Study Questions for the Iliad
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Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML Advanced
Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page Introduction Trojan Cycle: Cypria Iliad (Synopsis) Aethiopis Little Iliad Sack of Ilium Returns Odyssey (Synopsis) Telegony Other works on the Trojan War Bibliography Introduction and Definition of terms The so called Epic Cycle is sometimes referred to with the term Epic Fragments since just fragments is all that remain of them. Some of these fragments contain details about the Theban wars (the war of the SEVEN and that of the EPIGONI), others about the prowesses of Heracles 1 and Theseus, others about the origin of the gods, and still others about events related to the Trojan War. The latter, called Trojan Cycle, narrate events that occurred before the war (Cypria), during the war (Aethiopis, Little Iliad, and Sack of Ilium ), and after the war (Returns, and Telegony). The term epic (derived from Greek épos = word, song) is generally applied to narrative poems which describe the deeds of heroes in war, an astounding process of mutual destruction that periodically and frequently affects mankind. This kind of poetry was composed in early times, being chanted by minstrels during the 'Dark Ages'—before 800 BC—and later written down during the Archaic period— from c. 700 BC). Greek Epic is the earliest surviving form of Greek (and therefore "Western") literature, and precedes lyric poetry, elegy, drama, history, philosophy, mythography, etc. -
Getting Acquainted with the Myths Search the GML Advanced
Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Getting acquainted with the myths Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page I. Getting acquainted with the myths II. Four "gateways" of mythology III. A strategy for reading the myths I. Getting acquainted with the myths What "getting acquainted" may mean We'll first try to clarify the meaning that the expression "getting acquainted" may have in this context: In a practical sense, I mean by "acquaintance" a general knowledge of the tales of mythology, including how they relate to each other. This concept includes neither analysis nor interpretation of the myths nor plunging too deep into one tale or another. In another sense, the expression "getting acquainted" has further implications that deserve elucidation: First of all, let us remember that we naturally investigate what we ignore, and not what we already know; accordingly, we set out to study the myths not because we feel we know them but because we feel we know nothing or very little about them. I mention this obvious circumstance because I believe that we should bear in mind that, in this respect, we are not in the same position as our remote ancestors, who may be assumed to have made their acquaintance with the myths more or less in the same way one learns one's mother tongue, and consequently did not have to study them in any way. -
Hesiod Theogony.Pdf
Hesiod (8th or 7th c. BC, composed in Greek) The Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are probably slightly earlier than Hesiod’s two surviving poems, the Works and Days and the Theogony. Yet in many ways Hesiod is the more important author for the study of Greek mythology. While Homer treats cer- tain aspects of the saga of the Trojan War, he makes no attempt at treating myth more generally. He often includes short digressions and tantalizes us with hints of a broader tra- dition, but much of this remains obscure. Hesiod, by contrast, sought in his Theogony to give a connected account of the creation of the universe. For the study of myth he is im- portant precisely because his is the oldest surviving attempt to treat systematically the mythical tradition from the first gods down to the great heroes. Also unlike the legendary Homer, Hesiod is for us an historical figure and a real per- sonality. His Works and Days contains a great deal of autobiographical information, in- cluding his birthplace (Ascra in Boiotia), where his father had come from (Cyme in Asia Minor), and the name of his brother (Perses), with whom he had a dispute that was the inspiration for composing the Works and Days. His exact date cannot be determined with precision, but there is general agreement that he lived in the 8th century or perhaps the early 7th century BC. His life, therefore, was approximately contemporaneous with the beginning of alphabetic writing in the Greek world. Although we do not know whether Hesiod himself employed this new invention in composing his poems, we can be certain that it was soon used to record and pass them on. -
Theban Walls in Homeric Epic Corinne Ondine Pache Trinity University, [email protected]
Trinity University Digital Commons @ Trinity Classical Studies Faculty Research Classical Studies Department 10-2014 Theban Walls in Homeric Epic Corinne Ondine Pache Trinity University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/class_faculty Part of the Classics Commons Repository Citation Pache, C. (2014). Theban walls in Homeric epic. Trends in Classics, 6(2), 278-296. doi:10.1515/tc-2014-0015 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classical Studies Department at Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classical Studies Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TC 2014; 6(2): 278–296 Corinne Pache Theban Walls in Homeric Epic DOI 10.1515/tc-2014-0015 Throughout the Iliad, the Greeks at Troy often refer to the wars at Thebes in their speeches, and several important warriors fighting on the Greek side at Troy also fought at Thebes and are related to Theban heroes who besieged the Boeotian city a generation earlier. The Theban wars thus stand in the shadow of the story of war at Troy, another city surrounded by walls supposed to be impregnable. In the Odyssey, the Theban connections are less central, but nevertheless significant as one of our few sources concerning the building of the Theban walls. In this essay, I analyze Theban traces in Homeric epic as they relate to city walls. Since nothing explicitly concerning walls remains in the extant fragments of the Theban Cycle, we must look to Homeric poetry for formulaic and thematic elements that can be connected with Theban epic. -
1 Divine Intervention and Disguise in Homer's Iliad Senior Thesis
Divine Intervention and Disguise in Homer’s Iliad Senior Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Undergraduate Program in Classical Studies Professor Joel Christensen, Advisor In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts By Joana Jankulla May 2018 Copyright by Joana Jankulla 1 Copyright by Joana Jankulla © 2018 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Joel Christensen. Thank you, Professor Christensen for guiding me through this process, expressing confidence in me, and being available whenever I had any questions or concerns. I would not have been able to complete this work without you. Secondly, I would like to thank Professor Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Professor Cheryl Walker for reading my thesis and providing me with feedback. The Classics Department at Brandeis University has been an instrumental part of my growth in my four years as an undergraduate, and I am eternally thankful to all the professors and staff members in the department. Thank you to my friends, specifically Erica Theroux, Sarah Jousset, Anna Craven, Rachel Goldstein, Taylor McKinnon and Georgie Contreras for providing me with a lot of emotional support this year. I hope you all know how grateful I am for you as friends and how much I have appreciated your love this year. Thank you to my mom for FaceTiming me every time I was stressed about completing my thesis and encouraging me every step of the way. Finally, thank you to Ian Leeds for dropping everything and coming to me each time I needed it. -
On History and Political Thought in Homer's Iliad, with a Focus on Books
Defining Politics: On History and Political Thought in Homer’s Iliad, With a Focus on Books 1-9 by Andrew M. Gross A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto © Copyright by Andrew M. Gross 2017 Defining Politics: On History and Political Thought in Homer’s Iliad, With a Focus on Books 1-9 Andrew M. Gross Doctor of Philosophy Department of Political Science University of Toronto 2017 ii Abstract The Iliad is a work of great literary complexity that contains profound insights and a wide- ranging account of the human condition. Some of the most important recent scholarly work on the poem has also emphasized the political dimension of Homer’s account. In this dissertation, I aim to contribute to our understanding of the Iliad as a work of political thought. Focusing on books 1 through 9 of the Iliad, I will try to show how we can discover in it a consistent chronological or historical account, even though at many points that history is not presented in a linear way, in the poem itself. Through various references we are able to discern an historical account of the entire cosmic order. Homer focuses on the newly established Olympian gods and, therewith, their need to enforce the crucial separation between themselves and human beings: that is, between their own status as immortals, and our condition as mortals. Homer’s history of the Trojan War, in turn, conveys crucial lessons about politics and the human condition. The dissertation traces the history of the war as it emerged from a private struggle and developed into a public war. -
PHILOPOEMEN IMMODICUS and SUPERBUS and SPARTA the Decision Taken by the Achaean League in the Autumn of 192 B.G at Aegium To
PHILOPOEMEN IMMODICUS AND SUPERBUS AND SPARTA The decision taken by the Achaean League in the autumn of 192 B.G at Aegium to wage war against the Aetolians and their allies was crucial to the Greeks and their future. Greece proper had been divided for generations among several political bodies — and, in fact, had never been united into one state. Yet all those known as Έλληνες felt the natural human desire to avoid the unnecessary violence, bloodshed, and self-destruction engendered by ceaseless competition for preeminence and hegemomy in the domestic arena. The so-called “Tragic Historians” adopted these emotions as the leitmotif of their principal efforts to delineate the deeds and omissions of the Greek leadership and populace.1 Rome’s powerful political-strategical penetration east of the Adriatic sea, into Mainland Greece, particularly during the later decades of the third century B.C, undermined the precarious balance of internal Greek politics. The embarrassment which had seized most of Greece is easily understandable. Yet the Achaeans at Aegium do not appear to have been inspired by the memory of their ancestors’ resistance to the Persians. The Achaean leaders, Philopoemen not excluded, rejected Aetolian pleas for help or, at least, non-intervention in the struggle that they had started in the name of Έλληνες for the whole of Greece. Somewhat surprisingly, the Achaean leaders hastened to declare war on the Aetolians, anticipating even the Roman crossing to Greece2. These are the bare facts available to us (Livy 35.50.2-6). However, the conventional interpretation of these occurrences derived from Polybius 3 tends to be pathetic more than historical, and consti tute an embellished portrait of Achaean policy and politicians of those days rather than an honest guide to the political realities of the Έλληνες and Greece proper. -
Homer the Iliad
1 Homer The Iliad Translated by Ian Johnston Open access: http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/homer/iliadtofc.html 2010 [Selections] CONTENTS I THE QUARREL BY THE SHIPS 2 II AGAMEMNON'S DREAM AND THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPS 5 III PARIS, MENELAUS, AND HELEN 6 IV THE ARMIES CLASH 6 V DIOMEDES GOES TO BATTLE 6 VI HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE 6 VII HECTOR AND AJAX 6 VIII THE TROJANS HAVE SUCCESS 6 IX PEACE OFFERINGS TO ACHILLES 6 X A NIGHT RAID 10 XI THE ACHAEANS FACE DISASTER 10 XII THE FIGHT AT THE BARRICADE 11 XIII THE TROJANS ATTACK THE SHIPS 11 XIV ZEUS DECEIVED 11 XV THE BATTLE AT THE SHIPS 11 XVI PATROCLUS FIGHTS AND DIES 11 XVII THE FIGHT OVER PATROCLUS 12 XVIII THE ARMS OF ACHILLES 12 XIX ACHILLES AND AGAMEMNON 16 XX ACHILLES RETURNS TO BATTLE 16 XXI ACHILLES FIGHTS THE RIVER 17 XXII THE DEATH OF HECTOR 17 XXIII THE FUNERAL GAMES FOR PATROCLUS 20 XXIV ACHILLES AND PRIAM 20 I THE QUARREL BY THE SHIPS [The invocation to the Muse; Agamemnon insults Apollo; Apollo sends the plague onto the army; the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon; Calchas indicates what must be done to appease Apollo; Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles; Achilles prays to Thetis for revenge; Achilles meets Thetis; Chryseis is returned to her father; Thetis visits Zeus; the gods con-verse about the matter on Olympus; the banquet of the gods] Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus— that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans to countless agonies and threw many warrior souls deep into Hades, leaving their dead bodies carrion food for dogs and birds— all in fulfilment of the will of Zeus. -
Achilles.Pdf
ffi ffi Achilles : GreeP Mythology By: English For Students Introduction Achilles, in Greek mytholo_gy, greafesl of the Greek warriors in the Troian Wor. He was the son of the seo nymph Thetis and Peleus, king of the Myrmidons of Thessoly. When the Fates prophesied that Achiltes would die in the Trojon War, Thetis aitempted to make her infant son immortal. In one version of the story, Thetis rubbed Achiltes with ombrosia and placed him in the hearth fire to moke him immortat. According to a later legend, she bothed him in the River Styx. The waiers made him invulnerable except for fhe heel by which his mother hetd him. The term Achilles heel has become popularized to refer to someone's or something's key weakness. Youth White Achitles wos growing up, the Greek armies were preparing for their assoult on Troy in Asia Minor. Knowing thot her son wos fated to die if he took pari in the war, Achiltes's mother dressed him in women's clothing ond sent him to Skyros io live omong ihe young women in the court of King Lycomedes. Warned that they coutd not conquer Troy without the aid of Achilles, the Greeks sent Odysseus, king of Ithaca, to find him. Disguised as a peddler, Odysseus went to Skyros bearing o shield and o speor dmong his goods. When Achitles betrayed his identity by seizing the weopons, Odysseus persuaded him to join the GreeR expedition to Troy. The Trojon Wor Achiltes fought mony baftles during the Greeks' len-yeor siege of Troy. When ihe Mycenoean king Agomemnon seized the capiive slave Briseis from him during the wor, Achitles withdrew the Myrmidons from baftte ond sulked in his tent. -
Bulfinch's Mythology
Bulfinch's Mythology Thomas Bulfinch Bulfinch's Mythology Table of Contents Bulfinch's Mythology..........................................................................................................................................1 Thomas Bulfinch......................................................................................................................................1 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE......................................................................................................................3 AUTHOR'S PREFACE...........................................................................................................................4 STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES..................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................7 CHAPTER II. PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA...............................................................................13 CHAPTER III. APOLLO AND DAPHNEPYRAMUS AND THISBE CEPHALUS AND PROCRIS7 CHAPTER IV. JUNO AND HER RIVALS, IO AND CALLISTODIANA AND ACTAEONLATONA2 AND THE RUSTICS CHAPTER V. PHAETON.....................................................................................................................27 CHAPTER VI. MIDASBAUCIS AND PHILEMON........................................................................31 CHAPTER VII. PROSERPINEGLAUCUS AND SCYLLA............................................................34 -
The Government of Troy: Politics in the Iliad William Merritt Sale
The Government of Troy: Politics in the "Iliad" Sale, William Merritt Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1994; 35, 1; ProQuest pg. 5 The Government of Troy: Politics in the Iliad William Merritt Sale N RECENTLY PUBLISHED STUDIES of Homeric formulae I have I called attention, on the basis of statistical evidence, to two facts about Homer's Trojans in the Iliad: (1) The nominative proper-name formulae used by the poet to refer to them display a remarkable lacuna: there are no frequently occurring, 'regular', formulae. 1 The other characters and peoples who are mentioned anything like as often as the Trojans all have regular formulae, usually more than one. We give the term 'regular formula' a quantitative definition, "exactly repeated six times or more," but the phenomenon is not mere ly quantitative; there are certain qualities that regular formulae have and that infrequently occurring formulae tend to lack. Most notable of these are their noun-epithet form (nominative proper-name noun-verb formulae all occur infrequently) and the occurrence of the formula in a major colon:2 frequently oc curring formulae are noun-epithet and occupy major cola; infre quent formulae fall in minor cola, and the less frequently they occur, the more likely they are to fall in minor cola and to be noun-verbal in syntax. Hence the distinction between regular and infrequent formulae is qualitative, and the Trojans in the nominative lack something they ought to have, noun-epithet formulae used regularly to fill metrical spaces that the other characters have formulae to fill. A lack of regular formulae is significant; and the significance is statistically demonstrable.3 1 w. -
Sing, Goddess, Sing of the Rage of Achilles, Son of Peleus—
Homer, Iliad Excerpts 1 HOMER, ILIAD TRANSLATION BY IAN JOHNSTON Dr. D’s note: These are excerpts from the complete text of Johnston’s translation, available here. The full site shows original line numbers, and has some explanatory notes, and you should use it if you use this material for one of your written topics. Book I: The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon begins The Greeks have been waging war against Troy and its allies for 10 years, and in raids against smaller allies, have already won war prizes including women like Chryseis and Achilles’ girl, Briseis. Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus— that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans to countless agonies and threw many warrior souls deep into Hades, leaving their dead bodies carrion food for dogs and birds— all in fulfilment of the will of Zeus. Start at the point where Agamemnon, son of Atreus, that king of men, quarrelled with noble Achilles. Which of the gods incited these two men to fight? That god was Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto. Angry with Agamemnon, he cast plague down onto the troops—deadly infectious evil. For Agamemnon had dishonoured the god’s priest, Chryses, who’d come to the ships to find his daughter, Chryseis, bringing with him a huge ransom. In his hand he held up on a golden staff the scarf sacred to archer god Apollo. He begged Achaeans, above all the army’s leaders, the two sons of Atreus: “Menelaus, Agamemnon, sons of Atreus, all you well-armed Achaeans, may the gods on Olympus grant you wipe out Priam’s city, and then return home safe and sound.