Homer and the Illiad Flashcards
Who is Homer?
Little known about Homer (not alive during Trojan war)
When was Homer born?
according to tradition, he was born in Asia Minor in the 8th century BC and that he was a blind bart and poet.
Where was he born?
from Eastern coastal settlements, possibly Smyrna or the island of Chios.
What do ancient greeks ascribe the authorship of ____ to Homer?
The Iliad and the Odyssey
Where did the epic poems and Homer come from?
From eastern Greek settlements as language of poems was Ionian greek and the ancestors of Aeolians and Ionians who fled the turmoil of the collapsing Mycenaean kingdoms would of had rich stores of legends and traditions from the time.
The people driven out of homeland likely to cherish memories of bygone wealth, great king and heroic deeds.
When was the Iliad written?
sometime during the 7th or 8th century BC, most likely 700BC, there emerged from Aeolia and Ionia 2 epic poems, attributed to Homer (tell one unified story)
What is the Iliad?
based on story of Trojan War. It focused on brief episode including Achilles and his personal battle with wrath (revenge) and hubris (pride). The city of Troy, the 10 year war, Paris, Helen, Hector and Agamemmon form backdrop.
The greek gods play an active role and actually take sides in the war.
What is the Odyssey?
describes adventures and eventual homecoming of Odysseus, one of the Greek warriors-kings who had fought at Troy. There is little focus on Troy itself and again the gods play a large role.
What did poetry of Homer mainly reflect?
aristocratic society of kings, nobles, of heroic adventures and high ideals that sewed as models for belief and ideals of Greek civilisations.
What did the Homeric poems represent?
examples or collections of songs performed by singer/composer of 8th century BC in Greece
What are Guslars?
local singers/composer in modern Kosovo (ancient Greece) which helped understand the Homeric poems.
Why did the Guslars help understand the Homeric poems?
- they were non-literate. The homeric poems were passed down orally for centuries and Guslars shows how this is possible
- Guslars composed using poetic formulae reminiscent of the Homeric poems. Such as became familiar with set phrases like “swift-footed achilles”
- Used analogues formulaic expression (how they could sing and compose songs continually without writing + reading)
They memorised such formulas, sequences and events so they could compose lines and stay in song. Homeric poems composed likewise.
What mysteries remain about the making of the Iliad and Odyssey?
- if Greeks bards cant write, how did Homeric poems get written down?
- Did ‘Homer’ actually write it and do we have what he wrote?
- As in ancient Greece, performers known as aoidoi (similar to Guslars) died down, other singers, Rhapsodes performed the poems, although learnt from written scripts.
- so over 500 years, how much of the poem changed?
What did the scholars in the 3rd century BC do?
scholars at the famous library of Alexandria first divided the poems into 24 books we still use today to divide the poems.
Scholars faced different version of the poems, but we know little about the differences.
How reliable is the Iliad as a historical source?
as sources were poems made to instruct young Greeks social and ethical behaviour and the supernatural components of these works, most early historians felt that Trojan War and city itself were mythological and never existed.
