Iliad Guide Sample by CiRCE Institute

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T H E S PAC E B E T W E E N A Guide to Homerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Iliad

FOREWORD “This is a book for readers and for those who wish to become readers.” So begins Mortimer Adler’s wellknown text, How to Read a Book. The same words could be used to describe the guide you now hold. The Space Between is a guide to Homer’s Iliad, intended to show you how to read and discuss it. Homer, the “blind bard,” left behind the greatest epics the world has ever known and was arguably the world’s greatest philosopher, yet much of his brilliance shines forth when you simply observe the surface of things: What is happening to the character(s)? What decisions need to be made? What do they decide? What are the results of the decision? Should they have done what they did? The Iliad is about decisionmaking, and thus it is one of the most “practical” works of literature. Because of that, this guide takes a very practical approach to Homer’s practical epic. We titled this guide The Space Between as an allusion to the gap between the will of man and the will of Zeus (or all the gods and goddesses), the space between the walls of Troy and the Achaian ships, the battlefield itself, and more. Indeed, we all make our descisions in “the space between” our passions and the will of God (or, as the Greeks believe, the will of Zeus).

Each book of the Iliad turns on a “necessary question” – a particular issue that must be addressed, a decision that must be made. So, The Space Between also focuses on those necessary questions. Josef Pieper wrote that, “The natural habitat of truth is found in interpersonal communication. Truth lives in dialogue, in discussion, in conversation . . .” Truth takes root in us through discussing it, writing about it, and debating it. The Space Between provides plenty of opportunity to do just that. Responses to questions you will find here can be written in the guide (or in a commonplace book/journal), but they are designed to be discussed in a group setting – whether in a classroom, homeschool group, book club, or even around the dinner table. This guide is not intended as a detailed commentary on the Iliad, but there are many such resources available. In particular, we most heartily recommend Eva Brann’s Homeric Moments. We hope you enjoy exploring those spaces in the pages of this guide!

BRIAN PHILLIPS

ACKNOW LEDGEM EN TS Every writing project is a team effort and this guide is no exception. The Space Between arises from reading (and rereading) the Iliad, innumerable conversations about Homer with friends and students, and time spent contemplating questions beyond our pay grade. We are grateful for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Homeric momentsâ&#x20AC;? we have shared at various CiRCE conferences, Summer Institutes, apprenticeship discussions, and around dinner tables. Those conversations fueled this project. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this ongoing dialogue. Authors Andrew Kern Brian Phillips

Cover Design Graeme Pitman

Copy Editing Matthew Bianco Rebekah Leland

Layout David Kern

CONTENTS

9. Introduction 10. Homer & the Trojan War 15. BOOK 1

63. BOOK 13

19. BOOK 2

67. BOOK 14

23. BOOK 3

71. BOOK 15

27. BOOK 4

75. BOOK 16

31. BOOK 5

79. BOOK 17

35. BOOK 6

83. BOOK 18

39. BOOK 7

87. BOOK 19

43. BOOK 8

91. BOOK 20

47. BOOK 9

95. BOOK 21

51. BOOK 10

99. BOOK 22

55. BOOK 11

103. BOOK 23

59. BOOK 12

107. BOOK 24

111. Important Terms 1112. Blank Pages for Your Additional Reflections

INTRODUCTION A reading guide can do one of two things: It can tell you what to think, or it can teach you how to read.

his guide strives to do the latter. We aren’t trying to convince you to think like us; we want to provide avenues of access to the story you are reading. Our approach is driven by the belief that stories are natural to human beings and that, therefore, we should approach them like humans naturally approach stories. Technical literary elements are wonderful things to learn because they can help a reader think about and interact with ideas a story-teller is developing. But they have to revolve around the core event of the story, which is always the decisions and actions of the characters. A theme or motif or literary device can help the reader understand what the author is getting at. But considered in isolation, themes, motifs, and literary devices lose their meaning and purpose, and become mere fodder for academic exercise. This reading guide is not driven by academic exercises. It is interested in stories and the people who read them. If you read the story the way this reading guide shows you, you will become a better reader. You will find the stories more interesting too. And you’ll have plenty to contribute to a discussion about this story or any other story you might read. In fact, you’ll see how every story is part of a vast tapestry woven by every author who has ever told a story, some with greater influence than others, but all adding a valuable thread to the tapestry. What then is the story? Think of any story you have ever read or heard, no matter how short. You can include TV shows and movies. You probably notice that stories happen somewhere and at some time. You probably also notice that there are always characters in a story, and that at least one of the characters has some really big problem to deal with (he’s in love and the girl doesn’t notice him, the mountain is shaking and he’s about to be swallowed in an avalanche, he’s lost his wallet or his horse or his mind and needs it for something right now, etc.) The urgency of a story comes from this need to act, but before the character can act he needs to make a decision. What are his options? What do you think he should do?

Take Achilleus, for instance. When you read the Iliad, you’ll have the privilege of reading about one of the most interesting characters in all the long history of stories. But it all starts, as Homer tells us in line one, with his rage. He’s so angry he could… Well, we don’t want to spoil the story, but he could do some pretty awful things. Should he? In Book One, you’ll see how his leader, Agamemnon, the king of kings, insults him in a way that you and I can hardly imagine. In fact, when you first read it, you might think Achilleus is over-reacting. But that’s the whole point. That’s what we’re supposed to wonder. Is he over-reacting? The whole Iliad is about his anger and the pain that it caused (read the first ten lines, and you’ll see that Homer doesn’t wait to tell us about that anger and that pain). What do you think? What would you have done? All twenty-four “books” (think chapters) of the Iliad involve characters who have a key decision to make. If you want to read like you’ve never read before and enjoy a story more than you thought you were allowed to, plunge in to those decisions. Find characters that you like or dislike and argue with them. But keep your mind open. As you read the Iliad using this guide, you will form your own opinions, and then you will test them. With each book you’ll be moving closer and closer to the heart of a very angry man, and you’ll also join a number of other characters who also have painfully difficult decisions to make -- the kind of decisions you often have to make yourself, though hopefully not often with so much at stake. Read him closely and he’ll give you a great gift: the ability to make better decisions. Should you accept our invitation and read the Iliad? If you do, we who love Homer are happy to offer you clues to the pleasure of the story. Thank you for letting us play a small part in increasing your joy on the journey!

H O M E R & T H E T R O J A N WA R

he Iliad begins in the ninth year of the ten-yearwar between the Achaians (Greeks) and the Trojans. Very little of the war’s backstory is explained within the poem itself, and so, generally speaking, we know little of the time in which it takes place, how the story was handed down, and still less of the poet, Homer. Yet, despite our limited knowledge of such background information, Eva Brann is correct when she argues that “Reading Homer’s poems is one of the purest, most inexhaustible pleasures life has to offer – a secret somewhat too well kept in our time.” So if you want to simply dive into the joy of Homer’s Iliad, skip the rest of this overview and jump to Book One. If you simply must know more background, read on…if you must. The Blind Bard & His Works In Invitation to the Classics, Glenn Arbery writes, “In many ways the Western literary tradition is a series of astonished encounters with the greatness of Homer.” Yet, we know little of the man or the process by which his epics were written and handed down. Numerous attempts have been made to fill in the gaps of Homer’s life, including some second century A.D. Lives that attempted to serve both as biographies and as collections of folktales about the poet. Ultimately, we do not know (and do not have to know) how much truth resides in such works. Some scholars maintain that there never was a historical Homer, suggesting instead that the Iliad and the Odyssey were written by several poets over a vast span of time. Still another theory holds that while Homer composed the poems orally, they were memorized and slightly changed until finally written down in their present form. Yet, Arbery argues, “It is far more likely . . . that a single poet of genius whose name the tradition accepts as Homer composed the poems. If so, he combined the resources of

a vital oral tradition with his visionary recognition of the artistic potential in the new way of preserving language in writing. Perhaps, like the blind John Milton who dictated Paradise Lost to his daughters, Homer did not actually do the writing himself. Whatever the origin, the poems unquestionably have the coherence of texts rather than of transcribed performances. At the same time, they retain the speed and engaging clarity of spoken language.” The Trojan War The war between the Achaians and the Trojans likely took place around 1200 B.C., if we roughly average out the dates provided by ancient historians Erathosthenes (1184 B.C.), Herodotus (1250 B.C.), and Douris (1334 B.C.). According to legend, the war began when Paris, a prince of Troy, took Helen from her husband, Menelaos, the king of Sparta. But Paris’ deed cannot be separated from the involvement of the Greek gods and goddesses, who are deeply woven into every aspect of the Iliad. With that in mind, it should be noted that the Trojan War was also caused by a rift among the goddesses Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite. After not being invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, Eris (the goddess of strife and discord) sought her revenge by leaving a golden apple engraved with the words “to the fairest” at the wedding reception. Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite each assumed it belonged to them, creating an argument so fierce that even Zeus did not want to intervene. At just that tense moment, Paris stumbled into the wedding party and was conscripted by Zeus to decide the dispute. How did Paris find himself in such a predicament? Before his birth, his mother Hekabe (Hecuba) dreamed that she gave birth to a flaming torch. The dream was interpreted by the prophet, Aesacus, to mean that the child would bring about the destruction of his homeland. Though Aesacus insisted that the child must be killed to save Troy, King Priam could not bear to kill his son.

So, instead, he passed the dreadful duty off to his chief shepherd, Agelaus, who also found himself unable to kill the child and instead left the baby exposed on Mount Ida. Days later, Agelaus returned to find the child still alive, having been nursed by a she-bear. Agelaus took the child home and raised him as his own son. As a young man, Paris worked with livestock and developed a love for bull fights. His prize bull defeated all those of the herdsmen nearby, and Paris offered a gold crown to any bull who defeated his own. The god Ares, appearing in the form of a bull, took the challenge and won the contest. Because Paris gave him the crown, freely admitting the defeat of his own bull, he was seen as a trustworthy judge. So, when Zeus found himself in the unenviable position of deciding “the fairest” among the goddesses, Paris was an easy, but trusted scapegoat. Each of the three goddesses promised gifts to Paris in exchange for his vote. Hera offered to make him a great king, Athene offered to make him a wise and skilled warrior, but it was Aphrodite’s promise of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, that secured Paris’ vote. Helen, however, was already married, and her marriage had come with an additional vow attached. When the time came for Helen to be given in marriage, a great number of

suitors came to seek her hand, among them being great warriors like Odysseus, Aias (Ajax) the Great, Agamemnon, Menelaos, and Patroklos. Helen’s father, Tyndareus, did not want to select a suitor for Helen for fear of making enemies with such great and powerful men. So, upon the suggestion of wise Odysseus, all the suitors were required to take an oath that they would defend the husband and marriage of Helen against any threat. Only then would a suitor be chosen. So beautiful was Helen that all of the suitors took the oath, and Menelaos was chosen as Helen’s husband. The various accounts offer different reasons for Menelaos being chosen—he won a contest among the suitors, Tyndareus saw political benefits in choosing him, he was simply Helen’s favorite, they drew straws, and so on. So it was that Menelaos, King of Sparta, married Helen, with the promise of protection from the other suitors. Thus, when Paris took Helen from Menelaos with the help of Aphrodite, the kings of Greece were compelled to journey to Troy to bring her back. And when the Iliad opens, they are still there.

WANT TO LEARN MORE? CHECK OUT SOME OF THESE BOOKS: • Homeric Moments by Eva Brann • The Epic Cycle by M.L. West • The Trojan War by Eric Cline • The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus • Mythology by Edith Hamilton • Bulfinch’s Greek & Roman Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch • D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths by Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire

A NOTE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING PAGES The following questions and prompts are meant to help you read closely and prepare for discussions. They are not quizzes to see how well you have read; they are tools to help you read—and discuss— with ever-increasing skill. Do not try to list every possible answer to a question, but don’t dodge questions either. Let them guide your thinking, and you’ll be surprised at how much you discover. If you have used the Lost Tools of Writing, you’ll find this guide very familiar. Keep a commonplace book/journal for additional reflection and contemplation.

Please note: All quotations, names, and spellings are drawn from Richmond Lattimore’s acclaimed translation.

BOOK 01 “Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation.”

BOOK ONE First, read Book One closely. Next, having read Book One, respond to the following prompts and questions: 1. In each book, some of the characters have to make decisions that have varying degrees of importance to the plot of the Iliad. Note some of these characters and the issues they confront. For example, you could say that Hektor has to decide whether to buy a shining new helmet (which doesn’t actually happen, in case you are worried you missed something).

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Which character has to make a decision that seems like it will have the biggest impact on the rest of the Iliad? We call this, following Shakespeare, the “Necessary Question” because the whole plot turns on what decision the character makes.

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. We recommend you put the Necessary Question in the form of an issue (Example: whether Hektor should buy a shining new helmet), because it puts it in “yes” or “no” terms (otherwise known as affirmative and negative). List characters who argue for the affirmative position (those who say, “Yes, he should do it”) of the Necessary Question, and list the reasons they present to defend their position.

5. Does the character making the decision choose the affirmative or the negative?

_________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What action(s) does the character take to implement the decision?

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Book One is especially important because it includes what story-tellers call “the inciting action” – or the “trigger” – that initiates the action or plot of the book. What happens in Book One that seems to serve as that trigger (i.e. what happens early in Book One that launches the story of the Iliad)?

READING TIP

Watch for Reactions Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or so says the proverb. And one of the main effects of any action in a story is the reactions it provokes in others, so pay attention to how other characters react to what Achilleus does as you read. For practice, identify any one thing Achilleus does in Book One and note how somebody reacts.

9. As Homer tells us, the Iliad is about the rage of Achilleus and the pain it causes. In Book One, Homer shows us how this rage is triggered. Then, for the rest of the Iliad, we see Achilleus respond to various developments while he is still raging. While you read Book One and all the following books, always keep this question in your mind: Is his rage justified? Does anything happen in Book One to intensify or lessen his rage? Do you believe his rage is justified? Why or why not?

NOTA BENE

Within the Iliad’s first twenty-five lines, the “sons of Atreus” are mentioned five times. Who is Atreus, and why are his sons so important? Atreus, the father of Agamemnon and Menelaos, has one of the most violent stories in Greek mythology. He became the king of Mycenae, but only because he and his brother Thyestes were exiled there after murdering their half-brother Chrysippus. Later on, Atreus brutally murdered his nephews because their father, Thyestes, committed adultery with Atreus’ wife, Aerope. Because of these and other acts of great violence and treachery, the gods cursed the “house of Atreus” – a curse it seems Agamemnon and Menelaos may have inherited.

CREATIVE READING SKILL Give Book One a title. Here are some ways to do this. • Select a key phrase from the text you are reading that tells what the book is about (as in War and Peace) • Use a phrase from another text (as in The Sun Also Rises) • Name a character (as in Tom Sawyer, or give him a nickname or epithet as in The Great Gatsby) • Identify a main object, symbol, or place (as in The Red Badge of Courage or Bleak House) • Make up with your own title

Your Title

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

BOOK 02 “Now the rest of the gods, and men who were lords of chariots, slept night long, but the ease of sleep came not upon Zeus…”

BOOK TWO First, read Book Two closely. Next, having read Book Two, respond to the following prompts and questions: 1. List characters who have decisions to make in Book Two, and identify the issues they confront. _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Which character has to make a decision that seems like it will have the biggest impact on the rest of the Iliad? Remember, we call this the Necessary Question.

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 4. List characters who argue for the negative, and list reasons they offer for their opinion. _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

5. Does the character making the decision choose the affirmative or the negative? _________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What action(s) does the character take to implement the decision? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Given what you have read so far, do you think the character made the right decision? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

8. You’ll remember that the inciting action occurred in Book One (the starting gun was fired). That cannot happen again because once the story is begun you can’t unstart it. Now the storyteller (Homer, in this case) begins to create a tangled and complicated knot for the hero to unravel. This is called the complication or the “rising action,” and it can go on for quite a while. In Book Two, Homer begins to make life very complicated for Achilleus. But is Achilleus even mentioned in Book Two? How is his situation more complicated or tangled at the end of Book Two than it was at the beginning?

Hearing Echoes Continue to note the reactions characters have to each other’s actions in your journal. Additionally, storytellers love to include hints about the big ideas they are writing about by echoing sounds, images, or even ideas over the course of the story. Homer is a master of the art of echoing, which is one of the things that makes his writing so interesting. List some echoes from Book Two below. The trick to hearing echoes is to not work too hard – don’t try to be clever or deep. Just report something you hear or see being repeated. In a way, the more obvious, the better.

9. As you remember from Book One, the Iliad is about the rage of Achilleus and the pain it causes. In Book One, Homer showed us how Achilleus’ rage was triggered. Now in Book Two, we learn a little more about the situation of the Iliad. Does anything happen in Book Two to intensify or lessen his rage? Do you believe his rage is justified? Why or why not?

NOTA BENE

Even in the midst of heated argument, the Greeks pause to listen to Nestor, the old leader of the Pylians. We first meet him in Book One, where he delivers wise counsel to Achilleus and Agamemnon and is described as “Nestor the fair-spoken,” “the lucid speaker of Pylos, from whose lips the streams of words ran sweeter than honey.” Even King Agamemnon replies to Nestor’s first speech saying, “Yes, old sir, all this you have said is fair and orderly.” When Nestor speaks, the Greeks listen. Throughout the Iliad, note how hearers respond to Nestor, in contrast to the others who rise to speak.

CREATIVE READING SKILL Give Book Two a title. Here are some ways to do this. • Select a key phrase from the text you are reading that tells what the book is about (as in War and Peace) • Use a phrase from another text (as in The Sun Also Rises) • Name a character (as in Tom Sawyer, or give him a nickname or epithet as in The Great Gatsby) • Identify a main object, symbol, or place (as in The Red Badge of Courage or Bleak House) • Make up your own title

Your Title

_________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________