Ancient GreeceHomer and the Trojan War

吴诗玉shiyuw@sjtu.edu.cn

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Homer and the Trojan War

Homer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, and also the first Greek poet that we know of by name. Traditionally, he is said to be the author of the two great epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey which shape and influence the whole development of Greek culture. The date of Homer's existence was controversial. It is generally believed that he lived at around 850 B.C., about 500 years after the Trojan War he narrated in his two epic poems.

Idealized portrayal of Homer dating to

the Hellenistic period by British

Museum

Though the ancient Greeks generally believed that Homer was a historical individual, modern scholars are skeptical because no reliable biographical information has been handed down. Many scholars have worked to derive meaning from the name of the poet, Homer. Homer is homophonous with "homêros", meaning "hostage", long understood as "he who accompanies; he who is forced to follow", or, in some dialects, "blind". There generated many tales relating the person to the functions of a hostage or of a blind man. In Ionic, the verbal form "hómêreuô" has the specialized meaning of "guide the blind", and in the Aeolian dialect of Cyme, where homêros was synonymous with standard Greek tuphlós, meaning 'blind'. 

Homer’s two great books, the Iliad and the Odysseus are believed to be the products of oral composition. And traditionally Homer has been depicted as a wandering bard ( 吟游诗人 ), a singer of traditional tales. We are given the image of a "blind, begging singer who hangs around with little people: shoemakers, fisherman, potters, sailors, elderly men in the gathering places of harbour towns". However, some other scholars believe that Homer is the singer at the courts of the nobility rather than a wandering minstrel based on the evidence of the ancient poems.

Homer and His Guide, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905)

Even if we do not know much about the life of Homer, there can be no doubt about the far-reaching influences of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey." The Greeks considered him to be their instructor. As one Homer expert has commented, Homer as the preeminent symbol of nationhood, an unimpeachable authority on the earliest history, a decisive figure in the creation of the pantheon as well as the most beloved and the most widely quoted poet.

The Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odysseus,were immensely influential in virtually every aspect of Greek cultural life. 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. The social structure of Homeric society and connected with that the poems illustrated certain values, certain habits of thoughts, characteristics among the Greeks.

And today, we will read the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" from our perspective and think of the questions raised later.

Preface by Mr. Wu: The Iliad is a work which depicts the ravages of war during the Greek Siege of Troy around 1260 to 1250 B.C. The graphic and power of the Iliad was best written by the author Peter France, "If you read it, you will be changed by it". The Odyssey is written in the format of a fantastic novel and catalogs the adventure of Odysseus and his quest to return to his native land of Ithaca after many years of being gone. With its many subplots and dynamic stories, it is a master work of the adventure novel writing, and well worth the great read.

Plutarch did not write lives of Achilles and Agamemnon, or Hector. He knew nothing could ever equal or even come close to the brilliance of their portrayal in the immortal lives of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. For Plutarch, for a lot of other figures like Pericles and Alexander the Great, Homer was the great repository ( 仓库 )of wisdom.

The role of the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek civilization and their hair of Romans is comparable really only to the Bible in Europe and America, in the 19th century. It was the source of wisdom to which you turned, many people would simply open a page of Homer, of the Iliad and the Odyssey, point to the lives and made the decision based on that the same way as the bible was used for his purposes in the 18th and 19th century. We turn now to Homer, to the Iliad and the great city of Troy and to the figures of Achilles and Agamemnon.

Date 10-year war around 1260-1260 B.C.

Location Troy (Modern Turkey)

Belligerents(交战集团 )

Ithaca, Sparta, Mycenae, Myrmidons, et al. Troy

Commanders

Agamemnon

Odysseus

Menelaus

Achilles †

Ajax †

Priam †

Hector †

Paris †

Thank you