In revising and expanding the events for The Iliad, we are consistently running into an issue regarding how to handle participants and the degree to which they participate. For example, the guidelines cite direct participants as being the only essential entry. However, there are many events which include characters with rhetorical weight in the prose, either as precipitant or conspirator, and there is no established guideline for how to include them.

It would be useful therefore to establish a guideline for including characters who are not just implicated, but precipitate an event. Arguably if an event occurs because of them then they are involved, simply on a more abstract level. A possible solution to this would be to add another level of characterization to events so that we could include them in the event but as distinct from those directly participating.