THE ILIAD AND THE ODYSSEY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Homer,Jan Parker,George Chapman,Tom Griffith | 976 pages | 01 Aug 2000 | Wordsworth Editions Ltd | 9781840221176 | English | Herts, United Kingdom The Iliad and Odyssey

Linguistic analysis suggests that the Iliad was composed slightly before the Odyssey , and that Homeric formulae preserve older features than other parts of the poems. The Homeric poems were composed in unrhymed dactylic hexameter ; ancient Greek metre was quantity-based rather than stress-based. These habits aid the extemporizing bard, and are characteristic of oral poetry. For instance, the main words of a Homeric sentence are generally placed towards the beginning, whereas literate poets like Virgil or Milton use longer and more complicated syntactical structures. Homer then expands on these ideas in subsequent clauses; this technique is called parataxis. The so-called ' type scenes ' typische Scenen , were named by Walter Arend in He noted that Homer often, when describing frequently recurring activities such as eating, praying , fighting and dressing, used blocks of set phrases in sequence that were then elaborated by the poet. The 'Analyst' school had considered these repetitions as un-Homeric, whereas Arend interpreted them philosophically. Parry and Lord noted that these conventions are found in many other cultures. C, B, A has been observed in the Homeric epics. Opinion differs as to whether these occurrences are a conscious artistic device, a mnemonic aid or a spontaneous feature of human storytelling. Both of the Homeric poems begin with an invocation to the Muse. The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally-dictated texts. Other scholars hold that, after the poems were created in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until they were written down in the sixth century. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt. After the establishment of the Library of Alexandria , Homeric scholars such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and in particular Aristarchus of Samothrace helped establish a canonical text. The first printed edition of Homer was produced in in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources; some argue for a "multi-text" view, rather than seeking a single definitive text. The nineteenth-century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work, whereas van Thiel's , follows the medieval vulgate. Others, such as Martin West — or T. Allen, fall somewhere between these two extremes. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 20 October For other uses, see Homer disambiguation. For other uses, see Homeric disambiguation and Homerus disambiguation. It is not to be confused with Homerian. Further information: Ancient accounts of Homer. Further information: Homeric scholarship and Homeric Question. Main article: Historicity of the Homeric epics. Main article: Homeric Greek. Ancient Greece portal Poetry portal Literature portal. The British Museum. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. Retrieved 22 November A Short History of Greek Literature. University of Chicago Press. Cambridge University Press. Classical Literature: An Introduction. Retrieved 23 November A Companion to Greek Literature. Gary Walter de Gruyter. The Odyssey Re-formed. Cornell University Press. Homer, His Art and His World. University of Michigan Press. The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World. OUP Oxford. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 30 June The Homer Encyclopedia. Homer: The Resonance of Epic. The Lives of the Greek Poets. December Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. The Classical Tradition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Indiana University Press. Classical Quarterly. Douglas De Gruyter. Homer and the Odyssey. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. JHU Press. Homer and the Origins of the Greek Alphabet. Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The World of Odysseus. War and Violence in Ancient Greece. Classical Antiquity. A Companion to Greek Mythology. Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. Infobase Publishing. A New Companion to Homer. In Search of the Trojan War. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Retrieved 1 September The Mycenaeans. Los Angeles, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum. Brimscombe Port: The History Press. A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language. Edwards, Mark Bristol Classical Press. Oral Tradition. Princeton University Press. Vergil's Empire: Political Thought in the Aeneid. Homer and the Oral Tradition. Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship Oxford, Stanley, The Shield of Homer Princeton, 37, ff. The Homeric Question and the Oral- formulaic Theory. Homer is definitely a master of the Greek It's a damn Greek tragedy! Homer is definitely a master of the Greek epic. His writing resembles that of a playwright of modern day and even harkens back to a bit of Shakespearean feeling in the emotion of the characters. This is definitely a classic for the ages and in my opinion one that should be read once by everyone. I am reading this to two sets of students and it never gets old. My only complaint is that the Provensons left out Argos. I do believe it is the best children's Homer I have read. I love the chapter breakdowns which are almost parallel to the poems. The Provensons never disappoint, do they? May 05, 1marcus rated it it was amazing. The adventure, mystery, and the understanding of pre-history are great for anyone who wants to read this book. All these things made me want to read the book over again and even write a book review on it. First the adventure is wild from the start. Fighting the Cyclopes and winning made me think that no matter what the size of the person or object I can win if I put my mind to it and want it bad enough. Adventure keeps me reading the book. Never will you have to do that with this book. Last the understanding of the pre-history is good for one if they are trying to learn about ancient history. We hope that you find Homer's "Odyssey" enjoyable whether you are reading it for school, for study, or for pleasure. What will you do View 1 comment. Well, after hearing of the Iliad and the Odyssey for my entire life through the miasma of culture, media, and that one primary school teacher who, to my memory, taught me nothing but greek myth big up Miss Fahey , I finally got around to reading them. Well, kind of. Reading stories this old is like saying you finally heard Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was played by some guy in a pub who heard another guy describe it admitantly, really well on the radio from the time his dad played it for him aft Well, after hearing of the Iliad and the Odyssey for my entire life through the miasma of culture, media, and that one primary school teacher who, to my memory, taught me nothing but greek myth big up Miss Fahey , I finally got around to reading them. Reading stories this old is like saying you finally heard Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was played by some guy in a pub who heard another guy describe it admitantly, really well on the radio from the time his dad played it for him after hearing a woman sing it in a talent show after she heard it from etc. How much of Homer was the OG Homer? Do we even know if any of Homer's words even survived the subsequent changes the other Homers added to the text? And what about the text? Do we count the person who first put it to paper as a 'Homer'? Or are they just counted as translators? And what about translators?? These are too many questions to sift through and I'm no where near qualified enough to answer any of them so I'm not getting involved in that whole nebulous "oral tradition" malarky, it's irrelevant as I can only judge what I have read in this here collection of words that made up two long but brilliant poems. All the points I have about these epics, positive and negative, stem from the literary collection that I imbibed. So here is what I think of that pysical thing that I bought which had two epic poems called The Iliad and The Odyssey, which were both written down onto the page by some guy other than Homer, then Translated by another dude who also wasn't Homer, and read by a guy who really isn't Homer. I'm talking about that. And to make it even more confusing, I listened to them via audiobook. Yeah, this review is already a mess They're all save for the wooden horse alluded to, foreshadowed, and set up throughout the poem, but they're not described or shown. Long story short; no pay off. The poem ends before any of that occurs. Now I hear you say, "but Tom, that's not what the Iliad was about! It was about Achilles, his argument with Agamemnon, and his rage at the death of Patroclus. Everyone knows all of that is going to happen anyhow, you don't need to show it. BUT The structure and time given to the overarching plot of the war, its soldiers and its greater surroundings, not to mention the battle between the gods, is left unfinished. For HUGE swathes of the poem, we were brought inside battles, raids, plans for tearing down walls, loss of naval escape routes, people's families back home and debts that are forever left unpaid and crimes that are left unresolved due to the actions and the bloodshed of the trojan war. This story arc takes up a greater proportion of the poem than Achilles' arc does, and it's left unresovled. Hell, I'd even argue Achilles' arc is left unresolved. The poem ends with him recieving the glory deserved to him from gods, enacting his revenge on Hector, giving a funeral for Patroclus, and giving Hector's body back to his father, the king. But what it doesn't show is him paying for all of these great deeds with his own death, a death that every immortal being, including Achilles' own mother, won't stop talking about. It would be like ending the play 'Dr. Faustus' with him becoming the greatest magician in the world, and as the punters are leaving the theatre telling them, "Oh obviously he goes to hell after this. Everyone could see that coming! The Odyssey: the Comeback of the Millennia Aw man, what a recovery. Both for Odysseus, and for Homer. This poem has everything, non-linear storytelling, cyclopses, dead mothers, unrelenting suitors, domestic abuse, a thirsty goddess stuck on paradise island, Odysseus crying like all the time and as soon as he gets home he tells his son not to be such a woman. What a ride, what a change in the quality of structure, everything is remembered and tied off with a neat bow. Whichever Homer that was in charge of taking care of the Odyssey did a stellar job. I actually have no complaints - save for the rampant woman hating in the poem, obviously. Then again, this story is older than the written word so you can't blame it for being outdated at times. It's a brilliant poem and so many turns of phrase have stemmed from its writing, not only that, the descriptions of the battles are of mid s anime levels of scale and hype proportions. I will say that the Iliad is an unfinished text, and you need to read both together for a completion. I haven't read it since high school and have been wanting to read it again. It is obviously well written and a classic. As a female though I couldn't help but get annoyed with Odysseus sleeping with goddesses etc. Although, I also got annoyed at Penelope's inability to send the suitors away, so maybe they were meant for each oth 3. Although, I also got annoyed at Penelope's inability to send the suitors away, so maybe they were meant for each other? Some of the fighting scenes got too gruesome for me. Also, why is Athena so committed to Odysseus? I started reading "Anna Karenina" in the middle of it and kind of had to force myself to finish this one. Still an enjoyable read that everyone should be familiar with. Nov 19, Lisa Harmonybites rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Everyone. Shelves: fiction , fantasy , poetry , classics. Together these two works attributed to Homer are considered among the oldest surviving works of Western literature, dating to probably the eighth century BCE, and are certainly among the most influential. I can't believe I once found Homer boring. In my defense, I was a callow teen, and having a book assigned in school often tends to perversely make you hate it. But then I had a "Keats conversion experience. Obviously, the translation is key if you're not reading in the original Greek, and I recommend looking at several side by side to see which one best suits. A friend of mine who is a classicist says she prefers The Illiad --that she thinks it the more mature book. The Illiad deals with just a few weeks in the last year of the decade-long Trojan War. As the opening lines state, it deals with how the quarrel between the Greek's great hero Achilles and their leader Agamemnon "caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss and crowded brave souls into the undergloom. One close to three thousand years old with a mindset very alien to ours. One where unending glory was seen as a great good over personal survival or family. One where all felt that their ends were fated. And one with curiously human, or at least petty, gods. Some see the work as jingoistic, even pro- war, and I suppose it can be read that way, but what struck me was the compassion with which Homer wrote of both sides. We certainly care for the Trojan Hector as much as or more in my case much more than for the sulky and explosive Achilles. Homer certainly doesn't obscure the pity, the waste, and the grief war brings. And there are plenty of scenes in the work that I found unforgettable: The humorous scene where Aphrodite is wounded and driven from the field. The moving scene between Hector and his wife and child. The grief Helen feels in losing a friend. The confrontation between Priam and Achilles. Even just reading general Greek mythology, Odysseus was always a favorite, because unlike figures such as Achilles or Heracles he succeeded on his wits, not muscle. It's true, on this reread, especially in contrast to say The Illiad 's Hector, I do see Odysseus' dark side. The man is a pirate and at times rash, hot-tempered, even vicious. But I do feel for his pining for home and The Odyssey is filled with such a wealth of incident--the Cyclops, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens--and especially Hades, the forerunner of Dante's Hell. And though my friend is right that the misogynist ancient Greek culture isn't where you go for strong heroines, I love Penelope; described as the "matchless queen of cunning," she's a worthy match for the crafty Odysseus. The series of recognition scenes on Ithaca are especially moving and memorable--I think my favorite and the most poignant being that of Odysseus' dog Argos. Epic poems about 2, years old, in the right translation both works can nevertheless speak to me more eloquently than many a contemporary novel. September 5th, 3 stars. Finished the Iliad! Finally done. It took me a month, and not because it was boring or anything although some chapters were less exciting than others , it's just really hard to read because of the metre - hexameter. Not a natural metre for a Russian poetry, so it was unusual. But I did like this book. Especially all those gruesome descriptions of death. It was sort of fascinating. Also I did like a lot of the characters - September 5th, 3 stars. There was not much of a beginning or an ending to this story, but Homer truly was a genius of epic poems, even though a lot of people agree he was just a generalized character. Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. I was very bored with the who-killed-whom parts in the Iliad. I hope an audiobook of Ms. Man-eating war indee Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. Man-eating war indeed. Apr 28, Eva added it Shelves: owned , lgbtq , classics. I noticed more, I laughed more, I analysed more. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I'm happy I've done so. I don't have a rating, because it feels wrong to rate a book that has been around for over years. Who am I in comparison? That means I've read parts of it in Ancient Greek and parts in Dutch. I've seen the entire story in detail, so I consider it read. We'll see The Oddyssey in class next semester, so I'll also read parts of it in the original Greek. I have read the entire thing in Dutch already. I really enjoyed reading Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. I actually read this book of my own volition and not because I had to for school. The stories are very unique and captivating. You'll be sitting on the edge of your chair. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mythology of any kind. I enjoyed it so much that I believe I'll give it another read after so many years and an adequate review. Couldn't finish it, that's a pity! Lost track of the story as the time gap grew larger But I may reread it one day as I enjoyed it pretty much. While the contrast of the two, one after the other, is very interesting I can't say I'd be likely to ever read The Iliad again. The Odyssey though works very well rendered here as prose and more fully fulfills the classic expectation of what a Greek adventure story should be. Jan 20, Friend of Pixie F. Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. But I happened on this copy at a used-books shop in Cannon Beach and had to have it because in , my mother gave me "Myths and Legends" Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends Adapted from the World's Great Classics illustrated by the same couple and I loved the pictures. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots and lots of them. Only too true. Luckily, only the "bad guys and mosters" die. Watson does a good job maintaining the antique sound of the language, while still making it understandable for younger readers. Feb 28, Greg Pitts rated it it was amazing. After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! I don't even know who's translation I first read, but I've read The Iliad twice since, and Fagles' translation is the best yet. Beautiful imagery and really exciting battle scenes really! This book is not a chore like we have been led to believe. Trust me, I don't go out seeking ancient Greek poems. But this is great stuff and Fagles' translati After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! But this is great stuff and Fagles' translation led me to buy his Homer's Odyssey to read it for the first time. Simply beautiful! This stuff can get violent so steel yourselves. I was so impressed and moved by his translations I tried to email Dr. Fagles to let him know, only to find out that, sadly, he had passed away a few months earlier. If you have the slightest interest, please do yourselves a favor and dive into his translations of these astounding works of literature. And then At the core of Western culture, there is ancient Rome and Greece, and at the core of the ancient Roman and Greek culture, there is Homer. Iliad - Wikipedia

My only complaint is that the Provensons left out Argos. I do believe it is the best children's Homer I have read. I love the chapter breakdowns which are almost parallel to the poems. The Provensons never disappoint, do they? May 05, 1marcus rated it it was amazing. The adventure, mystery, and the understanding of pre-history are great for anyone who wants to read this book. All these things made me want to read the book over again and even write a book review on it. First the adventure is wild from the start. Fighting the Cyclopes and winning made me think that no matter what the size of the person or object I can win if I put my mind to it and want it bad enough. Adventure keeps me reading the book. Never will you have to do that with this book. Last the understanding of the pre-history is good for one if they are trying to learn about ancient history. We hope that you find Homer's "Odyssey" enjoyable whether you are reading it for school, for study, or for pleasure. What will you do View 1 comment. Well, after hearing of the Iliad and the Odyssey for my entire life through the miasma of culture, media, and that one primary school teacher who, to my memory, taught me nothing but greek myth big up Miss Fahey , I finally got around to reading them. Well, kind of. Reading stories this old is like saying you finally heard Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was played by some guy in a pub who heard another guy describe it admitantly, really well on the radio from the time his dad played it for him aft Well, after hearing of the Iliad and the Odyssey for my entire life through the miasma of culture, media, and that one primary school teacher who, to my memory, taught me nothing but greek myth big up Miss Fahey , I finally got around to reading them. Reading stories this old is like saying you finally heard Bohemian Rhapsody, but it was played by some guy in a pub who heard another guy describe it admitantly, really well on the radio from the time his dad played it for him after hearing a woman sing it in a talent show after she heard it from etc. How much of Homer was the OG Homer? Do we even know if any of Homer's words even survived the subsequent changes the other Homers added to the text? And what about the text? Do we count the person who first put it to paper as a 'Homer'? Or are they just counted as translators? And what about translators?? These are too many questions to sift through and I'm no where near qualified enough to answer any of them so I'm not getting involved in that whole nebulous "oral tradition" malarky, it's irrelevant as I can only judge what I have read in this here collection of words that made up two long but brilliant poems. All the points I have about these epics, positive and negative, stem from the literary collection that I imbibed. So here is what I think of that pysical thing that I bought which had two epic poems called The Iliad and The Odyssey, which were both written down onto the page by some guy other than Homer, then Translated by another dude who also wasn't Homer, and read by a guy who really isn't Homer. I'm talking about that. And to make it even more confusing, I listened to them via audiobook. Yeah, this review is already a mess They're all save for the wooden horse alluded to, foreshadowed, and set up throughout the poem, but they're not described or shown. Long story short; no pay off. The poem ends before any of that occurs. Now I hear you say, "but Tom, that's not what the Iliad was about! It was about Achilles, his argument with Agamemnon, and his rage at the death of Patroclus. Everyone knows all of that is going to happen anyhow, you don't need to show it. BUT The structure and time given to the overarching plot of the war, its soldiers and its greater surroundings, not to mention the battle between the gods, is left unfinished. For HUGE swathes of the poem, we were brought inside battles, raids, plans for tearing down walls, loss of naval escape routes, people's families back home and debts that are forever left unpaid and crimes that are left unresolved due to the actions and the bloodshed of the trojan war. This story arc takes up a greater proportion of the poem than Achilles' arc does, and it's left unresovled. Hell, I'd even argue Achilles' arc is left unresolved. The poem ends with him recieving the glory deserved to him from gods, enacting his revenge on Hector, giving a funeral for Patroclus, and giving Hector's body back to his father, the king. But what it doesn't show is him paying for all of these great deeds with his own death, a death that every immortal being, including Achilles' own mother, won't stop talking about. It would be like ending the play 'Dr. Faustus' with him becoming the greatest magician in the world, and as the punters are leaving the theatre telling them, "Oh obviously he goes to hell after this. Everyone could see that coming! The Odyssey: the Comeback of the Millennia Aw man, what a recovery. Both for Odysseus, and for Homer. This poem has everything, non-linear storytelling, cyclopses, dead mothers, unrelenting suitors, domestic abuse, a thirsty goddess stuck on paradise island, Odysseus crying like all the time and as soon as he gets home he tells his son not to be such a woman. What a ride, what a change in the quality of structure, everything is remembered and tied off with a neat bow. Whichever Homer that was in charge of taking care of the Odyssey did a stellar job. I actually have no complaints - save for the rampant woman hating in the poem, obviously. Then again, this story is older than the written word so you can't blame it for being outdated at times. It's a brilliant poem and so many turns of phrase have stemmed from its writing, not only that, the descriptions of the battles are of mid s anime levels of scale and hype proportions. I will say that the Iliad is an unfinished text, and you need to read both together for a completion. I haven't read it since high school and have been wanting to read it again. It is obviously well written and a classic. As a female though I couldn't help but get annoyed with Odysseus sleeping with goddesses etc. Although, I also got annoyed at Penelope's inability to send the suitors away, so maybe they were meant for each oth 3. Although, I also got annoyed at Penelope's inability to send the suitors away, so maybe they were meant for each other? Some of the fighting scenes got too gruesome for me. Also, why is Athena so committed to Odysseus? I started reading "Anna Karenina" in the middle of it and kind of had to force myself to finish this one. Still an enjoyable read that everyone should be familiar with. Nov 19, Lisa Harmonybites rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Everyone. Shelves: fiction , fantasy , poetry , classics. Together these two works attributed to Homer are considered among the oldest surviving works of Western literature, dating to probably the eighth century BCE, and are certainly among the most influential. I can't believe I once found Homer boring. In my defense, I was a callow teen, and having a book assigned in school often tends to perversely make you hate it. But then I had a "Keats conversion experience. Obviously, the translation is key if you're not reading in the original Greek, and I recommend looking at several side by side to see which one best suits. A friend of mine who is a classicist says she prefers The Illiad --that she thinks it the more mature book. The Illiad deals with just a few weeks in the last year of the decade-long Trojan War. As the opening lines state, it deals with how the quarrel between the Greek's great hero Achilles and their leader Agamemnon "caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss and crowded brave souls into the undergloom. One close to three thousand years old with a mindset very alien to ours. One where unending glory was seen as a great good over personal survival or family. One where all felt that their ends were fated. And one with curiously human, or at least petty, gods. Some see the work as jingoistic, even pro-war, and I suppose it can be read that way, but what struck me was the compassion with which Homer wrote of both sides. We certainly care for the Trojan Hector as much as or more in my case much more than for the sulky and explosive Achilles. Homer certainly doesn't obscure the pity, the waste, and the grief war brings. And there are plenty of scenes in the work that I found unforgettable: The humorous scene where Aphrodite is wounded and driven from the field. The moving scene between Hector and his wife and child. The grief Helen feels in losing a friend. The confrontation between Priam and Achilles. Even just reading general Greek mythology, Odysseus was always a favorite, because unlike figures such as Achilles or Heracles he succeeded on his wits, not muscle. It's true, on this reread, especially in contrast to say The Illiad 's Hector, I do see Odysseus' dark side. The man is a pirate and at times rash, hot-tempered, even vicious. But I do feel for his pining for home and The Odyssey is filled with such a wealth of incident--the Cyclops, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens--and especially Hades, the forerunner of Dante's Hell. And though my friend is right that the misogynist ancient Greek culture isn't where you go for strong heroines, I love Penelope; described as the "matchless queen of cunning," she's a worthy match for the crafty Odysseus. The series of recognition scenes on Ithaca are especially moving and memorable--I think my favorite and the most poignant being that of Odysseus' dog Argos. Epic poems about 2, years old, in the right translation both works can nevertheless speak to me more eloquently than many a contemporary novel. September 5th, 3 stars. Finished the Iliad! Finally done. It took me a month, and not because it was boring or anything although some chapters were less exciting than others , it's just really hard to read because of the metre - hexameter. Not a natural metre for a Russian poetry, so it was unusual. But I did like this book. Especially all those gruesome descriptions of death. It was sort of fascinating. Also I did like a lot of the characters - September 5th, 3 stars. There was not much of a beginning or an ending to this story, but Homer truly was a genius of epic poems, even though a lot of people agree he was just a generalized character. Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. I was very bored with the who-killed-whom parts in the Iliad. I hope an audiobook of Ms. Man-eating war indee Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. Man-eating war indeed. Apr 28, Eva added it Shelves: owned , lgbtq , classics. I noticed more, I laughed more, I analysed more. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I'm happy I've done so. I don't have a rating, because it feels wrong to rate a book that has been around for over years. Who am I in comparison? That means I've read parts of it in Ancient Greek and parts in Dutch. I've seen the entire story in detail, so I consider it read. We'll see The Oddyssey in class next semester, so I'll also read parts of it in the original Greek. I have read the entire thing in Dutch already. I really enjoyed reading Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. I actually read this book of my own volition and not because I had to for school. The stories are very unique and captivating. You'll be sitting on the edge of your chair. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mythology of any kind. I enjoyed it so much that I believe I'll give it another read after so many years and an adequate review. Couldn't finish it, that's a pity! Lost track of the story as the time gap grew larger But I may reread it one day as I enjoyed it pretty much. While the contrast of the two, one after the other, is very interesting I can't say I'd be likely to ever read The Iliad again. The Odyssey though works very well rendered here as prose and more fully fulfills the classic expectation of what a Greek adventure story should be. Jan 20, Friend of Pixie F. Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. But I happened on this copy at a used-books shop in Cannon Beach and had to have it because in , my mother gave me "Myths and Legends" Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends Adapted from the World's Great Classics illustrated by the same couple and I loved the pictures. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots and lots of them. Only too true. Luckily, only the "bad guys and mosters" die. Watson does a good job maintaining the antique sound of the language, while still making it understandable for younger readers. Feb 28, Greg Pitts rated it it was amazing. After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! I don't even know who's translation I first read, but I've read The Iliad twice since, and Fagles' translation is the best yet. Beautiful imagery and really exciting battle scenes really! This book is not a chore like we have been led to believe. Trust me, I don't go out seeking ancient Greek poems. But this is great stuff and Fagles' translati After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! But this is great stuff and Fagles' translation led me to buy his Homer's Odyssey to read it for the first time. Simply beautiful! This stuff can get violent so steel yourselves. I was so impressed and moved by his translations I tried to email Dr. Fagles to let him know, only to find out that, sadly, he had passed away a few months earlier. If you have the slightest interest, please do yourselves a favor and dive into his translations of these astounding works of literature. And then At the core of Western culture, there is ancient Rome and Greece, and at the core of the ancient Roman and Greek culture, there is Homer. When reading, I really did feel that the Iliad and Odyssey contain the basic building blocks of the Western way of thinking. For example, Achilles and Odysseus were arguing about what to do next, and each could make a case that sounded convincing. But the ideas were not equally good. This translation uses plain English, with no hexameter of rhymes, which helped At the core of Western culture, there is ancient Rome and Greece, and at the core of the ancient Roman and Greek culture, there is Homer. This translation uses plain English, with no hexameter of rhymes, which helped me focus on the story. Most contemporary scholars, although they disagree on other questions about the genesis of the poems, agree that the Iliad and the Odyssey were not produced by the same author, based on "the many differences of narrative manner, theology, ethics, vocabulary, and geographical perspective, and by the apparently imitative character of certain passages of the Odyssey in relation to the Iliad. Some ancient scholars believed Homer to have been an eyewitness to the Trojan War ; others thought he had lived up to years afterwards. Martin Litchfield West has argued that the Iliad echoes the poetry of Hesiod , and that it must have been composed around — BC at the earliest, with the Odyssey up to a generation later. The explanations suggested by modern scholars tend to mirror their position on the overall Homeric question. Nagy interprets it as "he who fits the song together". West has advanced both possible Greek and Phoenician etymologies. Scholars continue to debate questions such as whether the Trojan War actually took place — and if so when and where — and to what extent the society depicted by Homer is based on his own or one which was, even at the time of the poems' composition, known only as legends. The Homeric epics are largely set in the east and center of the Mediterranean , with some scattered references to Egypt , Ethiopia and other distant lands, in a warlike society that resembles that of the Greek world slightly before the hypothesized date of the poems' composition. In ancient Greek chronology, the sack of Troy was dated to BC. By the nineteenth century, there was widespread scholarly skepticism that the Trojan War had ever happened and that Troy had even existed, but in Heinrich Schliemann announced to the world that he had discovered the ruins of Homer's Troy at Hissarlik in modern Turkey. Some contemporary scholars think the destruction of Troy VIIa circa BC was the origin of the myth of the Trojan War, others that the poem was inspired by multiple similar sieges that took place over the centuries. Most scholars now agree that the Homeric poems depict customs and elements of the material world that are derived from different periods of Greek history. In the Iliad Such helmets were not worn in Homer's time, but were commonly worn by aristocratic warriors between and BC. The Homeric epics are written in an artificial literary language or 'Kunstsprache' only used in epic hexameter poetry. Homeric Greek shows features of multiple regional Greek dialects and periods, but is fundamentally based on Ionic Greek , in keeping with the tradition that Homer was from Ionia. Linguistic analysis suggests that the Iliad was composed slightly before the Odyssey , and that Homeric formulae preserve older features than other parts of the poems. The Homeric poems were composed in unrhymed dactylic hexameter ; ancient Greek metre was quantity- based rather than stress-based. These habits aid the extemporizing bard, and are characteristic of oral poetry. For instance, the main words of a Homeric sentence are generally placed towards the beginning, whereas literate poets like Virgil or Milton use longer and more complicated syntactical structures. Homer then expands on these ideas in subsequent clauses; this technique is called parataxis. The so-called ' type scenes ' typische Scenen , were named by Walter Arend in He noted that Homer often, when describing frequently recurring activities such as eating, praying , fighting and dressing, used blocks of set phrases in sequence that were then elaborated by the poet. The 'Analyst' school had considered these repetitions as un-Homeric, whereas Arend interpreted them philosophically. Parry and Lord noted that these conventions are found in many other cultures. C, B, A has been observed in the Homeric epics. Opinion differs as to whether these occurrences are a conscious artistic device, a mnemonic aid or a spontaneous feature of human storytelling. Both of the Homeric poems begin with an invocation to the Muse. The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally-dictated texts. Other scholars hold that, after the poems were created in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until they were written down in the sixth century. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt. After the establishment of the Library of Alexandria , Homeric scholars such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and in particular Aristarchus of Samothrace helped establish a canonical text. The first printed edition of Homer was produced in in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources; some argue for a "multi- text" view, rather than seeking a single definitive text. The nineteenth-century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work, whereas van Thiel's , follows the medieval vulgate. Others, such as Martin West — or T. Allen, fall somewhere between these two extremes. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 20 October For other uses, see Homer disambiguation. For other uses, see Homeric disambiguation and Homerus disambiguation. It is not to be confused with Homerian. Further information: Ancient accounts of Homer. Further information: Homeric scholarship and Homeric Question. Main article: Historicity of the Homeric epics. Main article: Homeric Greek. Ancient Greece portal Poetry portal Literature portal. The British Museum. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. Retrieved 22 November A Short History of Greek Literature. University of Chicago Press. Cambridge University Press. Classical Literature: An Introduction. Retrieved 23 November A Companion to Greek Literature. Gary Walter de Gruyter. The Odyssey Re-formed. Cornell University Press. Homer, His Art and His World. University of Michigan Press. The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World. OUP Oxford. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 30 June The Homer Encyclopedia. Homer: The Resonance of Epic. The Lives of the Greek Poets. December Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. The Classical Tradition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Indiana University Press. Classical Quarterly. Douglas De Gruyter. Homer and the Odyssey. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. JHU Press. Homer and the Origins of the Greek Alphabet. Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The World of Odysseus. War and Violence in Ancient Greece. Classical Antiquity. A Companion to Greek Mythology. Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. Infobase Publishing. A New Companion to Homer. In Search of the Trojan War. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Homer - Wikipedia

Led by Hermes , Priam takes a wagon out of Troy, across the plains, and into the Greek camp unnoticed. He clasps Achilles by the knees and begs for his son's body. Achilles is moved to tears, and the two lament their losses in the war. After a meal, Priam carries Hector's body back into Troy. Hector is buried, and the city mourns. The many characters of the Iliad are catalogued; the latter half of Book II, the " Catalogue of Ships ", lists commanders and cohorts; battle scenes feature quickly slain minor characters. Much debate has surrounded the nature of the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus, as to whether it can be described as a homoerotic one or not. Some Classical and Hellenistic Athenian scholars perceived it as pederastic , [i] while others perceived it as a platonic warrior-bond. In the literary Trojan War of the Iliad , the Olympian gods, goddesses, and minor deities fight among themselves and participate in human warfare, often by interfering with humans to counter other gods. Unlike their portrayals in Greek religion, Homer's portrayal of gods suited his narrative purpose. The gods in traditional thought of fourth-century Athenians were not spoken of in terms familiar to us from Homer. Mary Lefkowitz [9] discusses the relevance of divine action in the Iliad , attempting to answer the question of whether or not divine intervention is a discrete occurrence for its own sake , or if such godly behaviors are mere human character metaphors. The intellectual interest of Classic-era authors, such as Thucydides and Plato , was limited to their utility as "a way of talking about human life rather than a description or a truth", because, if the gods remain religious figures, rather than human metaphors, their "existence"—without the foundation of either dogma or a bible of faiths—then allowed Greek culture the intellectual breadth and freedom to conjure gods fitting any religious function they required as a people. These beliefs coincide to the thoughts about the gods in polytheistic Greek religion. For example, Poseidon is the god of the sea, Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, Ares is the god of war, and so on and so forth for many other gods. This is how Greek culture was defined as many Athenians felt the presence of their gods through divine intervention in significant events in their lives. Oftentimes they found these events to be mysterious and inexplicable. Psychologist Julian Jaynes [13] uses the Iliad as a major piece of evidence for his theory of the Bicameral Mind , which posits that until about the time described in the Iliad , humans had a far different mentality from present day humans. He says that humans during that time were lacking what we today call consciousness. He suggests that humans heard and obeyed commands from what they identified as gods, until the change in human mentality that incorporated the motivating force into the conscious self. He points out that almost every action in the Iliad is directed, caused, or influenced by a god, and that earlier translations show an astonishing lack of words suggesting thought, planning, or introspection. Those that do appear, he argues, are misinterpretations made by translators imposing a modern mentality on the characters. Some scholars believe that the gods may have intervened in the mortal world because of quarrels they may have had among each other. Homer interprets the world at this time by using the passion and emotion of the gods to be determining factors of what happens on the human level. The emotions between the goddesses often translate to actions they take in the mortal world. For example, in Book 3 of The Iliad, Paris challenges any of the Achaeans to a single combat and Menelaus steps forward. Menelaus was dominating the battle and was on the verge of killing Paris. The partisanship of Aphrodite towards Paris induces constant intervention by all of the gods, especially to give motivational speeches to their respective proteges, while often appearing in the shape of a human being they are familiar with. Once set, gods and men abide it, neither truly able nor willing to contest it. How fate is set is unknown, but it is told by the Fates and by Zeus through sending omens to seers such as Calchas. Men and their gods continually speak of heroic acceptance and cowardly avoidance of one's slated fate. No, deadly destiny, with the son of Leto, has killed me, and of men it was Euphorbos; you are only my third slayer. And put away in your heart this other thing that I tell you. You yourself are not one who shall live long, but now already death and powerful destiny are standing beside you, to go down under the hands of Aiakos' great son, Achilleus. Here, Patroclus alludes to fated death by Hector's hand, and Hector's fated death by Achilles's hand. Each accepts the outcome of his life, yet, no-one knows if the gods can alter fate. The first instance of this doubt occurs in Book XVI. Seeing Patroclus about to kill Sarpedon , his mortal son, Zeus says:. Ah me, that it is destined that the dearest of men, Sarpedon, must go down under the hands of Menoitios' son Patroclus. Majesty, son of Kronos, what sort of thing have you spoken? Do you wish to bring back a man who is mortal, one long since doomed by his destiny, from ill-sounding death and release him? Do it, then; but not all the rest of us gods shall approve you. In deciding between losing a son or abiding fate, Zeus, King of the Gods, allows it. This motif recurs when he considers sparing Hector, whom he loves and respects. This time, it is Athene who challenges him:. Father of the shining bolt, dark misted, what is this you said? Again, Zeus appears capable of altering fate, but does not, deciding instead to abide set outcomes; similarly, fate spares Aeneas, after Apollo convinces the over- matched Trojan to fight Achilles. Poseidon cautiously speaks:. But come, let us ourselves get him away from death, for fear the son of Kronos may be angered if now Achilleus kills this man. It is destined that he shall be the survivor, that the generation of Dardanos shall not die… [22]. Divinely aided, Aeneas escapes the wrath of Achilles and survives the Trojan War. Whether or not the gods can alter fate, they do abide it, despite its countering their human allegiances; thus, the mysterious origin of fate is a power beyond the gods. Fate implies the primeval, tripartite division of the world that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades effected in deposing their father, Cronus , for its dominion. Zeus took the Air and the Sky, Poseidon the Waters, and Hades the Underworld , the land of the dead—yet they share dominion of the Earth. Despite the earthly powers of the Olympic gods, only the Three Fates set the destiny of Man. For my mother Thetis the goddess of silver feet tells me I carry two sorts of destiny toward the day of my death. Either, if I stay here and fight beside the city of the Trojans, my return home is gone, but my glory shall be everlasting; but if I return home to the beloved land of my fathers, the excellence of my glory is gone, but there will be a long life left for me, and my end in death will not come to me quickly. Translator Lattimore renders kleos aphthiton as forever immortal and as forever imperishable —connoting Achilles's mortality by underscoring his greater reward in returning to battle Troy. Kleos is often given visible representation by the prizes won in battle. When Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles, he takes away a portion of the kleos he had earned. Achilles' shield, crafted by Hephaestus and given to him by his mother Thetis, bears an image of stars in the centre. The stars conjure profound images of the place of a single man, no matter how heroic, in the perspective of the entire cosmos. Yet the concept of homecoming is much explored in other Ancient Greek literature, especially in the post-war homeward fortunes experienced by the Atreidae Agamemnon and Menelaus , and Odysseus see the Odyssey. Pride drives the plot of the Iliad. The Greeks gather on the plain of Troy to wrest Helen from the Trojans. Though the majority of the Trojans would gladly return Helen to the Greeks, they defer to the pride of their prince, Alexandros, also known as Paris. Within this frame, Homer's work begins. At the start of the Iliad, Agamemnon's pride sets forth a chain of events that leads him to take from Achilles, Briseis, the girl that he had originally given Achilles in return for his martial prowess. Due to this slight, Achilles refuses to fight and asks his mother, Thetis, to make sure that Zeus causes the Greeks to suffer on the battlefield until Agamemnon comes to realize the harm he has done to Achilles. When in Book 9 his friends urge him to return, offering him loot and his girl, Briseis, he refuses, stuck in his vengeful pride. He overcomes his pride again when he keeps his anger in check and returns Hector to Priam at epic's close. From epic start to epic finish, pride drives the plot. In Book I, the Greek troubles begin with King Agamemnon's dishonorable, unkingly behavior—first, by threatening the priest Chryses 1. The warrior's consequent rancor against the dishonorable king ruins the Greek military cause. The epic takes as its thesis the anger of Achilles and the destruction it brings. Anger disturbs the distance between human beings and the gods. Uncontrolled anger destroys orderly social relationships and upsets the balance of correct actions necessary to keep the gods away from human beings. Hubris forces Paris to fight against Menelaus. Agamemnon spurs the Greeks to fight, by calling into question Odysseus, Diomedes, and Nestor's pride, asking why they were cowering and waiting for help when they should be the ones leading the charge. King Agamemnon dishonours Chryses, the Trojan priest of Apollo, by refusing with a threat the restitution of his daughter, Chryseis—despite the proffered ransom of "gifts beyond count. Moreover, in that meeting, Achilles accuses Agamemnon of being "greediest for gain of all men. But here is my threat to you. Even as Phoibos Apollo is taking away my Chryseis. I shall convey her back in my own ship, with my own followers; but I shall take the fair-cheeked Briseis, your prize, I myself going to your shelter, that you may learn well how much greater I am than you, and another man may shrink back from likening himself to me and contending against me. After that, only Athena stays Achilles's wrath. He vows to never again obey orders from Agamemnon. Furious, Achilles cries to his mother, Thetis, who persuades Zeus's divine intervention—favouring the Trojans—until Achilles's rights are restored. Again, the Wrath of Achilles turns the war's tide in seeking vengeance when Hector kills Patroclus. Aggrieved, Achilles tears his hair and dirties his face. Thetis comforts her mourning son, who tells her:. So it was here that the lord of men Agamemnon angered me. Still, we will let all this be a thing of the past, and for all our sorrow beat down by force the anger deeply within us. Now I shall go, to overtake that killer of a dear life, Hektor; then I will accept my own death, at whatever time Zeus wishes to bring it about, and the other immortals. Accepting the prospect of death as fair price for avenging Patroclus, he returns to battle, dooming Hector and Troy, thrice chasing him 'round the Trojan walls, before slaying him, then dragging the corpse behind his chariot, back to camp. The poem dates to the archaic period of Classical Antiquity. Scholarly consensus mostly places it in the 8th century BC, although some favour a 7th-century date. Herodotus , having consulted the Oracle at Dodona , placed Homer and Hesiod at approximately years before his own time, which would place them at c. The historical backdrop of the poem is the time of the Late Bronze Age collapse , in the early 12th century BC. Homer is thus separated from his subject matter by about years, the period known as the Greek Dark Ages. Intense scholarly debate has surrounded the question of which portions of the poem preserve genuine traditions from the Mycenaean period. The Catalogue of Ships in particular has the striking feature that its geography does not portray Greece in the Iron Age , the time of Homer, but as it was before the Dorian invasion. Venetus A , copied in the 10th century AD, is the oldest fully extant manuscript of the Iliad. In antiquity, the Greeks applied the Iliad and the Odyssey as the bases of pedagogy. Literature was central to the educational-cultural function of the itinerant rhapsode , who composed consistent epic poems from memory and improvisation, and disseminated them, via song and chant, in his travels and at the Panathenaic Festival of athletics, music, poetics, and sacrifice, celebrating Athena 's birthday. Originally, Classical scholars treated the Iliad and the Odyssey as written poetry, and Homer as a writer. Yet, by the s, Milman Parry — had launched a movement claiming otherwise. His investigation of the oral Homeric style —"stock epithets" and "reiteration" words, phrases, stanzas —established that these formulae were artifacts of oral tradition easily applied to a hexametric line. A two-word stock epithet e. In The Singer of Tales , Lord presents likenesses between the tragedies of the Greek Patroclus, in the Iliad , and of the Sumerian Enkidu , in the Epic of Gilgamesh , and claims to refute, with "careful analysis of the repetition of thematic patterns", that the Patroclus storyline upsets Homer's established compositional formulae of "wrath, bride-stealing, and rescue"; thus, stock-phrase reiteration does not restrict his originality in fitting story to rhyme. In the Iliad , occasional syntactic inconsistency may be an oral tradition effect—for example, Aphrodite is "laughter-loving", despite being painfully wounded by Diomedes Book V, ; and the divine representations may mix Mycenaean and Greek Dark Age c. Despite Mycenae and Troy being maritime powers, the Iliad features no sea battles. They enter battle in chariots , launching javelins into the enemy formations, then dismount—for hand-to-hand combat with yet more javelin throwing, rock throwing, and if necessary hand to hand sword and a shoulder-borne hoplon shield fighting. He stood beneath the shield of Ajax, son of Telamon. As Ajax cautiously pulled his shield aside, Teucer would peer out quickly, shoot off an arrow, hit someone in the crowd, dropping that soldier right where he stood, ending his life—then he'd duck back, crouching down by Ajax, like a child beside its mother. Ajax would then conceal him with his shining shield. Ajax's cumbersome shield is more suitable for defence than for offence, while his cousin, Achilles, sports a large, rounded, octagonal shield that he successfully deploys along with his spear against the Trojans:. On the bright ridges of the helmets, horsehair plumes touched when warriors moved their heads. That's how close they were to one another. In describing infantry combat, Homer names the phalanx formation , [54] but most scholars do not believe the historical Trojan War was so fought. The available evidence, from the Dendra armour and the Pylos Palace paintings, indicate the Mycenaeans used two-man chariots, with a long- spear-armed principal rider, unlike the three-man Hittite chariots with short-spear-armed riders, and unlike the arrow-armed Egyptian and Assyrian two-man chariots. Nestor spearheads his troops with chariots; he advises them:. And don't lag behind. That will hurt our charge. Any man whose chariot confronts an enemy's should thrust with his spear at him from there. That's the most effective tactic, the way men wiped out city strongholds long ago —. Although Homer's depictions are graphic, it can be seen in the very end that victory in war is a far more somber occasion, where all that is lost becomes apparent. On the other hand, the funeral games are lively, for the dead man's life is celebrated. This overall depiction of war runs contrary to many other [ citation needed ] ancient Greek depictions, where war is an aspiration for greater glory. Few modern archeologically, historically and Homerically accurate reconstructions of arms, armor and motifs as described by Homer exist. Some historical reconstructions have been done by Salimbeti et al. While the Homeric poems particularly, the Iliad were not necessarily revered scripture of the ancient Greeks, they were most certainly seen as guides that were important to the intellectual understanding of any educated Greek citizen. This is evidenced by the fact that in the late fifth century BC, "it was the sign of a man of standing to be able to recite the Iliad and Odyssey by heart. In particular, the effect of epic literature can be broken down into three categories: tactics , ideology , and the mindset of commanders. In order to discern these effects, it is necessary to take a look at a few examples from each of these categories. Much of the detailed fighting in the Iliad is done by the heroes in an orderly, one-on-one fashion. Much like the Odyssey , there is even a set ritual which must be observed in each of these conflicts. For example, a major hero may encounter a lesser hero from the opposing side, in which case the minor hero is introduced, threats may be exchanged, and then the minor hero is slain. The victor often strips the body of its armor and military accoutrements. There Telamonian Ajax struck down the son of Anthemion, Simoeisios in his stripling's beauty, whom once his mother descending from Ida bore beside the banks of Simoeis when she had followed her father and mother to tend the sheepflocks. Therefore they called him Simoeisios; but he could not render again the care of his dear parents; he was short-lived, beaten down beneath the spear of high-hearted Ajax, who struck him as he first came forward beside the nipple of the right breast, and the bronze spearhead drove clean through the shoulder. The biggest issue in reconciling the connection between the epic fighting of the Iliad and later Greek warfare is the phalanx, or hoplite, warfare seen in Greek history well after Homer's Iliad. While there are discussions of soldiers arrayed in semblances of the phalanx throughout the Iliad , the focus of the poem on the heroic fighting, as mentioned above, would seem to contradict the tactics of the phalanx. However, the phalanx did have its heroic aspects. The masculine one-on-one fighting of epic is manifested in phalanx fighting on the emphasis of holding one's position in formation. This replaces the singular heroic competition found in the Iliad. One example of this is the Spartan tale of picked men fighting against picked Argives. In this battle of champions, only two men are left standing for the Argives and one for the Spartans. Othryades, the remaining Spartan, goes back to stand in his formation with mortal wounds while the remaining two Argives go back to Argos to report their victory. Thus, the Spartans claimed this as a victory, as their last man displayed the ultimate feat of bravery by maintaining his position in the phalanx. In terms of the ideology of commanders in later Greek history, the Iliad has an interesting effect. The Iliad expresses a definite disdain for tactical trickery, when Hector says, before he challenges the great Ajax:. I know how to storm my way into the struggle of flying horses; I know how to tread the measures on the grim floor of the war god. Yet great as you are I would not strike you by stealth, watching for my chance, but openly, so, if perhaps I might hit you. However, despite examples of disdain for this tactical trickery, there is reason to believe that the Iliad , as well as later Greek warfare, endorsed tactical genius on the part of their commanders. For example, there are multiple passages in the Iliad with commanders such as Agamemnon or Nestor discussing the arraying of troops so as to gain an advantage. This is even later referred to by Homer in the Odyssey. The connection, in this case, between guileful tactics of the Greeks in the Iliad and those of the later Greeks is not a difficult one to find. Spartan commanders, often seen as the pinnacle of Greek military prowess, were known for their tactical trickery, and, for them, this was a feat to be desired in a commander. Indeed, this type of leadership was the standard advice of Greek tactical writers. Ultimately, while Homeric or epic fighting is certainly not completely replicated in later Greek warfare, many of its ideals, tactics, and instruction are. Hans van Wees argues that the period that the descriptions of warfare relate can be pinned down fairly specifically—to the first half of the 7th century BC. The Iliad was a standard work of great importance already in Classical Greece and remained so throughout the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. Subjects from the Trojan War were a favourite among ancient Greek dramatists. Aeschylus ' trilogy, the Oresteia , comprising Agamemnon , The Libation Bearers , and The Eumenides , follows the story of Agamemnon after his return from the war. Homer also came to be of great influence in European culture with the resurgence of interest in Greek antiquity during the Renaissance , and it remains the first and most influential work of the Western canon. In its full form the text made its return to Italy and Western Europe beginning in the 15th century, primarily through translations into Latin and the vernacular languages. Prior to this reintroduction, however, a shortened Latin version of the poem, known as the Ilias Latina , was very widely studied and read as a basic school text. The West tended to view Homer as unreliable as they believed they possessed much more down to earth and realistic eyewitness accounts of the Trojan War written by Dares and Dictys Cretensis , who were supposedly present at the events. These in turn spawned many others in various European languages, such as the first printed English book, the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Other accounts read in the Middle Ages were antique Latin retellings such as the Excidium Troiae and works in the vernaculars such as the Icelandic Troy Saga. Even without Homer, the Trojan War story had remained central to Western European medieval literary culture and its sense of identity. Most nations and several royal houses traced their origins to heroes at the Trojan War. Britain was supposedly settled by the Trojan Brutus , for instance. William Shakespeare used the plot of the Iliad as source material for his play Troilus and Cressida , but focused on a medieval legend, the love story of Troilus , son of King Priam of Troy, and Cressida , daughter of the Trojan soothsayer Calchas. The play, often considered to be a comedy, reverses traditional views on events of the Trojan War and depicts Achilles as a coward, Ajax as a dull, unthinking mercenary, etc. William Theed the elder made an impressive bronze statue of Thetis as she brought Achilles his new armor forged by Hephaesthus. Robert Browning 's poem Development discusses his childhood introduction to the matter of the Iliad and his delight in the epic, as well as contemporary debates about its authorship. According to Suleyman al-Boustani , a 19th-century poet who made the first Arabic translation of the Iliad to Arabic, the epic may have been widely circulated in Syriac and Pahlavi translations during the early Middle Ages. Al-Boustani credits Theophilus of Edessa with the Syriac translation, which was supposedly along with the Greek original widely read or heard by the scholars of Baghdad in the prime of the Abbasid Caliphate , although those scholars never took the effort to translate it to the official language of the empire; Arabic. The Iliad was also the first full epic poem to be translated to Arabic from a foreign language, upon the publication of Al-Boustani's complete work in George Chapman published his translation of the Iliad , in installments, beginning in , published in "fourteeners", a long-line ballad metre that "has room for all of Homer's figures of speech and plenty of new ones, as well as explanations in parentheses. He noted that Homer often, when describing frequently recurring activities such as eating, praying , fighting and dressing, used blocks of set phrases in sequence that were then elaborated by the poet. The 'Analyst' school had considered these repetitions as un-Homeric, whereas Arend interpreted them philosophically. Parry and Lord noted that these conventions are found in many other cultures. C, B, A has been observed in the Homeric epics. Opinion differs as to whether these occurrences are a conscious artistic device, a mnemonic aid or a spontaneous feature of human storytelling. Both of the Homeric poems begin with an invocation to the Muse. The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally- dictated texts. Other scholars hold that, after the poems were created in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until they were written down in the sixth century. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt. After the establishment of the Library of Alexandria , Homeric scholars such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and in particular Aristarchus of Samothrace helped establish a canonical text. The first printed edition of Homer was produced in in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources; some argue for a "multi-text" view, rather than seeking a single definitive text. The nineteenth- century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work, whereas van Thiel's , follows the medieval vulgate. Others, such as Martin West — or T. Allen, fall somewhere between these two extremes. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 20 October For other uses, see Homer disambiguation. For other uses, see Homeric disambiguation and Homerus disambiguation. It is not to be confused with Homerian. Further information: Ancient accounts of Homer. Further information: Homeric scholarship and Homeric Question. Main article: Historicity of the Homeric epics. Main article: Homeric Greek. Ancient Greece portal Poetry portal Literature portal. The British Museum. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. Retrieved 22 November A Short History of Greek Literature. University of Chicago Press. Cambridge University Press. Classical Literature: An Introduction. Retrieved 23 November A Companion to Greek Literature. Gary Walter de Gruyter. The Odyssey Re-formed. Cornell University Press. Homer, His Art and His World. University of Michigan Press. The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World. OUP Oxford. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 30 June The Homer Encyclopedia. Homer: The Resonance of Epic. The Lives of the Greek Poets. December Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. The Classical Tradition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. The Oxford History of the Classical World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Indiana University Press. Classical Quarterly. Douglas De Gruyter. Homer and the Odyssey. The Cambridge Companion to Homer. JHU Press. Homer and the Origins of the Greek Alphabet. Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press. The World of Odysseus. War and Violence in Ancient Greece. Classical Antiquity. A Companion to Greek Mythology. Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. Infobase Publishing. A New Companion to Homer. In Search of the Trojan War. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Retrieved 1 September The Mycenaeans. Los Angeles, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum. Brimscombe Port: The History Press. A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language. Edwards, Mark Bristol Classical Press. Oral Tradition. Princeton University Press. Vergil's Empire: Political Thought in the Aeneid. Homer and the Oral Tradition. Poetry as Performance: Homer and Beyond. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship Oxford, Stanley, The Shield of Homer Princeton, 37, ff. The Homeric Question and the Oral-formulaic Theory. Museum Tusculanum Press. Editions [ edit ] Texts in Homeric Greek Demetrius Chalcondyles editio princeps , Florence, the Aldine editions and 1st ed. Ridel, Strasbourg, c. Leaf Iliad , London, —; 2nd ed. Monro and T. Buck, Carl Darling

Epic stories of Ancient Greece: The Iliad and The Odyssey - Hannah Fielding

The grief Helen feels in losing a friend. The confrontation between Priam and Achilles. Even just reading general Greek mythology, Odysseus was always a favorite, because unlike figures such as Achilles or Heracles he succeeded on his wits, not muscle. It's true, on this reread, especially in contrast to say The Illiad 's Hector, I do see Odysseus' dark side. The man is a pirate and at times rash, hot-tempered, even vicious. But I do feel for his pining for home and The Odyssey is filled with such a wealth of incident--the Cyclops, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens--and especially Hades, the forerunner of Dante's Hell. And though my friend is right that the misogynist ancient Greek culture isn't where you go for strong heroines, I love Penelope; described as the "matchless queen of cunning," she's a worthy match for the crafty Odysseus. The series of recognition scenes on Ithaca are especially moving and memorable--I think my favorite and the most poignant being that of Odysseus' dog Argos. Epic poems about 2, years old, in the right translation both works can nevertheless speak to me more eloquently than many a contemporary novel. September 5th, 3 stars. Finished the Iliad! Finally done. It took me a month, and not because it was boring or anything although some chapters were less exciting than others , it's just really hard to read because of the metre - hexameter. Not a natural metre for a Russian poetry, so it was unusual. But I did like this book. Especially all those gruesome descriptions of death. It was sort of fascinating. Also I did like a lot of the characters - September 5th, 3 stars. There was not much of a beginning or an ending to this story, but Homer truly was a genius of epic poems, even though a lot of people agree he was just a generalized character. Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. I was very bored with the who-killed-whom parts in the Iliad. I hope an audiobook of Ms. Man-eating war indee Five stars to the Odyssey and 2. Man-eating war indeed. Apr 28, Eva added it Shelves: owned , lgbtq , classics. I noticed more, I laughed more, I analysed more. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I'm happy I've done so. I don't have a rating, because it feels wrong to rate a book that has been around for over years. Who am I in comparison? That means I've read parts of it in Ancient Greek and parts in Dutch. I've seen the entire story in detail, so I consider it read. We'll see The Oddyssey in class next semester, so I'll also read parts of it in the original Greek. I have read the entire thing in Dutch already. I really enjoyed reading Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. I actually read this book of my own volition and not because I had to for school. The stories are very unique and captivating. You'll be sitting on the edge of your chair. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mythology of any kind. I enjoyed it so much that I believe I'll give it another read after so many years and an adequate review. Couldn't finish it, that's a pity! Lost track of the story as the time gap grew larger But I may reread it one day as I enjoyed it pretty much. While the contrast of the two, one after the other, is very interesting I can't say I'd be likely to ever read The Iliad again. The Odyssey though works very well rendered here as prose and more fully fulfills the classic expectation of what a Greek adventure story should be. Jan 20, Friend of Pixie F. Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. But I happened on this copy at a used-books shop in Cannon Beach and had to have it because in , my mother gave me "Myths and Legends" Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends Adapted from the World's Great Classics illustrated by the same couple and I loved the pictures. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots Logan already knew some of these adventures from the excellent recorded reading by Benedict Flynn The Adventures of Odysseus. Logan loved the stories and recommends it to "anyone who likes battles really, because there are lots and lots of them. Only too true. Luckily, only the "bad guys and mosters" die. Watson does a good job maintaining the antique sound of the language, while still making it understandable for younger readers. Feb 28, Greg Pitts rated it it was amazing. After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! I don't even know who's translation I first read, but I've read The Iliad twice since, and Fagles' translation is the best yet. Beautiful imagery and really exciting battle scenes really! This book is not a chore like we have been led to believe. Trust me, I don't go out seeking ancient Greek poems. But this is great stuff and Fagles' translati After being force-fed this epic poem in school I was stunned by how much I loved it! But this is great stuff and Fagles' translation led me to buy his Homer's Odyssey to read it for the first time. Simply beautiful! This stuff can get violent so steel yourselves. I was so impressed and moved by his translations I tried to email Dr. Fagles to let him know, only to find out that, sadly, he had passed away a few months earlier. If you have the slightest interest, please do yourselves a favor and dive into his translations of these astounding works of literature. And then At the core of Western culture, there is ancient Rome and Greece, and at the core of the ancient Roman and Greek culture, there is Homer. When reading, I really did feel that the Iliad and Odyssey contain the basic building blocks of the Western way of thinking. For example, Achilles and Odysseus were arguing about what to do next, and each could make a case that sounded convincing. But the ideas were not equally good. This translation uses plain English, with no hexameter of rhymes, which helped At the core of Western culture, there is ancient Rome and Greece, and at the core of the ancient Roman and Greek culture, there is Homer. This translation uses plain English, with no hexameter of rhymes, which helped me focus on the story. This was a golden book, actually a giant golden book, given to me one Christmas while in grade school, or thereabouts. Stories from the illiad and the odyssey that captured my imagination. I reread it almost 50 years later and remembered the shock of Hector being dragged from the chariot of Achilles or the thrill of Odysseus returning home after all those years to drive the greedy suiters from his home and to reclaim his wife. The illustrations of Alice and Martin Provensen bring this children's book to life. First published in , author Jane Werner Watson boils down the essential elements of the Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey for young readers in a very classy way. If you want to familiarize a child with Myceneaen Greece this is a fantastic introduction. Read for CC1 wk 3,4. Read beginning, middle and end of each book. Difficult to keep all the characters in order at this age but it was an ok book. Now we know what people are talking about when they mention Homer and the Iliad and the Odyssey. The second modern version of the Trojan war tales that I read. It was wonderful to find that Homer attracted English translations more than once per decade. I read the translation of the Odyssey first since it appeared first. As I recall, the paoperback version included drawings by Picasso. Dec 28, Cedric rated it did not like it. Oh hell. I thought I was an intelligent human being until I tried to read this. I think I'm going to go back to picture books now. The Illiad is very rambling and quite boring. Oct 26, Chioma rated it really liked it. I like the Iliad much better than the Odyssey. Sep 07, Ivi Oltovska rated it it was amazing Shelves: before-i- die. Loved it. Readers also enjoyed. About Homer. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature. When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived years before his own time, which would place him at around BCE, while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BCE. Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BCE. The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. Homer's works, which are about fifty percent speeches, provided models in persuasive speaking and writing that were emulated throughout the ancient and medieval Greek worlds. By the nineteenth century, there was widespread scholarly skepticism that the Trojan War had ever happened and that Troy had even existed, but in Heinrich Schliemann announced to the world that he had discovered the ruins of Homer's Troy at Hissarlik in modern Turkey. Some contemporary scholars think the destruction of Troy VIIa circa BC was the origin of the myth of the Trojan War, others that the poem was inspired by multiple similar sieges that took place over the centuries. Most scholars now agree that the Homeric poems depict customs and elements of the material world that are derived from different periods of Greek history. In the Iliad Such helmets were not worn in Homer's time, but were commonly worn by aristocratic warriors between and BC. The Homeric epics are written in an artificial literary language or 'Kunstsprache' only used in epic hexameter poetry. Homeric Greek shows features of multiple regional Greek dialects and periods, but is fundamentally based on Ionic Greek , in keeping with the tradition that Homer was from Ionia. Linguistic analysis suggests that the Iliad was composed slightly before the Odyssey , and that Homeric formulae preserve older features than other parts of the poems. The Homeric poems were composed in unrhymed dactylic hexameter ; ancient Greek metre was quantity-based rather than stress-based. These habits aid the extemporizing bard, and are characteristic of oral poetry. For instance, the main words of a Homeric sentence are generally placed towards the beginning, whereas literate poets like Virgil or Milton use longer and more complicated syntactical structures. Homer then expands on these ideas in subsequent clauses; this technique is called parataxis. The so-called ' type scenes ' typische Scenen , were named by Walter Arend in He noted that Homer often, when describing frequently recurring activities such as eating, praying , fighting and dressing, used blocks of set phrases in sequence that were then elaborated by the poet. The 'Analyst' school had considered these repetitions as un-Homeric, whereas Arend interpreted them philosophically. Parry and Lord noted that these conventions are found in many other cultures. C, B, A has been observed in the Homeric epics. Opinion differs as to whether these occurrences are a conscious artistic device, a mnemonic aid or a spontaneous feature of human storytelling. Both of the Homeric poems begin with an invocation to the Muse. The orally transmitted Homeric poems were put into written form at some point between the eighth and sixth centuries BC. Some scholars believe that they were dictated to a scribe by the poet and that our inherited versions of the Iliad and Odyssey were in origin orally- dictated texts. Other scholars hold that, after the poems were created in the eighth century, they continued to be orally transmitted with considerable revision until they were written down in the sixth century. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt. After the establishment of the Library of Alexandria , Homeric scholars such as Zenodotus of Ephesus, Aristophanes of Byzantium and in particular Aristarchus of Samothrace helped establish a canonical text. The first printed edition of Homer was produced in in Milan, Italy. Today scholars use medieval manuscripts, papyri and other sources; some argue for a "multi-text" view, rather than seeking a single definitive text. The nineteenth-century edition of Arthur Ludwich mainly follows Aristarchus's work, whereas van Thiel's , follows the medieval vulgate. Others, such as Martin West — or T. Allen, fall somewhere between these two extremes. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is the latest accepted revision , reviewed on 20 October For other uses, see Homer disambiguation. For other uses, see Homeric disambiguation and Homerus disambiguation. It is not to be confused with Homerian. Further information: Ancient accounts of Homer. Further information: Homeric scholarship and Homeric Question. Main article: Historicity of the Homeric epics. Main article: Homeric Greek. Ancient Greece portal Poetry portal Literature portal. The British Museum. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. Retrieved 22 November A Short History of Greek Literature. University of Chicago Press. Cambridge University Press. Classical Literature: An Introduction. Retrieved 23 November A Companion to Greek Literature. Gary Walter de Gruyter. The Odyssey Re-formed. Cornell University Press. Homer, His Art and His World. University of Michigan Press. The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World. OUP Oxford. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 30 June The Homer Encyclopedia. Homer: The Resonance of Epic. The Lives of the Greek Poets. December Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. I love to dip into these, but they are quite challenging reads if you intend to read cover to cover. I just purchased a Kindle version of the Odyssy along with the Audible version and the Audible version of the Iliad. Subscribe to my mailing list. I promise: no spam, only valuable information. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Hannah Fielding. Award-Winning Romance Novelist. December 7, Hannah. Ancient biographies of this man paint an interesting picture: he was blind, he was the son of a nymph, he was a wondering bard and he died by drowning in mud when he was unable to solve a riddle posed to him by some fishermen… Scholars may not agree on the origin of the works, but they do agree that The Iliad and The Odyssey have been vastly influential. Share this post. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on print.

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