CLASSICS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Dactylic Hexameter, Homeric Question, Sea Monster
9 Mar 2018
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Background to the iliad: myths of the trojans; myths of the greeks. Heroic past: stories of gods and men. Helpful tricks for the bards: traditional stories, meter (dactylic hexameter, repeated words & phrases, epithets: adjectival phrases to describe a hero, an army, a place, e. g. swift-footed achilles; owl-eyed athena. Many epithets, used to develop tone, describe the character in that particular episode, depending on the needs of the scene. A lot of repetition, used to help the audience remember and provided a rest for the audience and the poet. Book di(cid:448)isio(cid:374)s, (cid:862)fi(cid:374)al (cid:858)editio(cid:374)s(cid:859)(cid:859): after 323 bce: hellenistic-era scholars in alexandria (egypt), compiled the stories into the versions we know today. Rumor in antiquity: a blind bard; blind=divinely inspired (cid:862)ho(cid:373)eri(cid:272) questio(cid:374)(cid:863), authorship of iliad and odyssey, unitarians: one master poet responsible for both, analysts: collaborative process or patchwork process. Homer believed to be the writer of the iliad and the odyssey. Some believe they were composed by many poets.
