acceptable--even valued? Think of your study question about guilt and shame--and Hektor's comment about feeling shame before the Trojans (p. 438). We might distinguish guilt from shame in the following way: guilt is what one individually, internally feels for transgressing the values one believes in; shame is what one feels when one's transgression of values is publicly exposed. In archaic Greek culture, where a sense of identity comes not from one's consciousness of one's individuality but from one's sense of place within a family and community (among philoi), the fear of shame is at least as operative as the fear of guilt. In modern, post-Enlightenment culture, which places great philosophical importance on the individual, guilt is more commonly felt than shame. Obviously, however, both emotions are experienced in both cultures.
     In psychological terms: guilt is the punishment the superego inflicts on the ego for transgression; shame is the blow to the ego ideal for transgression.