Coming out of Ilion, a wind drove us to the Kikones, to Ismaros. There I sacked the city and destroyed the men. We took the women and much wealth from that city and divided it up that no one might be cheated of an equal share. I urged that we flee on swift foot, but the others would not| be persuaded - the great fools! There we drank much wine, and we slaughtered many sheep beside the shore and cattle with shambling walk. In the meanwhile the Kikones went and called to other Kikones in the neighborhood, more numerous and braver ones. They lived inland, experienced in fighting the enemy from chariots and, where necessary, on foot. They came in the morning, as many as there are leaves and flowers in their season. And then an evil fate from Zeus fell upon us ill-fated men, that we might suffer many sorrows. Author? Title? Book number? Where is Ilion? Who is speaking? Why did Zeus specifically send an evil fate? (Hint: What code of conduct was breached?) About them a white foam grew from the immortal flesh, and in it a girl formed. First she approached holy Cythera; then from there she came to sea-girt Cyprus. And out stepped a modest and beautiful goddess, and the grass began to grow all round beneath her slender feet. Gods and men call her Aphrodite, because she was formed in foam, and Cytherea, because she approached Cythera, and Cyprus-born, because she was born in wave-washed Cyprus, and ‘genial’, because she appeared out of genitals. Eros and fair Desire attended her birth and accompanied her as she went to join the family of gods. And this has been her allotted province from the beginning among men and immortal gods: the whisperings of girls; smiles; deceptions; sweet pleasure, intimacy, and tenderness. Author? Title? Fill in the blank What is being described? Provide the context. This passage explains the cause/reason for something (i.e. the reason people call this deity by different names). What is the term for a story that explains the cause of something? (as opposed to the genealogy…) For the gods keep men’s food concealed: otherwise you would easily work even in a day enough to provide you for the whole year without working. Soon you would stow your rudder up in the smoke, and the business of oxen and toiling mules would disappear. But Zeus concealed it, angry because Prometheus’ crooked cunning had tricked him. On that account he devised grim cares for mankind; he concealed fire. Author? Title? Who is Prometheus and why did he anger Zeus? (Two possible answers) Explain why the author is talking about work. (Hint: what is the poem about?) Explain the term didactic. This wave is higher than the first: we’ll have a job to bale it out if once it comes aboard . . . Let’s quickly batten down and run to port. Let none be soft or slow to move: the trials ahead are plain to see. Remember last time! Every man be true, let us not shamefully disgrace our worthy fathers in their graves, who <...> this town <...> Let us not bow to one man’s rule, and let us not accept <...> Author? How does the first part of the poem fit with the last two lines? (Hint: it’s a metaphor. What is the metaphor?) There was nothing inherently wrong with monarchy in ancient Greece. What type of rule is the speaker of the poem striving against? The same lot comes to him who holds back as to him who fights eagerly. In like honor are the shirker and the brave. Death is the same reward for the man who does much and for him who does nothing. It is of no advantage to me that I have suffered pains in my heart, ever risking my life in these contendings. Like a bird who brings tidbits to her chicks, whatever she can find, but goes herself without, so have I spent many sleepless nights and bloody days passed fighting with men on account of their wives. Author? Title? Speaker? What is the literary term for “like…so…”? Explain its function here? (i.e. what is being compared?) What ideal is the speaker rejecting by saying “death is the same reward” whether one accomplishes much or little? (i.e. what is the reward for a good death?) But Achilles, now you should control your mighty spirit, not have a heart without pity. Even the gods can be persuaded, whose worth and honor and strength is greater. Men turn their anger aside by beseeching with incense and gentle prayers, and pouring out wine and the smell of sacrifice when one has crossed the line and made a mistake. Prayers are the daughters of great Zeus-lame, wrinkled, and with eyes askance. Prayers make it their concern to follow after Blindness. But Blindness is strong and fast-moving so that she outruns them all, and goes before Prayers over all the earth, bringing harm to mankind. But Prayers come afterward, trying to heal. Whoever respects the daughters of Zeus when they come near, Prayers will help him. They hear him when he asks for something. Author? Title? Explain how divine abstractions are used in this attempt at persuasion. The speaker is Phoenix. Whom is he persuading? To do what? (Multiple possible answers for last) Why are Prayers said to be slower than Blindness? (Hint: If Prayers were faster, what would happen to evil?) “…Not to avoid the hatred of Zeus would I spare you or your companions, if my spirit did not so urge me. But tell me, so that I may know - where did you anchor your well-made ship, far away, or nearby?” Thus??he??spoke??testing??me??but??he??did??not??fool my??great??cunning??I??answered??him??with??crafty??words?? 2021Poseidon??the??rocker??of??the??earth??shattered??my??ship throwing??it??against??the??cliffs??at??the??edge??of??your??land driving??it??onto??a??headland??For??a??wind??arose from??the??sea??but??I??along??with??my??men??escaped?? dread??destruction” So I spoke. He did not answer from his pitiless heart, but leaping up he seized two of my companions, raised them high, then dashed them to the ground as if they were puppies. Author? Title? Identify the speakers Why is the first speaker unconcerned about Zeus’s hatred? Why does the “cunning” second speaker say his ships are destroyed, and what is the consequence of telling this falsehood? (i.e. why would it lead to his companions being killed?) For formerly the tribes of men on earth lived remote from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sicknesses that are deadly to men. But the woman unstopped the jar and let it all out, and brought grim cares upon mankind. Author? Title? This story is told twice by the same author in two separate works. Are the versions exactly the same? There is a second guilty party in this version of the story. Who is it? Let’s drink! Why wait for the lamps? Only an inch of day. Get those bigger cups down, boy, the fancy ones. Wine puts cares out of mind, gift of a god to men, Zeus’ and Semele’s son. Water it two to one; pour them full to the brim, cup after cup, without any gap. Author? This poem describes the normal setting for lyric poetry’s performance. What is it called? What instrument was lyric poetry normally sung to? EC: Who is Zeus and Semele’s son? 'Cyclops, it turns out that you did not eat the companions of a man without strength in your hollow cave, taking them by might and by violence. Surely your evil deeds were bound to come back to you, wretch! You did not shrink from devouring strangers in your own house. For this Zeus and the other gods have punished you.' Author? Title? Who is the speaker? Who is the addressee? Why would Zeus in particular punish someone who eats strangers? The Greek words “philoxenos” (friendly to x) and “xenodaitos” (makes meals of x) are on opposite ends of the spectrum for this Greek custom. What is it? Muses from Pieria, who glorify by songs, come to me, tell of Zeus your father in your singing. Because of him mortal men are unmentioned and mentioned, spoken and unspoken according to great Zeus’ will. For easily he makes strong, and easily he oppresses the strong, easily he diminishes the conspicuous one and magnifies the inconspicuous, and easily he makes the crooked straight and withers the proud – Zeus who thunders on high, who dwells in the highest mansions. Hearken as thou seest and hearest, and make judgment straight with righteousness, Lord; while I should like to tell Perses words of truth. Author? Title? Who is Perses? This is another example of a poet calling on the Muses. What is this technique called. (Hint: “____ of the Muses”; another hint: not “inspiration”) Athena spoke to him, saying: "Zeus-nourished son of Laertes, resourceful Odysseus, reveal your scheme to your son now, and don't hold back. When you have planned how you will bring death and fate to the suitors, you can go up to the famous city. I myself will not be apart from you for long. I am eager for the fight!" She spoke, and then Athena touched him with her golden wand. First she put a well-washed cloak and a shirt around his chest, and she made him tall and youthful. Author? Title? Fill in the blanks (speaker and addressee). Give the context of the passage. King Agamemnon then answered: "Old man, it is not a false tale you have told of my blindness. I have been blind! I don't deny it. A man is worth many people if Zeus loves him in his heart, even as now he honors this man while he destroys the army of the Achaeans. "But since I have been blind, giving in to my vile persuasions, I would like to make amends and to give boundless penalty tokens. Let me enumerate to all of you the great things I'll give: seven unfired tripods, ten talents of gold, twenty shining cauldrons, twelve powerful horses…” Author? Title? Who is the speaker? With whom is he making amends? Is the offer of tripods, golden talents, cauldrons, horses, &c. accepted? One person’s curse from book 1 ends later in that book with a hecatomb for Apollo. Whose prayer that the Achaeans be destroyed is still being fulfilled by Zeus? 2021From??there??we??sailed??on??grieving??in??our??hearts??We??came to??the??land??of??the??arrogant??and??lawless??Cyclopes. Trusting in the deathless gods they neither plant with their hands nor do they plow, but all these things spring up for them unsown and unplowed - wheat and barley and vines that bear grapes for a fine wine. And the rain of Zeus makes them grow. They do not have assemblies where they discuss policy, nor do they establish rules, but they live on the peaks of high mountains in hollow caves, each man laying down the law to his own children and wives - nor do they care about one another. Author? Title? Fill in the blank. Who is the speaker? Later in the Book we find that these people do care about one another, since they leave their caves to inquire about someone’s injury. This is an example of the author giving a discontinuous/self-contradicting narrative. What is it called when this happens, and how might you explain it? Would that I were not then among the fifth men, but either dead earlier or born later! For now it is a race of iron; and they will never cease from toil and misery by day or night, in constant distress, and the gods will give them harsh troubles. Nevertheless, even they shall have good mixed with ill. Yet Zeus will destroy this race of men also, when at birth they turn out grey at the temples. Nor will father be like children nor children to father, nor guest to host or comrade to comrade, nor will a brother be friendly as in former times. Soon they will cease to respect their ageing parents, and will rail at them with harsh words, the ruffians, in ignorance of the gods’ punishment; nor are they likely to repay their ageing parents for their nurture. Fist-law men; one will sack another’s town, and there will be no thanks for the man who abides by his oath or for the righteous or worthy man, but instead they will honor the miscreant and the criminal Author? Title? The author says he lives in the race of iron. What were the preceding generations? This passage is about the generations of mortals, but its author wrote another work about the generations of gods. What is it called? Note what cardinal Greek virtues the author predicts will be broken at the end of the iron age: the “bloom of youth”, respect for lineage, hospitality/xenia, oaths, reward for merit – all things we have observed in other readings over the past few weeks. But we are like the leaves that flowery spring puts forth, quick spreading in the sun’s warm light: for a brief span of time we take our joy, in our youth’s bloom; the future, good or ill, is kept from us, while the twin dark Dooms stand by, one bringing to fulfilment harsh old age, the other – death. The ripeness of youth’s fruit is short, short as the sunlight on the earth Author? EC: This motif that begins this poem is probably borrowed from a Homeric character who says in Book 6, “such the race of leaves, thus also the race of men”. Who is the character, and what is his monologue about? Why has the son of Atreus gathered an army and brought them here? Was it not for the sake of fair-haired Helen? I suppose of all men the sons of Atreus alone love their wives? No, every good and sensible man loves and cherishes his wife, even as I loved that woman with all my heart, though she was a captive of my spear. As matters stand, Agamemnon has taken my prize out of my arms. Surely he has deceived me. He will not persuade me. Author? Work? Speaker? Who are the two “sons of Atreus?” What is the name of “that woman” omitted by the speaker? Fill in the blank. But you go gather together the older women. Take offerings to be burned to the temple of Athena who gathers the spoil. Select the robe that seems most precious and largest in the house, one that you value above the others, and place it on the knees of the goddess with the lovely hair. Promise that you will sacrifice in her temple twelve cattle, one-year old, that have never been goaded, if she will pity the city and the wives of the Trojans and the little children, in hope that she will hold off from sacred Ilion the son of Tydeus, that wild spearman, the powerful deviser of rout. So go to the temple of Athena who gathers the loot while I go to see Paris and call him out, if he is willing to listen to me. Author? Title? Speaker? Addressee? Athena is considered the god of handicraft. What does this have to do with the offering she receives? This is a modification of the usual prayer formula, “if ever I have…then” because it promises future offerings. What is the term for giving to, and then receiving from, the gods? (Multiple possible answers) This passage offers an example of “repeated elements”/ “extended formulae”, because the speaker is repeating this entire message verbatim. Why do these “formulae” exist in the works of the author, and what 20th century scholar argued these were the products of an illiterate society? arriving quickly – you, Blessed One, with a smile on your unaging face asking again what have I suffered and why am I calling again and in my wild heart what did I most wish to happen to me: Again who must I persuade back into the harness of your love, Sappho, who wrongs you? Author? This poet comes from the same island near Asia Minor as another lyric poet, Alcaeus. What is the island? Fill in the blank. The subject of “who must I persuade” is different from the “I” of the narrator. Who are the speakers of the poem? …They came to the huts and the swift ships of the Myrmidons. They found Achilles refreshing his spirit in the bright and beautiful sound of the lyre, wonderfully made. The bridge on it was silver, loot from the time when he burned the town of Eetion. With it now he refreshed his spirit as he sang of the famous deeds of men. Author? Title? Whom did they find in the hut? What is ironic about what he is doing? What is the Greek word here for “famous deeds”? Now countless evil men inhabit the house. Many are among the most powerful men in the islands of Doulichion, Same, and wooded Zakynthos - and as many as lord it over rocky Ithaca - just this many court my mother and they devour our store! And she won't refuse the hateful marriage, nor is she able to bring it to fulfillment. Meanwhile they eat up all my substance. Soon they will bring me to ruin! Author? Title? Who is speaking? Whom is the speaker describing? For me it would be better to go under the earth if I lose you. Never will there be comfort for me when you have met your fate, but only sorrow. I have no father and no revered mother. My father Achilles killed when he sacked the city of the Cilicians, high-gated Thebes. He killed Eetion, but he did not despoil him, for in his heart he respected him. He burned Eetion in his fancy armor, and he heaped up a tomb. The nymphs of the mountains planted elm trees all around it, the daughters of Zeus who carries the goatskin fetish. I had seven brothers in my halls who went into the house of Hades all in a single day. The good Achilles, the fast runner, killed them all as they tended their lumbering cattle and white-fleeced sheep. As for my mother, who was queen in wooded Plakos, they brought her here with the other possessions. Quickly Achilles took abundant ransom for her and let her go, but Artemis the archer shot her down in the house of her father. But Hector, you are my father and my revered mother and my brother. You are my strong husband. So come, have pity and stay here at the tower so that you do not make your son an orphan and your wife a widow. Author? Title? Speaker? Note how this passage uses the repeated elements/fomulae “father and revered mother” to achieve the literary device known as “ring composition”. Appreciate the pathos of this speech and move on. He is king in heaven: his is the thunder and the smoking bolt, since he defeated his father Kronos by strength. He has appointed their ordinances to the immortals, well in each detail, and assigned them their privileges. This is what the Muses sang, who dwell in Olympus, the nine daughters born of great Zeus, Clio and Euterpe and Thaleia and Melpomene, Terpsichore and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania, and Calliope, who is chief among them all; for she even attends august kings. Author? Title? The beginning of this poem looks forward to its end. Who ends up king in heaven? What deity in the Babylonian poems wields “the great flood weapon”, parallel to thunder and lightening? Whomsoever great Zeus’ daughters favour among the kings that Zeus fosters, and turn their eyes upon him at his birth, upon his tongue they shed sweet dew, and out of his mouth the words flow honeyed; and the peoples all look to him as he decides what is to prevail with his straight judgments. His word is sure, and expertly he makes a quick end of even a great dispute. This is why there are prudent kings: when the peoples are wronged in their dealings, they make amends for them with ease, persuading them with gentle words. When he goes among a gathering, they seek his favour with conciliatory reverence, as if he were a god, and he stands out among the crowd. Author? Title? Who are the daughters of Zeus that can make one’s words “flow honeyed”? Although this poem deals primarily with the birth of gods, this section shows the poem’s relevance for humans. What is the term for a poem/text that means to instruct, especially about morals? Tethys bore to Oceanus the swirling Rivers. And she bore the holy family of Nymphs, who nurture men on earth with the lord Apollo and the Rivers, having this function allotted by Zeus. And there are three thousand graceful-ankled Oceanids; widely scattered they haunt the earth and the depths of the waters everywhere alike, shining goddess-children. And there are as many again of the Rivers that flow with splashing sound, sons of Oceanus that lady Tethys bore. It is hard for a mortal man to tell the names of them all, but each of those peoples knows them that live near them. And after that, with his anger ever in mind, he would not give to the ash-trees the power of untiring fire for mortal men who live on earth. But the noble son of Iapetos outwitted him by stealing the far-beaconing flare of untirino-fire in the tube of a fennel. And it stung high-thundering Zeus deep to the spirit, and angered him in his heart, when he saw the far-beaconing flare of fire among mankind. At once he made an affliction for mankind to set against the fire. … Thus there is no way of deceiving or evading the mind of Zeus, since not even Iapetos’ son, sly Prometheus, escaped the weight of his wrath, and for all His cleverness a strong fetter holds him in check. Author? Title? Fill in the blank (Who is the son of Iapetus?) What was his punishment that involved fetters? (Hint: different from the one humans received) while that one part issues forth from the cliff, a great bane to the gods. Whosoever of the immortals that possess the peak of snowy Olympus swears false upon making a libation of that water, he lies without breathing for a full year, and never lays hands on ambrosia and nectar by way of food, but lies breathless and voiceless on his bed, wrapped in a malignant coma. When he completes his long year of malady, another more trying ordeal succeeds the first. For nine years he is cut off from the gods who are for ever, and does not join them once in council or feast for nine whole years; but in the tenth he rejoins the company of the immortals who dwell in Olympus. Such is the oath the gods have made of Styx’s perennial water-elemental water, that flows through a rugged region. Author? Title? Fill in the blank. What waters did the gods swear by? (Later, it was considered a river separating Hades from Earth) What is the moral of this passage for the poet’s audience? Now when Zeus had driven the Titans out of heaven the huge Earth bore as her youngest child Typhoeus being united in intimacy with Tartarus by golden Aphrodite. His arms are employed in feats of strength, and the legs of the powerful god are tireless. Out of his shoulders came a hundred fearsome snake-heads with black tongues flickering, and the eyes in his strange heads flashed fire under the brows; and there were voices in all his fearsome heads, giving out every kind of indescribable sound. Author? Title? At what point on the “narrative arc” does Zeus defeat Typhoeus? Why is it significant that Zeus must face the obstacle of Earth’s/Gaia’s offspring? What does Gaia normally do in this text of divine succession? You too, my lords, attend to this justice-doing of yours. For close at hand among men there are immortals taking note of all those who afflict each other with crooked judgments, heedless of the gods’ punishment. Thrice countless are they on the rich-pastured earth, Zeus’ immortal watchers of mortal men, who watch over judgments and wickedness, clothed in darkness, travelling about the land on every road. And there is that maiden Right, daughter of Zeus, esteemed and respected by the gods in Olympus; and whenever someone does her down with crooked abuse, at once she sits by Zeus her father, Kronos’ son, and reports the men’s unrighteous mind, so that the people may pay for the crimes of their lords who balefully divert justice from its course by pronouncing it crooked. Beware of this, lords, and keep your pronouncements straight, you bribeswallowers, and forget your crooked judgments altogether. Author? Title? Describing “Right” as the daughter of Zeus is an example of me. What is my role in this poem? A man has no escape from his appointed death, not though his blood be of immortal stock. Men sometimes flee the carnage and the clattering of spears, and meet their destiny at home, but such as these the people do not love or miss: the hero’s fate is mourned by high and low. Everyone feels the loss of the stout-hearted man who dies; alive, he ranks with demigods, for in the people’s eyes he is a tower of strength, his single efforts worth a company’s. (C) Author that begins with a C? The poem says that people who flee are not loved, while everyone misses the man who dies in battle. What is the term for posthumous honors that are recorded in song, and often have to do with military success? He’ll not be welcome anywhere he goes, bowing to need and horrid poverty, his line disgraced, his handsome face belied; every humiliation dogs his steps. This is the truth: the vagrant is ignored and slighted, and his children after him. So let us fight with spirit for our land, die for our sons, and spare our lives no more. You young men, keep together, hold the line, do not start panic or disgraceful rout. (T) Author that begins with T? From what especially martial city-state did he come? This poem warns that cowards will face humiliation and disgrace. Of what Greek ideal is he reminding his audience? (Hint: consider disgrace the loss of one’s reputation) The loss of reputation will spread to his children after him. What other Greek virtues span generations? (Multiple answers) The aides did not notice great Priam as he came in. Standing nearby, he took Achilles' knees in his hands, and Priam kissed the terrible man-killing hands that had taken so many of his sons. As when a painful madness takes hold of a man and he kills someone in his homeland, then comes to another people, to the house of a rich man, and wonder takes hold of those who see him, even so Achilles was amazed when he saw godlike Priam. And the others were amazed too and glanced at one another. Author? Title? Book?? What is the literary device that makes a comparison with “as when…even so…”? What is strange/surprising about this example? Why is Priam in the tent of Achilles? What is the gesture called of taking someone’s knees to ask for something? No citizen, Perikles, nor the city, blames us for groaning in pain, no one will celebrate feasts: our lungs are swollen with sorrow for those whom the waves of the thundering sea washed away. But my friend, the gods created a remedy for incurable ills--powerful endurance. Pain strikes one, then another. Now it turns to us and we groan over a bloody wound; next it’ll turn to someone else. So quickly drive back womanly grief, and endure. Author? How does the typical addressee of a lyric poet differ from that of an epic poem? "For so have the gods spun the thread for wretched mortals - to live in pain, while they are without care. Two jars of gifts that he gives are set into the floor of Zeus, one of evils, the other of good things. To whomever Zeus who delights in the thunder gives a mixed portion, that man receives now evil, now good. But to the man to whom he gives only pain, he has made him to be roughly treated, and ravening hunger drives him over the shining earth. He walks dishonored by gods and by men.” Author? Title? Who is the speaker? Earlier, he had explained that, just like the jar of good things and the jar of bad things, his own fate is twofold. Note the similar view towards life’s blessings/evils with the previous passage: to the Greeks, one’s fortune was always changing. Loud-thundering Zeus controls the outcome, lad, in everything, and makes it how he wants. Men have no foresight, but from day to day they live like cattle, knowing not at all how God will bring each matter to its end; yet everybody feeds on hope and trust throughout his vain endeavors. Some await tomorrow, some the turning of the seasons; there’s no man does not think he’ll reach next year the Wealth-god’s darling, and society’s. Ea went, he searched for Tiamat' s strategy, But then stayed silent and turned back. He entered into the presence of the ruler Anshar, In supplication he addressed him. "My father, Tiamat's actions were too much for me. I searched for her course, but my, spell was not equal to her. Her strength is mighty, she is completely terrifying. Her crowd is too powerful, nobody could defy her. Her noise never lessens, it was too loud for me. I feared her shout, and I turned back. But father, you must not relax, you must send someone else to her. Work? Culture that produced it? To whom does Tiamat correspond in the Greek theogony? Make sure you review the Babylonian divine family tree, relative to the one provided in Theogony.
