December 6, 2011
Freshman Humanities
Mr. Cabat
Aim: “Sing, O Muse:”
Homer, the Trojan War and the Birth of
Western Literature
***SCHEDULE NOTES***
12/7 – Peer Drug Educators Presentation
12/8 & 12/9 – Individual Reading Workshops on The
Odyssey (Vocab quiz #3 on 12/8)
12/12 & 12/13 – Book Club Workshops on The
Odyssey (Medea essays due on 12/12)
12/14-12/15 – Prep for Odyssey Presentations
12/16-12/23 – Odyssey Presentations
Do Now: The Golden Apple
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If you had the choice, which of the
following would you choose, and
why:
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to be the wisest person in the world
to be the richest person in the world
to be married to the most beautiful or
handsome person in the world
First, a Brief Word on Homer
•We know next to nothing about
Homer, apart from the fact that he
was probably blind
•We can make an educated guess
that his two-part epic poem, The
Iliad (named for Ilium, the Greek
word for Troy) and The Odyssey
(named for its main character,
Odysseus), were written around 800
B.C. (about 300 years before
Medea, so we cheated a bit)
•Several other poems, odes and
hymns are attributed to him, but
nothing is certain
•There is little doubt that while the
story had been sung (literally) for
centuries before his time, Homer
was the first to write them down
Guess What? There Actually Was a Troy
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We know this because in the early 1870’s, a German
archaeologist named Schliemann discovered the ruins of the city.
We estimate that the war between Troy and the Greek kingdoms
(remember, there was no Greece then) probably happened
around 1200 B.C.
Right about now, the line between history and myth starts to get
a bit fuzzy…
“Is this the face that launched a thousand ships,
and burned the topless towers of Ilium?”
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It all begins with that golden apple…
Long story short: Paris, Prince of Troy, visits the Spartan king
Menelaus. With the help of the goddess Aphrodite, he kidnaps a
surprisingly willing Helen and takes her back to Troy.
Menelaus calls upon his fellow kings, including his brother
Agamemnon, the old and wise Nestor and the clever Odysseus to
form an army, sail to Troy and bring Helen back
Agamemnon is the leader of the army, but its greatest warrior is
the fabled Achilles, sun of Thetis and basically a demigod (like a
certain dude from Uruk we know and love)
Sounds simple enough, right? We’ll be home in a
couple of months, tops…
Well, Things Don’t Go All That Smoothly
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..in fact, the Iliad opens 9 years after Helen’s kidnapping, with
the Greek army still trying to conquer Troy.
They have struggled for all these years for three basic reasons:
 the constant in-fighting among the Greeks (at the start of the
book, Achilles is pouting in his tent, refusing to fight)
 the heroism of many of the Trojan warriors, particularly
Hector, brother of Paris and son of King Priam
 the fact that the gods are constantly taking sides and
interfering. Pay particular attention to Athena (big supporter
of Odysseus) and Poseidon (hater)
After much give and take, Achilles, angered by the death of his
friend Patrocles, fights Hector man to man and kills him, dragging
his body around the gates of Troy tied to the back of his chariot
The Iliad ends on a somber note as King Priam comes to Achilles’
tent to beg for the return of his son’s body. Achilles, moved by
the old man’s tears, agrees.
Wait, Wasn’t There Something About
a Big Wooden Horse?
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Yup. But we don’t actually get to see the end of the
Trojan War. In The Odyssey, we hear Menelaus tell
the story of Odysseus’ brilliant idea that wins the
war. Troy is burned, and there is only one survivor
(although there may be one more…)
The victory comes at a steep price for the clever
king, however. Poseidon, angered that his beloved
Troy was burned to the ground, punishes Odysseus
by making the voyage home (which should have
taken a couple of weeks) into a 10-year disaster.
The story of his voyage home is the main action of
The Odyssey.
Meanwhile, Back In Ithaca…
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While we will be focusing mostly on Odysseus’ voyage home,
there are two other important stories happening in the
background:
There is the story of Penelope, Odysseus’ faithful wife, who has
spent years fending off a group of suitors who keep telling her
that her husband has to be dead and that she should remarry
And the story of Telemachus, who was an infant when his father
left for Troy. Now a young man, he decides to stop sitting around
for Dad to come home. He sets off on his own adventurous
voyage, visiting the kings and soldiers who fought alongside his
father, piecing together the story of what might have happened
to Odysseus.
A Final Thought
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A professor of mine once said that
there are two kinds of people in the
world. “Iliad” people live for
adventure and are focused on the
external world. “Odyssey” people
are internally focused, centering
there energies on “returning home.”
Which are you?
Homework
If you haven’t done so already, please go to
mrcabat.com, click on the link and
download the copy of The Odyssey as an
e-Pub.
Vocab quiz on Thursday.
Medea essay due on Monday.