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.