Characters / The Iliad

Characters from The Iliad.

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Greeks

Achilles

The Greek army's greatest warrior. He can be considered as the main character.

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• The Ace: No one can stand to Achilles in direct combat. No one. Not even Hector.
• Achilles' Heel: The Trope Namer, of course. That being said though, the Iliad is not actually the Trope Maker of this — Achilles' invulnerability due to being dunked into the River Styx and corresponding weakness in his heel actually comes from The Achilleid, written by Statius several centuries later than the earliest the Iliad ever appears in historical records (let alone verbal retellings). Prior to this, visual depictions seem to show Achilles being disabled or distracted by the arrow in the heel, and thus being killed by another arrow to the torso. In the Iliad itself, Achilles is scratched by a Trojan spear and needs a new set of armor after his first one is taken.
• Achilles in His Tent: The Trope Namer, due to his feud with Agamemnon. He's finally brought out of it by Patroclus' death.
• Ambiguously Bi: His interest in Briseis (and being forced to give her up to Agamemnon angering him to Rage Quit, as the trope goes) certainly implies him being attracted to women, while his relationship with Patroclus can be seen as either a very deep friendship or lovers just not made textually explicit. Achilles' sexuality was debated to death even by the ancient Greeks, with some going past that to instead argue who had what role out of Lover and Beloved when pederasty became prominent.
• Anti-Hero: The main character of the epic, yet his immaturity makes him this.
• Barbarian Hero: Noticeably more cultured than the "barbarian" stereotype, but yes.
• The Berserker: Especially after Patroclus' death, where he enters the battlefield and razes the Trojans.
• Byronic Hero: He is intelligent, skilled, handsome, articulate and very morally self-possessed. But he is also moody, contemplative, wrathful and for the most part a self-absorbed loner. He is portrayed as both super and subhuman and the extent to which he does not feel the desire for human companionship besides Patroclus and Briseis is meant to make him feel remote and alien even to Greek audiences.
• Disguised in Drag: Certain that he would die there if he fought at Troy, his mother had him dress as a maiden within the king's court in Skyros before the Greeks came looking to have the World's Best Warrior with them. Odysseus gets him to reveal himself, either by coming by as a trader with feminine trinkets (like adornments) and weapons which only Achilles looks at out of the maidens, or by having companions imitate the noise of an enemy attacking them at which Achilles grabs a weapon.
• Emotional Bruiser: He has no problem with crying or showing emotion. Though, this is Ancient Greece: the "men don't show emotion" is a more modern trope.
• Fiery Redhead: Depending on the translation, Achilles can be described as having red or tawny hair. And he is fiery.
• Glory Seeker: Essentially why he joins the war despite it being prophesied to kill him, preferring a brief but exciting life to a long but boring one.
• Heartbroken Badass: When Patroclus dies.
• I Love the Dead: Some accounts have him violating Penthesilea's corpse after having killed but also fallen in love with her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Capable of being amazingly petty, but also capable of defending noble causes.
• Jumped at the Call: He pretty much only hid himself at his mother's behest — a prophecy of him living fast and dying young in the Trojan War sounds great to him.
• Kick the Dog: Notoriously, he drags Hector's body round behind his chariot and spends several days mutilating it. Although this could be considered Pay Evil unto Evil given Hector's earlier attempt to mutilate Patroclus after killing him.
• Mirror Character: Hector and Achilles mirror each other as the most brilliant warriors their respective cultures produced, and after Achilles kills Hector's beloved brother, Hector winds up returning the favor with the death of Patroclus.
• Momma's Boy: She gave him his armor, for starters. He also pretended to be a woman for years at her behest (he personally always thought dying gloriously in the Trojan War sounded awesome).
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Spends twelve days desecrating Hector's corpse after killing him, most likely due to the fact that he was Patroclus' killer.
• One-Man Army: He piles up so many Trojan corpses during his Roaring Rampage of Revenge that it angers a river's spirit from all of the pollution. And he's got no "he's invulnerable save for his Achilles' Heel" explanation for that here!
• Pet the Dog: When he finds out Iphigenia got lured into a trap to sacrifice her by the promise of marrying him, Achilles armors up and either threatens to fight the entire Greek army or actually does fight the entire Greek army to protect the innocent girl. He only relents when Iphigenia agrees to be sacrificed.
• Pretty Boy: Described as such by Homer. Must have been how he managed to stay hidden as a women on Skyros.
• Pride: Pretty much his Achilles' Heel (pun intended). His refusal to fight because Agamemnon essentially insulted him indirectly leads to Patroclus' death.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Not all the time, it must be said. Nonetheless, he clearly is a tad emotionally immature and entitled from his World's Best Warrior importance.
• Rage Quit: His petty refusal to fight over not getting slave woman loot.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He's utterly enraged after Patroclus is killed, and many Trojan warriors' livelihoods suffer for it. He slaughters so many of them it pisses off the spirit of the river which is getting clogged with their bodies (and he kicks its ass too)!
• Straw Nihilist: Achilles predates Nietzsche by millennia, but he resembles this form of Straw Nihilist. He gets an absolutely epic rant about how life and the heroic code are meaningless, and they're all going to die and be forgotten anyway. He goes so far as to wish everyone but himself and Patroclus dead in the hope that then, their glory might actually endure. It's incredibly bitter, incredibly powerful, and is this trope all over.
• World's Best Warrior: Described as this constantly and when he actually fights, it's terrifying.

Agamemnon

The leader of the Greeks and king of Mycenae. His argument with Achilles starts the story.

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• Authority Equals Asskicking: During his "day of glory" he single-handedly drives the entire Trojan army back to the walls.
• Badass Normal: In a tale where the gods are quite freely affecting the actions of the war's fighters, Agamemnon has an almost Achilles-like bodycount entirely unaided by divine intervention.
• Big Good: Of the Greeks, although he is not a great person.
• Didn't Think This Through: Of all the Greek warriors he could have bullied out of their bride prizes, why did he have to pick Achilles, a demigod and the strongest among them?
• The Dreaded: During his "day of glory" in book 11 two Trojan nobles on a war chariot see him coming on foot and immediately start begging to be spared, with one dismounting and going on his knees while listing the immense ransom his father would pay (Agamemnon kills them, starting from the one on the chariot as he couldn't chase down a horse-drawn chariot), and Hector flat-out admits he'd rather not face him in combat (something he does not say about Achilles).
• Javelin Thrower: Said to be the best among the Greeks by Achilles, who cancels a throwing contest and gives him the prize intended for the winner.
• Offing the Offspring: Accounts over those involved with act itself vary, but regardless, Agamemnon sacrificed his eldest daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis for accidentally killing one of her sacred deer while she prevented the winds from allowing his fleet to sail to Troy. His wife (or his wife's lover) would later murder him in Revenge upon his return from Troy. This may not have happened in the Iliad; he offers Achilles one of his three daughters in marriage, and one of them (Iphianassa) may or may not be an alternate name for Iphigenia- for the record, the other two are Electra and Chrysothemis.
• Pride: Almost as much as Achilles. For all he's the de-facto leader of the Greeks, he nearly torpedoes the entire war effort twice because he hates admitting defeat.
  • Most traditions state that he angered Artemis before the Greeks had even set sail by boasting that he was a better hunter than she, resulting in Artemis setting the winds against them and Agamemnon having to sacrifice his daughter before they could actually do anything.
  • The whole plot of the Illiad boils down to a pride contest between him and Achilles; he refuses to release Chryseis because she's his bride-prize and he doesn't want to admit defeat even when Apollo himself starts killing his men at the request of Chryseis's father. When he's finally convinced, he then petulantly demands Briseis as a replacement basically to bully Achilles for not having taken the daughter of one of Apollo's priests.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When his pride and/or wrath aren't messing with him, he is one. Otherwise, all bets are off.

Menelaus

Agamemnon's brother and king of Sparta through his marriage to Helen. The war started because he wanted her back.

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• Hold the Line: Along with Ajax the Greater and several of the Greeks, held onto Patroclus's body so it wouldn't get looted by the Trojans. He even kills one of the people who contributed to the death of Patroclus.
• It's Personal: Jumps to accept Paris' suggestion of a Combat by Champion between the two sides and utterly trounces Paris, who is saved only by Aphrodite's intervention.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Menelaus manages a few impressive feats of skill in the story and trounces Paris, but it's suggested he's one of the weaker fighters among the major Greek leaders. It's noted that he would stand no chance whatsoever in a duel with Hector.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Averted — while king of Sparta, the Iliad predates the time of when the city-state's famous warrior ethos developed.
• Succession Crisis: The unstated reason why Menelaus would start a war to get his wife back, which would otherwise seem like a Silly Reason for War. As he married into the kingship of Sparta with Helen, the princess of Sparta, her being taken away with Paris could give the Trojans a legitimate claim to his throne.

Helen of Sparta/Troy

The Cause of it All.

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• Abduction Is Love: Debate has been raging for centuries about whether she ran off with Paris willingly, or if she got abducted by him. It does not help that she was promised as a prize, with neither Paris nor Aphrodite seeming to care that she was already married. (Or betrothed in some translations, but they were often much the same in ancient cultures.)
• Broken Bird: Helen is full of guilt and shame, but she rarely complains because she knows practically nobody sympathizes with her situation. Priam and Hector seem to be the only people in Troy who treat her as a woman not a trophy, a victim not a criminal.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After an entire city is razed and most of the Greeks' collective armies are bloodied to do it over her running away from her betrothed, which may or may not have been her choice and suffering guilt and isolation from the rest of Troy agreeing with that assessment for a decade, the most common account of her ending tends to just be her living out a happy marriage with Menelaus for the rest of their lives as it was supposed to be.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Conversation tends to falter when Helen walks by. See below;
• Head-Turning Beauty: Helen reminds Troy's respectable elders what it was like to be young and horny.
• Home Sweet Home: Helen would really like to go back home to Sparta and her husband and daughter but doesn't see any way of making that happen.
• Hot Consort: She was Menelaus', now she's Paris'.
• Informed Attractiveness: Not only is this trope in effect by necessity, since her beauty is what makes her the prize the war is being fought over, but Homer never even says what she looks like. Some scholars think this is a deliberate decision to let the audience picture her however they like.
• It's All My Fault: Helen blames herself for the war and the deaths it's caused. She might have been wrong to.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Helen and Paris. Whatever her feelings for him at the beginning of their relationship, by the tenth year of the war, Helen has completely gone off Paris and has to be forced into his arms by Aphrodite.
• My Greatest Failure: In The Odyssey she calls her past self a "selfish whore" implying that, influenced by Aphrodite or not, she sees herself as responsible for her own actions and sees leaving with Paris as a mistake made out of lust that she later regretted.
• Questionable Consent: It is never clear whether Helen freely chose to run away with Paris or was magicked into doing so by Aphrodite. Even she can't be sure which it was. During the Iliad itself, she is in no mood to comfort Paris after he flees the duel with Menelaus, but Aphrodite compels her into his bedroom by threatening to make everyone hate her even more than they already do.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Possibly the Ur-example. Her famous beauty and those who desire her for it has brought little more than misery to her and others throughout her life.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Helen has been turning heads — and getting kidnapped — since she was a child.

Odysseus

The hero of The Odyssey. King of Ithaca, second in command to Agamemnon, and the smartest of the Greeks.

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• Anti-Hero: Cold towards the plight of Iphigenie, and rather violent.
• Batman Gambit: Gets Achilles to reveal himself from being Disguised in Drag by leaving a spear and shield nearby him, and sounding an alarm as if the place they were at was under attack, which causes Achilles to arm himself to head off to fight rather than heading to safety like the other women.
• Genius Bruiser: It's Odysseus, Trope Codifier.
• Gone Horribly Right: While being one of them, he suggested that the suitors' of Helen all swear oaths to defend Helen's marriage, regardless of who it is. Years later, he's already Happily Married but has to actually fulfill the oath and goes so far as to try to feign madness to get out of it, and we all know what happens to him after that...
• Hero of Another Story: Guess which one.
• Irony: Odysseus never forgave Palamedes for making him join the Trojan War, but ironically would later plant false evidence that the King of Troy paid Palamedes off to try to end the war after Palamedes suggests that the Greeks should go back home in defeat, rather than letting it happen as it seemed he'd rather like. Given Palamedes gained fame for being an excellent planner, perhaps Odysseus also didn't like having competition on The Smart Guy role.
• Only Sane Man: Shares this position with Nestor for the Greeks (the Trojans get Hector and Cassandra). Without him and Nestor, the Greek camp would fall into infighting. Ironic considering he didn't seem to want to be there in the first place.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: In a cast where 90% of people are this, Odysseus is one of the more intense ones.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Much more so than Agamemnon. He's the one keeping the peace in the Greek Army.
• Red Baron: Referred as Odysseus city-destroyer several times.
• Secret Test of Character: Several times in the book, he gives the Greeks one. Most noticeably when he tests the Greeks' morale by saying that they are over with Troy and they will go back to Greece. The Greeks rush back to their ships, and then Odysseus reveals his ruse, faces them all and intimidates the whole army into backing down.
• Team Dad: Very dedicated to the cause, good at making the Greeks work together.
• The Trickster: It's Odysseus.

Nestor

King of Pylos, oldest and wisest of the Greeks. However, his excellent advice is often ignored. (Wouldn't be a tragedy otherwise)

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• Badass Driver: Often drives a chariot to battle.
• Boring Return Journey: Manages to not anger any gods throughout his warring or journey home and simply returns to Pylos.
• Cassandra Truth: While the actual Cassandra is on the other side, Nestor is the Cassandra of the Greeks.
• Cool Old Guy: Nestor is deeply respected for his advice and wisdom.
• Hero of Another Story: He has many other exploits. Which he will tell you about at length.
• Informed Attribute: Despite being considered a fount of excellent advice...following his advice still goes quite badly, most notably that he gives Patroclus the idea of wearing Achilles' armour which promptly results in him being killed by Hector in battle. It's been suggested that since the Iliad is a big example of You Can't Fight Fate, his advice isn't judged positively due to their outcomes (which are in the gods' hands anyway) and instead by his demeanor.
• Old Soldier: Although not a shell-shocked one.
• Only Sane Man: Even more so than Odysseus.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue: Older Than Feudalism it seems — he might give you advice, but you'll never get it without him boasting to you about his past exploits at length which were similar to the situation. This even appears in the Odyssey as Telemachus is visiting Nestor to try and find information about his father Odysseus' fate. Nestor entertains him kindly and lavishly but has nothing truly helpful to say to him (but not nothing to say). Telemachus quickly then urges Nestor's son Peisistratus to let him leave as soon as possible rather than be subject to more of Nestor's hospitality.
• Team Dad: Shares this with Odysseus.
• When I Was Your Age...: He seriously cannot have a conversation without telling the other person about the great deeds of his generation and how people were so much better back then. Even when Hector is about to break into the Greek camp, he stops to tell Patroclus an extended story about his youth.

Diomedes

One of the strongest Greek warriors, Diomedes has the distinction of being a mortal Human hero whose prowess and bloodlust in battle was so great he had wounded and terrified even the gods themselves, but nevertheless acted with honour both on and off the battlefield.

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• Annoying Arrows: Invoked by Diomedes himself when he upbraids Paris for using a cowardly ranged weapon to wound him in Book 11. Averted in that the arrow, which pierces Diomedes' foot, also takes him out of action for the remainder of the fighting.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Will attack the Trojans even when the rest of the Greeks are in retreat (see Book 8).
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Despite being one of the youngest Greek heroes, Diomedes commands more ships (80) than anyone excluding Agamemnon (100) and Nestor (90). He's also among the most feared warriors, considered second only to Achilles in martial prowess.
• The Ace: Or at least surrogate ace for Achilles while the latter is refusing to fight. Diomedes is the first character to have a proper aristeia and gets the better of Hector both times they meet in battle (killing his charioteer in Book 8 and stunning Hector himself with a glancing strike to the helm in Book 11). He also overwhelms Ajax in an armed sparring match in Book 23, tellingly a match-up between the two Achaeans considered second only to Achilles. By the end of Book 5, Diomedes has got the Trojans so terrified that Hector makes a special trip into the city to pray for relief from the sheer onslaught.
• Blood Knight: Diomedes seems to care about two things: killing Trojans and taking their horses. It took facing the wrath of Apollo and Zeus to get him to back down, and not before he fought and wounded Aphrodite and Ares.
• Boring Return Journey: One of the two prominent Greeks who actually got to safely return home in a timely manner, having not dramatically angered any of the gods in the interim. That being said, his story doesn't simply end there due to the Aphrodite's revenge against him for him wounding her turned out to be being a bit more long-term — he finds out his wife has been unfaithful and his claim to the throne has been disputed.
• Combat Pragmatist: Joins Odysseus for a night raid of a Thracian Camp in Book 10 and butchers a number of sleeping enemies including Rhesus, the Thracian king, without mercy or any thought of fair play. Note: this book is believed to be a later addition to the epic.
• Determinator: Keeps fighting with redoubled fury after Pandarus shoots him in the shoulder with an arrow in Book 5, tracking down his assailant and dispatching him in grisly fashion.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Wounds not one but two gods in a single day: Aphrodite (while telling her to leave the fighting to the warriors), then Ares (who'd come to avenge her — though Diomedes has Athena's help with this). The other gods have to tell him to knock it off before he lets up.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: For all his might, Diomedes commands nothing like the recognition that Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, and even Ajax all enjoy among contemporary readers.
• Due to the Dead: Achilles slew Thersites for mocking him for falling in love with Penthesilea after he killed her. No one liked Thersites to the extent that only Diomedes, his cousin, mourned him and expressed a desire for revenge against Achilles. Some sources also claimed he threw Penthesilea's body into a river to prevent a proper burial for her.
• Expy: For Achilles who is absent for two thirds of the action.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Athena enchants his helmet and shield to breathe fire in Book V.
• Glory Seeker: Or rather "honor seeker": where Achilles desires "kleos" (klay-os, or "glory"), Diomedes appears more concerened with "time" (tee-may, or "honor" and its material trappings). That explains why he's always intent on plundering the horses of Trojans after he has bested them in combat.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: The interrogation technique used by Odysseus and Diomedes when they capture Dolon in Book 10. Odysseus smoothly extracts information from their captive with the promise of clemency, but Diomedes sneers at Dolon's pleas for his life and coldly executes him once they have the information.
• One-Man Army: To the point that he occasionally wounds and chases off gods, Diomedes is possibly the best warrior on the greek side, aside from demi-god Achilles
• Our Founder: Said by the Greeks and Romans to have founded a number of towns in Italy. Most notably, Venosa was known as Aphrodisia or Venusia to them respectively and said to been founded to appease Aphrodite.
• Pals with Jesus: Athena likes the guy so much she grants him help without him even having to ask for it and appeared directly to him. She even once drove his chariot! Compare to another quite-favored-by-Athena Greek hero in Odysseus, who instead gets the goddess' help while she's in disguise.
• Pet the Dog: He refuses to kill Glaucus out of respect for his family, in contrast to his usual Blood Knight behavior.
• Sacred Hospitality: Immediately ceases hostilities with a Trojan warrior on the grounds that one's father had been the host of the other.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Tells Aphrodite to leave fighting to the real warriors. And then stabs her boyfriend the War God. He does so not out of any sort of sexism, but a belief that Aphrodite was interring with the affairs of war thinking her status as a goddess would protect her from any harm. He has no issues with Athena or Hera.
• You Killed My Father: Was part of a group of warriors called the Epigoni, who conquered Thebes years after their fathers had died trying.

Ajax the Greater

Son of Telamon and one of the strongest Greek warriors.

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• Bash Brothers: With his half-brother Teucros, the best Greek archer, and with Ajax the Lesser.
• The Big Guy: The biggest of all Greek soldiers, and carries a seven-layered shield compared to a tower.
• Hold the Line: Holds fast even as the Trojans are setting fire to his ship, and later helps fend off the Trojans trying to loot Patrocles' body.
• One-Steve Limit: He and Ajax the Lesser (the son of Oileus) often fight together, and are often called with "Both Ajaxes".

Patroclus

Son of Menoetius and Achilles' closest friend and first cousin once removed (and possibly something else...).

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• Ambiguously Bi: Along with Achilles — the exact nature of their relationship is debated even to this day.
• El Cid Ploy: He dons Achilles' armor (with his consent) to impersonate him and help drive back Trojans. This backfires when Hector sees through the disguise and kills Patroclus to claim the armor for himself.
• The Heart: At his funeral, every single one of his comrades put a lock of their hair upon his funeral pyre — given what this symbolizes (grief and the separation of the dead and living), it's a testament to how much the others cared about him.
• Morality Chain: He was ultimately the only one who could get through to Achilles, who is known for being arrogant and callous towards everyone who isn't Patroclus. When Patroclus died, Achilles lost himself in his rage and began mowing down the Trojans en masse.
• Only Sane Man: Tries to be the voice of reason among the Greeks.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While he is a very strong fighter that takes down hordes of Trojans, he is weaker than Hector and Achilles, which is both shown and told.
• Sacrificial Lion: His death at the hands of Hector is one of the most important events in the Iliad itself, and the only thing that makes Achilles rejoin the battle against the Trojans.

Trojans

Hector

Son of Priam, prince of Troy. Married to Andromache, and has a son named Astyanax.

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• The Ace: He's the Trojan's answer to Achilles. However, he falls against him in battle.
• Due to the Dead: Averted. His corpse is attached to Achilles' chariot and dragged around Troy. Only Divine Intervention prevents its from being mangled beyond recognition, until Priam manages to successfully beg for his body back.
• Hero Killer: By far the most dreaded Trojan to the Greeks, he slaughters many of them, including Patroclus.
• Kick the Dog: After killing Patroclus, he tries to drag his body back to Troy so he can mutilate it.
• Last Request: As he's dying, he begs Achilles to give his body back to Priam, knowing that his father will pay handsomely. Achilles' refusal leads to Hector making a Dying Curse.
• Mirror Character: Hector and Achilles mirror each other as the most brilliant warriors their respective cultures produced, and after Achilles kills Hector's beloved brother, Hector winds up returning the favor with the death of Patroclus.
• Oh, Crap!: While he's the Trojans' best warriors, he (understandably) withers and flees at the sight of Achilles utterly taken with bloodlust and vengeance over Patroclus' death, which Hector was responsible for.
• Parental Favoritism: Both Priam and Hecuba says he was their favorite son by far. Priam even says that he would rather have all his other children dead than just him.
• Pet the Dog: One of the only people who's kind to Helen and doesn't blame her for the war.
• What You Are in the Dark: Double Subverted — Hector seeks to duel Achilles, but once he actually looks at the terrifying World's Best Warrior, he runs for his life, circling around Troy itself three times as Achilles chases for him hungry for his blood. Athena then makes it appear Hector's brother is there to help him and tell him to fight, and Hector does so, attempting to throw a spear at Achilles that only hits his shield. Hector turns back to ask his brother for another spear, but Athena's illusion has disappeared. Hector, realizing he is doomed, accepts his fate and charges to his end with his sword drawn against Achilles, who kills him with a spear thrown into his collar bone.

Priam

Father of Hector, king of Troy.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Walks alone to the Greek camp to beg for the body of Hector. Unlike other examples, this is a positive Tear Jerker moment.
• Big Bad: Subverted; he's the leader of the Trojans, but is shown to be rather reasonable and honourable, and is arguably more sympathetic than Agamemnon.
• Cool Old Guy
• Due to the Dead: Manages to give Hector his funeral after begging for his corpse from Achilles, who was subverting this majorly at the time (read:dragging his corpse by chariot around Troy for the last twelve days). Sadly, according to other authors in antiquity (which are not technically the Iliad), Priam would not be granted this, as not really anyone not Greek left was after his city's destruction to bury him.
• The Good King: Reasonable and willing to talk things over. This being the Iliad, it only works half the time, and usually is canceled out soon after by another character's flaws or divine meddling.
• Happily Married: To Hecuba. This of course makes the fate of him and his family that much more tragic. Not that it stops him from having many illegitimate children.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Before the war he had sixty-two children (fifty sons and twelve daughters) by various women. They've been whittled down considerably by the time the Iliad starts.
• Outliving One's Offspring: And how.
• Parental Favoritism: He makes clear that he prefers Hector over his other children. After the latter dies, he tells his other sons that he would rather have all of them dead.
• Really Gets Around: Has fifty sons and only nineteen of them are from Hecuba.

Paris

Brother of Hector, son of Priam. The guy who started the Trojan War by taking Helen from Menelaus.

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• Badass on Paper: He manages to take down Achilles shortly after the Iliad. Also he is CAPABLE of fighting, and would probably be considered badass... but this being The Iliad, he's a wimp.
• Butt-Monkey: Gets no respect from anyone even Helen. Everyone seems to take passive aggressive potshots at him (even Trojans speaking to the Greeks). Not that he doesn't deserve all of it.
• The Chew Toy: Even his father picks on him. Of course, literally no one likes how he caused the Trojan War, and his Dirty Coward ways especially makes everyone's detest of him look justified.
• Combat by Champion: Challenges the Greeks to one, and Menelaus promptly answers. When he's about to die, he gets teleported away by Aphrodite.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Gets on the receiving end of this by Menelaus. He is saved by Aphrodite.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He certainly is cowardly and the most unlikable character in The Iliad. Yet, in Aithiopis, he's the one who offs Achilles, when the entire Trojan army is fleeing from him. Granted, it's by shooting his weak point, and Apollo helps him (or even kills Achilles himself) but it remains awesome nonetheless. He also wounds Machaon, Palamedes (who outsmarted Odysseus) and Diomedes. While it's not in direct combat, it shows at least one thing: if you're the target of his arrows, you're a goner. Simple as that.
• Death by Irony: His main martial skill is as an archer, whereas almost all the other warriors are spearmen, and his "cowardly" fighting style repeatedly frustrates them. Instead of one finally getting the better of him and killing him in close combat, he dies (in the Little Iliad) when Philoctetes shoots him with Heracles' bow.
• Dirty Coward: Immediately tries to shrink away when he challenges the Greeks to a Combat by Champion, and the jilted Menelaus eagerly answers it.
• Hate Sink: Far and away the most unlikable character in the work.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Paris spurned his first wife Oenone (and their son Corythus) for his birthright in the city and then forgot her in favor of Helen. When Philoctetes mortally wounds Paris in the Little Iliad, the latter (or Helen in another version) begs Oenone (who's a nymph) to heal him. Understandably, she refuses, and Paris bit the dust.
• Lover, Not a Fighter: And this being Ancient Greece, it's not a good thing.
• Offing the Offspring: Not recognizing his own son (Corythus, whom he had with the aforementioned Oenone), he kills him because Corytus fell in love with Helen, who received him warmly.
• Sissy Villain: By Homer's standards, he is one.

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