homer

Question 1

what is the homeric question and solutions

Answer 1

• confusion over the authorship of the odessy and the illyad and wether homer existed
  -homer is speculated to be; blind and from the east, a group of bards, a bard who was able to write down the epic poems in 8th bc when spcripts became a thing

Question 2

what is oral culture

Answer 2

pre 8th century bc all epic poems were tranferred orally
this meant all who told stories had a good memory and lots of culture focussed around dance and song as it made it easier to remember

Question 3

what is a bard

Answer 3

a public storyteller who would recount epic poems w the accomapniment of a lyre

Question 4

how did bard storytelling begin and progress

Answer 4

• stories of the trojan wars likley came from 12th cent wars that wouldve been told at the time
• these were passed orally bard to bard w little factual basis and a focus on nobility and honour as propagnda
• in the 8th cent bc stories started being written down based on oral ideas

Question 5

traits of epic poems

Answer 5

• written in hexamter; six units to a line
• focused on epic deeds
• long

Question 6

how epic poems were remembered

Answer 6

• 1/3 of the illyad is repeated lines
• most bards would improvise lines based off of the same plot
• most would use repeated sections as starting blocks and finish sentences freely
• sections such as prayers would be wholey repeated
• epithets were heavily reused; small adjectival phrases

Question 7

layout of the illyad

Answer 7

-15000k + lines
- split into 24 books/ modern day chapters
- focuses on a 50 day period at the end of the 10 year trojan war
- 22 days are used on the first and last book, only about 5 days are shared between the rest

Question 8

focus of the illyad

Answer 8

the anger of achilles

Question 9

book one of the illiad

Answer 9

-agamenon vs achilles
- agamemnon confiscates achilles’ slave girl brises a huge dishonour
- achilles withdraws himself and his people the myrmidons from fighting for greece
- his goddess mother asks zeus to favour trojans to show the importace of achilles

Question 10

book 2-7 of the illyad

Answer 10

• all focus on the first day of fighting post squabble
• book 5 shows us divine intervention in war and diomedes
• book 6 we go iside troy and meet all the cetral trojas as hecctor returns from battle; hecabae, adromade, helen, paris, priam
• at the end both sides truce and bury bodies together which shows clear honour

Question 11

books 8-10 of the illyad

Answer 11

• second day of fighting post quarrel
  –zeus forbids the gods from helping which puts troy as winning
• agamemnon realises his mistake
• he sends prizses, apologies and brises to achilles
• achilles ignores him, we see achilles value of anger and pride
• that night diomedes and odyseeseus attempt to spy on the trojan camp

Question 12

books 11-17 of the illyad

Answer 12

• third days fighting
• main greeks are wounded and trojans are breaching their camp and supply line
• zeus is seduced and falls asleep w hera, posideon takes over and tries to help the greeks
• achilles’ best friend patrochlus joins battle after begging achilles to wearing achilles’ armour in attempt to scare off the trojans, achilles also sends in the myrmidons to help. patrochulus becomes too confnident as he is succeeding and gets to the wall of troy where hector kills him.
  -trojans and greeks fight over the body and armour which is achilles, greeks get body and trojans get his armour

Question 13

books 18-21 of the illyad

Answer 13

• achilles is distraught and fuming over patrochuls, his anger for agamenon is tranferred to hector and he becomes set on revenge. his mother has hepistus make him new armour.
• the greeks make up and zeus allows the gods back into battle as a huge fight begins
• hector is warned by appollo to avoid achilles

Question 14

book 22 of the illyad

Answer 14

-achilles vs hector
- hector becomes scared as he is left outisde the walls and runs away from achilles, lapping three times.
- he is tricked by athena into thinking his brother is with him so turns to fight
- knowing his fate he begs achilles for a burial as yiu cannot enter the underworld without one and it is absic honour, but achilles refuses and mocks him
- achilles ties the ankles of his naked body to a chariot and drags him around the walls, ignoring all soceital norms due to his anger

Question 15

book 23-24 of the illyad

Answer 15

• achilles holds funeral games for patrochulus- HUGE contrast in how hes choosing to treat the dead
• achilles is a symbol for how disresepect and anger does not resolve grief, he drags hector round patroculuses mound eery day with no closure
• the gods are horrified and protect hectors body from harm
• thetis is sent to stop achilles and iris and hermes to prepare and transport priam to the greeks camp.
• at the camp priam kisses and begs achilles for his sons body, he agrees and the two weep together
• achilles reforms himself as a human through the union in grief over war
• the poem ends as they agree to an 11 day truce to lament the dead properly

Question 16

main traits of homeric heroes

Answer 16

• honour/ time
• glory/ kleos
• aidos from others

Question 17

what is time

Answer 17

honour of the hero which is gained by getting trophies and rewards sucha s their enemies armiur, treasures from cities and slaves

Question 18

what is aidos

Answer 18

• closely linked with time
• it is respect for those with good time
  -eg. brises was given to achilles by the army which is time but it was because of their aidos for him

Question 19

what is kleos

Answer 19

glory, it means to have a good reputation

Question 20

treatment of the dead in the illyad

Answer 20

• there are truce days to bury the dead, shows how important it is to show them respect
• people can gain time through taking the deads armour and aautioning off their bodies to the opposition
• it is high disrespect to mishandle a dead body which can lose you kleos and put you in bad favour with the gods and the people

Question 21

focus on the higher raked soldiers in the illyad

Answer 21

-absolutely no personal mention of common soldiers
- therefore the story is all about the lkeos ad time that ca be gained in war through the focus on the central warriors

Question 22

words for greeks

Answer 22

• achaeans
• argives
• danans

Question 23

aristeia

Answer 23

a focus on the courage ad success in a battle in the poem of one specific fighter

Question 24

focus on ancestry in book 5

Answer 24

• as diomedes is swiftly killig people multiple of his quick biographical kills pause to discuss the effect of death on their fathers
• this breaks down the speed and gives an insight into how the tragedy of war effects all
• it also humanises the dead as having loved ones which makes war even more upsetting
• diomedes and glaucus

Question 25

impact of focus on pandarus in book 5

Answer 25

• pandarus is a trained archer and trojan
• as he and aneas shoot and attemot to fight diomedes, there is a shift into pandarus discussing his biographical background
• this focus strengthens our connection with the character and heightens the tragedy of his death

Question 26

involvement of the gods in book 5

Answer 26

• athena, aphrodite and appollo all go to help diomedes and aeneas
• diamedes shocks by wounding aphrodite and later the war god ares
• the greeks would see the gods backing a hero as a staple of their place as a hero
• theres a zoom into olympus where we see gods with very inately human traits that makes them relateable, however the fact is they cant die so are different from human warriors
• hector advises the trojans to pray to athena so that she will harm them less, showing their awareness that gods can dictate the battles

Question 27

kleos in diomedes and glaucus

Answer 27

• when the two meet diomedes asks him o his ancestry which is in the itnerest of his own kleos, if a warrior defeats someone with a great ancestry then they can gain kelos

Question 28

xenia in the illyad

Answer 28

• a friedship and hospitality between two families unconditonally, giving of any needed help to one another
• glaucus is orgially from greece like diomedes and their families had xenia- they know due to honour they cannot fight one another
• this is a symbol of how complex warfare is as though theyre on opposing sides they do not wish to battle, indeed in battles there would often be friendships on oposing teams

Question 29

ways the poet creates pathos in books 5 and 6

Answer 29

• unlike many things, there is no favoured side in the illyad- meaning all loses in war are hurtful as we find ourself seeing humaity in all of the fighters
• he discusses often personal backgrounds such as with panarus and the lineage of diomedes victims
• we see it greatly in hector, who is both a warrior fighting for kleos and time in battle, but also we frequently see his detailed interactions with his family in troy.. he is also fighting to stop his people from death and slavery however we know through prolectpic imagery that troy is destined to fall, creating pathos. hector looks after his child and we know he is fated for death as does he but he still acts with love and kindness creating a paradox between warrior and father
• through the look into the center of troy we can see the effect on families and especially women as their children fight- andromache lists her lost family members and begs hector not to fight
• helen is pull of self loathing and genuine remorse

Question 30

hectors movements inside troy in book 6- very pathos

Answer 30

• he meets his mother hecabae and refuses her wine
• he meets his brother paris and urges him to go to war instead of lying with women as they weave, he speaks to helen who balmes herslef for the conflict
• he then meets adromache with his son at the agets of the city and she begs him not the fight whilst talking about all she ahs lost due to war.
• he takesoff his helmet and holds his son and then leaves his wife for the last time

Question 31

pathos in book 22

Answer 31

• hectors parents, sign of humanity, appeal for him not to fight achilles as they know they will lose their son
• hector becomes too scared to fight

Question 32

the gods and fate in the illyad/myths

Answer 32

• gods do not decide what is fated, three women called the fates do
• zeus is the overseer which means he ahs to make sure what is fated comes true
• zeus is saddned by the fated death of hector and considers stopping it but is talked out by athena- gods have to uphold fate regardless
• we see zeus weigh up their fates on his scales

Question 33

events in hectors death scene

Answer 33

• hector asks basic human honour in a pact to respedct eachtoehrs dead bodies, but achilles rage makes him refuse and compare them to a lion and a man who would not make a pact of respect
• they fight well but achilles cutes hectors throat, sparing the widpipe so he can speak
• hector begs for his body to be trated well and again achilles refuses
• achilles lalck of humanity continues, he pierces holds through hector and drags him through the walls of troy naked
• the people in troy grieve as if the city ahd burned down as they know they cannot win now

Question 34

events in the meeting of achilles and priam

Answer 34

• priam enters the tent and kisses achilles’ hands
• he knows achilles is fated to die and asks him to think the grief his own father will soon feel, the two men have suffered incredible loses the the thought of his father gives achilles sympathy for priam
• achilles is consnatly holding back his anger, he asks for him and priam not view hector at first incase it triggered an outburst
• however the two are unitde due to the human experience of grief
• priam gets the cleanred body
• the two eat and think of how eating is a sign of getting over grief and all must eat ti survive
• achilles anger is gone and he has come to terms with death