CLAS 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Cyclops, Odysseus, Aeneid
Week 8
● Reading vs. Listening
○ Greek literature is an ‘aural’ literature
■ Originally meant to be performed
● Oral Poetry
○ Homerric diction is repetitive
○ All these repetitions are central tools of oral composition
○ Homeric poems are composed through blocks of words rather than a single story
● The Iliad
○ Focus on the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the 10th year of war
○ Topic: wrath/rage of Achilles
○ Key points
■ Book 1: the quarrel of Agamemnon and Achilles; the gods on Olympus
● Agamemnon takes away Achilles’ prize Briseis → he refuses to
fight
● The Greeks suffer great losses
● Agamemnon
■ Book 9: embassy to Achilles’ reply
■ Book 16: death of Patroclus by Hector
■ Book 22: death of Hector by Achilles
■ Book 24: Achilles and Priam; funeral of Hector
○ Heroic Values
■ Time = honor → the most important value
■ Kleos = glory → the means through which the time is shown
■ Aidos = shame → the hero must avoid it at all costs
○ Shame vs Guilt culture
■ The greeks have a shame culture
● Avoid shame
● Highest good is honor
● Result culture
● One seeks success through glory and prize
● Competitive values
■ We have a guilt culture
● Avoid guilt
● Highest good is a quiet conscience
● Intention culture
● Notion of greater good
● Cooperative values
○ The Heroic Ideal
■ The hero’s standing in the eyes of the others is fundamental → gained
through his glorious deeds and by gifts and spoils.
■ A hero’s honor must be continuously confirmed in public.
■ To escape mortality, the hero strives to immortalize his name by pursuing
Document Summary
All these repetitions are central tools of oral composition. Homeric poems are composed through blocks of words rather than a single story. Focus on the quarrel between agamemnon and achilles in the 10th year of war. Book 1: the quarrel of agamemnon and achilles; the gods on olympus. Agamemnon takes away achilles" prize briseis he refuses to fight. Book 16: death of patroclus by hector. Book 22: death of hector by achilles. Book 24: achilles and priam; funeral of hector. Time = honor the most important value. Kleos = glory the means through which the time is shown. Aidos = shame the hero must avoid it at all costs. One seeks success through glory and prize. The hero"s standing in the eyes of the others is fundamental gained through his glorious deeds and by gifts and spoils. A hero"s honor must be continuously confirmed in public. To escape mortality, the hero strives to immortalize his name by pursuing immortal glory.
