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ὉΜΗΡΟΣ , Epic and the Trojan War

ὉΜΗΡΟΣ , Epic and the Trojan War. ὉΜΗΡΟΣ. “Author” of the Iliad and Odyssey Almost nothing known about him Described as a blind poet from Chios Said to have lived and composed in the 8 th century. ὉΜΗΡΟΣ. There is much doubt about his existence

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ὉΜΗΡΟΣ , Epic and the Trojan War

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  1. ὉΜΗΡΟΣ, Epic and the Trojan War

  2. ὉΜΗΡΟΣ • “Author” of the Iliad and Odyssey • Almost nothing known about him • Described as a blind poet from Chios • Said to have lived and composed in the 8th century

  3. ὉΜΗΡΟΣ • There is much doubt about his existence • May have been a title for those poets who compiled the epics and wrote them down

  4. Epics • Oldest recorded form of Western Literature • Oral composition • Poem (i.e. song) • Dactylic Hexameter

  5. Epic Elements • Meter • Repetition • Epithets (it’s all about the κλέος ) • Similes • Speeches • Dreams • Catalogues • Exempla • Ecphrases

  6. The Epic Cycle • Cypria (marriage of Peleus and Thetis) • Little Iliad (beginning of the Trojan War) • Iliad (wrath of Achilles) • Aethiopis (after the death of Achilles) • IliouPersis(sack of Troy) • Nostoi (homecoming of the Greeks except Od.) • Odyssey (homecoming of Odysseus) • Telegonia (the son of Odysseus and Circe) • Thebaid (war at Thebes) • Argonautica (Jason and Medea) • Other (local epics)

  7. Historical Overview of Greece • Five Time Periods: • The Bronze Age (3000-1200 BCE) • Dark Ages (1200-700 BCE) • Archaic Period (700-500 BCE) • Classical Period (500-323 BCE) • Hellenistic Period (323-30 BCE)

  8. The Bronze Age • The period in which the myths of the Trojan War take place • Some archeological remains • Minoan Period on Crete • Non-Greek speakers; left spectacular buildings and art • Mycenaean Period on mainland • Agamemnon was king of Mycene • No literature survives; Linear B tablets found

  9. Dark Ages • For unknown reasons, crises afflict people all around the Mediterranean • Archeology indicates depopulation, movement and poverty • No writing survives from this period

  10. Archaic Period • Greece recovers from Dark Ages • Cities (Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes) become powerful and prosperous • Tyrants rule in cities • Greek alphabet appears • Iliad, Odyssey, Hesiod and other poems written down • Sappho and Archilochus • Aesop

  11. Classical Period • Athens establishes democracy • Persian War with Darius and then Xerxes • Pericles guides Athenian empire • Parthenon built • Peloponnesian War • Most famous Greek literature (tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; comedy of Aristophanes; Histories of Herodotus and Thucydides; philosophical writing of Plato and Aristotle) • Alexander the Great and rise of Macedon

  12. The Trojan War • Legend states that it occurred during the Bronze Age • The Epic Cycle is from the Archaic Period • Can the texts be used as historical documents? Are the stories true or based on true events? • If so, do they tell us about the Bronze Age, the Archaic Age, or both?

  13. The Trojan War Background • The Golden Apple • Helen and Paris • Menelaus and Agamemnon • Clytemnestra and Iphigenia • Odysseus • Achilles

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