Friday, February 26, 2021

Paper #2: Heroes of the Past and Present (due Friday, March 12th)

NOTE: The questions for next week are in the post BELOW this one...

“Heroes were heroes because they captured the Zeitgeist and embodied the fantasies of the people. The heroes of classical mythology were figures from the past. But what made them heroes, their mythism, if you like, always came from their importance to the present” (Morales 55).

INTRO: As we’ve discussed in class, The Iliad is a complex mix of traditions, characters, and voices—the very reason it became mythic. It’s a story that likes to be re-told, and despite the legendary setting and events, it still feels and sounds human. We can relate to the characters and their conflict, because it’s not really the war that matters; it’s who they love, what they’ve lost, and what they want to gain before having to slink off to Hades in defeat. As Sappho writes, “Some men say an army of horse...and some men say an army of ships if the most beautiful thing on the black earth. But I say it is what you love” (trsnl. Anne Carson).

PROMPT: For your second paper assignment, I want you to discuss which character you feel is the most ‘heroic’ or ‘mythic’ in the poem. This could be anyone, from the ‘big’ heroes such as Achilles and Hector, to the seemingly less important characters such as Helen, Andromache, or Briseis (in other words, it doesn’t have to be a man). Focus on ONE SCENE that you feel shows this character in their best, most heroic light—something that can be both literal and allegorical. By this, I mean a scene that reads powerfully in the poem itself, but could also be translated as relating to our own lives as readers in the 21st century. What hero most inspires you by their words and actions? Be sure to show us what they say or how the poet describes them as being heroic or mythic. And remember, a “hero” doesn’t have to be “good”...a hero can be an “anti-hero,” or someone who becomes mythic for refusing to conform to the ideals of their society, and offers us a new way of thinking about our own role in the human drama.

FOCUS: Be sure to analyze a single scene that you feel best shows the character in their heroic/mythic light. You can quote from another part of the book, of course, but only to highlight this specific scene. ALSO, use one or both of our critical books, Homer and Classical Mythology to help you discuss your scene. Quote from the book and use it to illustrate your ideas or some aspect of the hero’s character.

REQUIREMENTS:

* page limit optional—but enough to make your point

* Focus on a single character in a single scene (be sure to QUOTE)

* Use of one or both of the secondary texts in class

* DUE FRIDAY, MARCH 12th by 5pm

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

For Next Week: Books 22, 23 & 24 of The Iliad & Tuesday's Class Recap



Try to finish The Iliad for next week's class, but don't worry if you don't quite make it there. You'll have time to catch up soon. Also, after the questions below, there's a brief recap of our class today. 

Answer TWO of the following as usual: 

Q1: In a passage omitted from our version of Book 24, the gods debate about whether Achilles should give up Hector’s body.  Apollo, who thinks he should, speaks:

How callous can you get?  Has Hector

Never burned for you thighs of bulls and goats?

…but now you cannot

Bring yourselves to save even his bare corpse

For his wife to look upon, and his mother,

And child, and Priam, and his people…

No, it’s the dread Achilles that you prefer,

His twisted mind is set on what he wants,

As savage as a lion bristling with pride,

Attacking men’s flocks to make himself a feast.

Achilles has lost all pity and has no shame left.

Shame sometimes hurts men, but it helps them too.

A man may lose someone dearer than Achilles has,

A brother from the same womb, or a son,

But when he has wept and mourned, he lets go.

The Fates have given men an enduring heart.

But this man?  After he kills Hector,

He ties him behind his charior

And drags him around his dear friend’s tomb.

Does this make him a better or nobler man? (lines 37-57)

What do you think Apollo means by an “enduring heart,” and why might this speech suggest that hubris is a quality of gods—not men? 

Q2: How does Book 24 present Achilles’ decision to give Hector’s body back to Priam?  Is it still an act of compassion and mercy?  Does this book redeem Achilles in our eyes, or is he merely a pawn of the gods, forced to do Zeus’ bidding? 

Q3: How do the various women respond to Hector’s body—Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen?  How does this give us different perspectives on who Hector was, and whether or not he died honorably—or for the right reason? 

Q4: Why do you think the book ends with the funeral of Hector, rather than with the fall of Troy, or even the death of Achilles?  If the story is about Achilles’ rage, then why not end with the natural outcome of his rage—his death?  Why is ending the book here, rather than later on in the actual story of Troy, somehow satisfying?

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TUESDAY'S CLASS RECAP: 

AESTHETICS AND AUTHORSHIP (pages from Graziosi's book):

* Page 9: "Homer" is an aesthetic judgment--the idea of a single author is more aesthetically pleasing to us. It fits in with our "myth of genius," and a great work being the product of a single great mind, even though this may be erroneous. 

* Page 7: In the  17th century, the poems were thought "too vile, rude, cruel, proud" to be the work of a single person. Are there too many inconsistencies and discrepancies? Could one mind produce all of this--the glories and the difficulties? 

* Page 14: Was the poem, perhaps, an oral poem dictated to a scribe, so that there is "one author," either the poet-reciter or the poet-transcriber? This is possible, but also unlikely: there are still too many voices for one person to be the sole originator of the work. 

CLUES IN THE EPIC?

* Page 13: The formulas the epic follows—oral tricks to help a poet flesh out the story and fill the verse. However, neither poem is a slave to them; it goes beyond mere formulas and cliches. 

* Page 16: The difference between how Achilles is described and how he actually is—“swift footed,” but never moves, etc. The poem often evokes the cliched language of a hero or a god, and then shows us the opposite, as if to make fun of them, or to simply be ironic. That does suggest that the narrator is pushing against the fabric of the narrative. 

* THE SIMILES, as discussed in the last blog--be sure to watch and comment! 

* page 18: ALSO—the literary language of the poem is not a spoken language, but an invented, ornate language. For example, we never say "thus," or "heretofore" in normal speech, but we could use it in academic writing. It's used to create a more formal, more analytical style of writing. So, too, with Homer's verse, which doesn't reflect how the Greeks spoke, but how they told history/mythology. It had to sound different. 

THE AUDIENCE AND THE NARRATOR

* Page 24-25: Graziosi demonstrates how the poem offers asides and metaphors to suggest that the audience is not the same as the characters in the poem. This may have been added later to make the myth more relevant and relatable to the audience. almost like a translation. 

* Page 26: Was the poem a way to understand the lost, ancient world? The Greeks grew up around ruined fortresses, ancient statues, and other landmarks whose meaning was probably lost in time even in antiquity. So the poem itself could be a 'myth,' or translation of these objects through the language and events of the poem. 

* Page 34: Where do we hear the "author's" voice in the narrative? How do we know that they are distinct from the story they tell? Where do we 'hear' them?

* page 37: seeing from the Greek side—the Iliad is more ‘cinematic,’ it moves like a movie would today (even though such technology wouldn't be invented for thousands of years!) 

* page 41: The Odyssey is more from Odysseus’ side—more at ‘eye level.' We seem from a more intimate point of view. 

 

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Blog Response #3, The Iliad, Books 16.18.19

No classes this week, so watch the video below (and comment) and read Books 16,18, & 19, which goes along with this. We'll also talk about Homer: A Very Short Introduction, Chapters 1-4 on Tuesday. Stay warm and see you then!


 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Summary of Tuesday's class and Questions for Graziosi, Homer: A Very Short Introduction, Chs.1-4



Read the Introduction and Chapters 1-4 from Graziosi's Homer: A Very Short Introduction for next Tuesday (if we have class--the weather might be just as bad!). But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, even though you shouldn't cross icy bridges! (bad joke) 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: In Chapter 1, Graziosi quotes the famous German philosopher Nietzsche, who claimed, "Homer as the poet of the Iliad and the Odysseyis not a transmitted, historical fact--but rather an aesthetic judgement" (9). What did he mean by this? How can the identity of a poet be an "aesthetic judgement," and what does this say about Homer's myth?

Q2: What makes it so difficult to pinpoint when Homer wrote his epics? What clues do the poems offer and disguise? Is there anything definitive we can say about the identity of Homer's audience?

Q3: Graziosi writes that "the world of the similes often seems more humble than that described in the main narrative--but also technologically more advanced" (25). What does she mean that the similes and metaphors are often more 'advanced' than the world of the poem? And why is this significant?

Q4: In Chapter 4, Graziosi makes the claim that "Within the epics themselves, however, the voice of the narrator can clearly be heard" (34). Where do we hear or see this? And why does she think it's important to distinguish the narrator from the poem itself? 

SUMMARY OF TUESDAY'S CLASS AND IDEAS: 

Morales, Page 45, the role of Sisyphus: if he aberrant or heroic? The voice of a minority or of the people? Whose side does Homer seem to be on, the Greeks or the Trojans? Can a poet take a side? 

THE HERO ETHOS

  • Page 46: Glaucus and Diomedes: the ethos of enemies—our parents were friends, therefore we are friends! Hospitality and Honor
  • Page 56: Hector's criticism of Paris—not the ideal of honor
  • Page 65: Phoenix to Achilles: Even the gods can bend—you can’t be pitiless
  • page 68: Phoenix: your honor will be less, not greater, if you come to our aid to late. History will remember your actions. 
  • 69: The Honor Code—a man accepts compensation for a murdered son and defrays his retribution. And yet you persist, who only lost a 'slave girl'? 

ACHILLES’ ETHOS/FATE

  • Page 61: Do you have to be a god to love your mate?
  • Page 60: Achilles’ philosophy: the coward and hero get the same reward, so what’s the use? Existentialism? 
  • Page 62: Nothing is worth my life; note how Achilles fears death as the greatest evil, unlike Hector...
  • Page 54: Hector: no man can escape his fate (stoic) 
  • Page 74: Sarpedon: let’s go forward since no man can escape it
  • TROJANS MORE HEROIC? GREEKS THE ENEMIES? Who are the “good guys” here?

WOMEN AT WAR

  • Page 50: Helen’s lament, but also “In time to come poets will sing of us”: this echoes one of Sappho's famous fragments, "someone will remember us, I say, even in another time." 
  • Page 52: Andromache’s lament—the doom to come & what he knows himself: if he leaves, he will die and she will be sold as a slave
  • Page 49: Athena denies the Trojan’s prayers—if their hearts cannot be moved, what use of sacrifice?

 

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Blog Response #2: The Iliad, Books 6,9 & 12

Be sure to read the next 3 books for Tuesday's class, and watch the 14-minute video below about the ideology of the poem. Please leave a comment below responding to the question at the end of the video. 

ALSO: Paper #1 is due Friday by 5pm! Don't forget!



Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Ideas from Week Four's Class, The Iliad, Books 1-3


Here are some responses and passages that go along with our questions and discussion from Tuesday. If you missed class, please let me know if you have any questions! 
 

Q1: The Gods did not have moral authority; they were just like us…how do we see this? How does Homer offer the ‘myth’ of the Gods?

  • Page 37: Zeus would not fulfill their prayers…and page 39: no one plagues us more than you!
  • Page 17: Thetis begging Zeus--he caves because she's one of his former lovers, and he can't say no to her
  • Page 18: Hera’s response (oh my, the great son of Cronos has spoken!") and Zeus' threats of domestic violence
  • Page 20 & 24: the gods manipulate mortals’ lives for their own gain—not for justice or morality (they are AMORAL--no idea of morality at all)
  • Page 30: Paris—we don’t get to choose what the gods give us!
The gods are GIANT versions of us, though minus the morals. If men and women could live forever without religion or a conscience keeping us in check, this is who we would be--Zeus and Aphrodite! All appetite, all jealousy, all greed...mankind is ALWAYS superior to the gods in the end. 

 Q2: Mythic heroes are extraordinary—outrageous and outstanding, according to Morales. Is Achilles? Why is the story about him and his rage?

  • Page 5-6: his defiance of Agamemnon (see pg. 23: no one else gets away with this)
  • Page 6: Agamemnon: "you actually like fighting and war!"
  • Page 12: but he's very human—he cries over Briseis, begs his mother for revenge
  • Page 13: Thetis: you are doomed to an early death

Q3: HUBRIS: how does Achilles and Agamemnon embody this? Why is the story so concerned with this quality?

  • page 4: Agamemnon ignores the soothsayer
  • Both men refuse to listen to each other
  • Agamemnon steals Briseis; Achilles refuses to fight with the Greeks, dooming them to death and destruction 
  • And yet, hubris can also be a good quality...it's what allows Achilles to defy Agamemnon (who really is an SOB), and why Helen defies Aphrodite
What makes Helen a "living" character even though she's an ancient myth, and often, just a trophy for Paris? How does Homer humanize her? ALSO, how are other characters humanized and made to seem modern for the reader?  
  • Page 29: Hector’s response to Paris--I wish you had never been born! 
  • Page 31: soldiers want the war to be over; Trojans hate Paris (pg. 42)
  • Page 33: Helen’s lament…bitch that I am!
  • Page 40: Helen’s defiance of Aphrodite & Paris! She realizes that it would be immortal to sleep with him during a war. But the gods refuse her. 

Final Exam Paper: Introducing the World (due by Friday, May 5th)

Hum 2323 Final Exam Paper: Introducing the World Knowing what cannot be known—     what a lofty aim! Not knowing what needs to be kn...