The Literature of The Literature of AntiquityAntiquity

The Greeks and the The Greeks and the IliadIliad

Learning Goals:• To place the Iliad within context of time period and

other Greek literature.• To develop an understanding for why this text is

important to an AP student.• To identify the major literary devices, structure, and

techniques used in the work.• To identify and discuss major themes of the work.• To better understand the Greek warrior mindset in

order to better interpret the choices and actions of the characters that might seem confusing.

• To learn Greek vocabulary essential to a better understanding of the text.

The Greek Civilization

Timeline of Ancient Greece All Dates B.C.

• The Bronze Age – 3300-1100– The Trojan War - 1200ish

• The Dark Age – 1100 - 800• The Archaic Period – 800-480– Homer? Composes Iliad & Odyssey around

725 -675.• The Classical Period – 480-323– Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex first performed 429– Aristotle writes Poetics - 335

• The Hellenistic Period – 323-146– Rome conquers Greece - 146

Ancient Greece’s Most Influential Authors

• Homer – Epic Poetry – Iliad and Odyssey• Aesop - fables• Sophocles – Tragic Drama – Oedipus &

Antigone,• Euripides – Tragic Drama – Medea, the Bacche• Plato – Philosopher/Mathematician – The

Republic• Demosthenes – orator - Orations• Aristotle – Writer/scientist/philosopher -

Poetics

Homer (Late 7th early 8th century B.C.)

The “Homeric Question”• Was he real? No real

evidence either way.• Could be a group or

school of oral poets• Most likely did NOT write

down his works.• Most agree he was blind.• Telemachus’ son????

Why the Iliad?

“In higher education, Homer’s epics are usually the first works anthologized for the general literature courses that, at present, are required of most college students throughout the country” (Myrsiades ix)

“Homer allows comparison with almost any literary work because he ‘provides the first concepts of the rational hero, the nature of that rationality in terms of a cultural world view, and its characteristics in terms of the insight into the nature of man, his reason for being, and his response to himself and others’” (Myrsiades 8).

The Iliad• Recounts a 1 ½ month

period near the end of the final year of the Trojan War

• Iliad = song of Ilium / Ilium = Troy

• Begins in medias res (in the middle of things), though earlier episodes are alluded to or forced into context.

• Begins with the Rage/Wrath of Achilles.

• Multi-thematic TRAGIC work• The wrath of Achilles: its

cause, its course, and its effect.

The Iliad, cont.

• Originally composed in Dactylic Hexameter

• Epic Formulae – epithets, repetition, and formulaic phrasing set up to allow an improvising oral poet easy ways of putting a story together

• Iliad and Odyssey considered to be part of an epic cycle – where the poet can take up the story at any point.

Heroic Code1) Individual accomplishment valued over group

accomplishment– Achilles is in it for himself first, country second—

hence his and Agamemnon’s emphasis on the spoils of war, not the war itself.

– Competition more important than cooperation– Glaucus to Diomedes:

Always be the best, my boy, the bravest,And hold your head up high above the others.Never disgrace the generation of your fathers. (6.247-249)

Heroic Code“The most striking single feature of the Homericethos is the enormous importance attached to individual prowess, individual pride, individual reputation. Heroes of the other epics prize their individuality also, but in none is the drive for self-assertion so ruthless and pride so paramount as in Homer. In Roman or Christian or Indian epics it is a function of heroism to submit individuality, however grandiose, to a higher sanction: the Homeric hero may not compromise loyalty to his own being with loyalty to any other, human or divine” (Hadas 15).

2) Hero seeks immortality above all– Usually awarded through fame/song/discussion– It is what is done in this life that is important.

Achilles: My mother tells me,The immortal goddess Thetis with her glistening

feet,That two fates bear me on to the day of death.If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy,My journey home is gone, but my glory never dies.If I voyage back to the fatherland I love,My pride, my glory dies. . . (9. 497-503)

Heroic Code

3) Actions based on gaining honor and avoiding shame. – No choice not to fight – Success in battle is the surest way to gain honor

and fame

Hector: “…I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan women … if I would shrink from battle now, a coward. … To stand up bravely, always to fight in the front ranks of Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory, glory for myself” (6. 523-529).

Heroic Code

Some Greek Vocabulary…• Menis – wrath / anger / rage / fury• Hubris – over-reaching pride• Atë – foolish action by hero that leads to

downfall• Aristeia – moment of supreme greatness in

battle• Areté – reaching one’s highest human potential• Oikos – the family unit / noble household• Polis – the city-state• Timê – respect/sign of honor, compensation• Xeinos – guest/host relationship• Kleos - glory/fame• Nostos - homecoming

Themes and Motifs• The inescapability of fate (it’s something even

the gods won’t mess with)• The fatal results when compassion and

forgiveness are not practiced• Complex attitude towards war as both

necessarily for personal glory and bloody and brutal.

• Personal honor comes before family ties/love• Warrior culture of the text vs. agricultural

culture of the poet (especially seen in epic similes)

• Disorder replaced by order – individual, social, cosmic

• Armor, burial, fate, 9s, prophesies, sacrifices

The Geometric andParallel structure of theIliad.

•Note the interlocking pattern – very much like traditional Greek pottery of the time period.

•An emphasis on order, logic, reason, and connectedness.