Review of class Monday Sept 24

We read Book 5 and discussed the following:

The many contrasts within the text: How family ties are emphasized in describing the Trojans, more so than with the Greeks, how perhaps the audience in the 8th century B.C.E. was more like the Trojans (as portrayed in Iliad) than the Greeks. How this, along with the use of Homeric Metaphor, creates a second level in the narrative, a humble, non-heroic, everyday level.

Here is the plan for the next couple of weeks:

Hector (books 6-7), W 9/26

The Tide of Battle Turns (book 8), F 9/28

The Embassy to Achilles (book 9), M 10/1

Agamemnon (book 11), W 10/3

Fierce fighting, back and forth (books 12, 13), F 10/5

Hera and Zeus (book 14), M 10/8

The Aristeia of Patroclus and Menelaus (books 16,17) W 10/10

(books 10 and 15 will be summarized in class and discussed only in part)

EXAM: FRIDAY OCTOBER 12

Friday, Sept 21 Homework Due

Don't forget the homework. Today in class we will discussing the first, glorious aristea of Athena, examining plenty of gory battlefield deaths, and considering again the way Homeric metaphor reflects the world of Homer's listeners even as he draws them into a remote and far greater world of gods and men.

Read up on Book Five, Diomedes Against the Gods....

Homework due Friday Sept 21

Write out one homeric metaphor from book four. Include the line numbers.
Rewrite it using different nouns- a bit like mad-libs, but make it make sense.
Post it here as comments to this post.
Also post your favorite gory death scene (with line numbers).

For Wednesday, Sept 19th

Finish reading Book Four.

Homework and Quiz

QUIZ friday Sept 14: Kleos, Teemay, the nature of gods, what is special about Achilles, the difference between the "deathless ones" and the "dead ones".

Read Book II.

Sept 10th Review

We began reading the Iliad. Please finish chapter one.
We discussed epithets (as in "sleek-haired leto"), the fate of Agememnon, the general character of the warriors we meet, the nature of "kleos" and "teemay", and the underworld.