UGFH 1000 In Dialogue with HumanityLecture 1

Homer & the epic poem The Odyssey

Damian ChengJanuary 2014

text

contextconnection between parts

The Odyssey

1memory in ancient Greek oral culture &

its manifestations in the Odyssey

2 Homer and his Greece

3The Odyssey: plot, structure

and characteristics

1memory in

ancient Greek oral culture

[Odysseus to his mother Anticleia]Mother, why do you slip away when I tryTo embrace you?

11:211

[Anticleia to Odysseus]This is the way with mortals.When we die, the sinews no longer holdFlesh and bones together. The fire destroys theseAs soon as the spirit leaves the white bones,And the ghost flutters off and is gone like a dream.Hurry now to the light, and remember these things,So that later you may tell them all to your wife.

11:220

Speak, Memory –Of the cunning hero,

The wanderer blown off course time and againAfter he plundered Troy’s sacred heights

1:1-3

Speak, Immortal One,And tell the tale once more in our time.

1:11-12

Now:literacy 讀寫能力 -ability to read, write & think with printed materials

+ digital literacy

“the art of memory”

Homer’s Greece:orality 口述唱作能力-ability to remember with sound and express ideas verbally

oral poetry:“oral” in composition, communication & performance, transmission

Lyre player470 B.C.E.Louvre

“singer of tales”(bards)

quick question:

What is the name of the bard in Book 1, whose singing drives Penelope to tears?

Phemiushint: line 165

They were sitting hushed in silence, listeningTo the great harper as he sang the tale Of the hard journeys home that Pallas Athena Ordained for the Greeks on their way back from Troy.

Odyssey 1: 342-5

Odysseus weeps at the singing of DemodocosJohn Flaxman, 1805, Tate Gallery

“singer of tales” 

in the Odyssey

[Odysseus]Herald, take this cut of meat to DemodocusFor him to eat. And I will greet himDespite my grief. Bards are reveredBy all men upon earth, for the MuseLoves them well and has taught them the songways.

Odyssey 8:514-8

[Alcinous]Summon the godlike singer of tales [...]

Odyssey 8:45

poetry within poetrystories within stories

woven together

remembering and reciting over 12,000 lines of poetry 

???

American scholar of epic poetry; went to Yugoslavia to study folk poems;

identified Homeric formula

“The poet who has no writing materials to aid him can make his poetry only out of fixed phrases, verses, and passages which have come down to him from the past, and which are gradual work of generations of countless poets.”

Milman Parry, 1934 (in Adam Parry, 1971: 392)

The Odyssey a composition of Dactylic Hexameter 六音步詩行

Dactylic Hexameter is aform of meter: 6 feet

Dactyl = －uuSpondee = －－First 4 feet can either be dactyl or spondee

The fifth foot is frequently a dactyl, the sixth is always a spondee

regular units ofsyllables stitched together by a performer whoperforms in composition

Reading The Odyssey in Greek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sziqXDExY_ghttp://prosoidia.com/odyssey-i-1-21/

The oral epic

is not linear;

is sung as the singer remembers the wayothers did:“Song is the remembrance of songs sung.” (B. Peabody, 1975: 216);

starts in the middle of stories or action;

the poet uses episodic structure (eg. flashbacks) to handle lengthy narrative(Walter J. Ong, 1982:144)

oral cultures are based on mnemonic thought and expressions(Ong, 1982:36)

Examples of stylistic features as memory devices

1   Homeric epithets• Athena glared at him with her

owl-grey eyes. (1:49)• And Athena, the owl-eyed

goddess, replied. (1:87)• Athena’s seagrey eyes glinted

as she said. (1:192) • The Grey-eyed One (1:336)• Athena, her eyes grey as

saltwater (1:331)• Pallas Athena (1:134)

Athenacopy from 1st BCE of

4th BCE Greek versionLouvre

Telemachus 

taking in a deep breath his words had wings 

clear‐headed cool‐headed

Telemachus and Penelope, Attic red figure skyphos

450 BCE,Museo Civico, Chiusi

Penelope

Wise daughter of Icarius

Penelope brooding over the loomMax Klinger, 1895

the “godlike survivor”

Odysseus

cunning No man could match Odysseus for cunning. Your father was the master 

of all strategies... [Nestor to Telemachus]Odysseus, the master tactician 

godlike 

his mind teeming 

Odysseus blinding the Cyclops520 BC

British Museum

2   Narrative style

Repeated and modified Formulas(phrases, lines, groups 

of lines)Who are you and where are you from?  Dawn’s pale rose fingersDawn spread her roselight over the sky

quick question:

what is Homer’s epithet for Telemachus?

clear-headedcool-headed

2Homer and his Greece

Homer (725 B.C.E.)

one author?many authors?male?female?literate?not literate?

a tradition?many traditions?

regarded as “recorder” of Heroic Age (ca. 1200‐800 BCE)

Louis Saint-Gaudens (1854-1913), Library of Congress, USA

“Greeks were not Greek” E. H. Gombrich, A Little History of the World

‐not unified‐tribes of seafarers, even raiders

‐Greece not a kingdom, but a small cluster of small fortified cities with their own kings and 

palaces from various tribes. ‐Polis Homer calls the 

Greeks Achaeans

Homer’s Ithaca Homer’s

birthplace [?]

Minoan civilization 米諾斯文明

2700‐1450 BCE 

island of Crete 克里特島

The Greeks’ ancestors

Mycenaean civilization 邁錫尼文明

1600‐1100 BCEThe Minoan palace siteswere occupied by theMyceneans around 1420 BC

Trojan War 1194–1184 BC

first excavated by British archaeologist 

Arthur Evans (1851‐1941) in 1899 on the island of Crete 

dolphin fresco, Queen’s Quarters in Palace of Minos 1450 BCE.

bull leaping fresco, Palace of Minos

1500 BCE.

Heinrich Schliemann (1822‐1890)

German archeological excavator

helped to found the field of archaeology

Minoan civilization 米諾斯文明 and Mycenaen civilization 邁錫尼文明: Bronze Age of Greece(3300 ‐1200 BCE)

inherited system of writing “Linear B” from Minoans (early form of Greek)

Funerary mask ofAgamemnon[King of Mycenae]1500- B.C. National Archeological MuseumAthens, Greece

Tomb of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, in Mycenae

Lion Gate, Citadel at Mycenae1500‐1300 BCE

Linear B: Greece’s third script

Discovery included site of Troy by following topographical details given in Illiad

showed evidence of destruction, burning, hasty abandonment

Troy 特洛伊城main centre of Bronze Age trade 

provoked frequent attacks 

built and founded many times

10 Troys in all; Homer’s the 7th, inhabited by three tribes ‐Trojans, Ilians, and Dardanians Troy: the historical

context for the Odysseyalso the main subject of Illiad

Excavation site of Troy

Portion of the legendary walls of Troy (VII), identified as the

site of the Trojan War (1200 BCE)

Greek Dark Ages (?) 

(1100‐800 BCE)

so‐called “Dorian invasion” from the North

decline of material conditions

destruction of Pylos (ca. 1200) & Mycenae (1125)

Migration of people (Islands of the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor)

system of writing fell out of use

but this was when Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey began being transmitted...

Writing Down of Poetry

At the end of Dark Age and Beginning of Archaic period (750 BC–480 BC) :

Growth in population

A wave of colonization: Black Sea, Sicily, southern Italy, southern France

More contacts among Greek communitiesGreeks learnt a new system of writing( Roman Alphabet)Writing down of poetry  (such as Iliad and Odyssey)

mixing History 

with Myths and Legends...

the golden apple of discord (不和的蘋果),the legendary Trojan War (特洛伊戰爭), 

Helen, andThe Odyssey…

Thetis ‐ beautiful sea nymph (fated to have powerful son who can overthrow Zeus ‐ Achilles)

wedding of Peleus and Thetis

Peleus ‐ a mortal, a hero

Wedding of Peleus and ThetisA. Bloemaert

(1564-1651)

Hera (the queen and wife of Zeus)

organizes spectacular wedding...everyone was invited EXCEPT...

Hera500 - 475 BCMuseum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Winged Eris [Goddess of Discord]Athenian black-figure kylix6th B.C. ,Antikensammlung, Berlin

Eris(goddess of chaos, strife and discord)

Eris throws the Apple of Discord that inscribed “to the fairest(καλλίστῃ)”

Hera (Marriage, Season)Athena (War, Strategy, Wisdom)Aphrodite (Love, Beauty)

The Judgement of ParisPeter Paul Rubens

1636National Gallery, London

Zeus assigns Paristhe shepherd to decide whether Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite is the fairest

Judgement of Paris•Athena: “如果選了我這個戰爭與智慧之神，你就能在戰場上所向披靡，擁有令人欽羨不已的智慧。”

•Hera: “如果你選的是我，你就會擁有一個龐大的王國，整個亞細亞臣服在你腳下。別忘了我是宙斯的妻子，世界的主權就在我的床上。”

•Aphrodite: “如果你覺得我是最美的，那麼你就會成為完美的情人，能誘惑所有人，沒有一個美女能逃過你的手掌心，特別是絕世美女海倫!這位名滿天下的絕代佳人一見到你，就無法抵抗你的魅力。你會成為海倫的情人，她的丈夫。

Helen of TroyDante Gabriel Rossetti1863Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Helen, wife of Menelaus (King of Sparta),Agamemnon’s brother

eventually went to 

Troy, hence arose the Trojan War

Jacques Louis DavidParis and Helen

1788Louvre

the legendary Trojan Horse in the Trojan War 

The Golden Apple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h88glU1WgBs

3The Odyssey: plot, structure and

characteristics

Plot summaryBook 1‐4 Telemachus ventures out to sea in search of his father Odysseus; mother Penelope at home to keep suitors away.

Book 5 ‐ Odysseus leaves Calypso, the immortal nymph

Book 6‐8 Odysseus reaches Alcinous’ kingdom; wins Nausicaa and her parents’ help

Books 9‐12 Odysseus’ tales: Cyclops, Circe, the Dead, Scylla and Charybdis

Books 13‐14 Odysseus arrives in Ithaca in disguise; gathers news from swineherd

Books 15‐16 Telemachus returns from Pylos and Sparta; reunites with Odysseus

Books 17‐18 Odysseus meets the suitors in disguise

Book 19 Penelope receives the beggar as guest

Books 20‐22 Odysseus plots to kill the suitors with Telemachus

Book 23 Odysseus passes Penelope’s test

Book 24 Odysseus meets his father Laertes and makes peace with survivors of the suitors

Odysseus' Journey From Troy to Ithica

• Dactylic Hexameter • Epithets• Repetition (phrases, lines, groups of

lines)• Repeated actions ( Gift Cyclops offered

Odysseus Ctessipus the suitor offered Odysseus)

• starts in the middle of stories or action• episodic structure (eg. flashbacks)• Type-scene• Smiles

Opening and closing lines of selected books

Book 1      Speak Memory ...... Pondering the journey that Athena had shown himBook 2     Dawn’s pale rose fingers brushed across the sky ...... The ship bore through the night and into the dawn.

Book 5     Dawn reluctantly/ Left Tithonus in her rose‐shadowed bed ...... And she closed his eyelids.

waiting: day in, day out...

Anticipation of Action

• Blinding of Cyclop (Polyphemus) killing of suitors

“But listen now to a dream I had/And tell me what it means. In my dream/I have twenty geese at home. I love to watch them/ Come out of the water and eat grains of wheat./ But a huge eagle with a hooked break comes/ Down from the mountain and breaks their necks,/ Killing them all…/Then the eagle comes back and perches upon/ A jutting roofbeamand speaks to me/ In a human voice, telling me not to cry:/ ‘Take heart, daughter of famed Icarius./ This is no dream, but a true vision/ That you can trust. The geese are the suitors,/ And I, who was once an eagle. Am now/ Your husband come back, and I will deal out doom,/ A grisly death for all of the suitors.” (19:585-604)

• Combination of elements from Bronze Age and Dark Age

• Integrate materials from a wide range of sources and traditions: legend, folklore (e.g. the story of Cyclops)

Cultural Memories and Epic Tradition

• Public Honor Calypso (Kaluptein, to hide)“Our lives are short. A hard-hearted man/ Is cursed while he lives and reviled in death./ But a good- hearted man has his fame spread/Far and wide by the guests he has honored./ And men speak well of him all over the earth.” (19:363-367)

• Hospitality• Role of Immortals and Greek concept of

fate.

“Earth nurtures nothing feebler than man.While the gods favors him and his step is quick,He thinks he will never have to suffer in life.Then when the blessed ones bring evil his way,He bears it in sorrow with an enduring heart.……I, too, once got used to prosperity,And I did many foolish things in my pride,Trusting my father and brothers would save me.So I know a man should never be an outlaw,But keep in peace the gifts heaven gives him.”(18:139-150)

Influences

Journey and Transformation

Homecoming

Odysseus and Penelope reunited A Konchalovsky, 1997https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7fC90AvUWQ

Thank you for listening