Final Exam Notes from Module 13 - 22
Module 16
Homer
- important stories from Trojan war, from 8th century BC
- Homer’s Iliad
- anonymous ancient biographer said Homer died when he could not work out a riddle from an Arcadian fisherman
- All that we caught we left behind, all we missed carry, which is lice
- Homer’s connection to Ionia, Northern Asian Minor
- Iliad and odyssey are written in Greek Ionic dialect
- story is a tradition of cultural transmission and invention, rather than one single composer
- oral composition theory, oral poetry
- explains historical inconsistencies in Homer
- the time Homer wrote, the Trojan war, is in the early Mycenaean bronze age
- heroes coming from Mycenae, Pylos, and Thebes, great Mycenaen cities
- Heinrich Schliemann, german archeologist, discovered what is believed to be Troy in the Troy
- one layer was sacked in 12th century BC
- unsure if it is linked with Troy
- smaller scale than in Iliad
- one can track elements from poem to historical reality despite lack of factual reality
- Mycenean culture was warlike and feudal
- bronze age society, bronze instruments, armour, chariots, shields, shield of Achilles, sometimes has iron-age instruments
Trojan War
- Helen, most beutiful woman in Greece, daughter of Zeus and Leda (wife of kind Sparta)
- one of four children, and sister of Agememnon’s wife Clytemnestra
- courted by many, but chooses great Menelaud, brother of the general Agamemnon
- lives in Sparta with him named Hermione
- Trojan prince Paris (Alexander) visits Sparta seduces Helen, and takes her back to Troy
- Greek army raised to regain Helen from Troy
- Helen’s willingness to go with Paris is ambiguous in Iliad
- she wants homeland and new lover, greater or less culpability to Helen
- sometimes just her phantom went
- capture pretext of war, so Zeus can reduce the population of earth
Judgement of Paris
War in the Illiad
- Helen was abducted
- Iliad begins narrative in the tenth year of the war
- Greeks trick the Trojans with the Trojan horse
- Achilles is killed pursuing Trojans, killed by Paris who shoots his ankle, with the help of Apollo who is on the side of the Trojans
Achilles
- born of Thetis, a sea nymph, and Peleus a mortal
- Thetis tried to make him fully immortal by holding him over a fire at night and anointing him with ambrosia, or by dipping him in the war of the river Styx
- he was submerged making him immortal, but the part Thetis held, the ankle was vulnerable
- Achilles hell, weak spot
- anger of Achilles driving theme
- Thetis learned of her son’s possible fates
- stay home but live a long inglorious life, go to Troy and die a glorious hero
- one story, Thetis tried to prevent Achilles from going and bringhim him to Scyros island, but Odysseus and Diomedes brought him armour and Achilles put it one when trumpet sounded battle
Troy
- well fortified
- Iliad, Priam is safe from war in the walls
- to defeat Trojans, Greeks need to enter the walls
- Epeus a Greek with help from Athena built a hollow horse, and Greek heroes hid themselves
- Greeks sailed away, impression they gave up
- Virgil in his Aeneid, Sinon was left behind, and lied to Trohans and said it was an offering to Athena
Important People
Agamemnon—Leader of the Greeks and a great warrior. Menelaus—King of Sparta and the husband of Helen.
Diomedes—King of Argos and a great warrior of the Greek army. He is also a wise counselor.
Nestor—King of Pylos. During the time of the Trojan war he is an old man, but he was once a great warrior. He is the wisest Greek leader at Troy.
Ajax the Great, son of Telamon— Ajax the Great is the son of Telamon. He is a strong warrior, known more for his brawn than his brains.
Ajax the Less— Ajax the Less is the son of Oileus. A less distinguished warrior than Ajax. He is best known for dragging Priam’s daughter from the temple of Athena where she had taken refuge during the sack of Troy.
Odysseus—King of Ithaca, known as a great warrior but most prominently as a very clever and tricky individual. Not wanting to go to war in the first place, he pretended to be mad, but was discovered, when the hero Palamedes took Odysseus’ son Telemachus and put him in the path of his plow; Odysseus did not, of course, run him over, showing that he was sane.
Achilles—The great hero of Greeks and the leader of the Myrmidons, son of Thetis and Peleus.
Patroclus—Also a great warrior. When young, he had killed a man during a game of dice and Achilles father took him in to be Achilles’ companion; they are perhaps lovers and Patroclus is important for the story of the Trojan War.
Priam and Hecuba—King and Queen of Troy. Priam is said to have had 50 sons and 12 daughters, 19 of which he had with Hecuba. At the time of the Trojan war they are older parents.
Paris (Alexander)—Son of Priam and Hecuba. A pretty boy, patronized by Aphrodite.
Hector, Andromache and Astyanax—Prince of Troy, his wife and son. He is the greatest warrior second to Achilles in the battle at Troy. He kills Patroclus which spurs Achilles to rejoin the battle to kill him.
Cassandra—Daughter of Priam and prophetess doomed never to be believed. She foresaw the fall of Troy but nobody listened to her. She is eventually taken as the concubine of Agamemnon.
Aeneas—Son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He escapes Troy with his father Anchises. He is important in mythology for founding Rome which he does after leaving Troy and sailing to Italy.
Glaucus and Sarpedon—The leaders of the Lycians, allies of Troy. They are both great warriors. Glaucus has a famous meeting with the Greek warrior Diomedes in Iliad book 6. Sarpedon is the son of Zeus, and the greatest Trojan hero after Hector. Sarpedon is killed by Patroclus