Greek Course Schedule

Sunoikisis 

Syllabus for Advanced Greek 295/395: Homeric Poetry

Fall, 2012

 

Seminar Consultant: Prof. Richard Martin (Stanford University)

Course Director: Dr. Ryan Fowler (CHS Sunoikisis Fellow)

Description

This course, making extensive use of resources available via the internet, focuses on the earliest literary documents in the
Greek language: the poems attributed to Homer. Readings will come primarily from Homer's Iliad. In order to expose students to a wide range of scholarly perspectives, a different faculty member will lead the common session each week. These sessions will reflect current trends in scholarship for this period. Students will also meet locally with their home campus mentor to concentrate more closely on issues of language, translation and interpretation of assigned readings. In weekly online discussion (written assignments) students will have the opportunity to expand on and synthesize issues that arise in the reading and common session, as well as engage with secondary literature. Students will also complete online midterm and final examinations. This course is specifically designed for advanced students and will include a rigorous study of the cultural and historical context during the Homeric period in the Mediterranean. Because this course addresses both literature and context, students are expected to actively synthesize a wide variety of material.

 

Objectives

This course aims to achieve the following outcomes:

  1. Advanced students of Greek will learn to read the Homeric literary dialect.
  2. Students will become familiar with the style, conventions and themes of Homeric Epic.
  3. Students will explore the history, culture and society of the Homeric World as it is reflected in and forms a context for the literature of this period.
  4. Students will become familiar with current trends in scholarly interpretation for Homeric Poetry, culture and society.
  5. Students will interact with faculty and students at other participating institutions.

Course Requirements

 

 

Preparation:

Students should read all assigned primary texts for the week by the common session. Students who choose to take this course at the 295 rather than 395 level will be responsible for less reading in Greek but will be expected to complete all of the reading in English.

Common Sessions:

Thursdays, 7:00-8:00 PM Eastern Time. Students at all participating institutions will meet together online for a common session via Multipoint Interactive Videoconferencing (MIV). These interactive sessions have a different faculty leader each week and typically combine mini-lectures with discussion, questions, and exercises.

Online Discussion:

Responses to the online discussion are due by midnight on the Monday before the common session so that faculty and students will have the opportunity to review students' responses before the lecture. Evaluation of the student's online discussion will be based both on timely completion and substantive content.

Tutorials:

Each student will meet for at least one hour every week with a mentor at her or his home institution. The times and locations of these meetings will be determined on each campus. Students are responsible for contacting their faculty mentors and finalizing the details of their weekly meetings. These sessions will focus more closely on issues of language, translation and interpretation of assigned readings. Home campus mentors will be the final authority for all grades.

Examinations:

There will be collaboratively designed and graded midterm and final exams for this course.

Evaluation:

Grades will be based on the following components, which differ for those at the 291 and 391 level:

 

For students in ICAGR 291, grades will be based on the following components:

 

Class preparation and work in tutorial:    

40%

Participation in the on-line discussion (study questions):    

30%

Midterm examination:    

15%

Final examination:    

15%

 

For students in ICAGR 391, grades will be based on the following components:

 

Class preparation and work in tutorial:    

20%

Participation in the on-line discussion (study questions):    

40%

Midterm examination:    

20%

Final examination:    

20%

 

Primary Readings

Homer, Iliad

(All students should read all of Homer's Iliad in English before the course starts, according to the schedule set by your instructor.)

Suggested Texts

Selections from Homer's Iliad. Benner, ed. Red River Books, 2001. Available on Amazon.com.

The Iliad of Homer. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Intro. Richard Martin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Reprint edition, 2011. Available on Amazon.com.

The Chicago Homer: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/homer/

Also Available:
R.J. Cunliffe, A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect (London, Glasgow, and Bombay, 1924; reprinted, Norman, 1963 etc.)
G. Autenrieth, A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges (University of Oklahoma Press, 1982)

Schedule of Assignments 

 

 

Week 1 (8/24-8/30)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 3.1-83 [657 words; 80 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 3.1-57 [442 words; 56 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Oral poetics"

Professor Scott Garner, Rhodes College

(Be sure to come 15 minutes early to make sure everything is working.)

Due Monday

Written Assignment

Since at least the 1930’s, the Homeric epics have been frequently compared and contrasted with the oral traditional epic poems of the South Slavic region in terms of their style, content, and possible performance arenas. After reading one of these South Slavic poems, The Wedding of Mustajbey’s Son Bećirbey (and perhaps poking around into the supplemental materials available here), please list at least three similarities and differences that you note between this poem and the Iliad, and then offer some speculative reasons as to why these similarities and differences might exist and why they might be important.

Week 2 (8/31-9/6)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 3.84-180 [881 words; 96 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 3.58-124 [526 words; 66 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Type scenes"

Professor Joe Romero

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 3 (9/7-9/13)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 3.181-301 [930 words; 120 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 3.125-198 [582 words; 74 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Narratology"

Professor David Carlisle, Cornell College

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 4 (9/14-9/20)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 3.302-423 [954 words; 121 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 3.199-283 [663 words; 84 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"The Archaeology of Homeric Troy"

Professor Hal Haskell, Southwestern

Due Monday

Written Assignment

Heinrich Schliemann set out to demonstrate the "historicity" of the Homeric Trojan War through his excavations at Hisarlık (1870-1890), the identification of which he accepted as Troy. The question is: so what?

 

Leaving aside problems of certain specific details and poetic "exaggeration" (cf. Thuc. 1.10.3), in responding to this prompt you might address issues such as: what does one mean by "historicity?" by "historian?" Was Homer a historian? What would we mean by a "historic Trojan War?" Is there anything in the Homeric account upon which the results of excavations (aka material history) at Hisarlık, Mycenae, Tiryns, etc. can shed light?

Week 5 (9/21-9/27)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 3.424-462; 6.1-98 [1073 words; 136 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 3.283-382 [754 words; 99 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Homeric Economy"

Professor Arum Park, BYU

Due Monday

Written Assignment

Describe what the general term "economy" means to you. How does the adjective "Homeric" modify this meaning? Cite 2 specific passages from the Iliad that you think illustrate the phrase "Homeric Economy," and elaborate on why those passages are particularly germane to this term.

Week 6 (9/28-10/4)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 6.99-250 [1161 words; 151 lines]

English:

Proclus' summaries of the Cypria and the Aethiopis (West's Loeb Epic Fragments, p.67-81, 111-3, with intro pp.12-15

 

Reading (291):

Iliad 3.383-461; Iliad 6.237-262 [431 words; 104 lines]

 

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"The Genre of the Iliad"

Professor Nigel Nicholson, Reed College
(Lecture handout here)

Due Monday

Written Assignment

Give three to five ways in which the Cypria and Aethiopis (based on Proclus' summaries) seem to have differed from the Iliad, whether in plot shape, concerns, characters, tone, motifs or individual plot features.

Week 7 (10/5-10/11)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 6.251-413 [1278 words; 162 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 6.263-380 [858 words; 117 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Paeleography"

CHS Staff

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 8 (10/12-10/18)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 6.414-529; 16.1-47 [1291 words; 162 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 6.381-502 [907 words; 121 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Masculine Arms and Feminine Voices: Gender in the Iliad"

Professor Brett Rogers, University of Puget Sound

Due Monday

Written Assignment

How might we describe 'masculinity' in the Iliad? How might we describe 'femininity'? What attributes and actions are associated with each gender in the Iliad? Choose one character and explain the ways in which she/he conforms to, and/or violates, such norms, and how this might help us understand other themes in the Iliad. (Make sure you also consider how other factors might impact gender, such as age, (im)mortality, etc.)

Week 9 (10/19-10/25)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 16.48-252 [1534 words; 204 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 6.503-529; 16.1-111 [1034 words; 136 lines]
 

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Similes"

Professor Holly Sypniewski

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 10 (10/26-11/1)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 16.253-457 [1579 words; 204 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 16.112-167 and 198-292 [1139 words; 149 lines]

 

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Rhetoric"

Professor Richard Martin

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 11 (11/2-11/8)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 16.458-659 [1579 words; 201 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 16.292-305, 419-507, and 663-725 [1295 words; 163 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Beautiful Death"

Professor Heather Vincent, Eckerd College

Due Monday

Written Assignment

1) Review and reread in English: Iliad Bk 22.25-76 (re: Priam's speech to Hektor) and 22.250-375 (re: the death of Hektor)

2) Read these pages with fragments of Tyrtaeus 10-12 (found here).

3) Respond to the following question (in approx. 300-400 words):

 

Note the level of visual detail and the use of similes in death scenes of Sarpedon and Hektor.  Note, too, how the poet evokes a variety physical senses and emotions. 

Part 1: What are the most important aspects of these heroic deaths, and how/why are such details important, necessary, or meaningful?  

Part 2: When Tyrtaeus adopts the same themes, he focuses on some of the same physical elements, but he offers a much broader array of motivations, or reasons that heroes must die. How is Tyrtaeus' appreciation of the hero's mission and eventual death different from Homer's?

Week 12 (11/9-11/15)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 16.660-867 [1609 words; 207 lines]

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 16.726-867; 24.472-506 [1365 words; 175 lines]

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"Ritual in omega"

Professor Kenny Morrell

Due Monday

Written Assignment

 

Week 13 (11/16-11/24) Thanksgiving

Week 14 (11/26-11/29)

 

Reading (391)

Iliad 24.468-676 [1734 words; 208 lines]
 

 

Reading (291)

Iliad 24.507-691 [1415 words; 184 lines]

 

 

 

 

Thursday

Common Session

"'Homer,' Homer, "Homer""

Dr. Ryan Fowler

Due Monday

Final Exam