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GREEK PHILOSOPHY I | CLASS 3: SEP 14, 2015
HOMER’S ILIAD (2) & ODYSSEY
DR. MICHAEL GRIFFIN
CLASSICS & PHILOSOPHY
S O C R AT E S . A R T S . U B C . C A / 2 1 1
T O D AY
• The poets’ world-view,
cont’d
• Homer’s Odyssey
• Causes (aitia) in Homer’s
Iliad and Odyssey
BUST OF HOMER
The Poet’s World-View
PA R T I I : H O M E R , O D Y S S E Y
Troy in Flames. Completed 1762 by Johann Georg Trautmann (1713-1969).
Achilles
is slain by Paris & Apollo
(the outcome he
foresaw)
Odysseus wants to go home!
1. The Poets: Homer and Hesiod
A heroic code
• A good person or hero (kalos k’agathos, literally “beautiful and
good”) will stand by true friends and family (philoi), but be brave
against enemies;
• A good person will respect the gods by helping strangers and
resisting hubris (arrogance, or injury to the dignity of others)
• A good person will strive for honour (kleos) in life and death, by
achieving excellence (aretê) in words and action: “to be a speaker
of words and doer of deeds” (Iliad 9.444).
See Athenian Thought 1
Glory (kleos)
shipwrecked:
stripped of
Odysseus wants to go home!
Wealth & possessions
Beauty (kalos
in kalos k’agathos)
Glory (kleos)
shipwrecked:
stripped of
Wealth & possessions
Beauty (kalos
in kalos k’agathos)
Odysseus loses most of the
traditional markers of heroism
on his travels: glory (he is
unrecognized), wealth, and
beauty. He becomes a suppliant
stranger. But he is still a hero.
With the support of Athena, he
uses his wits to survive.
The gods agree that Odysseus
has done nothing wrong and
should be allowed to return
home to his wife, Penelope, and
son, Telemachus, and rescue
them from the suitors who are
attempting to marry Penelope
against her will.
Why do bad things happen to
good people?
1. The Poets: Homer and Hesiod
A heroic code
• A good person or hero (kalos k’agathos, literally “beautiful and
good”) will stand by true friends and family (philoi), but be brave
against enemies;
• A good person will respect the gods by helping strangers and
resisting hubris (arrogance, or injury to the dignity of others)
• A good person will strive for honour (kleos) in life and death, by
achieving excellence (aretê) in words and action: “to be a speaker
of words and doer of deeds” (Iliad 9.444).
Note
• These assume that the hero has power
• Odysseus shows that the powerless person can also be a hero
with the gods
The Poet’s World-View
PA R T I I I : U N D E R S TA N D I N G C A U S E S ( A I T I A )
CAUSES
• Iliad: The gods are primarily responsible/causal (aitios)
• Odyssey: We humans are primarily responsible/causal (aitios)
• Later Greek literature and philosophy continues to investigate
aitia in both ways
Causes (aitia) in the Iliad
Poetry and Origins: Examples
Homer, Iliad 1.1
Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son Achilleus
and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,
hurled in their multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls
of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting
of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished…
What god was it then set them together in bitter collision?
Zeus' son and Leto's, Apollo...
Causes (aitia) in the Iliad
Homer, Iliad 1.153 [Achilles speaks]
I for my part did not come here for the sake of the Trojan
spearmen to fight against them, since to me they have done nothing (ou ti moi aitioi eisin).
Never yet have they driven away my cattle or my horses,
never in Phthia where the soil is rich and men grow great did they
spoil my harvest, since indeed there is much that lies between us,
the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea; but for your sake,
o great shamelessness, we followed, to do you favour,
you with the dog's eyes, to win your honour and Menelaos'
from the Trojans. You forget all this or else you care nothing.
Causes (aitia) in the Iliad
Homer, Iliad 3.164 [Priam and Helen observe the Greek army massing]
So they spoke: but Priam aloud called out to Helen:
'Come over where I am, dear child, and sit down beside me,
to look at your husband of time past, your friends and your people.
I am not blaming you (ou ti moi aitiê essi): to me the gods are
blameworthy (theoi…aitioi),
who drove upon me this sorrowful war against the Achaians.
Homer, Iliad 5.123
Athena... drew near to his side and spoke to him in winged words:
Have courage... for I have drawn the mist from your eyes,
that you may discern in truth gods from humans...
Causes (aitia) in the Iliad
Homer, Iliad 19.408 [Achilles' steeds speak]
'We shall still keep you safe for this time, o hard Achilleus.
And yet the day of your death is near, but it is not we
who are to blame (aitioi), but a great god and powerful Destiny.
... it was that high god...’
Deeply disturbed, Achilleus of the swift feet answered him:
'Xanthos, why do you prophesy my death? This is not for you.
I myself know well it is destined for me to die here
far from my beloved father and mother. But for all that
I will not stop till the Trojans have had enough of my fighting.'
He spoke, and shouting held on in the foremost his single-foot horses.
Causes (aitia) in the Odyssey
Homer, Odyssey 1.32 [Zeus speaks]
How mortals now blame (verb < aitios) gods,
for they say that evils are from us. Yet they themselves
have woes beyond their lot by their own recklessness,
Homer, Odyssey 1.348 [Telemachus speaks]
Zeus is probably to blame (aitios), who gives
to men who work for bread, to each one, however he wishes.
Homer, Hesiod, Theogony 114
Tell me of these things, Muses that dwell on the heights of Olympus,
From the beginning (archê), and say which first of them came into
being...
Homer’s Odyssey (AT 1d)
See AT 1d
Odysseus and the suitors, Od. 21-22