Sunoikisis Greek 291/391: Homeric Poetry
Syllabus, Fall 2012
Faculty Consultant: Prof. Richard Martin (Stanford University)
Course Director: Dr. Ryan Fowler (CHS Sunoikisis Fellow)
This work by the Sunoikisis consortium is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license,
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.
Syllabus Authors:
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Prof. David Carlisle (Cornell College)
Prof. Scott Garner (Rhodes College)
Prof. Hal Haskell (Southwestern University)
Prof. Nigel Nicholson (Reed College)
Prof. Arum Park (Brigham Young University)
Prof. Danilo Piana (Johns Hopkins University)
Prof. Brett Rogers (University of Puget Sound)
Prof. Joe Romero (University of Mary Washington)
Prof. Holy Sypniewski (Millsaps College)
Prof. Heather Vincent (Eckerd College).
Included in this syllabus: a course overview, a bibliography, a schedule of
assignments, and discussion questions.
COURSE OVERVIEW
Greek Course Syllabus
Sunoikisis
Syllabus for Advanced Greek 295/395: Homeric Poetry
Fall, 2012
Description
This course, making extensive use of resources available via the internet focuses on
the earliest literary documents in the Greek language: the poems attributed to
Homer. Readings will come primarily from Homer's Iliad. In order to expose
students to a wide range of scholarly perspectives, a different faculty member will
lead the common session each week. These sessions will reflect current trends in
scholarship for this period. Students will also meet locally with their home campus
mentor to concentrate more closely on issues of language, translation and
interpretation of assigned readings. In weekly online discussion (written
assignments) students will have the opportunity to expand on and synthesize issues
that arise in the reading and common session, as well as engage with secondary
literature. Students will also complete instructor-run midterm and final
examinations. This course is specifically designed for advanced students and will
include a rigorous study of the cultural and historical context during the Homeric
period in the Mediterranean. Because this course addresses both literature and
context, students are expected to actively synthesize a wide variety of material.
Objectives
This course aims to achieve the following outcomes:
 Advanced students of Greek will learn to read the Homeric literary dialect.
 Students will become familiar with the style, conventions and themes of
Homeric Epic.
 Students will explore the history, culture and society of the Homeric World
as it is reflected in and forms a context for the literature of this period.
 Students will become familiar with current trends in scholarly interpretation
for Homeric Poetry, culture and society.
 Students will interact with faculty and students at other participating
institutions.
Course Requirements
Preparation:
Students should read all assigned primary texts for the week by the common
session. Students who choose to take this course at the 295 rather than 395 level
will be responsible for less reading in Greek but will be expected to complete all of
the reading in English.
Common Sessions:
Thursdays, 7:00-8:00 PM Eastern Time. Students at all participating institutions will
meet together online for a common session via Multipoint Interactive
Videoconferencing (MIV). These interactive sessions have a different faculty leader
each week and typically combine mini-lectures with discussion, questions, and
exercises.
Online Discussion:
Responses to the online discussion are due by midnight on the Monday before the
common session so that faculty and students will have the opportunity to review
students' responses before the lecture. Evaluation of the student's online discussion
will be based both on timely completion and substantive content.
Tutorials:
Each student will meet for at least one hour every week with a mentor at her or his
home institution. The times and locations of these meetings will be determined on
each campus. Students are responsible for contacting their faculty mentors and
finalizing the details of their weekly meetings. These sessions will focus more
closely on issues of language, translation and interpretation of assigned readings.
Home campus mentors will be the final authority for all grades.
Examinations:
The midterm and final exams for this course will be written and distributed by the
instructor in residence.
Evaluation:
Grades will be based on the following components, which differ for those at the 291
and 391 level:
For students in ICAGR 291, grades will be based on the following components:
Class preparation and work in tutorial: 40%
Participation in the on-line discussion (study questions): 30%
Midterm examination: 15%
Final examination: 15%
For students in ICAGR 391, grades will be based on the following components:
Class preparation and work in tutorial: 20%
Participation in the on-line discussion (study questions): 40%
Midterm examination: 20%
Final examination: 20%
Primary Readings
Homer, Iliad
(All students should read all of Homer's Iliad in English before the course starts,
according to the schedule set by your instructor.)
Suggested Texts
Selections from Homer's Iliad.Benner, ed. Red River Books, 2001.Available on
Amazon.com.
The Iliad of Homer.Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Intro. Richard Martin. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, Reprint edition, 2011. Available on Amazon.com.
The Chicago Homer: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/homer/
Also Available:
R.J. Cunliffe, A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect (London, Glasgow, and Bombay, 1924;
reprinted, Norman, 1963 etc.)
G. Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges (University of Oklahoma
Press, 1982)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts
1. Benner, Allen R. Selections from Homer's Iliad. University of Oklahoma Press,
2001.
2. Cunliffe, Richard J. A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect. University of Oklahoma
Press, 1963.
3. The Iliad of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. University of Chicago Press,
Reprint edition, 2011.
Secondary Readings
1. Bajgoric, Halil “The Wedding of Mustajbey’s Son Becirbey (Parry no. 6699).”
http://www.oraltradition.org/static/zbm/zbm.pdf
2. Edwards, Mark W. “Homer and Oral Tradition: The Type-Scene.” Oral
Tradition 7/2 (1992): 284-330.
3. Race, William H. Classical genres and English poetry. Croom Helm, 1988.
4. Reinfandt, Christoph. “A Survey of Narratological Terms.” http://www.unituebingen.de/angl/downloads/guidelines-analysing-texts/AnalysingLiterary-Texts-Survey_of_Narratological_Terms.pdf
5. West, Martin Litchfield. Greek Epic Fragments from the Seventh to the Fifth
Centuries BC. Vol. 497. Loeb Classical Library, 2003.
6. Felson, Nancy, and Laura Slatkin. "Gender and Homeric epic." The Cambridge
Companion to Homer (2004): 91-116.
SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS
Week 1 (8/24-8/30)
Reading (391): Iliad 3.1-83 [657 words; 80 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 3.1-57 [442 words; 56 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Since at least the 1930’s, the Homeric epics have been frequently compared and
contrasted with the oral traditional epic poems of the South Slavic region in terms of
their style, content, and possible performance arenas. After reading one of these
South Slavic poems, The Wedding of Mustajbey’s Son Bećirbey (and perhaps poking
around into the supplemental materials available here), please list at least three
similarities and differences that you note between this poem and the Iliad, and then
offer some speculative reasons as to why these similarities and differences might
exist and why they might be important.
Thursday
Common Session: "Oral poetics", Professor Scott Garner, Rhodes College
(Be sure to come 15 minutes early to make sure everything is working.)
Week 2 (8/31-9/6)
Reading (391): Iliad 3.84-180 [881 words; 96 lines]; English: read Edwards 1992
Reading (291): Iliad 3.58-124 [526 words; 66 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Now you have read Edwards 1992 and (re)readLattimore's translation of
the Iliad. For this week's assignment, we will look at one particular "type scene," the
prayer or cultic hymn, to see how these prayers work in isolation and in their Iliadic
contexts. For a little more depth, look at the list of topics compiled by Bill Race. We
shall start with a close examination of Chryses' prayer to Apollo (Iliad 1.37-42):
what are the recurring elements or motifs that make up the cultic hymn? How does
Homer adapt the conventions to the narrative context? Finally, find at least one
more prayer from your reading of the Iliad and analyze it in the same terms.
Thursday
Common Session: "Type scenes", Professor Joe Romero, University of Mary
Washington
Week 3 (9/7-9/13)
Reading (391): Iliad 3.181-301 [930 words; 120 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 3.125-198 [582 words; 74 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Narratology is essentially the attempt to arrive at a systematic explanation of how
stories work by taking them apart and studying the different pieces and the ways
these are fitted together. The following document is a very schematic outline of
some of these pieces and the terms some theorists of narrative have given to them. I
realize that much of this outline will be opaque, and I will do my best in our
Thursday session to clear it up. Nonetheless, I would like you to prepare for that
session by making what you can of this schematic, and then choosing ONE of the
following 3 questions to answer; in your answer, be sure to use at least one of the
technical terms surveyed in the schematic outline.
1. What is particularly interesting in terms of temporal arrangement about the
passage in your reading (3.184-7) that runs ἤδη καὶ
Φρυγίηνεἰσήλυθονἀμπελόεσσαν, | ἔνθα ἴδον πλείστουςΦρύγας ἀνέρας
αἰολοπώλους | λαοὺςὈτρῆος καὶ Μυγδόνοςἀντιθέοιο, | οἵ ῥα τότ᾽ ἐστρατόωντο
παρ᾽ ὄχθας Σαγγαρίοιο?
2. How does the following passage (3.243-4), in contrast with Helen's preceding
speech, help you characterize the discourse or "narrative situation" of the poem:
ὣςφάτο, τοὺς δ᾽ ἤδηκάτεχενφυσίζοος αἶα | ἐν Λακεδαίμονι αὖθιφίλῃἐν πατρίδι
γαίῃ?
3. How does the way Antenor tells his story (3.204-224) differ from the way the
storyteller of the Iliad tells his?
Finally, everyone should answer this question: What differences can you detect
between the way the events described in the Iliad are supposed to have actually
happened and the way they are described by the speaker of the poem, whether in
the passage assigned for today or elsewhere? What effect might these manipulations
of sequence, perspective, etc. have on our reaction to the poem?
Thursday
Common Session: "Narratology", Professor David Carlisle, Cornell College
Week 4 (9/14-9/20)
Reading (391): Iliad 3.302-423 [954 words; 121 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 3.199-283 [663 words; 84 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Heinrich Schliemann set out to demonstrate the "historicity" of the Homeric Trojan
War through his excavations at Hisarlık (1870-1890), the identification of which he
accepted as Troy. The question is: so what?
Leaving aside problems of certain specific details and poetic "exaggeration"
(cf. Thuc. 1.10.3), in responding to this prompt you might address issues such as:
what does one mean by "historicity?" by "historian?" Was Homer a historian? What
would we mean by a "historic Trojan War?" Is there anything in the Homeric
account upon which the results of excavations (aka material history) at Hisarlık,
Mycenae, Tiryns, etc. can shed light?
Thursday
Common Session: "The Archaeology of Homeric Troy", Professor Hal Haskell,
Southwestern University
Week 5 (9/21-9/27)
Reading (391): Iliad 3.424-462; 6.1-98 [1073 words; 136 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 3.283-382 [754 words; 99 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Describe what the general term "economy" means to you. How does the adjective
"Homeric" modify this meaning? Cite 2 specific passages from the Iliad that you
think illustrate the phrase "Homeric Economy," and elaborate on why those
passages are particularly germane to this term.
Thursday
Common Session: "Homeric Economy", Professor Arum Park, BYU
Week 6 (9/28-10/4)
Reading (391): Iliad 6.99-250 [1161 words; 151 lines]; English: Proclus' summaries
of the Cypria and the Aethiopis (West's Loeb Epic Fragments, p.67-81, 111-3, with
intro pp.12-15)
Reading (291): Iliad 3.383-461; Iliad 6.237-262 [431 words; 104 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Give three to five ways in which the Cypria and Aethiopis (based on Proclus'
summaries) seem to have differed from the Iliad, whether in plot shape, concerns,
characters, tone, motifs or individual plot features.
Thursday
Common Session: "The Genre of the Iliad", Professor Nigel Nicholson, Reed College
(The lecture handout can be found here.)
Week 7 (10/5-10/11)
Midterm (instructor-run)
Week 8 (10/12-10/18)
Reading (391): Iliad 6.251-413 [1278 words; 162 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 6.263-380 [858 words; 117 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment: Please take a look at one of the two manuscripts images below
(please stay on the page that comes up, which is basically the same part of
the Iliad in both). Choose a line (or lines) on that page of the poem (i.e., the center
text). First, try to write out the line in your own handwriting. Then translate what
you wrote out, correcting your own written transcription of the Greek as necessary.
Last, use your transcribed Greek and your translation to locate the correct book and
line number(s) in the poem. In your posted answer in the Forum, 1.type the book
and line number, 2. copy and paste the correct line from Perseus, 3. alongside your
*own* translation of the section you chose.
Images:
Venetus A
Venetus B
Thursday
Common Session:
"Paleography", Christopher Blackwell, Furman University [Postponed]
Week 9 (10/19-10/25)
Reading (391): Iliad 6.414-529; 16.1-47 [1291 words; 162 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 6.381-502 [907 words; 121 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
How might we describe 'masculinity' in the Iliad? How might we describe
'femininity'? What attributes and actions are associated with each gender in
the Iliad? Choose one character and explain the ways in which she/he conforms to,
and/or violates, such norms, and how this might help us understand other themes in
the Iliad. (Make sure you also consider how other factors might impact gender, such
as age, (im)mortality, etc.)
Thursday
Common Session: "Masculine Arms and Feminine Voices: Gender in the Iliad",
Professor Brett Rogers, University of Puget Sound
(Supplementary article is here.)
Week 10 (10/26-11/1)
Reading (391): Iliad 16.253-457 [1579 words; 204 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 16.112-167 and 198-292 [1139 words; 149 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
Catalogue all the speeches in Book 16 of the Iliad. Try to arrange the results
according to broader types, based on situation and purpose as well as any other
factors you find relevant (male/female, mortal/immortal speaker, length, narrator’s
speech introductions). Then, try to locate within a few of your individual “speech
genres” specific words or phrases, formulae, or linguistic markers (certain verb
moods and tenses, for example) that might help delimit the particular category.
Finally, pick one speech of those in Book 16 and analyze it line by line in terms of the
rhetorical strategies that it employs. (Those who are interested might browse in
Aristotle’s Rhetoric [Book 2 chapters 19-26] to see if any of the speech types or
strategies is recognized by later theory.)
Thursday
Common Session: "Rhetoric", Professor Richard Martin, Stanford University
Week 11 (11/2-11/8)
Reading (391): Iliad 16.458-659 [1579 words; 201 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 16.292-305, 419-507, and 663-725 [1295 words; 163 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
1. Review and reread in English: Iliad Bk 22.25-76 (re: Priam's speech to Hektor)
and 22.250-375 (re: the death of Hektor)
2. Read these pages with fragments of Tyrtaeus 10-12 (found here).
3. Respond to the following question (in approx. 300-400 words):
Note the level of visual detail and the use of similes in death scenes of Sarpedon and
Hektor. Note, too, how the poet evokes a variety physical senses and emotions.
Part 1: What are the most important aspects of these heroic deaths, and how/why
are such details important, necessary, or meaningful?
Part 2: When Tyrtaeus adopts the same themes, he focuses on some of the same
physical elements, but he offers a much broader array of motivations, or reasons
that heroes must die. How is Tyrtaeus' appreciation of the hero's mission and
eventual death different from Homer's?
Thursday
Common Session: "Beautiful Death", Professor Heather Vincent, Eckerd College
Week 12 (11/9-11/15)
Reading (391): Iliad 16.48-252 [1534 words; 204 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 6.503-529; 16.1-111 [1034 words; 136 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
(See Forum assignment #11.)
Thursday
Common Session: "Similes", Professor Holly Sypniewski, Millsaps College
Week 13 (11/16-11/24) Thanksgiving
Week 14 (11/26-11/29)
Reading (391): Iliad 16.660-867 [1609 words; 207 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 16.726-867; 24.472-506 [1365 words; 175 lines]
Due Monday
Written Assignment:
The assignment this week calls for responses to three questions that concern ritual.
For this assignment and the common session this coming Thursday, we will use the
following definition of ritual:
A ritual is a single behavior or set of behaviors with the following characteristics:
1. They take place on a recurring or seasonal basis, at a moment of transition,
or at a critical juncture in the life of an individual or group within a larger
social system.
2. They establish or affirm the place of an individual or group within a
community or system.
3. They transmit information fundamental to the community, for example about
its origins, evolution, and defining characteristics.
4. Not performing them or performing them in a nonconvential manner creates
anxiety within the community.
Respond to the following three questions:
1. Every fall, American society enters a period of ritual behavior. Assume the
role of an anthropologist and briefly describe rituals you or you and your
family perform at this time of year. The rituals you describe should conform
to the definition outlined above.
2. Identify and briefly discuss two rituals that appears in Iliad 23 or 24.
3. Funerary rituals are among the most important for any community. Iliad 23
and 24 depict rituals associated with the deaths of Patroclus and Hector.
Watch the film "Taking Chance" and compare the rituals associated with the
burial of Chance Phelps with those associated with the cremation of
Patroclus and Hector. (You will receive an iTunes certificate to obtain and
view the movie.)
Thursday
Common Session: "Ritual in omega", Professor Kenny Morrell, Rhodes College
Week 15 (11/30-12/6)
Reading (391): Iliad 24.468-676 [1734 words; 208 lines]
Reading (291): Iliad 24.507-691 [1415 words; 184 lines]
Thursday
Common Session: "'Homer,' Homer, "Homer"", Dr. Ryan Fowler, CHS