Epics-Homer

Question 1

What can you tell about the length of both Ody and Iliad 3?

Answer 1

• cyclic: they are a lot longer
• North Asian: Middle - Janggar
• Same size as Siri (india)

Question 2

Characteristics that the Iliad and Ody are the same 4?

Answer 2

• Length
• Choice - Achiles and Odyssey
• Medias Res also known as the ring composition
• Ending open

Question 3

The argument about the authorship 3

Answer 3

• M. Perry’s oral studies. Not one bard. But a product of a long tradition which employed a poetic language of formula and repeated story patterns which utilized a whole reporty of material which are lost
• Main narrative of Iliad not expressed - silence: different poets, could not surpass
• Sequal

Question 4

Cyclic Epics 4

Answer 4

• Not surviving: references and quotations
• 8 including iliad and Ody deal with the Trojan War
• Iron Age perspective on the Bronze Age: Linguistic and Boar Tusk helmet
• linear plot lines, basically chronological

Question 5

Cyclic Epics and the Homeric - arguments? 4

Answer 5

• Il and Odyssey deal with 1 to 2 tragedies unlike the cyclic who deal with multiple - cypria
• Epic cyclic are post homeric - attempts to bridge the gaps in the Trojan War
• iliad and Ody are meta-cyclic, they reach they’re full potential by alluding to the Cyclic material
• both stem from the same oral tradition

Question 6

Homeric Epic - what do they offer society 1

Answer 6

• familiarity of the main characters and stories, reinforced by the epics conservative language and style, offered stablity in a changing world, while the flexibilty of performances meant that the stories could be adapted to the imediate context

Question 7

what is the thematic power of the illiad and the Ody

Answer 7

• central concern is the mortal individal embeded in complext soical relations. Both about deciding what one’s life worth, and about connecting an understandingof one’s own life with the demands of communities

Question 8

what are the single incidents that the Iliad and Odyssey expand 2

Answer 8

• the quarral

- the return

Question 9

what sympathies does the author invite for the audience 4

Answer 9

• trojans: we see into the private side
• zeus’ pity for Trojans
• Suitors deserve to die but some pitied
• This is not an old technique

Question 10

what is distinctive about the time-frame for the Iliad and Odyssey? 3

Answer 10

• Looks at small period of time but brings in 10 years
• Only one part of the war
• Only the return of Odysseus

Question 11

Similarities in techniques used 4

Answer 11

• Medias Res
• Extensive similies - employed for thematic purpose as well as ornamentation
• Scenes of anguish and grief: presented as vivid but not extravagant. Violent scens don’t lapse into sadistic self-indulgence
• Gods in both serve to define more clearly the achievements and the limitations of men
• personalities through their speech rather than descriptions by the author

Question 12

Homer’s Techniques 5

Answer 12

• Events happening simultanously underlines the macro-structure of the poem: the story-lines suspended over and over
• Two plot lines: the return of father then son which are modeled on the parallel story-lines of the iliad (fighting and patroclus) book 11
• employ retardation and introduce sub-plots, delaying the anticpated climaxes
• Repetition - used for meaning
• Invites the audience to believe the characters are psychologically complex - Penelope to the suitors

Question 13

As a sequence/parallels 3

Answer 13

• in literature, if a passaae of any length occurs identical or similar form in 2 different works, then their is a an overwhelming likiehood that the other is imitating or alluding to the other
• Argument: caution needed but to completly dismiss that it is one person isn’t right
• Simple repitiio is not enough, there should also be some similarity in context, or in the thematic aspects of given episode, similarity of placing within the overall form of the epic

Question 14

What are the modern theories on when the Odyssey was 3

Answer 14

• traditional view: is the late millenium of the aegina world
• Finely: the world of the greek Dark Ages
• snograss: The worl of the Odyssey does not map neatly on any society

Question 15

Modern Theories on the both 4

Answer 15

• Jaynes: No free will - there aren’t any decisions in the Iliad.
• People conceptionalise the voice in your head as gods
• Odyssey more modern, going away from the heroic age, Odysseus is more individualistic therefore can make decisions: nerological change
• Finely: no one is purely rational in the iliad
  Talks about war culture, in which there is debate only about tactics not why