Intro to the Epic

1. Intro to the Epic The Iliad The Odyssey

2. Characteristics of Epics • Deal with the three major themes in lit • Love (or lust) • Death • God (the divine or absence thereof) • High Seriousness/Elevated style • Long and complex

3. Secondary Characteristics • Hero of imposing stature • Vast setting • Supernatural forces • Action requires great deeds • Catalogues of ships and soldiers • Extended formal speeches • Objective narration • Epic similes • Invocation of muse • Begins “in medias res”

4. Types of Epics • Primary Epics • Begins as oral tradition • Verse (sacred and easy to remember) • Stock phrasing to fit meter • “Hector, breaker of horses” • “Rhododaktulos Eos” • Epithets • Metrical patterns for freeform performance • Blues vs. classical

5. Types of Epics • Secondary Epics • Written to mimic format of primary epics • Composed in writing rather than orally • Virgil’s Aeneid is prototype

6. The Iliad • MENIN AEIDE THEA! • About Mycenaean Greece c. 2000 BC • Written down post dark age c. 750 BC • Author likely a rhapsode w/ literate relative • Oral culture disappears w/ in one generation of advent of literacy in a society • Written down at the transition period from oral to written culture

7. Greek Culture • Shame rather than Guilt culture • “Time” and “Kleos” = “Honor” and “Glory” • Armor as outward symbol of time, kleos, and identity • Achilles and Patroclus • You are who people think you are • Disgrace = actual injury

8. Arete • Central tenant of culture is search for Arete • Excellence or greatness • Achilles in war, Helen in beauty, Odysseus in oration • Achieving arete awarded by “time” and “kleos” • “Time” and “kleos” can be achieved by social position as well as arete • “Not to be tossed aside, the gifts of the gods.” -Paris

9. Arete in The Iliad • Some caution regarding relentless pursuit of arete • Hector and Andromache • Helmet • Family choices • Priam and pity “Though much is taken, much abides; and though / We are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson “Ulysses” 65-67

10. Iliad Discussion Questions • What views does Iliad present on the three great themes? • In what way is the ethical vision of Iliad similar to our own? • What does Homer seem to admire about the main characters? • Why are the Trojans generally more sympathetic characters than the Greeks?

11. Iliad Discussion Questions 2 • What is Homer’s attitude toward war? • To what extent does The Iliad support the Marxian assertion that literature works to support the ruling class of whatever culture it speaks for?

12. The Iliad’s Wife • Samuel Butler characterized The Odyssey as a distinctly feminine perspective • Settings • Imaginary/fantastic • Domestic and dominated by women • Focus on “nostos” (homecoming) not rage • Athena rather than Zeus the divinity of choice • Interior “arete” rather than exterior • Mental and moral excellence

13. Extended Arete • In The Iliad arete only achieved by warriors • The Odyssey shows arete in all Greeks • Women (Penelope) • Youth (Telemachus) • Peasants (Eumaios) • Elderly (Eurycleia) • Animals? (Argos)

14. New focus on “Nomos” • “Nomos” = “custom” or “proper behavior” • Violation of “nomos” makes “arete” impossible • Suitors (young warriors) • “arete” found in others in Ithaca instead • Supposed to respect host, be kind to strangers and wayfarers

15. Odysseus as the Greek Ideal • Warrior • Orator • Thinker • Husband • Worker