Homer’s Iliad: A Discussion Guide By David Bruce SMASHWORDS EDITION Copyright 2013 by Bruce D. Bruce Thank you for downloading this book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. Preface The purpose of this book is educational. I have read, studied and taught Homer’s Iliad, and I wish to pass on what I have learned to other people who are interested in studying Homer’s Iliad. In particular, I think that the readers of this introduction to Homer’s Iliad will be bright high school seniors and college first-year students, as well as intelligent adults who simply wish to study the Iliad despite not being literature majors. This book uses a question-and-answer format. It poses, then answers, relevant questions about Homer, background information, and the Iliad. This book goes through the Iliad book by book. I recommend that you read the relevant section of the Iliad, then read my comments, then go back and re-read the relevant section of the Iliad. However, do what works for you. Teachers may find this book useful as a discussion guide for the epic poem. Teachers can have students read books from the epic poem, then teachers can ask students selected questions from this study guide. It helps to know something about Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Greek and Roman mythology, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, but this background reading is not strictly necessary. You have to begin reading great literature somewhere, and Homer’s Iliad is a good place to start. (Come on in! The water’s great! And later you can go and read the Odyssey, the Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, etc.) This book uses many short quotations from Robert Fagles’ translation (and from Samuel Butler’s translation) of the Iliad. This use is consistent with fair use: § 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use Release date: 2004-04-30 Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include — (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. Source of Fair Use information: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107>. This is Ian Johnston’s copyright notice for his translation of Homer’s Iliad: Copyright Notice for Documents on the johnstonia Web Pages All e-texts on johnstonia web pages are available for personal use by anyone, without permission and without charge. They may be downloaded, printed, and distributed freely, in whole or in part, provided the source is acknowledged. Teachers who wish to prepare copies of a text for their students are free to do so, provided the source is acknowledged. Performing artists can use the material free of charge for dramatic productions, public readings, and adaptations, provided the source is acknowledged and provided they inform Ian Johnston of the event. Commercial publication of any of the material in book form is prohibited, without the written permission of the author or translator. See <https://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/index.htm> for Ian Johnson’s Johnstonia. I will not make a dime from this discussion guide. I recommend that you read the translations by Robert Fagles and by Ian Johnston. Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC has an excellent translation available free at http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/iliad_title.htm I also recommend Elizabeth Vandiver’s course on the Iliad, which is available from the Teaching Company. The book titles are taken from the translations by Robert Fagles and Ian Johnston. The Fagles titles appear first. Occasionally, both translators use the same title. Introduction to Homer’s Iliad, Pt. 1: Background Material Important Terms: Iliad Odyssey Zeus Hera Athena Thetis Aphrodite Artemis Iphigeneia Agamemnon Menelaus Achilles Odysseus Hector Paris Judgment of Paris Aeneas Aeneid • Why is it necessary to know background information about the Trojan War when reading Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey? Homer is an epic poet who tells traditional stories that his audience is already very familiar with. Because of that, Homer does not need to explain who his characters are or even the major events of the Trojan War, such as how it started or how it will end. Homer is able to jump into the middle of the story in the Iliad and start telling about an incident that occurred during the final year of the Trojan War. Of course, Homer’s contemporary audience is very different from his audience of today. Homer created and performed his epic poems hundreds of years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. Homer came from an oral tradition, and he seems to have composed his poems either before writing was invented or perhaps when writing was coming into use. Possibly, he saw the advantages of writing, and he used the new technology of writing to create two very long, very complex poems, both of which I would personally put in a list of the top 10 books ever created. Anyone who reads Homer today (and in Homer’s time, they would have probably heard Homer or heard a bard perform Homer’s epic poems) will most likely not have been brought up hearing these traditional stories, the way that Homer’s contemporary audience would have. Chances are, university students reading Homer in a Great Books course at a university would have read about Odysseus’ adventure with the Cyclops, and that’s about it. That is why this introduction to Homer’s Iliad will fill you in on the background necessary to understand and enjoy the Iliad. • What are the Iliad and the Odyssey? The Iliad and the Odyssey are epic poems that have been created by Homer. Here are two definitions of “epic poem”: • a long narrative poem about the adventures of [a] hero or the gods, presenting an encyclopedic portrait of the culture in which it is composed. Source: <teacherweb.com/NC/OrangeHighSchool/MrMitchCox/HandyLiteraryandAnglo- SaxonTerms.doc> • a long narrative poem telling of a hero’s deeds. Source: <wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn> The Iliad tells the story of one incident that lasted a few days during the last year of the Trojan War: a quarrel between Achilles, the mightiest of the Greek (Achaean) warriors, and Agamemnon, leader of the Greek armies against Troy. Both Achilles and Agamemnon are kings of their own lands, but Agamemnon is the leader among the many kings fighting the Trojans and the Trojan allies. The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon has devastating consequences. • What is the mythic background of the Iliad and the Odyssey? The mythic background of the Iliad and the Odyssey consists of the Trojan War myth and myths about the Greek gods and goddesses. • For what other works did this mythic background provide narrative material? The Trojan War myth provided material for many other epic poems, both Greek and Roman, some of which have survived, and for many plays, including both tragedies and comedies, by many Greek and Roman authors. The Trojan War myth is one of the most important myths in the world. During Roman times, the Trojan War myth provided material for Virgil’s great epic poem the Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas and how he survived the fall of Troy and came to Italy to found (establish) the Roman people. He and his Italian wife, Lavinia, became important ancestors of the Romans. Later, Dante used material from the Trojan War myth and its aftermath in his Divine Comedy. Material from the Trojan War myth has appeared in opera and in drama. Of course, James Joyce uses this material in his novel Ulysses. • What is the Iliad about? The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. Following the quarrel, Achilles (the mightiest Greek warrior) withdraws from the fighting, which allows the Trojans to be triumphant in battle for a while. The Iliad tells about Achilles’ anger and how he finally lets go of his anger. • What is the Odyssey about? The Odyssey is about a different Greek hero in the Trojan War: Odysseus, whose Roman name is Ulysses. Following the 10 years that the Trojan War lasted, Odysseus returns to his home island of Ithaca, where he is king. It takes him 10 years to return home because of his adventures and mishaps. Much of that time he spends in captivity. When he finally returns home, he discovers that suitors are courting his wife, Penelope, who has remained faithful to him and who wants nothing to do with the suitors, who are rude and arrogant and who feast on Odysseus’ cattle and drink his wine as they party all day.