The Iliad

The basic story:

The contest, Judgment of Paris.

Helen.

Menelaus.

Agamemnon.

Sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter.

King of Troy.

Sons of the king of Troy.

The order of battle (key warriors):

Trojan:

• King Priam
• two sons of note: Hektor, Paris
• Paris: kills Achilles, but with no honor/distinction for Paris;
• Hektor: kills Patroclus, Achille's close buddy; ultimately killed by Achilles
• Aeneas: one of the few Trojan survivors; escapes and founds Rome.

Greek:

• Achilles, killed by Prince Paris, but with no honor/distinction
• Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), Achille's son: kills King Priam  
• Philoctetes: kills Paris
• Diomedes: wounded in foot by Paris
• Patroclus: close buddy of Achilles; killed by Hektor
• alternate spelling of Odysseus: Odusseus.
• nine volunteer to fight Hektor,  book VIII, line 260, including,
• the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus; Ajax the Greater, Ajax the Lesser, Diomedes, Idomeneus, his squire, Merionès; Eurypylos (son of Evæmone); and Teucer, the ninth one named; (one of my sources said Odysseus was one of the nine, but that appears incorrect)
• the Greeks wanted Agamemnon, Diomedes, or Ajax the Greater
• by lot, Ajax (Aias) the Greater won the right to fight Hektor 
• Ajax winning the duel but Apollo intervened, saving Hektor; Hektor gave Ajax his sword; Ajax later killed himself with that sword
• ultimately killed by Achilles

Back stories:

Iliad.

Achilles killed by Prince Paris. Philoktetes kills Prince Paris.

Torch passes from "heroic" / Achilles to "discursive" / Odysseus.
Discursive: consciousness; thought and action separate.
During "heroic" age, action and thought one and the same.
Separating thought and action, huge jump in human thought process.
E.g., if dogs think, then for a dog, action = thought; they occur simultaneously.
Humans: when acting rationally, thought precedes action.

Coincidentally, with the fall of Troy, the end of the Bronze Age.

After Achilles, top three Greek warriors:
Odysseus, Diomedes, and XXXXXXX

Might one consider "the Wooden Horse" a metonym for strategic thinking? "To solve this problem, we need a "wooden horse.""

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Geneaology

Zeus / Athene

Hermes

Odysseus: the grandson of the god Hermes;

Homer: the grandson of Odysseus

Socrates: felt himself to be an "Odysseus."

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Homer

Invented Mount Olympus and the gods, or at least "synthesized" the folk myths.

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Diomedes

From this link.

Diomedes:

• a hero in Greek mythology for role in Trojan War
• Iliad: Achilles at the top warrior, but the next three:
• Ajax the Great; Agamemnon; and Diomedes
• these three: the Aecheans want one of these three to fight Hector out of nine volunteers (included Odysseus and Ajax the Lesser)
• Argos
• maternal grandfather: Adrastus -- legendary king of Argos during the wars of the Seven Against Thebes
• parents: Tydeus (Aetolian) and Deipyle (Argive)
• Diomedes: becomes king of Argos following his maternal grandfather, Adrastus
• founded ten Italian cities
• after his death, worshipped as a god by both Greeks and Romans

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Peisistratos

Peisistratos (Greek: Πεισίστρατος; died 528/7 BC), latinised Pisistratus, the son of Hippocrates, was a ruler of ancient Athens during most of the period between 561 and 527 BC. Link here.

His legacy lies primarily in his instituting the Panathenaic Games, historically assigned the date of 566 BC, and the consequent first attempt at producing a definitive version of the Homeric epics.

Peisistratos' championing of the lower class of Athens, the Hyperakrioi, is an early example of populism.

While in power, Peisistratos did not hesitate to confront the aristocracy, and he greatly reduced their privileges, confiscated their lands and gave them to the poor and funded many religious and artistic programs. He did so with the goal of improving the economy and spreading the wealth more equally among the Athenians.

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Three Women Cousins: Helen of Troy; Penelope, and Klytemnestra

The women:

• half-sisters:
• Helen: daughter of Zeus and Leda
• Klytemnestra: daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, King and Queen of Sparta
• cousin:
• Penelope: cousin of Helen and Klytemnestra

Klytemnestra: suitors how up in mass; Odysseus suggests to her father that he require suitors to pledge allegiance to her husband if ever attacked. As a reward for that advice, Odysseus asked for/and received Penelope as his wife. Penelope was daughter of Ikarios, brother of King Tyndareios.

The marriages:

• Klytemnestra marries Agamemnon
• Helen marries Menelaus
• Penelope marries Odyssesus

Deity:

• Klytemnestra: daughter of a God (Zeus)
• Odysseus: traces ancestry to Hermes

Trojan War

• strife brought to world by Zeus; reason not well stated
• may have had to do with impressing his daughter Helen
• be that as it may:

Zeus wanted to marry the sea nymph Thetis, but seer says daughter of Thetis will be greater than the father.

Therefore, Zeus won't marry Thetis. Rather Thetis marries King Peleus: son Achilles.

Thetis and King Peleus: all gods invited to wedding except Eris, goddess of strife; as revenge, rolls apple, "to the fairest" among Athene, Hera, and Aphrodite. Strife immediately breaks out. Zeus won't make decision. Passes the buck to Paris, son of King Priam, Troy. Each promise him wealth and power, but Aphrodite promises him the married Helen.

So, therefore we have most of the main characters.

Around all this, Homer:

• invents Mount Olympus and all the gods
• the story of the Trojan War
• the myth of discursiveness
• a great war story 

And so it begins.