reek
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picsreek
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pics
Introduction
Here, we wade toward the deep water--one of the major foundation blocks of Western Civilization--Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey.
While the names, places, and story lines may be a huge bite to chew and swallow all at one time, they will make more sense as you begin to use them in your reading, thinking, and writing. Certainly, they appear again and again as allusions in literature.
Deep breath.
I have read that to not have read Homer is to be like a person who does not know that oceans exist. One can live one's entire life without that knowledge. But to be a person who does not know of the oceans is to be poorer by an entire world; to know of them is to have one's vision of the world transformed forever.
OBJECTIVES of the initial study of the EPIC:(Click on links for "lectures.")
1. Identify the purpose and characteristics of the folk epic and the literary epic.(This material is the basis of a big final exam question)
2. Identify the conventions of the epic--the traditional set pieces and parts.(This material is also the basis of a big final exam question).
3. Identify characteristics of the classical temper(This material is also the basis of a big final exam question).
4. Point out the significant principal places in Homer, as well as the principal characters.
5. Identify the Greek gods, their Roman names, their functions, and their attibutes.
5. Point out the gods in Homer, and their roles.
6. Outline the background to the story of THE ILIAD.
