WOMEN IN THE ILLIAD STUDY NOTES

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…s recovered, twelve noble sons of Troy are sacrificed in his funeral pyre. Sacrifices are performed to honor the gods or obtain their favor. The characters in The Iliad are respectful of the gods until a god acts against them. The gods generally act fairly but often become partisan. When Achilles is fighting in the river Xanthos and the River attacks Achilles, he fights savagely, "darting like a black hunter-eagle, the strongest and the swiftest."