Download Lecture 6 Homer_BEL_20161219114136

Backgrounds to English
Literature
Lecture 6: Homer
=Who is Homer?
-Nothing for certain about Homer
-Perhaps he lived between 900 and 700 B.C.
-Known as “The Poet” but blind
-Homer is credited with having composed two epic poems, the Iliad
and the Odyssey
-Some scholars believe that Homer was not one person, but rather a
group of writers
=Homer and the Origins of Writing
-Oral traditions: Homer and oral composers like him probably sang
their songs to the social elite at banquets and athletic events.
-The Greek alphabet didn’t appear until 725 BC
-Writing is known to the Greeks as “the drug of forgetfulness, silent
but speaking”.
=Ancient Greek Epic
-Epos = song
-Epic: A long narrative poem that tells the adventures of a hero
-Characteristics of Homer’s Epic
1. Invocation of the Muse: A formal plea for help to the Muse Calliope.
Homer begins the Iliad powerfully by stating the epic's theme and
invoking one of the Muses. The Muses are nine goddesses in Greek
mythology who were believed to preside over all forms of art and
science.
2. In medias res: The epic plunges right into the action – it begins “in
the middle of things.”
Flashbacks provide background information. The Odyssey does not
begin at the beginning; it starts with Telemachus at 20 years old
trying to figure out what to do about his missing dad.
3. Metrical Structure: Dactylic Hexameter six stressed syllables per
line. Closely resembles speech.
4. Stock epithets: A descriptive phrase used in place of a noun or
proper noun. “Grey-eyed Athena”
-A physically impressive hero (usually famous) / A quest or journey /
A vast setting involving much of the known physical world / Descent
of the hero into the underworld / Supernatural Forces / Features
lengthy, formal speeches / Features heroes that embody the values
and morals of the civilization / Glorification of the hero at the end
=Epic Hero and Journey
-Definition: the protagonist of an epic poem
-Steps in the Epic Hero’s Journey
1. Call to adventure and/or quest for identity or duty
2. Leaves home for a long period of time
3. Journey consists of difficult tasks
4. Hero must depend on his wit
5. Journey leads to a transformation or self-realization
6. Hero regains his rightful place in society
=Epic Hero: Tragic Flaw
-Still human, so has a flaw/weakness
-Definition: the character defect that leads to the downfall of the
protagonist in an epic or tragedy
-Odysseys’ PRIDE: Odysseus and his men escape from the Cyclops,
but as his ship is sailing away, Odysseus yells out that his name is
Odysseus, son of Laeretes. He has a great deal of pride, and it often
causes him to make rash decisions.
-Hubris: an extreme arrogance or self-pride.
=Importance of Homer
-Literary values
1. One of the earliest works of literature (around 2800 years old)
2. A great introduction to epic poetry.
3. One of the greatest adventure stories ever written.
4. The complexity and emotional development of Homer’s characters:
he creates characters and develops them to the point where we feel
what they feel
-Historical perspective: A knowledge of the Greek World and Near
East
-The founding stories for the Greeks
1. Trojan War (the defining moment in the establishment of Greek
character): the war wasn't fought by "Greeks" in the classical sense,
it was fought by the Myceneaens; the Greek culture that we call
"classical" is actually derived from a different group of Greeks, the
Dorians and Ionians. However, the Greeks saw the Trojan War as the
first moment in history when the Greeks came together as one people
with a common purpose. This unification, whether it was myth or not,
gave the later Greeks a sense of national or cultural identity, despite
the fact that their governments were small, disunified city-states.
2. Homer’s poems (a common set of values): While the Greeks all
gained their collective identity from the Trojan War, that collective
identity was concentrated in the values, ethics, and narrative of
Homer's epic poems. His poems provide a common set of values that
enshrined the Greeks' own ideas about themselves. His poems
provided a fixed model of heroism, nobility and the good life to which
all Greeks, especially aristocrats, subscribed.
3. The poems used for education
4. Returning to the poem over and over again, particularly in times of
cultural crisis.
=Trojan War
-Trojan War took place around 1200 B.C.
-Whether or not this war really occurred, or occurred as the Greeks
narrate it, is a relatively unanswerable question.
-The Trojan War took place in Troy which is in the northwest corner of what
we now call the Republic of Turkey
-Legend: War began after Paris (prince of Troy) kidnapped Helen (most
beautiful woman in the world) from her husband, Menelaus (king of Sparta)
=Illiad
-It focuses on a few days toward the end of the 10 year Trojan War.
-The Wrath of Achilles: It tells the story of the Greek warrior, Achilles and
his quarrel with Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon, ending with the death and
funeral of Paris’ brother Hector.
-Trojan Horse: After Hector’s death, the Greeks brought the war to an end
thanks to the cleverness of Odysseus ruler of the island of Ithaca. To break
up the ten-year war, Odysseus thought of a scheme to make the Trojans think
that the Greeks had finally given up. He ordered a giant wooden horse to be
left at the gates of Troy. The Trojans, not seeing any Greeks, assumed that
the Greeks had fled and left the horse as a peace offering. They took the
horse inside the city, only to find that the horse was filled with Greek soldiers
and that Troy was doomed.
=Odyssey
-A sequel: the second of Homer’s two great epic poems. Part one is
The Iliad.
-In The Odyssey, Homer starts by telling about the last days of the
Trojan War. Because Odysseus was instrumental in Troy’s
destruction, he angered the gods who were sympathetic to Troy. The
gods vow that he will have a long and difficult journey home.
-Odysseus (King of Ithaca) and his men encounter many dangers
which make their return to Ithaca difficult for 10 years (Monsters /
Women who try to keep him from his wife).
-A story told in 3 stages
1. A story of what happens in Ithaca to Odysseus’ wife (Penelope) and
son (Telemachus) as they await his return
2. A story of Odysseus’ wanderings after the Trojan War (the war
lasted 10 years and his wanderings lasted another 10 years!)
3. A story of how Odysseus returns home to Ithaca and joins forces
with his son to destroy his enemies
=Areté, Timé, Kleos
-There are two very important words repeatedly used throughout the
Homeric epics: honor (timé) and virtue or greatness (areté). The
latter term is perhaps the most reiterated cultural and moral value in
Ancient Greece and means something like achieving, morally and
otherwise, your greatest potential as a human being.
-Areté: Excellence, virtue, or what makes and individual the best or
among the best; usually some combination of physical prowess &
persuasive speech or command.
-Timé: Honor, material symbol of status among others, usually
capable of being taken away (prize, booty, trophies).
-Kleos: Glory or Fame, understood as public opinion, or what others
say or remember.
-The reward for great honor and virtue is fame (kleos), which is what
guarantees meaning and value to one's life. Dying without fame
(akleos) is generally considered a disaster, and the warriors of the
Homeric epics commit the most outrageous deeds to avoid dying in
obscurity or infamy.
=The Man Who Overcame Death
-In particular, the themes of the traveling sailor and the struggle for
what it means to be human and face death.
-The enemies of Odysseus are allies of death: Sleep, the brother of
death (Somnus) / Narcosis / Darkness / Forgetfulness / Eternal life =
death (if it means loss of new experiences) / Look for scenes of
rebirth in the Odyssey / “Never forget me, for I gave you life.”
Nausicaa to Odysseus
-The episode of Calypso: Odysseus conquers death not only by
escaping from it, but also by accepting the reality of death as it is.
“So then,
royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, man of exploits,
still eager to leave at once and hurry back
to your own home, your beloved native land?
Good luck to you, even so. Farewell!
But if you only knew, down deep, what pains
are fated to fill your cup before you reach that shore,
you’d stay right here, preside in our house with me
and be immortal. Much as you long to see your wife,
the one you pine for all your days . . .”(5. 223-232)
-The prospect of death drives the heroes to pursue timé (honor).
-The hero is defined by his (her) action in the face of mortality,
especially in combat or contests.
-And resulting kleos (glory) is the hero’s only immortality.
-Sarpedon declares to Glaukos (Book XII.322-28)
“Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle, would be able to live
on forever, ageless, immortal, so neither would I myself go on fighting
in the foremost nor would I urge you into the fighting where men win
glory. But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about us in
their thousands, no man can turn aside nor escape them, let us go on
and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.”
=Achilles's final judgement on kleos and its value in the conversation
between Achilles and Odysseus when the latter journeys to the
underworld in Book 11 (11.547–558):
Odysseus:
“But you, Achilles,
there’s not a man in the world more blest than you—
there never has been, never will be one.
Time was, when you were alive, we Argives
honored you as a god, and now down here, I see,
you lord it over the dead in all your power.
So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles.”
Achilles:
I reassured the ghost, but he broke out, protesting,
“No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man—
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive—
than rule down here over all the breathless dead.”
Killing of the suitors and the idea of Justice in Books 21 and 22
=Book 21
-Penelope announces that she will marry the suitor who can string it and
then shoot an arrow through a line of twelve axes.
-All the suitors fail
-Meanwhile, Odysseus follows Eumaeus and Philoetius outside, and
reveals his identity to them by means of the scar on his foot.
-Odysseus, still disguised, then asks for the bow and easily strings it and
sends the first arrow he grabs whistling through all twelve axes.
=Book 22
-Before the suitors realize what is happening, Odysseus shoots a second
arrow through the throat of Antinous.
-The suitors have no way out, since Philoetius has locked the front door
and Eumaeus has locked the doors to the women’s quarters.
-A full battle now rages in the palace hall.
-Finally, Athena joins the battle, which then ends swiftly.
=Symbolic meanings of the bow
-The true identity as Odysseus / Inherent superiority to the suitors.
-Recalling the good old days before the suitors
=Suitors’ own folly and disrespect for gods and men
-When Eurycleia begins to crow in exultation over the slaughter,
Odyssey warns her that it would be an unholy thing to take
vainglorious pleasure in the suitors’ deaths, because the true cause
of their downfall has been their own folly and disrespect for gods and
men (xxii.413–16).
-It is only part of their crime that they have tried to exploit
Penelope’s anomalous status to bully her into marriage. More
fundamentally, they have abandoned the laws of due restraint –
feasting and gaming and living in idleness on another man’s wealth,
mocking and bullying beggars and strangers, living without fear of
the watchfulness of Zeus or the dismay of their fellow men.
=Vengeance or Justice
-One might say that vengeance is a personal interest in punishing
past offenses, and justice is in the interest of the people for an
ultimate future good.
-Odysseus’ belongings, his wines and herds, are linked to his honor
and identity. Giving these possessions would create a social
obligation on part of the receiver to reciprocate. This reciprocity
seems to be at the basis of social relationships that create a cohesive
society. As Homer states they are the “treasured ties that bind”
(21.40), which knit the fabric of society together.
-Because the suitors take from Odysseus household, but do not
reciprocate, there is no social bond or alliance that is created. There
are not social actors; they are in some sense uncivilized beings.
-Men show themselves to be honorable and confer honor through
reciprocation. Penelope reminds the suitors that they have strayed
from the honorable path wherein “[men] bring in their own calves and
lambs…they don’t devour the woman’s goods scot-free” (18.309-15).
-It would appear that within the Odyssey the revenge of Zeus and
Odysseus is ultimately just. Because the suitors are uncivilized,
dishonorable beings, who can be regarded as a threat to the order of
the society
-Setting the heroic way of life in opposition to the folly and
feebleness of the contemporary world: the suitors’ greed and laziness
and their lack of regard for the watchful anger of Zeus represent the
political situation in Ithaca confused and ridden with strife during
Odysseus’ absence.
Group discussion
-What kind of virtue or honour do we need in our contemporary
society?