Classical Mythology
Dr. Fredricksmeyer
Background on the Trojan War, Homer, and the Iliad
Iliad Books 1-4
horizon of expectations
I. Historical background
Heinrich Schliemann (late 19th century)/archaeological evidence (1250 BCE)—Troy; Mycenae,
Agamemnon
woman/raid
II. Mythological background
Trojan cycle-8 poems from the Cypria-Telegonia, that include the Iliad and the Odyssey
III. Composition
oral tradition
scale: over 15,000 lines
formulae: nouns + epithets; phrases; scenes
dactylic hexameter
Homeric Greek = verbal painting
aoidoi (singers)—interaction with audience
written down ca. 750-650 BCE
IV. Homer?
motif of blindness: Homer, Demodocus and others up to the modern era
“the Homeric question” starting with Friedrich A. Wolf in the 18th century
V. Audience and Venue
audiences at banquets and festivals, including athletic games, e.g. the Olympic games
VI. The Iliad
general
historical and cultural amalgamation
time span: ca. 40 days
starting point: in medias res + allusions to past and future
shame culture
Names
Achilles
Pain to the People [achos + laos (cf. G. die Leute)]
Human responsibility
“double motivation”—human and divine will inextricably combined
e.g. “the Gods help great men,” or “the Gods help bad men to destroy themselves”
strict liability
bicameral mind?
Overall structure (of the Iliad)
Withdrawal, Devastation and Return (WDR)—pervasive story pattern to this day:
1) Loss/Quarrel
2) Withdrawal
3) Disguise during absence or upon return (also deceitful stories)
4) Hospitality shown to wandering hero
5) Recognition
6) Disaster during or occasioned by hero’s absence
7) Reconciliation of hero and return of hero
Book 1
proem (1-9) and following
anger (menis) of Achilles—death of Greeks
will of Zeus
will of Apollo
Hera suggests assembly
Calchas
Agamemnon/Briseis/Achilles
threat to poetic tradition
Freudian interpretation
menis/eris theme
Apollo’s menis > menis of Achilles
Achilles withdrawal = continuation of the plague
structural parallel reinforcing the menis/eris theme
Agamemnon vs. Apollo—Greek deaths
Agamemnon vs. Achilles—Greek deaths
shame culture—honor
kleos
time
theme of compensation
Chryses/Agamemnon—negative example
Chryses/Odysseus—positive example
complex of compensations:
Artemis-Iphigenia for Troy/Apollo-Greeks for Chryses
Greeks and loot for Chryseis/Trojans and loot for Helen
cause of war reenacted
Agamemnon contrasts with Achilles
Greek lives and loot for Briseis
Patroclus for Achilles’ time
Achilles’ kleos for mortality
Freudian interpretation
hierarchy
slave/aristocrats/ruler (king)
aristocrats
metis vs. bie (including prowess as warrior and size of army)
Achilles (bie)
Book 2
assembly
channels of communication: Agamemnon vs. Achilles
foreshadowing
threat to poetic tradition
class distinctions—Thersites vs. aristocrats
situation primed for ruin
Book 3
threat to poetic tradition
duel between Paris and Menelaus
representative of entire conflict, yet second string
vs. Achilles vs. Hector as poetic climax
theft of Helen/Paris’ guilt reenacted
Paris/negative eros
Teichoskopia
Trojan/male attitude toward beauty
Helen’s inversion of normal type-scene
characterization of major Greek players—Odysseus’ words
sympathy with Troy/Trojan culpability
antipathy toward Greeks/justice of Greek cause
Book 4
divine tensions devolved onto humans
threat to poetic tradition
Hera’s viciousness—no theodicy!
metaphysical interpretation of history.
from truce to war
Athena’ role
Pandarus
reenactment
foreshadowing
double motivation>strict liability