HUM-8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Odysseus, Clytemnestra, Aeschylus
Document Summary
Today we will again focus on myths not about the trojan war or participants: the basic unit of epic is the tale of heroic saga-style. C. r. changed during move from dark to archaic to classical age because the dawha disappeared. For the dawa you buy cultural relevance by being attached to localities. Homer uses a local myth from caledon about a dawha and changes it for one of his own stories. How did homer use epic tradition: homeric touches -- his decisions re what to do with myth (change old myths for his own purposes) Penelope, as much as on odysseus himself; have ody tell stories to keep monsters etc. out of main narrative. Dawha - hunting & warfare to prove self (more indo-european: meleager instance where homer changed local tradition of calydon, i. e. dropped the log for sake of achilles, come from indo-european come from calydon. Meleager is invincible as long as a certain log is not burnt.
