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Lecture 3 The Iliad. http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs. The Iliad. The Iliad consists of 15,693 lines, composed aroud 800 B.C. by a single creative genius, Homer. Iliad means “ tale of Troy ” .
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Lecture 3 The Iliad http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs
The Iliad • The Iliad consists of 15,693 lines, composed aroud 800 B.C. by a single creative genius, Homer. • Iliad means “tale of Troy”. • Epic of the Iliad, narrative poem, telling the story within the struggle between Trojans and Greeks.
The Iliad • For the Greeks, the Iliad had the same role as the Bible once had in the American society; • The Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odysseus, were immensely influential in virtually every aspect of Greek cultural life.
Where you look for moral instruction; a book written in the most sublime poetry. • Scholars look for in Homer’s in their works for their philosophical, ethical, and historical examples. • Episodes from Homeric epics were among the most popular themes for art.
Keats (the romantic poets in the 19th century): Homer was unsurpassed for the beauty of his language. While it opens a whole new world, just read the Iliad even in translation.
The Iliad • For the British Prime Minister, Gladstone in the 19th century, the Iliad was a book of moral instruction without equal. • The whole education system at Oxford reforms that you just read the Iliad and the Odyssey. There, you will find all the lessons you need to live your own life and will be the ruler of that Empire upon which the sun never set.
The Iliad • In this course, we want to ask ourselves what in the Iliad still speaks to us today, on our own lives, and what are the themes of the Iliad. • The Iliad built around the themes that are so important in our individual lives.
The Iliad • But the fundamental theme in the Iliad is god,fate, and the meaning of life. • And god and fate, for Homer, are means by which you come to the meaning of your life.
Every god and goddess had been invited except the god of discord.
She rolled a golden apple into the banquet and on it was written “To the Fairest”.
Aphrodite, the goddess of love, Hera the queen of the gods, and Athena, the goddess with wisdom claimed it was their own apple.
And they went to Zeus and they said, “You got to decide, king of the gods, who is the fairest?” Zeus is wise and passes it on down to a fair guy, Paris to give a judgement.
Three goddesses all make him offer bribes. Athena will make him a mighty warrior, leader of conquest. Hera will make him ruler of the war. Aphrodite promises him the most beautiful woman.
Well, Paris chooses Aphrodite. That’s a stupid decision, don’t you think?
It incurs not only against himself, but against the country, against Troy, the wrath of Hera and Athena. And they will not relent until it is destroyed and Troy is gone.
Paris then has to claim the most beautiful woman in the world, goes off to Sparta in Greece. Once again, this is a stupid decision. He is told Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world but she is already married.
He goes off and Helen is willing to elope with him, the wife of Menelaus. Well, they come back to Troy.
Outraged his honor Menelaus calls upon his fellow Greek warrior to honor their pledge that if Helen marries him, they will come to his defense and fight to win her back, she ever leaves him or taken away.
The Trojan War • So a mighty host is raised. 1,186 ships led by the brother of Menelaus, great Agamemnon, king of the most powerful city of Mycenae (made king and commander by Zeus himself. )
The Trojan War (The Two Sides) Greeks and Allies Trojans and Allies Agamemnon King Priam Achilles Queen Hecuba Odysseus Hector Patroclus Cassandra Nestor Andromache Ajax Memnon Diomedes Troilus
But the Greek fleet comes together, preparing to sail to Troy and it cannot move, for the winds won’t blow.
A soothsayer(占卜者): It is because the gods and goddesses are outraged, a little tiny bunny rabbit was killed by your hunting dogs, while she was pregnant and they killed mother and babies. (That’s how much the gods care about small things. )
So to avenge that outrage of the innocent and innocent must be offered in sacrifice and that innocent is your daughter, it is Iphigenia of great Agamemnon.
What has Iphigenia done to deserve this? Once again, Agamemnon has the choice: He has to offer his daughter? No, we can go back to Mycenae and send somebody else to lead great Armada (舰队). • But no, he wants that glory in victory.
And so his own daughter is brought under a lie that she will wed with the mightest warrior, great Achilles. • When she arrives, deceptions were uncovered and a man put her to death, cutting her throat.
But the winds blow, now the great fleet now arrives at Troy.
And for ten long years, they set there, waging war. • Trojans too bound by honor to give up Helen, and the Greeks too bound by honor to go back.
Where the Iliad • And that is where the Iliad opens, the war already having gone on for nine years. • And the whole of the Iliad is only engaged in nine days. • By focus on only 9 days, Homer achieves transcendence (卓越 ) of ethical and poetical beauty. Nine days only. • It starts off with death, as it will end with death.
Book I of The Iliad “Of the wrath, of the anger of Achilles, sing goddesses. That anger sent the Greeks by the thousands to death, Sending their souls down into the underworld, and left their bodies to be food for the dogs and vultures. For thus was the will of Zeus accomplished.”
Book I 女神啊，请歌唱佩琉斯之子阿基琉斯的 致命的愤怒，那一怒给阿开奥斯人带来 无数的苦难，把许多英豪的健壮魂灵 送往冥府，使他们的尸体成为野狗 和各种飞禽的肉食，从阿特柔斯之子、 人民的国王同神样的阿基琉斯最初在争吵中 分离时开始吧，就这样实现了宙斯的意愿。
The Greek army is struck down by a plague. • It turns out that once again, the gods have been offended. • The daughter of the priest of Apollo, Chryses, has been taken as booty. • She is held by Agamemnon, • Her father, an aged man, plead to Agamemnon to return his daughter, • Agamemnon spurns him and sends him away. “Get away!”
And Achilles speaks out, “Give the girl back”. • Achilles: young, proud, self-confident; Agamemnon, older, cautious. In fact, he feels threatened by Achilles, • And Agamemnon refuses and says, “All right, I will give her up, but I will take your girl!” • Achilles would have killed him on the spot and he says, “I will give up my girl, but I will fight no more, from this day, I will fight no more!”
The Anger of Achilles • The Iliad is a story of the anger of Achilles, of his outrage over the wrong done to him. • Agamemnon takes away his slave girl. • Achilles defending his honor, withdraws from the fight.
Without this mightiest warrior, the Trojans come close to absolute victory driving the Greeks almost into the sea.
To save the honor of the Greeks, the closest friend, the dearest friend, the man he loves, Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, puts on the armor of Achilles and goes up to fight and dies at the hand of the noblest of the Trojans, at the hands of great Hector.
Now motivated by the death of his friend, by the grief that cannot be put aside, Achilles goes out into the battle, searching for the man who killed his friend.
Hector says to him, let us make a pact, “If I am killed, you will respect my body and give it back. And the same will be true for the other.” • Achilles says, “There can be no pact between you and me, no more than a lion would make a pact with a dog. I only wish that I could rip your heart out and eat it raw! So much is my hatred for you.”
Hector is killed and Achilles drives him around, around, around the walls of Troy. • For the eyes of his mother, his father, his family, his wife, his small baby child,
But Hector’s aged father goes to Achilles aided by the gods who themselves understand that this is gone too far, and asks simply that his son be returned. • Achilles sees in this old man the image of his old father he hasn’t seen for ten years, gives back the body the Hector.
And Iliad, the story of these few days of wrath and honor, ends with the funeral of Hector. • They stayed and celebrated the funeral rites of Hector. • The Iliad ends, as you see, as all our lives must end with death.
Central questions of the Iliad include the following: A. Why are we here? B. Why is war waged? C. Why do innocents suffer?
