Homer Time: 8 century BCE Birth place: Ionia; the western coast of Asia Minor Blind The two master pieces attributed to him: the Iliad & the Odyssey
The Iliad & The Odyssey Originally for oral recitation Their composition dated from the beginning of Greek literacy
The features of Greek oral poetry place: Ionian coast (modern Turkey) Performer: travelling bards Subject matter: tales of lost age of heroes who fought with bronze, and of the great cities besieged and destroyed by war
The features of Greek oral poetry Form: Hexameter (six-part line) With musical accompaniment Poets fitting their own riffs (repeated short notes) into the rhyme Common themes, traditional stories, traditional characters, traditional adjectives (“swift Achilles”), stock phrases, even a set pattern of a whole scene
The features of epic in its oral form A vast & intricate system of metrical formulas A repertoire of standard scenes (ex. The arming of the warrior, the battle of two champions) The known outline of the story No trace of individual identity in the poet; it’s not the poet’s creation
Homer’s unique contribution To make them into the written form The sophisticate organization
The Homeric poems origins: folk memories of a real conflict or conflicts between Mycenean Greeks and inhabitants of one or more cities in Asia Minor Plausibility: neither historical nor purely fictional
The Iliad Subject: war Characters: men in battle & women whose fate depends on the outcome Mood: cruelty, violence of war Theme: a. ambiguity (ambivalence) of the meaning of war and (glory vs. ignominy) b. violence: man’s fear and desire
The Iliad: A work about Trojan war Ilias: another name for Troy
The Iliad: Its particular structure Time setting: the tenth year of the war Central focus: conflict among the Greek commanders (not between Greeks and Trojans) Central subject: rage (of Achilles)
Achilles’ rage: its influence 1. making him alienated from his society 2. (after Patroclus died) shifted into an inhuman aggression against the Trojans 3. willing to return to the human world (his sympathy for Priam)
Graphic violence: vulnerability of humans’ mortal bodies How Patroclus throws his spear at Sarpedon: “just below the rib cage/ where it protects the beating heart” When Hector rams his spear into Patrolus: “into the pit of his belly and all the way through” When Achilles’ spear “pierced the soft neck but did not slit the windpipe”
War economy: a system of exchange Ransoming of human bodies: ----Cryseis & Briseis The ownership of dead male bodies -----the corpse s of Sarpedon, Patroclus, & Hector
War: humans’ desire and fear of violence Entertainment: it is exciting to hear or read about slaughter (cf. action movie) At times, the poems brings out the terrible pity of war (Troy will be ruined, the people killed or enslaved). The poet looks back with regret to “the days of peace, before the Greeks came.”
A bitter understanding of Life: Violence and the threat of pain and death are facts of life. Even when people are at peace, there is murder, and lion or wolves leap into the fold to kill the sheep.
The Greeks’ positive attitude toward the facts of life Mortals can’t choose, like gods, to avoid death, but they can choose how they will die.
How/What, then, to choose (in a war)? the exchange of honor for death? ---the choice Achilles and all the Greek warriors faced Fighting for vengeance? ---What Achilles did after Patroclus died Fighting for protecting one’s family ---What Hector faced despite all his unwillingness to engage in a war Fighting
War & Peace: Desire and Fear What meaning does war stand for Achilles? What meaning does war stand for Hector? What meaning does war stand for Agamemnon? Which one do you sympathize?
The contrast between gods and men On Olympus, all quarrels end in laughter and drinking, not death. Before death, humans have to face grief, dishonor, loss and pain—things that play little or no part in any god’s life.
The valor of human beings as mortals At the end, Achilles realized that all humans, have to have “hearts of iron,” the ability to endure unendurable loss and keep on living. The Iliad provides a bleak but inspiring account of human suffering as a kind of power, which the gods themselves cannot achieve. (cf. the meaning of human suffering in The Hebrew Bible).
The profundity of Homer Now we see why Homer chose to present the story in a particular way. The Iliad in Homer’s presentation is no longer an entertainment on feast. It’s a profound reflection on the meaning of life and humanity.
A Question Why do people love to watch or learn martial art? Why do people love action or even horror movie?