Hum 110 should have
prepared you well for any questions you might get on Homer. You should
save reviewing Homer for when you have covered everything else. Some tips:
- If you didn't read
the Odyssey before coming to Reed or can't remember any thing
about it, you may want to check out some of the convocation
lectures on the Odyssey. Also see this
outline of the work.
- You should know
that Odysseus' pilgrimage into the underworld (book 11, Odyssey)
becomes the prototype for the poet's pilgrimage. This descent is referenced
in Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's
Divine Comedy, and many other works of literature.
- Many famous poets
translated Homer's work:
- George Chapman--1st
translation in English (Iliad 1611).
- Alexander
Pope (Iliad, 1715-20; Odyssey, 1726)
- Other famous poetic
references to the Iliad.
- There is an outline
of the Iliad
on the hum page.
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Compare
the opening of the Odyssey as translated by Chapman, Pope, and
Samuel Butler. How does the style of Chapman's Renaissance translation
differ from Pope's eighteenth-century one?
- Chapman
The man, O Muse,
inform, that many a way
Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay;
That wandered wondrous far, when he the town
Of sacred Troy had sack'd and shivered down;
The cities of a world of nations,
With all their manners, minds, and fashions,
He saw and knew; at sea felt many woes,
Much care sustained, to save from overthrows
Himself and friends in their retreat for home;
- Pope
The man for
wisdom's various arts renown'd,
Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound;
Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall
Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall,
Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd,
Their manners noted, and their states survey'd,
On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore,
Safe with his friends to gain his natal shore:
- Samuel
Butler
TELL ME, O MUSE,
of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide
after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he
visit,
and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was
acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save
his own life and bring his men safely home;
General Quotes
from Homer:
- "But I will
speak to you the way it seems best to me: neither
do I think the son of Atreus, Agamemnon, will persuade me,
nor the rest of the Danaans, since there was no gratitude given
for fighting incessantly forever against your enemies.
Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard.
A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much."
(Iliad)
- "The people
were assembled in the market place, where a quarrel
had arisen, and two men were disputing over the blood price
for a man who had been killed. One man promised full restitution
in a public statement, but the other refused and would accept nothing.
Both then made for an arbitrator, to have a decision;
and people were speaking up on either side, to help both men.
But the heralds kept the people in hand, as meanwhile the elders
were in session on benches of polished stone in the sacred circle
and held in their hands the staves of the heralds who lift their voices.
The two men rushed before these, and took turns speaking their cases,
and between them lay on the ground two talents of gold, to be given
to that judge who in this case spoke the straightest opinion."
(Shield of Achilles, Iliad)
- At last is Hector
stretch'd upon the plain, Who fear'd no vengeance
for Patroclus slain: Then, Prince! You should have fear'd, what now
you feel; Achilles absent was Achilles still: Yet a short space the
great avenger stayed, Then low in dust thy strength and glory laid.
(Iliad)
- "So said Telemakhos,
though in his heart
he knew his visitor had been immortal.
But now the suitors turned to play again
with dance and haunting song. they played till nightfall
indeed black night came on them at their pleasure.
and half asleep they left, each for his home." (Odyssey
Book 1)
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