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