CLST 272-001: Heroes and Classical Epics

CLST 272-001: Heroes and Classical Epics

Fall Semester 2015
Dr. Jacqueline Long

MWF 8:15am - 9:05am
Crown Center 140

Study Guide for Exam II: Homer, Odyssey

Format

The exam will have three parts; there will be some measure of choice within each part.

cut-and-dried identifications: basic factoidal information (small credit per item, and a small component of the exam)
passages from the Odyssey: identify context, and discuss briefly what the passage shows about the characters, the story, the understanding of cosmic order they imply, and the way Homer puts them together in his epic (each a medium-small quantum of credit, but adding up to a major component of the exam)
essay: discuss a thematic question, drawing for support of your contentions on specific, concrete evidence from several passages within the Odyssey (the largest single item of credit; a major component of the exam)

Things to study

Terms and items you might be asked to identify include:

major characters in the narrative of the Odyssey: on Ithaca, at Pylos, in Sparta, of Odysseus's crew, within the Otherworld (monsters, divinities, people who seem almost human, dead people including people known from Troy), and gods
major players in stories recounted within the Odyssey, such as Agamemnon's Return, Menelaus's Wanderings, Aphrodite's Adultery
technical terms we have used in analyzing the Odyssey, such as epic, epithet, narration "in medias res," parallel, ring-composition, simile, type-scene
concepts important to the Odyssey, such as affinity, food, guest-gifts, identity, marriage, memory, metis ("cunning intelligence"), nostos ("return"), omen, xenia ("hospitality")

Themes and overarching considerations to consider (both for passages and for the essay) - consider both how these ideas operate within the text and what they can mean to the audiences of the text, and why; review quizzes in Sakai and the daily Study Questions from before and after break:

Strategy: think of specific passages that illustrate important points, so you can back up your arguments with concrete evidence on the test. Be sure you explain clearly how the passage helps demonstrate your point.

Questions you've raised (my paraphrasing and organization of multiple converging questions - but your questions)
- Connecting story-traditions:
  - How do follow-on stories of the 'nostoi," Returns, told in the Odyssey, look back to the Trojan War and especially the Iliad? What happens between episodes of our two epics? How do moments in the Odyssey invite re-evaluation of moments in the Iliad?
- Motifs, story-telling, and cultural concerns:
  - What’s the deal with birds? (Collect examples, look for patterns, organize, and analyze.)
  - How do emotions function in the Odyssey?
  - How do food and cultural values connected with food function as a concern in the Odyssey? Compare and contrast to the Iliad.
  - How extensively and how crucially do gods become engaged in the action of the Odyssey?
  - How does hospitality function in the Odyssey: who shows it to whom, under what circumstances, and with what consequences? Look for patterns, including both “correct” and perverted or withheld hospitality.
  - When the text lays special emphasis on numbers (for example the 20 years Odysseus is away from Ithaca), what significance does it have? What meanings are associated with particular numbers in ancient Greek culture generally?
- Characterization:
  - Does Odysseus’s cunning make him transcend his humanity, in the way Achilles’ rage makes him transcend his humanity and achieve heroic status?
- Narrative structures:
  - aristeia – what kinds of narrative does the Odyssey use to showcase heroic excellence, by comparison with the military episodes of the Iliad?
  - What drives the Odyssey in the way Achilles’ rage drives the Iliad?
  - In what senses does the Odyssey begin “in medias res,” in the middle of a continuum of action? What does the narrative gain by that organization?
- Thematic concerns:
  - Who exhibits deception in the Odyssey? to what ends?
  - Given that the Iliad and the Odyssey frequently refer to fate as a governing force in human lives, how does individual free will relate to fate? Does individual choice matter? In what ways?
  - How does Homeric glory operate in the Odyssey, in comparison with the Iliad: what qualities does it encompass? how is it shown in action and dialogue? what meaning does it bear? Trace pertinent evidence, find patterns, and demonstrate their significance.
- Social concerns:
  - What role do women (and nymphs and goddesses and female monsters) have in the Odyssey? What do their roles in the epic suggest about, or react to, the society in which Homer lived? Think about women’s agency particularly.
  - How do the societies envisaged by the Odyssey compare to our own: what is similar and what is different about the ways individuals and communities think about and treat one another?
Instructor's checklist of important topics and ideas
- the performance of epic poetry
- techniques of epic story-telling
- divinely-inspired and personally-crafted story-telling within the Odyssey
- how the Odyssey relates to traditional Greek mythology
- how the Odyssey relates to the real world
  - connections to the natural world
  - connections to varieties of human experience
  - connections to distant history: from Greece of the Dark Age, in which the epic legends developed (say, 10-9 c BC) to the archaeological Bronze Age in which the cities of Troy and Mycene prospered (say, 16-12 c BC)
- how various kinds of relationships function: what do the members of the relationship do for one another, and why does it matter? how does partnership in the relationship help shape individual identity?
  - relationships of the household: husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves, patrons and dependents, hosts and guests
  - personal friendships (both within these other relationships, and independently: how are personal affections formed and perpetuated? how is commitment to personal affinity manifested?)
  - relationships of the community: fellow-citizens including kings and people, fellow-warriors or fellow-travelers including leaders and subordinates (how do considerations of status figure within these relationships: when does it matter more to be a member of the same group, and when does the articulation within the group matter?)
  - short-term and long-term relationships between communities: war, divine patronage of humans, human worship of gods, connections between the dead and the living, connections between humans and animals
- place and distance: how does location connect individuals to themselves, to resources, and to relationships? how is location changed? how does changing location change connections? how may connections be renewed?
- past, present, and future: how do events and figures of the past relate to ongoing and anticipated concerns of humans and gods? by what means is memory invoked? to whom does it matter, and why?
- fate and the stability of the cosmic order: what principles do they rest on? what possibilities do they permit to humans and to gods? how does knowledge of fate affect humans' and gods' actions? how does Homer's audience's knowledge of future outcomes affect the way we perceive his story as it unfolds?
- connections between divinities and mortals: who cares? why? what can they do and not do? how does divine interest relate to human responsibility?
- connections and contrasts between the natural world of organic forces and material realities and the social world of conflict, agreement, alliance, and negotiation
- physical being and moral identity: how do things like food and strength or skill relate to a person's worth?
- material goods, identity, and recognition: why do material goods matter to those who own them? to those who give them? to those who make them? to those who take them?
- human mortality and its consequences
- sexual desire and its consequences
- personal affection and its consequences
- memory and identity
- truth and verification
- glory and honor
- labor and personal responsibility
- home
- knowledge
- survival
- kindness

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Revised 23 October 2015 by jlong1@luc.edu
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