CLASSICS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Eurycleia, Dactylic Hexameter, Epic Poetry
6 Mar 2016
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Heroic past: stories of gods and men. Iliad and odyssey became the standard: they were probably illiterate. Composed on the spot: did not have a script or text, did not have large chunks of the poems memorized, susceptible to change. Helpful tricks for the bards: traditional stories, metre (dactylic hexameter, repeated words and phrases: Epithets: adjectival phrases to describe a hero, an army, a place. Rumor in antiquity: a blind bard; divinely inspired. Homeric question: authorship of illiad and odyssey, unitarians: one master poet responsible for both, analysts: collaborative process or patchwork process. Narrates a very short time frame within the trojan war. Story of illion (latin: illium), the city we call troy. Begins in the final year of the 10 year war between the two sides. Greek army: small kingdoms from all over greece. Zeus + mortal woman: -> dardanus. 50 sons and 50 daughters of priam (not all by hecuba: hector, paris (alexander)
