Agenda and notes for April 6 (if you missed class)

April 6

Agenda

Quiz

(character names)

(where is Troy)

Announcements:

  -I agree, too much reading. However, students need to be clever. What might that mean in the case of one of the most widely read poems/stories in the history of Western civilization?

(a little research please)

-tonight we’re going to tear apart chapter 1. 

General Discussion of The Iliad

HERE’S WHERE IT FITS INTO THE WORLD - PAST AND PRESENT

a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccdneMYVVVo

Today:

Here is as good a summary - background and all - as you’ll find: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/iliad/IliadGuide00.html

-compare the role of warriors in the Iliad with today’s NBA stars (team sucks? change team).

-who was P?

-what is “the judgment of Paris? 

story background: Paris the golden apple (Athena, Hera, Aphrodite) 

Agamemnon is the Greek king (Thracian), but Achilles is superstar warrior. The destroyed a Trojan town, and each got a woman for the effort. Ag - Chryseis, Achl -Briseis

Play the "K-Dot" summary: http://tompkins.websitesdepotla.com/eng103/

BOOK 1

-Achilles rage (god-like - it doesn’t really peak until Patroc dies - note that he really goes for B. but his love is reserved for P chapt 18)

  -what’s happened to provoke it (find lines)

-That rage and the course it runs is the driving force throughout the book

-Compare earthbound desires with those of the Gods. Who plays by what rules? for example examine the battle between hector and achilles (zeus - urged by athena - played a trick on hector in chapt 22)

-how do the mortals look at the gods? do they appeal to the gods ethics, their sense of right and wrong? describe how mortals might have looked at fate?

-What motivates mortals? Honor

-Hector vs. Achilles: bk. 6, lines 390-502 (Hector, Andromache, and Astyanax scene)

Book 1 questions:

Chapter 1: The Petulance of Achilles

1.1. Where did the “treasures” come from that the Greeks are squabbling over? Explain. 

1.2. What is Agamemnon’s relation to the other Greek leaders? (If he is in charge, why do people disobey him sometimes) - examine honor as the glue between leaders, sometimes it works, sometimes not

1.3. What is the relationship between the seer Kalchas and (1) the Greek forces in general and (2) Agamemnon in this instance? Why is Kalchas worried about his oracle? Should he be? 

1.4. Why is Agamemnon unwilling to settle for Achilles’ proposal that he get a girl from the next town they take to replace Chryseis? 

1.5. To what extent are women viewed by Homeric men as “property”? Are they like other “property”? How did they probably view themselves, under the circumstances? Why? How could we find out? 

1.6. Why does Hera love Agamemnon and Achilles both? 

1.7. Why do Athena and Hera, who show little affection for each other, both support the Greeks? 

1.8. What seems to be the political order that the Greeks are trying to maintain? How successful are they? Explain. 

1.9. Why is Achilles participating in the war? What arguments would be likely to persuade him that he should continue or ought to withdraw? Why?