As we read Illiad, we can find a lot of conflicts between characters. There are conflicts between humans, conflicts between human and god and conflict between gods. Also, in most of conflicts in this story, it is quite easy to find how gods intervene with problems. While reading Illiad, the first conflict we face would be between Chryses and Agamemnon when Agamemnon took Chryses’s daughter. Here, what interested me was that the author didn’t focus on this situation as a conflict between Chryses’s daughter and Agamemnon, but a conflict between Chryses and Agamemnon who had “dishonored” Chryses (p.230, 13).
In overall story, Homer doesn’t really give attention to those female characters unless they are goddesses. Women here mostly treated as a “gift” or “reward” of war or any fights between men. It is ridiculously easy to find someone took other’s wife as a reward in the story. When Agamemnon took Achilles’s wife, the conflict was mostly focused on how Achilles thought Agamemnon has dishonored him, rather than how Briseis felt/ reacted. In page 234 line 194-195, Agamemnon describes Briseis as Achilles’s “own beautiful prize”. We can also find how Agamemnon describes his “prize” with looks, body, mind and ability in page 233 line 123.
Coming back to the conflicts between characters, it was kind of fun to read the fight between Agamemnon and Achilles, since their word choice was somehow childish. Achilles called Agamemnon a “dog face (P.234 L.167)” and “bloated drunk with dog’s eyes and rabbit’s heart (p.236 L.237)”. However, despite all his aggressive word choice, his temper and heroic ability, he is still a kid who goes back to his mother and crying for what he wants.
Thetis, the mother of Achilles decided to help her crying son and that’s one example of how gods intervene with human’s conflicts. There are several more examples of this kind of intervention of god, when Agamemnon took Chryses’s daughter, Apollo brought plague to Agamemnon’s army. Also, when Agamemnon and Achilles were fighting each other, Achilles almost killed Agamemnon, but Athena stopped Achilles to make the situation even worse. It is quite interesting to see how gods actively interact with humans and take actions unlike those gods from other stories we previously read in the class.
There are a lot of conflict in Iliad. I agree with your statement about human women being used as prized possessions or trophies. Human women such as Chryseis and Briseis are portrayed as objects that the men can possess which is the complete opposite of the goddesses. Goddesses are agents of war where they can change the outcome or tide of the battle. Like Thetis who persuaded Zeus to empower the Trojans, and Hera and Athena who favors and helps the Greeks.
Most of the human to human interactions seem childish like you said which is fun to read. Achilles and Agamemnon seemed aggressive to each other like they wanted to stamp their authority over the other person. Leading to Achilles’ refusing to help or have anything to do with Agamemnon even though they are both in the Greeks’ side. It is also interesting to see that if the gods or goddesses favor or like you then they will help you which seemed unfair or biased.