Iliad--Discussion I (For Tuesday, September 3)

Homer's works were in some ways the closest thing the Greeks had to a Bible. If one wanted authoritative teaching about the gods and about their dealings with mankind, one turned to Homer. Passages culled from the Iliad and the Odyssey served as "proof texts" for any point one might try to make. Likewise, Homer's writings were also the starting point for later "inspired" writers--the poets and playwrights of ancient Greece. But Homer's works are a very strange sort of Bible, and it's not always easy to say exactly what his religious views were.

Please read the Iliad study questions on the syllabus, and then as much of you can of Books I-VI. Cite here a line or incident that shows how the Iliad is like a Bible or how it makes a very strange "Bible."

This is the first time I've used the Lattimore translation.  I like it, but I'm finding it slower going than some translations.  I prefer quality on your part to quantity, so if you only get through Books I and II, that's ok.  The introduction is great, and you'll get from it a bit more about Schliemann, Evans, and Ventris. 

Brek-ek-ek-ek-coax-coax.

Welcome!

Welcome to Greek Keyline Blog 2019!

You have just crossed the river Styx and are ready to join Aeschylus and Euripides in a great line contest. Fortunately for you, you don't have to invent your own lines. Much of the time, you will just pick out a great line from whatever Greek writer we happen to be studying in History 440 this week and explain why this line is key to understanding the whole work or particularly worth remembering and applying to real life.

For today, I'd just like to make sure everyone in the class can post to the blog.  Please click on the "comment" button below.  Post here one of your favorite quotes--a line from one of your professors, a favorite novel or play, or (perhaps) from one of your fellow students.

Brek-ek-ek-ek, koax, koax....

Across the Styx and Back--Evaluation

Please click on the comments link below and add your evaluation of the reader's theater performances done in class.  I'd like to know how well this assignment helped you to see the strengths and weaknesses of the three Greek tragic playwrights, and how well the assignment helped you better understand great human/historical themes.   I especially want to know if the assignment helped you better understand "catharsis," the audience transformation that great tragedy is supposed to produce.

Among the question you might address:

1.  During your own outside-of-class preparation, what particularly discoveries did you make about the three great tragic playwrights?

2.   What about the in-class group preparation time?  What did you learn from your fellow-students about the playwrights, the plays and the themes of those plays?

3.  What about the actual presentations?  What did you think particularly effective in your group's presentation?  The other group's presentation?  What would you have had your group do differently if there were another performance coming up?

4.  If there were the equivalent of academy awards for today's assignment, who would you nominate for an award, and in what category?