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CLST 272-001: Heroes and Classical Epics
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Fall Semester 2015
Dr. Jacqueline Long
MWF 8:15am - 9:05am
Crown Center 140
Study Questions
These questions suggest directions for
you to pursue your
ideas about Classical epics.
Questions about upcoming readings generally flag text I expect will be
important in class discussions. Questions referring back to class
discussions tries to pick up threads from important issues I expect us
to be discussing. But the questions do not merely summarize our
discussions (summary is a worthwhile, but different, kind of studying),
nor do they necessarily forecast exam questions very closely.
Rather, they invite you to develop interesting lines of thought.
One thing exams will ask you to do is to discuss specific
ideas about heroes and Classical epics in terms of concrete evidence in
our course material. Therefore
you will find it useful, as you think about even very wide-ranging
questions, to identify specific pieces of
evidence in the material
we are covering that help demonstrate
your observations and prove your
insights, and to be able to explain
clearly just how those pieces of
evidence validate the conclusions you draw.
file in progress - perennially |
The study questions in this file will be updated
through the course of the semester from study questions used when
this course was taught before. They may make slightly different emphases
or reflext a slightly different arrangement of material. If the days
are off, it's because the questions haven't yet been checked against
the current progress and interests of our class. Not that the older
questions aren't still worth thinking about (most of them will probably
continue to appear), just that you should double-check again later.
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Monday 24 August
From today's class:
- How do stories and ideas become "traditional" within a given
cultural group? What do such stories do for the members of the groups
that continue to make use of them? Think of specific examples.
- How did the solo singer of epic poetry relate to the communities
that made up his audience, in the world of Dark Age Greece?
What sort of an experience was the performance of epic poetry, as far
as we can tell, for its original audiences?
- Besides the world of his audience, what worlds did a Dark-Age epic
singer refer to in his singing? What associations might these worlds
have had for his audience?
- Keep thinking about these questions as we
work through our material. They are going to remain important.
For tonight's reading:
- Take notes on basic plot
details and major characters throughout all your reading, so that you will
always be able to locate things easily. Particularly note events
and interactions that strike you as being thematically important,
and think about what they demonstrate.
- What events occasioned the Trojan War? What information does Homer
directly tell his audience about this back-story? How does he integrate
the back-story into the present action of his epic?
- Who are the most important Greek leaders, to judge from their
actions in the first two books of the Iliad? (N.b. Homer
calls the Greeks variously Achaeans, Argives, or Danaans - it's still the
same group.) What makes these individuals important
to the basic enterprise of the Trojan War? What specific new action does Homer
show them engaged in to kick off his epic? How do other characters react?
- Who are the most important Trojans, both fighters and non-fighters?
What do they do? How do other characters react?
- What gods appear particularly concerned with the war between the
Greeks and Trojans? Which favors which side? What do the gods do to
pursue their interest in the conflict?
- Don't bog down in the details of the marshalling of forces, first
on the Greek side, then on the Trojan side, in the second half of Book
2; but consider, what does it do for the poem that Homer goes over
this information at this point?
Wednesday 26 August
From today's class:
- What do characteristic devices of oral epic song, such as standard
epithets, type-scenes, and repeated speeches, do for the way the
Iliad is told? Look out, as you read our
material all through this semester, for how technical structures operate
so as to carry the poet's story.
- What is at stake in the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles?
How does the epic show us? Compare and contrast to the conflict between
the Trojans and Greeks that has caused the Trojan War - what does
Homer suggest about human motivations and values?
- How does Homer evoke additional stories around the central
story he is telling in the Iliad - either other stories that are
part of the Trojan War, as background, or separate story-traditions?
What aspects of the Trojan War and its participants does Homer especially call to
our attention at the beginning of the Iliad, as we are getting oriented?
- Compare and contrast the traditional myth of Thetis's marriage,
which the Iliad seems to refer to obliquely, with the myth of
her stopping a rebellion against Zeus, which Achilles recalls
explicitly. What points about Thetis and her relationship to Zeus's
sovereignty do both myths suggest? How do they differ? How does the
Iliad point at the one while telling the other?
Similar sorts of indirect reference to
mythological background will be another thing to stay alert for in our
material.
For tonight's reading:
- How does Helen characterize the Greek leaders she describes for
Priam? (As with the Catalogue of Ships in Book 2, the scene seems to
be a way to re-introduce specifics for the benefit of an audience
that's just starting with this poem, rather than something that makes
entirely reasonable sense to envisage as happening in the 9th year of
a continuous siege of Troy by the Greeks.)
- How does Helen behave with Priam? with Aphrodite? with Paris? What
attitude towards her do the Trojan elders express? What does Homer
suggest is at stake in Helen's contribution to the back-history of the
siege of Troy?
- How do the Greek leaders interact on the field of
battle? Compare and contrast to what is said about them in the scene
between Priam and Helen and the elders.
Friday 28 August
From today's class:
- Continue assessing how Homer carves out the particular story he is
telling in the Iliad from the whole background of traditional
stories connected to the Trojan War. What does he do to orient his
audience within the overall context of the war? How does he relate
particular concerns of his present story to other, farther-flung mythological
stories and concerns? How does the broad context he recalls to his
listeners' minds add significance to his tale?
- How do differentials of power in relationships between individuals,
and between individuals and groups, affect the understandings each party
brings to their interactions and the ways they interact?
We've analyzed a particular lineup of power-relationships
in the crisis that generates the action of the Iliad: keep practicing
this analytical tool with other important interactions.
- What considerations does Homer introduce towards evaluating Helen
and her role in generating the Trojan War: how does she evaluate herself,
within the action of the Iliad? How do other characters evaluate her?
How do these evaluations suggest to an audience she might be evaluated, on
a broader perspective? How do the emotions Helen displays relate to
these various judgments about her actions?
For tonight's reading:
- Review what we've seen of Diomedes before Book 5, and compare and
contrast his behavior there. What sort of character is he, as a
warrior? How does he conduct his relationships with other warriors,
Greek and Trojan? What criteria determine how he treats each other
person? How does he conduct his relationships with the gods?
- What principles seem to govern how the gods involve themselves with
humans fighting? Trace who does what, on what basis. What consequences
do the gods experience for their actions?
- Compare and contrast Hector's exchanges inside Troy
with Hecuba,
with Paris and
Helen, and
with
Andromache. How does each dialogue help to portray his character in
relationship to Troy as a whole?
Monday 31 August
From today's class:
- Extend your assessment of Helen, as Homer treats her in the Iliad,
by comparing and
contrasting Helen with other women's roles in the Iliad, especially in
connection with war, and
by
comparing and contrasting women's and men's capacities for action in the
context of war:
- How does what women can do make their perspective on war
different from men's perspective? How do Helen's words and actions,
and women's fate in war generally (exemplified especially by Andromache),
relate to human mortality generally?
- Compare and contrast what Priam and the other Trojan elders say
about Helen with the judgment implicit in how Priam and Hector treat
her. To what extent do they blame her for the war? To what extent does
it matter? Why? Explain how your answer relates to Iliadic attitudes
to human mortality generally.
- What is at stake when Diomedes and Glaucus meet one another on the
field of battle? What ideas about Iliadic society and its "rules",
about material goods, and about mythological "history" in epic, does
this episode illustrate? Why do they matter? Where else do you see
similar ideas working in the Iliad?
For tonight's reading:
- Compare and contrast the face-off between Ajax and Hector in Book
7 with that between Menelaus and Paris in Book 3. How are the pairs
matched up? What is at stake when they meet? What do they do when they
fight?
- Compare and contrast how the gods involve themselves with the
fighting in Books 7 and 8 with their previous engagement. How do they
take sides? What forces limit their capacity for direct action? What
other capacities for intervention do they use?
Wednesday 2 September
From today's class:
- How does Homer modulate the way he handles repeating events, such
as deaths in battle or type-scenes like Be ready to analyze
specific examples and show how repetition and variation both help
characterize individual episodes.
- Trace the array of ways gods intervene in human action, especially
but not exclusively on the battlefield, and be able to identify and
explain good examples of each. To what extent do the gods truly change
things within human experience? When do they seem rather to be giving
Homer a way to make traits and tendencies of his human characters more
narratable? What does the gods' involvement imply about the world-view
of Homeric epic?
- Trace how Zeus's will articulates the "Unfinished Battle" of Book
8. How do his intentions play out structurally in Homer's narrative?
How does his will work within the "politics" of divine relationships:
what other wills, powers, prestige are at stake? Who overcomes, and
how?
For tonight's reading:
- Compare and contrast what Agamamenon tells the Greek leaders he
will offer, while they are deciding to send an "embassy" to Achilles,
with what Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax actually say when they go. How do
they each elaborate or modify Agamemnon's message? How do they build on
one another's speeches? How does Achilles respond?
- What does food matter in the world of the Iliad? What
besides food seems to be at stake when food is eaten? Start collecting
patterns surrounding food and eating as you read, and look for how
they build significance.
- Book 10 is thought by many scholars not to fit completely with the
rest of the Iliad, because it connects with the surrounding
narrative differently from other episodes of night-action and because
it treats the Greeks and Trojans with a somewhat different tone.
Nevertheless, it has an ancient tradition, and opportunistic raiding
was something the Iliad says its warriors did in off-hours from
besieging Troy: even if it was added to an "original" Homeric
narrative, it was composed with epic traditions in mind, and Homer
particularly. What opportunities do the night and this expedition
afford for this book to vary epic narration? How does the book extend
the combatants' repertoire of exploits?
Friday 4 September
From today's class:
- How does Homer use similes? How do they relate to his main
narrative? What other ideas do they activate for his audience, and how?
Identify specific passages that illustrate your observations, and
explain how they operate.
- In what ways does Agamemnon's offer to return Briseis, together
with additional compensation for having taken her away, answer the
concerns Achilles expressed when he withdrew from fighting? What does
Agamemnon fail to address? In what ways do Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax
follow leads set by Agamemnon's charge to them as ambassadors to
Achilles: how do they each develop themes Agamemnon introduced when he
set up the mission? How do Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax try to make up
for defects in Agamemnon's offer? What concerns remain unanswered?
Note how repetition and variation in their
speeches help build answers to these questions.
- Thetis has told Achilles he will either die young but gloriously
at Troy, or live long but without glory at home: assess this
conditional fate in light of
Thetis's lifespan,
in comparison with Achilles', on either hypothesis,
attitudes to
death and glory expressed elsewhere in the Iliad, and
Achilles'
grievance against Agamemnon. What does this conditional fate mean to
Achilles?
For tonight's reading:
- How does Agamemnon's fighting style, highlighted in Book 11,
contribute to characterizing him as an individual? How does his
personal style, in encounters with fellow Greek warriors, carry
over into his confrontations with enemies?
- Compare and contrast Nestor's various reminiscences with the
Greeks' current fortunes in battle in Book 11; what is Nestor doing to
Patroclus by telling him these things? What effect do Nestor's words
have on Patroclus?
- How do the Trojans advance and break into the Greek camp in Book
12? What forces operate in their success?
- Compare and contrast what Sarpedon remarks to Glaucus about wealth
and power, mortality, and glory, with attitudes expressed elsewhere in
the Iliad.
- Happy Labor Day!
Wednesday 9 September
From today's class:
- How does the prowess of individual heroes relate to the fortunes of
the group, as the third day of military action in the Iliad gets
under way? Compare and contrast to Fighting-Days 1 (Books 2-7) and 2 (Book
8): How does the overall atmosphere of the fighting change: what trends
do changes follow, and what events produce changes?
Identify good examples and be able to demonstrate
how they operate.
- How does Nestor's personal history construct his authority for the
other Greek warriors? How do the particular circumstances in which he
reminisces relate to the memory he revives? How do Nestor's memories
contribute to the experience of the audience for whom the Iliad
unfolds?
- How does Book 12's prospective narrative of the future destruction
of the Greek wall (after the whole Greek war against Troy will have
ended, well after the Iliad will have concluded its tale)
relate to the events the book goes on to relate? What does this leap
forward into time contribute to the sequential narrative?
For tonight's reading:
- How does Poseidon intervene in the action of the fighting? Compare
and contrast to other manifestations gods make to humans in the
Iliad. How does Poseidon alter the current of the fighting?
- How does Hera intervene with Zeus in Book 14? How does she prepare,
what does she do, and how does he respond? Compare and contrast to
other moments when the Iliad touches on their relationship.
Friday 11 September
From today's class:
- Trace what trends develop in the fighting on Battle-Day 3 of the
Iliad: look for overall patterns, and identify a few specific
instances that help illustrate your points. Be able to discuss them in
detail in order to show how they support your arguments. What does
Homer do at the human level of his narrative to suggest that the war
is approaching a crisis?
- How does Poseidon's intervention in Books 13 and 14 build on the
trends then developing within human participation in the Trojan War: in
what ways do his actions raise the stakes - at human and at divine
levels?
- How does Hera's intervention in the "Deception of Zeus" contribute
to the war?
- What does she make possible at the human level?
- What dangers do her actions create at the divine level? How are
these risks underscored in the narrative?
- Compare and contrast how Hera's seduction of Zeus plays with
the power of
sexual desire,
the bonds of
marriage, adultery, and sexual longing, and
the uses of
deception in sex and of sex in reconciliation. Compare and contrast how
these themes figure at the human level of the Trojan War, especially in
the relationship between Helen and Paris. How does Homer use gods to
highlight ideas he handles more circumspectly at the human level?
For tonight's reading:
- How does Zeus react when he wakes up after having sex with Hera,
and sees what has been happening on the battlefield? What does he
demand from the other gods, and how do they react? What is this
conflict coming to mean within the gods' world?
- How is Hector able to bring the fighting to the Greek ships? What
support does he receive? How does Homer use imagery to portray how
Hector uses his opportunity?
- Compare and contrast how Achilles and Patroclus react to the Greek
crisis: what interests do they each support? How far?
- How does Patroclus fare in the fighting? What support does he
receive? How does he use it?
- How does Zeus react to the death of Sarpedon? Why? What
considerations temper his gut reaction?
Monday 14 September
From today's class:
- How does Homer use interactions among gods to suggest ideas that
also apply to the interactions of human beings? Identify, and compare
and contrast, specific individual scenes where gods and humans have
comparable concerns. What do gods and humans have in common, in their
motivations and operations? How do gods and humans differ? Why?
- What is at stake in the gods' dissent over the Trojan War, beyond
individual partisanship for favorite mortals? How do the gods' wills
and prerogatives relate to overarching fate? How far can gods go to
enforce their wills - with what consequences? How do we know?
- What does the conversation between Patroclus and Achilles at the
beginning of Book 16 show about each of their concern for
the Greeks, for
one another,
and for
Achilles'
honor? How? Analyze what is implied by specific things they each say.
How does the poet emphasize the ultimate result of this conversation -
and how does knowledge of the ultimate result affect the way an
audience perceives the conversation? How do the conversation and the
relationship affect the way an audience perceives the subsequent events
as they develop towards the ultimate result?
For tonight's reading:
- What is the object of the fighting in Book 17? Compare and contrast
to similar scenes in earlier books: what more is at stake now? How do
the fighters relate to one another
(
as opponents;
as comrades)?
How does this fight relate to the overall plot of the Iliad, the
"rage of Achilles"?
- Why does Antilochus weep?
- How does Thetis react to Achilles' distress? What does his fate
mean for her?
- What is depicted on Achilles' new shield?
Wednesday 16 September
From today's class:
- How do the leaders -
of the
Greek army and
of
the Trojans and their allies - respond to Patroclus's death? What do their reactions
show about the significance of Patroclus's death?
- Trace the reasons why it is important what happens to the armor
Patroclus wears: what do the warriors on both sides, within the time of
the Iliad's narrative, think they are contending for as they try
to claim or to retain it? What larger significance does it bear - both
as it will contribute to further events, and as it connects to
important images or themes?
- Trace the reasons why it is important what happens to Patroclus's
body: what do the warriors on both sides, within the time of the
Iliad's narrative, think they are contending for trying to
claim or to retain it? What larger significance does it bear - both
as it will contribute to further events, and as it connects to
important images or themes?
- What does the death of Patroclus mean to Achilles? How much does
he recognize of its importance? How can you tell?
- What does the death of Patroclus mean to Thetis? What events does
it set her to anticipating, and how?
For tonight's reading:
- How do Achilles and Agamemnon resolve their quarrel? To what extent
do they each address the concerns that initially motivated them? To
what extent do they each remain concerned about the same things? Why
or why not?
- Why does food matter? Who wants it? Who doesn't? Why?
- How do Briseis and Achilles each mourn for Patroclus? What do they
each show about Patroclus? What do they each show about themselves?
- What is at stake when Achilles talks to his horses?
- Compare and contrast Aeneas and Achilles as they confront one
another. What do they have in common? How do their fates differ? Do
either similarities or differences affect the way they treat one
another, by comparison with the way they each treat other fighters?
Friday 18 September
From today's class:
- How do the personal relationships and the deaths of Hector,
Patroclus, and Achilles relate to one another? Consider both the links of
plot-driving cause and effect and looser associative links such as imagery
and partially-parallel situations. Be able to identify what makes one
scene resonate with another, and to explain how the connection enriches
the significance of both individual scenes.
- How do gods' emotions and relationships illuminate forces at work
in human situations? Think of specific examples, identify the links between
them, and explore the significance developed in individual scenes and across
the connections between them.
- How does fate operate in human and divine lives, according to the
Iliad? What principles operate? Identify key passages and
explain how they guide your insights. What does fate make gods do? How
do gods' wishes and impulses relate to fate? How does fate affect
human lives?
- How does normal human ignorance of fate (by comparison with gods)
affect the way Homer's audiences can appreciate what his mortal heroes
do? How does Homer emphasize this aspect of the human condition?
Compare and contrast (especially) Achilles and Patroclus.
For tonight's reading:
- What opponents does Achilles face in battle, before his final fight
with Hector? What does each encounter illustrate about his state of
mind?
- In what ways are gods (including the river Scamander) involved in
the climactic fighting of the Iliad? Compare and contrast the
gods' involvement in Books 21 and 22 to the actions gods take in
connection with human fighting in the earlier parts of the epic.
- Trace the stages of Achilles' final fight with Hector.
- What consequences will follow from Hector's death? How do Achilles,
Priam, Hecuba, and Andromache each react?
Monday 21 September
From today's class:
- In what ways does Achilles' grief over Patroclus modify the
conception of glory on which he operates? Compare and contrast how
Achilles identifies honor and glory before Book 16 (and in Book 16)
with what he says about them after he learns Patroclus has died. How
does Achilles' fighting, in Books 20-22, compare with what he says?
- In what ways does Achilles pass beyond the ordinary limits of
humanity, in the aftermath of Patroclus's death? How does the epic
mark Achilles' transgressions of human limits?
- What do the gods' fights in Book 22 do to advance the tale of
Achilles' heroism? What principles help settle conflicts among the
gods over the Trojan War?
For tonight's reading:
- With what ritual actions is Patroclus's funeral conducted?
- What competitions are held as funeral-games honoring Patroclus's
death? Who competes? How does Achilles relate to the competitions?
- How do the gods involve themselves in the final action of the
Iliad, now that Zeus has fulfilled his promise to Thetis?
- How does Priam get to speak with Achilles? How do Priam and
Achilles treat one another? What other relationships does their contact
make them, or us, think about?
- How do Andromache, Hecuba, and Helen each mourn for Hector? With
what other scenes and speeches should we connect their laments?
Looking ahead: Study Guide for Exam 1
Wednesday 23 September
From today's class:
- In what ways does Homer put the characters of Hector and Achilles
on parallel tracks, so that the experiences and relationships of each
of them not only motivate the other, as an opponent, but also deepen
the epic's portraits of them both?
- What does the Iliad mark as the most important
experiences and relationships in which Hector and Achilles complement
one another in this way? How does it mark them?
- What does the Iliad do with Hector's and Achilles' correspondences? How
do their individual characters generalize to human experience?
- How does Achilles bring closure to his bereavement from Patroclus?
- What concerns do Achilles' ritualized actions address? How do
they acknowledge his loss? What do they do to repair or mitigate it?
- What concerns do Achilles' social activities with the other Greek
warriors address? What do they do to repair or mitigate past damage in
his relations with them? How do they relate to his grief for Patroclus?
- What concerns does Achilles' response to Priam address? What losses
does he acknowledge? What does he do to repair or mitigate them, and
how does it help?
For tonight's reading:
Review your reading, your notes, your quizzes, your
presentation-papers, the Study Questions in this file, the
Study Guide for Exam 1, and in short all
material assigned to date, for Exam 1 on Friday.
- What are major concerns we have been focusing on? What are
important ideas in the Iliad? What passages
especially well illustrate important concepts, patterns of
understanding and interpretation, or kinds of expression? On the exam, refer to these key
passages in order to show evidence that supports your insights.
- What types of analysis have we brought to bear on our texts? You
can apply techniques of analysis we have used on one passage, to
another, and get still more out of it. On the exam, you should explain
clearly how the evidence you are citing helps to support your
insights.
- Study Questions in this e-file flag important issues within the
material we are studying. Typically they are fairly open-ended: they
encourage you to think through the implications of our material, and
explore the connections you find. Exam questions will suggest a tighter
focus, in the interests of being possible to answer within the confines
of an in-class exercise. Thinking about the issues
raised by class discussions and the study questions, and noting
passages of our texts that provide important evidence, will prepare you well
to write concrete, specific, persuasive essays on the exam.
- Assessment on the exam relates to your familiarity with the material
to the extent that you need to know what you're talking about in order
to say meaningful things about it. And you do have to make clear what
you're referring to, in order to get your argument across.
But the main emphasis of the assessment will be on the skills of critical
thinking in the realm of literary analysis and of effective
argumentation and verbal communication. Be sure to distinguish clearly
between what the text actually, literally, says, and what the text
means - then explain how reasoning takes you from one to the other.
Friday 25 September
From today's class:
- CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the first examination.
- Keep thinking about the exam questions: in an even-more-perfect
world, what more could you say about these topics?
For tonight's reading:
- How does the opening of the Odyssey situate itself in
mythological tradition? On whom does it focus attention first, so as
to orient the audience? What familiar figures are concerned? What
information is supplied?
- Who is Telemachus? How does he welcome his guest? How much control
does he have over his household? Why?
- Who is Penelope? How much control does she have over her household?
Who challenges her? Why? How does she respond?
- Over what matter does the assembly of Ithacans meet? Who takes
which sides in the controversy?
- What plan does Telemachus form? What prompting and what help does
he receive?
Monday 28 September
From today's class:
- Compare and contrast the opening of the Odyssey to the
opening of the Iliad.
- How does Homer portray his own role as a story-teller in the
two epics? What does he identify as the "source" of the stories he is
telling? What does his image suggest about the role of story-tellers?
Hold these points in mind, to compare and contrast
with other ideas about stories and story-telling that appear within
the Odyssey.
- How does Homer identify his subjects in the two epics? What
connections between them are suggested by the introductory hints? What
differences of setting and emphasis are suggested?
- How do the gods involve themselves in the Odyssey, at least
as the epic is beginning? Will this story involve their relationships
and power differently from the Iliad? Importantly, how can you tell?
- What possibilities does the story of Agamemnon and Orestes raise
for the Odyssey: why is this story so important that various
characters keep referring to it?
- Why can't Penelope just tell the suitors to go away? What
considerations constrain her behavior? How does she work within these
constraints?
For tonight's reading:
- How is Telemachus received at Nestor's court in Pylos? at
Menelaus's court in Sparta? What takes place in connection with Telemachus's
departure?
- What acts seem to form a routine of hospitable reception?
In what sequence do they proceed? How about send-off?
- What special account is taken of who Telemachus is, in
particular?
- What information about Odysseus do
Nestor,
Menelaus, and
Helen
each provide for Telemachus?
- How do the suitors respond to Telemachus's absence?
- How does Penelope respond to Telemachus's absence?
Wednesday 30 September
From today's class:
- What does Telemachus achieve by calling the people of Ithaca to
assembly, in accordance with Athene's first purpose for him?
- What does the assembly actually manage to do?
- What might the assembly have been expected to do, that it does not
manage to do? What hints does the text give about why this voice of
the community is not able to be more effective?
- Short of concrete action in the matter for which Telemachus summons
the assembly, what less tangible things are accomplished by the assembly's being
called and by what is said there? How do these things help serve
Athene's purposes for Telemachus?
- What does Telemachus achieve by traveling to Pylos and Sparta, and
interviewing Nestor and Menelaus and Helen? Think of both concrete and
immaterial-but-significant results. How do they help serve Athene's
purposes for Telemachus?
- What does Telemachus learn about Odysseus?
- What does Telemachus learn about Agamemnon, Aegisthus, and Orestes?
- What does Telemachus learn about the other Greeks who fought at
Troy?
For tonight's reading:
- What has Odysseus's relationship with Calypso entailed? What has
she done for him, what has she wanted to do, and what will she do now?
How does he respond to her?
- What superhuman forces are involved in Odysseus's getting away from
Calypso's island, Ogygia? What are they able to do? How does he
perceive them?
- Why does Nausicaa come to the washing-pools near the sea? Why does
she think she's coming there? How does what she finds there -unexpectedly-
relate to these considerations?
Friday 2 October
From today's class:
- What does the Odyssey do for itself by starting at Ithaca in
Odysseus's absence, rather than with Odysseus himself? What it do for
itself by starting Odysseus's own story on Ogygia? What considerations
does these points of departure, and the actions that ensue from them, raise
about Odysseus's traveling and return home? What ideas about human capacity does
Odysseus embody in the story?
- Compare and contrast Odysseus's existence on Calypso's island
Ogygia to Telemachus's existence on Ithaca in Odysseus's absence. What
freedom of action do they each have? What forces or considerations
constrain them? How do they each obtain greater freedom of movement?
What does it mean to them?
- What does Calypso offer Odysseus? What would it mean, compared to
the terms of human life? What does he choose, and why?
- How are the conditions of human life demonstrated in Odysseus's
journey from Ogygia to Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians? What
resources are made available to him? How does he use them: how deeply
does he draw on his own resources, what courses of action does he
prefer, and what does he ultimately need?
For tonight's reading:
- What sort of a place is the court of Alcinous, king of the
Phaeacians? How is Odysseus received there? What does Alcinous agree
to give Odysseus? What more is Alcinous willing to give Odysseus?
- In what sports do the Phaeacians compete? How does Odysseus become
involved in the competition?
- What songs does the bard Demodocus sing? In what ways do they
relate to Odysseus's experiences?
- What request does Nausicaa make of Odysseus? How does he respond?
- What prophecy does Alcinous recall about the Phaeacian's transport
services?
Have a great break!
Wednesday 7 October
Welcome back!
From today's class:
- How do Odysseus's experiences at the court of Alcinous serve to
delineate important conceptions about hospitality? Compare and contrast
to other episodes of hospitality (if you haven't already, start keeping
a log of this theme throughout the epic).
- Why do Nausicaa's virginity and marriageability matter -
to her,
to her parents,
to Odysseus, and
to Odysseus's
story as a whole? What opportunities and what principles is Nausicaa in
position to represent to Odysseus?
- In what ways does Arete occupy a special status? What aspects of
her position result specifically from being Alcinous's wife, and what
aspects result from other qualities or capacities in Arete herself?
What principles is she in position to represent to Odysseus?
- Identify the connections between Demodocus's songs and Odysseus's story,
and compare and contrast Demodocus and Odysseus as story-tellers. What do they,
jointly, suggest about the role of story-telling and memory
in the world
the Odyssey represents, and
in the Odyssey
as a work of story-telling representation?
For tonight's reading:
- Pattern-hunt: Make a
comprehensive list of the landfalls Odysseus makes while traveling
from Troy, and his adventures at each stop. What types of events
keep recurring in these incidents? What thematic concerns function
within them? Compare and contrast how individual incidents re-process
related themes.
- Who is Circe? How does she align herself with respect to
Odysseus and his purposes - both when he encounters her at first,
and as their relationship changes? What does he do, and what does
she do, with the result that they reconfigure their relationship?
- Why does Odysseus have to go to the Land of the Dead? Where is
it located? How does he get there? What does he find when he gets there?
- What encounters relate most closely to Odysseus's experiences at
Troy? What light do they cast on his character and achievements?
- What encounters relate most closely to Ithaca and Odysseus's return?
What expectations do they create?
- What encounters don't seem to relate especially closely to Odysseus's
experiences at all? What are they doing there?
- How does Odysseus deal with his men, over the course of his
Wanderings? Compare and contrast to the hints about relationships between
contingents and their leaders at Troy in the Iliad. How does
Homeric epic understand the issue of leadership?
Friday 9 October
From today's class:
- How does Odysseus frame his account of his journey from Troy to
Ogygia? To what concerns in his own mind does his preface draw
attention? To what additional themes that Homer is emphasizing (if not
necessarily Odysseus himself within the narrative) does Odysseus's
preamble relate?
- In what terms does Odysseus announce his own identity, formally,
to Alcinous's court? How does his declaration relate to his experiences
on Scheria? How does it relate to the identity Odysseus demonstrates in
first-person narrative of his Wanderings? How will it relate to his
return to Ithaca?
- How do the Mediterranean of Homer's and his audience's real-life
experience and understanding of the world relate to the sea about
which Odysseus experiences his Wanderings? What connections are made?
When Mediterranean blends into Otherworld, what sort of encounters
does Odysseus experience? How do they compare with his experiences on
Scheria? How do they compare with his real-world experiences at Troy
and on Ithaca?
For tonight's reading:
- Why does Odysseus have to go to the Land of the Dead? Where is it
located? How does he get there? What does he find when he gets there?
- What encounters relate most closely to Odysseus's experiences
at Troy? What light do they cast on his character and achievements?
- What encounters relate most closely to Ithaca and Odysseus's
return? What expectations do they create?
- What encounters don't seem to relate especially closely to
Odysseus's experiences at all? What are they doing there?
- Continue listing Odysseus's landfalls and adventures. What types of
events keep recurring in these incidents? How do different episodes
replay and vary similar elements? What themes emerge as important
focuses of Odysseus's story?
- How does Odysseus deal with his men, over the course of his
Wanderings? Compare and contrast to the hints about relationships
between contingents and their leaders at Troy in the Iliad. How
does Homeric epic understand the issue of leadership?