Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey: Class 2

okay welcome everybody it's a couple minutes after 6:00 so I think we're going to go ahead and start and I'm so glad to have you you back here and let's just survived last week and agreed to come back is just a thrill for me so thank you for doing this thank you in advance for those of you that agreed to do some readings no pressure you can read you can comment you can do whatever you like but this will save the group from hearing only me which would be welcome there were a couple of suggestions made last week which I thought were helpful first a thanks to John Atkins who suggested I put some maps in so John I got some maps for you and Jerry you would suggested having a biography of some of the people that we're talking about you've referenced Telemachus so I've got that in here this is the second of six talks and I've tried to make each one of them different so that will have a different approach to this but today we begin the Iliad The Iliad is the oldest of the two epics and it's the longer of the two epic sixteen thousand lines probably thirty years older to me that's really important because if we believe that Homer wrote these and I do or at least that he assembled the Iliad who wrote The Odyssey however you want to argue it The Iliad he's writing from the point of view of a younger person perhaps a young man and we're looking at in this story we're looking at the development of a young man the Odyssey is much different and the story will go much differently and we'll emphasize that but I wanted to bring this to your attention before we started this is a picture that I took two weeks ago the sunset at Delphi which I thought you would enjoy again so beautiful I was walking down there turned around and just watched the Sun go down over there over the ruins was magnificent oops this is a review of what we did last week just so we can catch us up where we left off and why we thought Homer was important it's the foundation of Western history and culture Herodotus and Thucydides believed what he was saying was true that was the foundation for the Greek idea of their own history and as we've said the history of Greece becomes a history Western Europe which becomes a history of us the invention of the alphabet which was concurrent with Homer is so extraordinary I don't think it was a chance I think the two were related nobody can prove me wrong so I can enjoy my fantasy but I think Homer was so great that somebody sitting on the island of Euboea said got to write that down oops we don't have any letters to write with we got to find an alphabet and so that's what happened so the alphabet and Homer come together at the same time with that we have the first clearly articulated artistic image of the human soul because we know exactly what Homer was saying we don't have to look at a cave wall we don't have to look at a building and guess we know what he said it's an art that's an unsurpassed artistic accomplishment to be able to do this remember we said he didn't memorize this he synthesized it every time and he did this with some wonderful techniques that maybe we'll talk about and it's still relevant to us today because we have new translation we many of us met Emily Wilson and the archeology and psychology that are relevant to this topic are still current in our conversation here's the first map that I thought would be helpful and it goes all the way from western Greece and there is there is Kefalonia and the island of Ithaca we'll go into this in more detail all the way over to Mesopotamia and remember we mentioned that cuneiform was invented in ER in the third and fourth millennium BCE and that hieroglyphics here both of these proceeded Greek alphabet by over a thousand years and yet they did not become the foundation of Western culture because they were not easily reproduced and they were not available for an artistic manifestation I thought I think that they're largely a political and an economic language here's Greece and there's Troy and remember we mentioned that there was another name for troy it happens to be ilium that's why we call it the Iliad and in the hittite texts from hattusa in cuneiform is the name we'll oosa so we believe we have a confirmation of the Trojan War not just from the Greeks but also from the Hittites so here's the map of what we're talking about these are the Greeks in the Trojan War Menelaus is the king of Sparta and it was his wife Helen that was twist back to Troy by Paris Agamemnon his brother is the king of Mycenae Achilles who's the greatest warrior on either side came from central Greece and Patroclus who was his dear friend and with whom he lived in a tent for a long time during the war came from the same area Nestor was the king of pilos a generation older perhaps he was the senior guy in the Greek troops and of course Odysseus the king of Ithaca Diomedes the king of Argos to Ajax's and Adleman a us from Crete I'll show you another map with these people on it but this will help to let you know those are the principles that we'll talk about for the Greeks and the Trojans all came from one family except for Helen Priam is the King hecuba's his queen Paris is his son Helen is the woman that Paris absconded with Hector is the other son the Prince of Troy and Andromache is Hector's wife so those are the people that will be meeting as we go through the Iliad and I hope this introduction to them will be helpful to you and as we come across them again they'll try to be a little bit more clear on what their roles are so let's just go around this is a little bit better map here is the Palicki Peninsula of Kefalonia which I think was the original Ithaca where Odysseus came from next door the senior member came from pilos Agamemnon came from Mycenae interesting to note that Mycenae is not right on the sea and I'll show you a neat picture about how he got his troops going in them and they're in their boats Menelaus from Sparta with his Queen Helen who was stolen Diomedes from Tarin's the two Ajax's and Achilles from the central part of Greece and then up there Priam and his whole family at Troy just below the Dardanelles so this is part two the themes I would like us to be thinking about as we go through here homers skill and I hope that by reading some of the words well note we're going to lead or read less than 400 lines of the 16,000 line poem but I hope that the ones that I've selected will be helpful in giving a sense of what a genius he was so we'll talk about homers skill we'll get an insight into Mycenaean life what was it like for these people to live and Homer describes that nicely and always in the back of our mind should be the relationship between masculine and feminine we're going to see a profound transformation between this story and the Odyssey and it will be one of my major hypotheses about the importance of Homer from a psychological standpoint it looking at the relationship between men and women masculine and feminine and how that it may change sorry the judgment of Paris are you familiar with the judgment of Paris it's how the Trojan War began there's a party on Olympus somebody's going to get married and Eris the goddess find you of the woman she's a goddess of discord is not invited you don't want to have the goddess of discord invited to your wedding party and so she decides to come anyway and she takes an apple and she rolls it into the party and said this is for the most important goddess in the room well of course there's Hera Athena and Aphrodite all at the party Zeus takes one look at this and says I'm not touching that no way so he says oh Paris your call well Paris looks at this opportunity and he's offered Fame and money but then Aphrodite comes along and says I will give you the most beautiful woman in the world well foolish Paris he made that choice not realizing perhaps that she was already married to Menelaus but he said I'll take her and that was the source the judgment of Paris was the problem that underlay this whole story because Paris ran away with Helen Paris was visiting Sparta Menelaus made the mistake of taking a little side trip to Crete and while he was away big mistake while he was away Helen and Paris fled back to Troy hiding behind the walls of this magnificent fortress well Menelaus is very upset and very angry and he wants to get her back and before he'd married her there had been an oath of Tyndareus that anybody that messes with Helen the whole community is going to go defend Menelaus so he has to go get her back and all the soldiers all the kings around Greece had promised that they would help should anything happen to Helen and that's how the troops were gathered together so the judgment of Paris which was fundamental to this conflict brought about the the Paris stealing Helen taking her back to Troy and then the ensuing war a comment about some of the gods with a special comment about Athena Zeus is the king head of Olympus his wife sister is Hera Poseidon his brother second in Hades his third god of the earthquake god of the sea god of the underworld Hermes is a very interesting God we won't see him too much until the very end but he's the god of transitions when Zeus wants to have something change he says Hermes go make it go make a change Hermes will become for us a very important construct from the psychological concept of change but he's important in these stories to Paolo we all knows the god of the Sun and Athena Athena is very interesting she is Zeus's daughter but Zeus thought when his wife made us was pregnant that he would be replaced Zeus would be replaced by a child of made us that what he would do was to solve the problem and he swallowed made us not realizing that made us was pregnant so that the pregnant maid is swallowed by Zeus ultimately Athena is born but she's born from a rift in Zeus's head and she comes out of his head fully armed with a spear and a shield and a sword and a helmet she's a virgin goddess and so because of this she's a perfect psychological projection for them for the feminine in support of the masculine and she plays a key role here because she loves Odysseus and his whole family and she hates the Trojans and she wants this war to to happen so let's take a look at some of these characters here this is a painting of the birth of Athena can you see her up there she's coming right out of Zeus's head this is Anna on a crater and the reason for showing this is is to let you know that these kinds of images are everywhere all over so that the Greeks as they are living this living in their lives are continually confronted by these stories this is the Citadel at Mycenae a picture that I took about 2 weeks ago and this is where Agamemnon came from I have to tell you what a thrill it was for me to get there it's a long hike up there but to stand to the top of this for Agamemnon and this wife Clytemnestra and those of you may know that they had a problem when he came back lived right up there on arrestees that was his home so this is the Citadel at Mycenae it's being excavated now and this is the Magnificent lion gate under which you have to walk when you're getting up to the Citadel very impressive place and this is where Agamemnon lived that's his mask the excavation done at mycenae by Schliemann in about 1870 or a little later unhhhh unearthed that can you imagine his his surprise now we don't know if that truly is the is the mask of Agamemnon many archaeologists think it's a little bit older than Agamemnon would have been there but that's the iconic image of what Agamemnon looks like this is in the Greek Museum it's a picture I took you can see the reflection of the Fiat glass there but maybe many of you have seen this before and it's that's that's Agamemnon so I had to figure out Agamemnon is about to get his troops together and head off for Troy this isn't we're not quite into the Iliad yet and so he has to get all his troops together and as I pointed out Mycenae is not on the not on the water but there's a little a little citadel called acini and i wanted to see where he had all of his all of his ships thousand ships that he gathered to make his trip to start the war I got to acini late at night and so I couldn't climb up there it was too dangerous to climb up there but I decided what I would do is walk down to the beach and as I got down to the beach and looking out at the water where Agamemnon would have been with all of his troops I turned around and the moon had just risen over acini isn't it amazing and you can see the outline of the Citadel here and that's where Agamemnon left disembarked on his way to Troy well he had to make a stop at outlets on the way and that's another place I really wanted to see there's a famous play if a Jenaya at Allis but that was the last step stopping an ALICE before he went to Troy and he had a problem here's Alice we found it and a little dirt road and it's a very obscure but as you can see it's surrounded by Hills the problem that Agamemnon had was there was no wind and his ships were become there and the story is the only way he could get a wind was to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia which he did and the wind blew at that point and so off they went to Troy and the battle starts so let's let's get into the war this is the beginning of the Iliad you would think that Homer would say well let's start the war but he doesn't the rage of Achilles that's how he begins this story and the way we'll do this is that I'll go through the important parts of each chapter but some of you are going to do some of the readings with us and we'll try to keep the story clear as we enjoy some of the language Homer begins in meteor race right in the middle of things he doesn't begin with a war on the plains of Troy he starts out with the rage rage gotta sing the rage of Pelias his son Achilles well why was he angry why would we begin the story that way well the war had been going on for ten years and the Greeks had to supply themselves so they made a raid on a little town called crisi which is not too far from Troy and when they got there they found a temple to Apollo and they stole two people they stole the daughter of the priests of the temple of apollo and her name was cry seus and her friend Bryce they took them back well that was a problem because the priest at the Temple of Apollo said the Greeks have stolen my daughter and he was praying to Apollo said you got to do something about this so Apollo puts a plague on the Greeks and they're sitting there in the plains of Troy suffering a plague and going nowhere in the war well Chaves is a soothsayer and he explains to the Greeks this is what happened you've got to do something about this and so here's our introduction to Odysseus Odysseus is selected by the Greeks to be the most circumspect careful thoughtful person to return crisis to her father and to make a sacrifice and to make amends and to stop this plague and so that's exactly what happens the problem is now the crisis is back with her father Agamemnon no longer has crises so I come undone says I really deserve somebody so Achilles you had brycie as know I'll take her that's a bad bad decision because as soon as he did that Achilles almost killed him but Athena stopped him and there's Achilles with no option except to get angry and he's in a rage and that's a problem because everybody knows that until kill these fights the Greeks can't win so that's why we begin the story with a rage of Achilles and we'll do a little bit of reading about Odysseus sacrifice and then the relationship between Zeus and Hera which I find so fascinating do we have whoever is here reading book one wonderful ok here's what the way we're gonna do this Janus I'll have the words up here so that everybody else can be reading them as you're reading them and then we can talk about them please yeah would you guys like to come in and sit oh come on you're excused so we'll read three short passages from book one to get a sense of where we're going ok please ok meanwhile Odysseus drew in close to Christ the island bearing the splendid sacrifice in the vessels hold and once they had entered the harbor deep in bays they furled and stowed the sail in the black ship they lowered the mast by the fourth day's smoothly but quickly led it down on the forked masked crutch and rode her into a mooring under oars out went the boughs domes cables fastest turn and the crew themselves swung out in the breaking surf leading out the sacrifice for the archer god Apollo and out of the deep-sea ship cry see a step to then tactful Odysseus led her up to the altar placing her in her loving father's arms and said crises the Lord of men Agamemnon sent me here to bring your daughter back and perform a sacrifice a grand sacrifice to Apollo for all ok is sake so we can appease the God whose Luce such grief and torn on the archives that's terrific thank you Janice did you want to comment on this it's just so nice you're not obliged I like the bow part yeah I'd like the boat part to let me just talk it tell us out a couple things that caught my attention homer loves expertise if you're a good sailor he wants to know it if you can make something he wants to know that if you know how to do something or sing something he loves expertise this is our introduction to homers love of expertise look at how well they sail furled and stowed the sail in the black ship they lowered the mast by the force days smoothly quickly let it down to the forked mast crutch exactly what you would do so the sale doesn't billow out tip the boat over so he knows exactly what he's doing and then Rove a Roven and the cast south the bow stones and camels he knows how to sail and he appreciates its being done well so that's one of the things that caught my attention and then here's here's an important word here see if I could find it tactful yeah tactful we have lots of ways to talk about Odysseus but he is tactful we're getting an introduction to Odysseus that will be very important for us we get to the Odyssey but here the Greeks know that he's tactful he's a good sailor he can get the job done and he's tactful and his language is just perfect just appropriate to crises here's your daughter back we're gonna make a grand sacrifice to Apollo so we'll stop this terrible terrible a grief that's uh so I think that those are the things that I wanted to emphasize there and here's the next flung the barley first they lifted back the heads of the victims slit their throats skin them and carved away the meat from the thigh bones and wrapped them in fat a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh and the old man burned these over dried split wood and over the quarters poured out glistening wine while young men at his side held five-pronged Forks once they had burned the bones and tasted the organs they cut the rest into pieces pierced them with spits roasted them to a turn and pulled them off of fire the work done the feast laid out they ate well and no man's hunger lacked a share of the banquet when they had put aside desire for food and drink the young men rimmed the mixing bowls with wine and tipping first drops for the God in every cup they poured full rounds for all and all day long they appeased the God with song raising of ringing him to the distant Archer God who drives away the plague those young a key and warriors singing out his power and Apollo listened his great heart warm with joy don't you have a feeling of what actually happened in that sacrifice and exactly how they did it Homer clearly explains how they sacrifice the animals what's going on and and it brings you into the story you have a very clear idea of exactly what this ritual was to be and the other thing when they had put a side desire for food and drink that line comes up almost every time when there's a sacrifice so remember we mentioned that there are about a third of these stories are repeated but they're not boring it just happens that this happens to work perfectly right there and we have one more this is Zeus and Hera this is important oh I see where you started okay obey my orders for fear the gods however many Olympus holds are powerless to protect you when I come to throttle you with my irresistible hands he subsided but Hera the Queen her eyes wider was terrified she sat in silence she wrenched her will to his oops that's the next one let me just stop right here okay she wrenched her will to his that's pretty telling about how the masculine and the feminine are working on Olympus right now worth of conversation is part of our dialogue even today and then these last two lines there he climbed and there he slept and by his side lay Hera the queen the goddess of the golden throne and I would add scared to death okay so book two in book two we're gonna get the story of the of the war started Agamemnon's dream is so remarkable we're going to read that but he has a dream he has a dream it's a false dream that he can win the war so they get the troops out there Nestor one of his allies gets the troops out there but Agamemnon says to the troops hmm he's going to try to see if they're really loyal to him he says why don't we all go home been a long time let's go back to Greece he's assuming that everybody will say no we came to fight in about a minute everybody had left the plane and we're headed back for the ships on their way back to the Greece he said no way are we gonna stay here do this when our chief says time to go so a completely backfired this is a clue about what kind of person Agamemnon is so they have to change things and Odysseus goes out there and he changes things and it's fascinating how he changes this you'll get an idea of how wise he is because the words he uses are remarkable we then see all the Trojan forces that are fighting and at the last we'll read a snake omen about that results of how this whole war is gonna transpire but let's take a look at Agamemnon's dream who has book - oh great Mary he would send a murderous dream to Agamemnon calling out to the vision Zeus winged it on go murder murderous dream to the fast Achaean ships and once you reach Agamemnon shelter rouse him order him word for word exactly as I command tell Atreides to arm his long-haired achæans to attack at once full force now he can take the broad streets of Troy the immortal gods who hold a limp with splash no more Hera's appeals have brought them around and all agree griefs are about to crush the men of Troy at that command the dream went winging off and passing quickly along the fast trim ships made for the king and found him soon sound asleep in his tent with refreshing God since slumber drifted around him hovering at his head the vision Rose like Nestor Neely as his son the chief of men not an honored most inspired with Nestor's voice and sent by Zeus the dream cried out still asleep at magnin the son of Atreus that skilled breaker of horses how can you sleep all night a man weighed down with duties your armies turning over their lives to your command responsibilities so heavy listen to me quickly I bring you a message sent by Zeus a world away but he has you in his horse he pities you now Zeus commands you to arm your long-haired achæans to attack at once full force now you can take the broad streets of Troy the immortal gods who hold Olympus clash no more Hera's appeals have brought them round and all agree Greece from Zeus are about to crush the men of Troy but keep this message firmly in your mind remember let no loss of memory overcome you when the sweet grip of slumber sets you free with that the dream departed leaving him there his heart racing with hopes that would not come to pass he thought he would take the city of Priam then that very day The Fool how could he know what worked the father had in mind the father still bent on playing plaguing the archives and Trojans both with wounds and groans in the bloody press of battle so you can see a couple of things the duplicity of Zeus who sends this dream but to me the most remarkable aspect of this was the dream itself how its personified he sends the dream his dream is winging words through the mind and then the dream comes up in the form of Nestor the revered older statesman of the Greeks and gives this information tag memnon you can win the fight well no you can't but how this was done with these with a dream image as it was presented to you is part of the literary talent that Homer is offering us and out he marched leading the way from Council the rest sprang to their feet the sceptered Kings obeyed the great field marshal rank and file stream behind and rushed like swarms of bees pouring out of a rocky hollow burst on endless bursts bunched in clusters seating over the first spring blooms dark hordes swirling into the air this way that way so the many armed platoons from the ships and tents came marching on close file along the deep wide beach to crowd the meeting ground and rumor Zeus's crier like wildflower fire blazing among them whip them on thank you Mary beautiful metaphor of the swarms of bees Homer has one metaphor after the next of the natural world and this is one of bees but we'll see some others as we go through some of this text but here they are ready to go but remember I told you that Agamemnon said well let's go home and everybody decide they would go home what are we going to do now so in steps Odysseus so the soldiers bantered out Anat Odysseus the Raider of cities stood their scepter in hand and close behind him the great grey eye Dafina rose like a herald ordering men to silence all from the first to the lowest ranks of a Kia's troops should hear his words and mark his counsel well for the good of all he hurt urged them Agamemnon now my king the achæans are bent on making you a disgrace in the eyes of every man alive yes they fail to fulfill their promise sworn that day they sailed here from the stallion land of Argos what do you see happened here how did Odysseus manage this I think he tried it to shame them did he attack Agamemnon for his terrible judgment no he turns the criticism to the men who are leaving because I governement said it's okay to go Odysseus knows you can't go head-to-head with Agamemnon he is the leader so instead he says look what these men are doing to you and he shames Agamemnon into realizing that that can't happen so rather than approach Agamemnon directly he approaches him indirectly through the implied guilt of all the troops that are about to go home at Agamemnon's suggestion so this is another way in which you can see Odysseus being so skilled with words and managing difficult situations the snake omen is at the very end of this as and Mary this is the treat so go ahead and read this for us a snake and his back streaked red with blood a thing of terror Olympian Zeus himself had launched him into the clean light of day he slid from under the altar glided up the tree and there the brood of a sparrow helpless young ones teetered high on the topmost branch trips tips cowering under the leaves there ate they were all told and the mother made the night she'd borne them all chirping to break the heart but the snake gulped them down and the mother cried out for her babies fluttering over him he coiled struck banging her wing a thin high street tree but once he swallowed down the sparrow with her brood the son of crooked Cronus who sent the serpent forth turned him into a sign a monument clear to see Zeus struck him to stone and we stood by amazed that such a marvel came to life thank you this is an amazing image that that Homer provides for us but I thought the wording fanging her wing you can get a sense of just got the mother and then Zeus turns the snake to stone and it's told to us that that is a sign that Troy will fall it'll take ten years this is nine sparrows and then then a tenth year Troy will fall but this is how Seuss is going to have this happen and this is how Homer portrays this omen of the snake book three chara ty wells was going to read this for us but he couldn't come so I will do this and there are a couple of interesting parts to this it's in the tenth year of the conflict in the war and the fighting is going to begin Helen and Priam are up on the walls and they're gonna look out over the plain and see who's down there and the word is Tycho Skopje viewing things from the wall is that right Steven yep and Parris decides he's going to challenge Menelaus for a one-on-one the monomakh eeeh we'll see what happens there after Paris realizes it's such a bad decision he shrinks from combat but Hector his brother chides him and so he goes out to fight Menelaus overcomes Paris he has him by the helmet he's about to decapitate him with his sword but remember Aphrodite is the one who helped Paris get together with Helen so Aphrodite appears on the plane and breaks the strap underneath his helmet and so Menelaus instead of pulling the head off pulls only the helmet and then Aphrodite shrouds Paris in mist and takes him back to the castle Helen is outraged she chastises him but then she sleeps with him and Homer says there they are having sex up in the palace and Menelaus is down on the plane looking for what the hell happened to him where did he go and that's the way he leaves it with that and the point I'd like to make also is that Helen is able to seduce almost everyone in this story she is so beautiful and it won't be have will have to deal with how do you deal with with beauty that's that that profound so I'll read this and iris came on Helen in her rooms weaving a growing web a dark red folding robe working into the weft the endless bloody struggles stallion breaking Trojans and archives armed and bronzed had suffered all for her at the god of battles hands iris racing the wind brushed close and whispered come dear girl come quickly so you can see what wondrous things they're doing stallion breaking Trojans and archives armed and bronzed a moment ago they longed to kill each other long for heartbreaking in human warfare on the plane now those very warriors stand at ease in silence the fighting stopped they leaned against their shields their long Lance's stuck in the ground think of it Paris and Menelaus loved by Ares the God of War go to fight it out with their rugged Spears all for you and the man who wins that duel you'll be called his wife and with those words the God has filled her heart with yearning warm and deep for her husband this is Menelaus long ago from Sparta and her City and her parents so we have a little insight into Helen she has some regret she's realizing that she may not have made such a good decision but there's another part here that I wanted to bring up with his weaving a growing web weaving is such an important metaphor throughout all of these stories that I wanted to bring it to our attention early on that there are really three stringed instruments if you think about it that populate our stories and they are a bow a liar and a moon and in a way the Loom with our ability to weave stories tells us about the war fought with bow and arrow and the piece sung by the lyre so these three stringed instruments come throughout our story and the idea of weaving a story weaving a web is important both in this story and the Odyssey and it's introduced to us here to make sure I know which way I'm going here these are some really remarkable words let's stop Beauty terrible beauty did you all ever think of Beauty being terrible have you ever used those words together what awful Beauty that's just the worst look at that awful beauty and yet you realize the implications of this Homer's right her beauty has brought from Mendes suffering and he calls it for what it is is beauty terrible beauty a deathless goddess so she strikes our eyes but still ravishing as she is let her go home in the long ships these are the people of Troy Singh let's get her out of here and not be left behind for us and for our children down the years and irresistible sorrow they murmured low but Priam king of Troy raising his voice called across to Helen come over here dear child sit in front of me so you can see your husband of long ago your kinsmen and your people I don't blame you I hold the gods to blame she has beguiled almost everybody while she's up there she's identifying the troops and the Greeks because she came from Sparta and she knows them that man is Atreus his son Agamemnon Lord of Empires both a mighty king and a strong spear man too and he used to be my kinsman that I am there was a world or was it all a dream she's having some reflection some regrets and even wondering if it was real does that ever happen to us and now she describes Odysseus and I like this but when she's describing her recollection of a but Odysseus but when Odysseus sprang up the famed tactician would just stand there staring down hard his eyes fixed on the ground never shifting his scepter back and forth clutching it stiff and still like a mindless man you think I'm a sullen fellow or just a plain fool but when he let loose that great voice from his chest and the words came piling on like a driving winter Blizzard then no man alive could rival Odysseus Odysseus we no longer gazed in wonder at his looks another manifestation of the skill with which Odysseus managed language so we're up the book or and this is a long reading Stephen thank you for doing it and you are welcome to comment on it as you go through it if you see something you'd like us to be aware of they couldn't have a dialogue but let me get us there first Zeus doesn't like the Greeks he's determined to save Troy Hera can't stand Troy she's determined to have the Greeks fight and Athena schemes to break the truce because there they are sitting there waiting for Menelaus and for and for Paris to fight they're not doing it and so gonna going to break the truce and Pandarus breaks the truce and Steven will read that for us I'd like to make a point here as we go through this Homer is impartial he he's speaking this from the Greeks point of view but he doesn't necessarily take the Greek side so he will speak with equal passion about the Greeks and the Trojans and the tragedy that he perceives as equal on both sides that war is bad doesn't make any difference who's involved so Homer's impartial and therefore a very reliable resource for us this is Pandarus breaks the truth so remember menelaus's out he's in the mono macchia he's in single combat but his single combatant has been spirited away so he's just completely exposed and then we see Athena at her most devilish so Athena fired the fools heart inside him then and there he unstrapped his polished bow the Horn of a wild goat he'd shot in the chest one day as the springy ibex clambered down a cliff lurking there under cover he hid it in the heart and the fine kill went sprawling down the rocks the horns on its head ran sixteen hands in length and a Bowyer good with goat horn worked them up fitted clasped them tight sanded them smooth and sets the golden notch rings at the tips superb equipment bending it back hard the archer strung his bow propping an end against the ground as cohorts braced their shields in a tight wedge to hide him fearing bands of our guides might just leap to their feet before he could hit Menelaus Atreus fighting son he flipped the lid of his quiver plucked an arrow fletched and never shot a shaft of black pain quickly notching the sharp arrow on the string he swore to Apollo Wolf God glorious Archer he'd her splendid victims newborn lambs when he marched home too zealous sacred City squeezing the knock and string together drawing the gut back to his nipple iron head to the hand grip till he flexed the great weaponed back in a half circle curved the bow sprang the strings sang out arrow shot away razor-sharp and raging to whip through our guide ranks but you Menelaus the Blessed deathless gods did not forget you Zeus his daughter the queen of Fighters first of all she reared before you skewed the tearing shaft flicking it off your skin as quick as a mother flicks a flaw from her baby sleeping softly Athena's own hand deflected it down the belt where the gold buckles clasp and breast plates overlap the shaft pierced the tight belts twisted thongs piercing the blazoned plates piercing the guard he wore to shield his loins and block the spears his best defense the shaft pierced him even this the tip of the weapon grazing the man's flesh and dark blood came spurting from the wound I just pause there for just a minute thanks Steven it's terrific as a mother flicks a fly from her sleeping baby an iron headed arrow aimed directly at Menelaus homer has us going one way and then another and that beautiful description of how I made the bow in the first place he doesn't say he took his bow and put an arrow in there he told us about the ibex that he killed him how many hands and the horns and how he so of the skill at making this is part of the story this is quite a bow and there is Pandarus hiding behind everybody's shields so nobody can see him back to the nipple as a mother flicks a fly from a sleeping baby and he's been wounded we didn't know that would happen we thought that the Trojans would get destroyed and that Menelaus would go home and here he is bleeding so the arrow has struck he is bleeding and then what happens where does Homer take us picture a woman dying ivory blood-red a carrion or a may onion staining a horse's cheek piece and it's stored away in a vault and troops of writers long to sport the ornament true but there it lies as a king's splendor kept and prized twice over his team's adornment his drivers pride in glory so now Menelaus the fresh blood went staining down your sturdy thighs your shins and well turned ankles the Lord of men Agamemnon shuddered frightened to see the dark blood gushing from the wound and veteran Menelaus cringed himself but saw the lashing courts and barbs outside the gash and his courage flooded back inside his chest nevertheless King Agamemnon groaning heavily grasped Menelaus hand and spoke out for the men as friends around him groaned as well dear brother that truce I sealed in blood was death for you setting you out alone exposed before our lines to fight the Trojans look how the men of Troy have laid you low trampling down our solemn binding truths but they will never go for nothing the oaths the blood of the lambs the unmixed wine we poured the firm clasp of the right hand we trusted never even if Zeus's wrath does not strike home at once he'll strike in his own good time with greater fury transgressors will pay the price a tremendous price with their own heads their wives and all their children yes for in my heart and soul I know this well the day will come when sacred Troy must die Priam's must die and all his people with him Priam who hurls the strong ash spear the son of Cronus Zeus throned aloft in the heavens where he lives Zeus himself will brandish over their heads his black storm shield enraged at their deceit nothing can stop it now all this will come to pass but I will suffer terrible grief for you Menelaus if you die now if you fill out your destiny now and I go back to parching Argos in disgrace for the men will turn their minds towards home at once and we must leave prayin and all the men of Troy a trophy to glory over Helen queen of Argos but the plough land here will rot your bones my brother as you lie dead in Troy your mission left unfinished then some Trojan will glory swaggering arrogant leaping down on the grave a famous Menelaus let Agamemnon wreak his anger so on all his foes just as he led his armies here for nothing failure now home he's gone to the dear land of his father's his warships empty leaving behind the hero Menelaus moldering in his wake so some Trojan will trumpet let the great earth gape and take me down that day but the red-haired Menelaus tried to calm him courage don't alarm the men not for a moment the points not lodged in a mortal spot you see my glistening war belt stopped the shot in front my loin piece and the plated guard below it geared the bronze myths hammered out for me and marshal Agamemnon took his lead pray God your dear brother Menelaus but the wound a healer will treat it apply drugs and put a stop to the black waves of pain Agamemnon turned to the sacred Herald quick Talthybius call McKay on here the son of a skel pious Asclepius that unfailing healer to see to Menelaus Atreus fighting son that was just great Steven wonderful thank you yes no it's a distinction Menelaus was thought to be red-haired he was from Sparta and the Spartans actually had been part of the Dorian invasion from indo-european northern areas and they were thought to be red-haired so by being red-haired you were Spartan Steven thank you that was just wonderful I'm so glad you you've got that I wanted to have a longer passage read just so you could see how Homer takes us back and forth there's Pandarus about to shoot the arrow but we got to find out how he made the bow and how he shot the IBEX and how he's hiding behind the and how the and the arrow was going right for Menelaus until Athena does that and then we but no it did it really work there he is wounded he's bleeding we don't know whether he's living or dying and Homer plays us back and forth and just at the moment when the arrows on the way he then takes us off to standing a cheek piece for a horse and we have to get through that before we find out what's really happening and Agamemnon thinks he is going to die but that's not what happens Steven I can't resist it so Athena set up the betrayal she set up the assassination and then she foiled it this is another moment when the second piece begins and it says it's blood-red it's not what the Greek says the Greek says it's the red of a marine shell that is used to dying for dyeing the robes of kings and it's a sort of a reddish purple and it's so the irony the doubleness there is he his own clothing his is dyed the royal red with his royal blood yeah and you know I mean in the Greek it's really clear and their Greek sitting around this big amphitheater watching Homer sing this on a liar and dactylic hexameter get this this is not something that's going past the audience they understand what's going on here but I think you can see the skill with which he prepared this remarkable scene of the attempt on Menelaus his life pardon me fate I think you're right that's what Homer would say you told me about this year's know how this was done we have a few more chapters to go through so I'll try to go as quickly as I can in book 5 Diomedes fights and we're not going to read this but it introduces the concept of arrastia and eros day is when a hero has its fight his finest moment in battle and a hero wants to have an hour state because then he has chaos he has the fame and there are a number of people that have it all of these heroes at one way or another have their arrastia not everybody but these are the ones and Homer uses this concept of the arrastia as he comes to a particular point in the story to tell you the Auris day of Diomedes the arrastia of Agamemnon and what does it look like it's part of the way he can tell a story by going back in a repetitive way so Hector returns to Troy because Paris has already gone back and before he does that though there's a fascinating little interchange between a Greek and a Trojan the Diomedes is the great Greek warrior and tapas is a great Trojan warrior and getting ready to fight and as Homer will do he'd have each person in this one-to-one conflict tell you a little bit about themselves so Diomedes says well I'm Diomedes and here's my father and here's my grandfather and here's where I came from and I'm going to kill you and Glaucus says and I'm glucose and I'm from Troy and here's my father and here's my grandfather and I'm going to kill you and then they both stop and say wait a minute our grandfathers were friends we can't fight it's the whole concept of Xenia about being a good host if you have that relationship with somebody you cannot fight them so both Glaucus and Diomedes ready to tear each other to pieces realize that their grandfathers were friends that they had stayed in each other's homes and that they were not going to fight so they swap armor say goodbye and the comment that is made is well there are plenty of other people for us to kill and they don't and that that ends that little of that little interchange but the whole concept of Xenia and and being hospitable is is important in these stories Hector is the most completely developed man in the story and I think we're going to read a little bit about this whoever has book six buddy out there okay I will read book six think about the description of Hector here in the same breath shining Hector reached down for his son but the boy recoiled cringing against his nurses full breasts screaming out at the sight of his own father terrified by the flashing bronze the horsehair crest the great Ridge of the helmet nodding bristling terror so it struck his eyes and his loving father laughed his mother laughed as well and glorious Hector quickly lifting the helmet from his head set it down on the ground fiery in the sunlight and raising his son he kissed him tossed him in his arms lifting a prayer to Zeus and the other deathless gods Zeus all you immortals grant this boy my son may be like me first in glory among the Trojans strong and brave like me and rule all Troy in power and when they let them say he's a better man than his father when he comes home from battle bearing the bloody gear of the mortal enemy he is killed in war a joy to his mother's heart the reason for putting this in there is to give you an idea of Hector with his wife Andromache and their son this is as normal a family encounter as you're going to find in the Iliad and to the extent that Hector is fighting to save his civilization he's fighting to save a city he's fighting not just for himself and for glory and for booty but to preserve his community the level of Honor that he brings to that conflict and how he's presented to us as a family person here makes him the most complete and and and and and revered member of this story even though he's gonna lose and if Homer is telling it from the Greek standpoint he's honoring the the Trojan hero Hector for who he is as a family person in book seven Apollo and Athena plot to stop the war Hector and Ajax are out there fighting but they both have wives and sons Paris makes an offer he'd returned everything except Helen but that's not accepted and so at the end of this with all the debt on the field Nestor and Priam asked to bury the dead and I thought we should read this short passage if somebody has booked seven years prior for babies people to they piled the corpses on the pyre their hearts breaking burn them down to ash and return to synchrotron and just so on the other side a Qian men-at-arms piled the corpses on the pyre their hearts breaking burn them down to ash and return to the hollow ships thank you here Homer is giving us an unadulterated unabashed presentation of the results of war both sides have just been decimated and they both came out to burn the corpses of their comrades and to weep please no no that's that's a really interesting question no they're separate buyers but they recognize the need for each side to to to do this it was necessary to be properly buried for the Soul to go to Hades and so the ritual had to be carried out in an appropriate way both sides knew that and so this was the time that they decided to put the brakes on the war and bury the dead Hector keeps all his troops on the field because he thinks he's going to be ok and he's not the Greek victory requires achilles remember Achilles is he's still suffering the rage of Achilles he's not doing anything and Zeus makes a prediction called the bull a Dios of how this is going to turn out and it's not going to be good for the Trojans in book nine Agamemnon really is exhausted he says obey me cut and run it's time to leave this time he's serious the first time he was fooling now he's serious Diomedes and Nestor oppose him and they confront him Agamemnon says about his willingness to take brycie us away from Achilles mad as I was blind lost an inhuman rage so they decided to send an embassy to Achilles to see if they can't get him back in the war but he's singing and playing the lyre it's ironic I think that the greatest warrior in this story is sitting in his tent with his friend playing a lyre and singing to himself this is not a warrior this is a little this is well not sure it's a feminine manifestation of Achilles but he's not behaving in his warrior way Odysseus makes an offer but it's not accepted and here is the first parable in Western literature Steven I think you were the one that pointed this out to me and whoever has book nine let's let's read this I'm starting a 609 to 624 oh we got a Mike excellent okay think about think about Homer's words here and what he's describing and have you seen something like this and and I just add this is this is Phoenix who is the sort of stepfather nanny for Achilles Achilles father's Pelle as the yes'm the king of Myrmidon and Phoenix took him in and thinks well taught him a lot so after reminding Achilles of their relationship he says we do have prayers you know prayers for forgiveness daughters of mighty Zeus and they limp and halt and they're all wrinkled drawn they squint to the side they can't look you in the eyes and always bent on duty trudging after ruin maddening blinding ruin but ruin is strong and Swift she out strips them all by far stealing a march leaping over the whole wide earth to bring a man to bring mankind - grief and the prayers trail after trying to heal the wounds and then if a man Revere's these daughters of Zeus as they draw near him they will help him greatly and listen to his appeals but if one denies them and turns them away stiff necked and harsh off they go to the son of Cronus Zeus and pray that ruin will strike the man down crazed and blind until he's paid the price so I thought that description of prayers was perfect halting squinting looking at you out of this corner of their eyes they can't really look you in the eye and there's strife and she is in the middle of all of us in book 10 it's an interesting book but we're not going to read anything of it except I wanted to point out one thing to you they're spies on both sides the Greeks want to send a spy up to Troy and Troy is sending a spy down to find out what's going on with the Greeks and the spy from Troy is named Dolan and if Homer has a sense of humor you just might see it here because Homer describes Agamemnon who wears the skin of a lion and Menelaus who wears the skin of a leopard and then Dolan who wears the cap of a weasel do you have any doubt about the outcome of that encounter I don't think I'm not sure if Homer was being funny but I heard that as being wry if not funny and Dolan is dispatched by Odysseus and Diomedes in book eleven Zeus flings some more strife Agamemnon has his heroic moments and we get to where Odysseus is heavy a and heroic moment - but he's wounded and has to be saved by Ajax and in this description of the battle we're going to see how Homer again turns to the natural world for a metaphor to describe some of the behavior that he sees in Ajax so I don't know who has book eleven as you but we're gonna we're gonna need you Gerry so this the first little passage is strife personified lashing the fighting fury in each of Kean's part those stopping them now mad for war and struggle now suddenly battle thrill them more than the journey home then sailing Howell ships to their dear native land Thank You Gerry again I wanted to present you this this is a another feminine presentation of strife and then Odysseus defense Diomedes and then he stranded ready yep so yelled and the famous Pierre Monteux dishes rushed and enclose and reared up to shield him slipping behind tied these dropped to a knee and yanked the wind arrow from his foot as the raw pain went stabbing through his life back diabetes jumped on his car and told his driver to make for the hollow ships tydides racked with pain that left the famous Spearman oh dishes on his own not a single archive comrade standing by his side since panic seized them all unnerved himself Oh dishes probed his own great fighting heart oh dear God what becomes of Odysseus now a disgraceful thing if I should break and run fearing their main force but it's far worse if I'm taken all alone look Zeus just drop drove the rest of my comrades off in panic flight but why debate my friend why thrash things out cowards I know would quit the fighting now but the man who wants to make his mark and war must stand his ground and brace for all he's worth suffer his wounds are wound his man to death Thank You Gerry what we have here is Odysseus who comes in to help Diomedes who does get away got a wounded foot but then Odysseus is stuck and he has to decide what to do he's just as afraid but you hear this dialogue and Odysseus has had what do I do now what's best for us this is a classic example of the revered Greek concept of so ferocity where you try to have the best evaluation of a circumstance and then choose a good outcome or at least a good action despite the circumstances which bring about fear or terror or whatever else and it's how we know a lot about Odysseus what kind of man is he James Joyce when he was asked why he called his story Ulysses he said because the most complete character in all of literature is Odysseus we understand him better than anybody else because of just this kind of dialogue that he has in his head so he does stand and fight and then this is the metaphor of Ajax who comes in to help out Ajax to retreat he stood there a moment stunned then swimming his seven ply oxide shield behind him blue back in caution throwing a fast glance at his own aqui in troops like a trapped beast pivoting backpedaling stepped by short step like a tawny lion when hounds and country fuel hands drive them out of their state Stevens filled with cattle they'll never let him tear the rich fat from the oxen all night long they stand guard but the lion craves meat he lunges in and in but his charges gain him nothing thick and fast from their hearty arms the javelins rain down in his face and waves of blazing torches these the big cat fears walking for all his rage and that darn he slinks away his spirits - so Ajax slowly drew back from the Trojans spirits dashed and much against his will feeling the worst for a Kids Act he is waiting ships like a stubborn ass some boys lead down a road stick after stick they've cracked across his back but he's too much for them now he rambles into a field to ravage standing crops they keep beating his ribs splintering sticks their struggle child's play till with one final shove they drive him off but not before he's had all his fill of feed so when telemon's son great Ajax then vaunting Trojans and all their far-flung allies kept on stabbing his shield full centre no let-up and now the giant fighter would summon up his fury wheeling on them again and beating off platoons of the stallion breaking trojan and now again he'd swerve around in flight but he blocked them all from the hacking passage through to the fast trim ships as Ajax all along battling in the midfield between akin and Trojan lines would stand and fight some Spears that flew from Trojans hearty arms hurdling forward stuck fast in his huge shield but showers of others cut short halfway before they could graze his gleaming skin stuck in the ground still lusting to sink in flesh the spears were lusting to sink in flesh and there's metaphor of a lion backing up that's applied to Ajax I think this makes it so clear how he defended the ships and this is very important I want to go quickly and just to conclude tonight the Trojans break through but this is as far as they're going to get and when we continue and conclude the Iliad next week we'll find out what's happened but Esther has one very short passage to read which I think is a lot of fun and this is Homer's personal reflection he says the strait is far too great oh I'm not quite sure how Homer Memphis but this is another bit of a little bit of humor that I saw in his reflection on how difficult it was for him to tell this story which it surely was let's conclude tonight way just looking at some of the things that we've started at we've talked about the masculine and the feminine introduced by Zeus and Hera we've talked about homers impartiality in his capacity for storing telling beginning in media race was surprised the difference between past and present tense third and first-person especially in the passages Steven wrote read the love of expertise in detail and a little bit of humor his literary techniques of personification of dream and strife first parable the snake omen the metaphors especially with weaving and the bees and the wounded lion the eros days of our heroes the Xenia that we've talked about with welcoming people to your home the so frosty of Odysseus arguing it out in his own line Hector the most complete character we've seen Odysseus as competent stature and judgment and most importantly the solemn tragedy of war those are all the things that we've had a chance to begin our look at the Iliad and next week we'll conclude that and I have some very short opportunities for people to read so who would like book thirteen they're only a few lines terrific okay we're gonna skip through that just book sixteen a few lines Esther you're great you only had two lines Esther you get some more next time book 17 just two lines Steve if you're gonna if you're gonna be here next week two lines okay book 18 is divided in two parts do you want to do both it's the shield it's terrific and then one of the most poignant parts and all of literature is when Priam Priam and Achilles meet it's just amazing I've got this divided into two parts but if somebody would like to take this you'll enjoy it Mary you're on okay dr. Burton yes the audience or Omar and well we assume Homer did but there were other Humaira die people who were skilled bards that would tell these stories and they would travel from community to community and perform these over a period of days obviously in the amphitheater I think it was I think an awful lot of people could come now I don't know about slaves but I think it was open to men and women yes right yeah yes that's what's so stunning about this but he had so many tools available to him remember there something like 41 different epithets for just achilles so if you want to talk about achilles depending on where you are in the poem in the meter you need you can pull out any one of these and have it fit there and then there's repetition and there's different cycles that help you remember where you're going to go from here there so he had a lot of stuff but but the ability to do that was really remarkable okay any other questions thank you all see you next week

Channel: The University of Scranton

Views: 25,410

Keywords: Homer, Iliad, Odyssey, Schemel Forum, Schemel Forum Course, The University of Scranton, Scranton

Id: 2xOaunXuRAs

Length: 78min 11sec (4691 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2019