CLASSICS 1B03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Aristeia, Sarpedon, Myrmidons
20 Dec 2017
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Background to the iliad: myths of the trojans; myths of the greeks. Epic poetry: pre-dates literacy, heroic past: stories of gods and men, dactylic hexameter, narrative in nature. Iliad and odyssey became the standard: followed by all epic poem writers that followed: oral performance by bards, composed on the spot, helpful tricks for the bards: Traditional stories, metre (dactylic hexameter), repeated words & phrase. Epithets: adjectival phrases to describe a hero, an army, a place. e. g. swift-footed. Achilles; owl-eyes athena the bard time to breath. Epithets prepared the bard and audience for the next chapter. Some dates: earliest performance: , written transmission begins ca. 750bce: book divisions, final editions: after 323 bce. Homer : no certain information, rumor in antiquity: A blind bard; blind= divinely inspired: homeric question . Unitarians: one master poet responsible for both. Trojan royal family: podarces becomes priam, troy flourishes, priam"s wife= hecuba, 50 sons and 50 daughters of priam (not all hecuba)
