SYLLABUS AND SUGGESTED BOOKS

WEEK ONE:

Wednesday, Jan. 4: Introduction

Chiara Bozzone and Ryan Sandel, One or Many Homers? Using Quantitative Authorship Analysis to Study Homeric Poems.

Writing Homer (powerpoint shown in class)

WEEK TWO: Iliad 1-2

January 9: Iliad 1

zooming in: Iliad 1.1-42

Please read:

J. Burgess, 2009. Death and Afterlife of Achilles, 2009: Introduction.

For you reference: M. Janse, "The Metrical Schemes of the Homeric Hexameter."

January 11: Iliad 2

zooming in: Iliad 2.182-242

Please read:

C. Bozzone, 2002. "Technologies of Orality: Formulaity, Meter, and Kunstsprache in Homer" (in Ercolani and Lulli, eds. Rethinking Orality II).

And if you have time:

E. Bakker, 2013. The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey: Epilogue, on "Interformularity."

Things you might read this week (but don't have to):

G. Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics. Ithaca and London 1992. Chapter 2, pages 18-35: "Formula and Meter: the Oral Poetics of Homer."

D. Elmer, The Poetics of Consent: Collective Decision Making in the Iliad. Johns Hopkins 2013. Chapter 3: “Achilles and the Crisis of Exception,” pages 63-85

D. Elmer, The Poetics of Consent: Collective Decision Making in the Iliad. Johns Hopkins 2013. Chapter 4: “Social Order and Poetic Order,” pages 86-104.

G. Nagy, Homer the Classic. Cambridge 2009. Chapter 1.§1-§5, pages 73- 104 ("An esthetics of rigidity")

A. Haft, "Odysseus' wrath and grief in the Iliad: Agamemnon, the Ithacan King and the Sack of Troy in Book 2, 4, and 14. The Classical Journal 85 (1990) 97-114.

A. Purves, 2018. Homer and the Poetics of Gesture, Chapter 5: "Standing."

Edzard Visser, 1997. Homers Katalog der Schiffe. Stuttgart: Teubner. (ok, maybe not this week—it's 700-something pages of German.....)

Jasnow, B., Evans, C., and Strauss Clay, J. 2018. "Poetic and Geographical Organization in the Catalogue of Ships." TAPA 148. 1-44.

Eunice Kim, 2023. "The Art of the Trojan Catalogue ( Iliad 2.816–877)." Classical World 116.115-145.

WEEK THREE : Iliad 3-5

January 16: Iliad 3

zooming in: Iliad 3.1-37, 3.395-420

January 18: Iliad 4-5

zooming in: Iliad 4.126-182.

zooming in: Iliad 5.311-380.

Things you might read this week (but don't have to):

Claire Le Feuvre, Homer A to Z: Metrics, Linguistics, and Zenodotus (2022). Chapter 2 (on 3.152).

R. Martin, "Keens from the absent chorus: Troy to Ulster." Western Folklore 62 (2003) 119-142.

R. Blondell, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford 2013. Chapter 2: “Helen, Daughter of Zeus” Link

R. Blondell, Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford 2013. Chapter 3: “Disarming Beauty: the Iliad.” Link

Muellner, L. "The Simile of the Cranes and Pygmies: A Study of Homeric Metaphor." HSCP 93 (1990) 59-101. Link

S. Jamison, “Draupadi on the Walls of Troy.” Classical Antiquity 13 (1994) 5-16. Link

C. Tsagalis, The Oral Palimpsest: Exploring intertextuality in the Homeric Epics. HUP 2008. Chapter 6: "Viewing from the walls, viewing Helen: language and indeterminacy in the 'Teichoscopia'". Link

J. Ready, Character, Narrator, and Simile in the Iliad. Cambridge 2011. Chapter 4. "Sequences of Similes in the Character-Text." Link

E. Allen-Hornblower, “Gods in Pain: Walking the Line between Divine and Mortal in Iliad 5.” Lexis 32 (2014) 27-57.

WEEK FOUR: Iliad 6- 8

January 23: Iliad 6

zooming in: Iliad 6.390-495

January 25: Iliad 7-8

zooming in: Iliad 7. 225-285 (ideally, keep going to 312)

zooming in: Iliad 8.300-307, 489-516.

Things you might read this week:

G. Nagy, Homer the Preclassic (University of California 2009).

Part II Chapter 10.2 "Pattern-weaving back into the Bronze Age"

Part II Chapter 7.4 "Rethinking the Trojan Past"

R. Martin The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca 1989. Chapter 2: “Heroic genres of speaking."

E. Bakker, Poetry in Speech. Ithaca 1996. Chapter 3: "Consciousness and Cognition."

J. O’Maley. “Diomedes as Audience and Speaker in the Iliad. Chapter 10 in J. Ready and C. Tsagalis, eds. Homer in Performance: Rhapsodes, Narrators, and Characters. University of Texas Press 2018.

W. Donlan, “The Unequal Exchange between Glaucus and Diomedes in Light of the Homeric Gift-Giving Economy.” Phoenix 43 (1989) 1-15.

R. Scodel, “The Wits of Glaucus” TAPA 122 (1992) 73-84.

C. Dué. Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis. Chapter 4: “Wife.”

C. Dué. The Captive Woman’s Lament in Greek Tragedy. Chapter 1: “Men’s Songs and Women’s Songs.”

WEEK FIVE: Iliad 9-11

January 30: Iliad 9

zooming in: Iliad 307-429

February 1: Iliad 10-11

zooming in: Iliad 10.254-282, 446-464

zooming in: Iliad 11.670-762

Things you might read this week:

M. Bachvarova, “Formed on the Festival Stage: Plot and Characterization in the Iliad as a Competitive Collaborative Process.” Chapter 10 in J. Ready and C. Tsagalis, eds. Homer in Performance: Rhapsodes, Narrators, and Characters. University of Texas Press 2018.

R. Scodel, “Iliad 9.372-373 and αὐτὸς ἀπούρας.” The Classical Journal 98 (2003) 275-279.

D. Wilson, "Symbolic Violence in Iliad Book 9." The Classical World 93 (1999) 131-147.

G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans, Baltimore 1979/199. Chapter Six, pages 94-117 ("Lamentation and the Hero")

G. Nagy, Comparative Studies in Greek and Indic Meter. Cambridge 1974. Epilogue, pages 228-261: "The Hidden Meaning of κλέος ἄφθιτον and śráva(s) ákṣitam."

G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans, Baltimore 1979/199. Chapter Three, ("A Conflict between Odysseus and Achilles")

N. Yamagata, “Phoenix’s Speech: is Achilles punished?” The Classical Quarterly 41 (1991) 1-15.

WEEK SIX: Iliad 12-15

February 6: Iliad 12-13

zooming in: 12.195-229, 13. 169-205

February 8: Iliad 14-15

zooming in: 14.312-353, 15.674-695

G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans, Baltimore 1979/199. Chapter Three, ("A Conflict between Odysseus and Achilles")

R. Scodel, “Iliad 9.372-373 and αὐτὸς ἀπούρας.” The Classical Journal 98 (2003) 275-279.

J. Burgess, The Death and Afterlife of Achilles. Baltimore 2009. Chapters 2 and 3 (pages 27-55)

WEEK SEVEN: Iliad 16-18

February 13: Iliad 16

zooming in: 16.726-776; 16.783-829.

extra in case you want more zooming in: 16.220-252, 16.439-461,

February 15: Iliad 17-18

zooming in: 17.1-60, 17.426-455.

zooming in: 18.35-64,18. 490-508, 18.590-606.

Things you might read this week:

E. Allen-Hornblower, “Revisiting the Apostrophes to Patroclus in Iliad 16.”

G. Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics. Cornell University Press 1992. Chapter 5 (“The Death of Sarpedon and the Question of Homeric Uniqueness”) 122-142.

S. Lowenstam, “Patroclus Death in the Iliad and the Inheritance of an Indo-European Myth.” Archaeological news 6 (1977) 72-76.

D. Lateiner, “Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16. 459): The Grief of Zeus.” Colby Quarterly 38.1 (2002) 42-61.

W. Allan, “Arms and the Man: Euphorbus, Hector, and the Death of Patroclus.” Classical Quarterly 55 (2005) 1-16.

A. Griffith, “A Ram called Patroklos.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 32 (1985) 49-50.

R. Rabel “Cebriones the Diver: Iliad 16.733-776.” AJP 114 (1993) 339-341.

L. Slatkin, The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the Iliad. Berkeley 1991. Chapters 2 and 3 (pages 53-105)

I. de Jong, “Pluperfects and the Artist in Eckphrases. From the shield of Achilles to the shield of Aeneas (and beyond). Mnemosyne 68 (2015) 889- 916

S. Lonsdale , “A Dancing Floor for Ariadne (Iliad 18.590-592): Aspects of Ritual Movement in Homer and Minoan Religion.” In B. Carter and S. Morris, eds. The Ages of Homer: a tribute to Emily Townsend Vemeule.” University of Texas Press 1995.

G. Nagy, “The Shield of Achilles: Ends of the Iliad and Beginnings of the Polis” (Chapter 4 of Homeric Responses. University of Texas Press 2003)

https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/3791.4-the-shield-of-achilles-ends-of-the-iliad-and-beginnings-of-the-polis

Y. Rinon, “Tragic Hephaestus: the Humanized God in the Iliad and the Odyssey.” Phoenix 60 (2006) 1-20.

M. Alden, “Lions in Paradise: Lion Similes in the Iliad and the Lion Cubs of Il. 18.318-22. Classical Quarterly 55 (2005) 335-342.

N. Hammond, “The scene in Iliad 18.497-508 and the Albanian Blood Feud.” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologist 22(1985) 79-86.

P. Hardie, “Imago Mundi: Cosmological and Ideological Aspects of the Shield of Achilles.” JHS 105 (1985) 11-31.

T. Hubbard, “Nature and Art in the Shield of Achilles.” Arion 2 (1992) 16-41.

S. Scully, “Reading the Shield of Achilles: terror, anger, delight.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 101 (2003) 29-47.

WEEK EIGHT: Iliad 19-21

February 20: Iliad 19.

zooming in: 19.282-339.

February 22: Iliad 20-21

zooming in: 20.378-454

zooming in: 21.1-33, 232-271, 342-365.

Things you might read (and listen to!) this week:

E. Austin, Grief and the Hero: The Futility of Longing in the Iliad. University of Michigan 2021.

Edith Hall, Homer's Iliad and Environmental Catastrophe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3wELA-ykdg

Brooke Holmes, "Situating Scamader: 'Natureculture' in the Iliad" Ramus 44 (2015) 29-51.

Christina Salowey, "The Rivers Run Through It: Environmental History in Two Heroic Riverrine Battles." In: Greta Hawes, ed. Myths on the Map: the Storied Landscapes of Ancient Greece. 2017: 159-177.

WEEK NINE: Iliad 22-23

February 27: Iliad 22

zooming in: 90-166/213; 437-515.

February 29: Iliad 23

zooming in: Iliad 23. 54-107, 301-350.

Things you might read this week:

L. Garcia “Hector, the Marginal Hero: Performance Theory and the Homeric Monologue.” Chapter 11 in J. Ready and C. Tsagalis, eds. Homer in Performance: Rhapsodes, Narrators, and Characters. University of Texas Press 2018.

S. van der Mije, “Bad Herbs—the Snake Simile in Iliad 22.” Mnemosyne 64 (2011) 359-382

J. Ready, “Iliad 22.123-128 and the erotics of supplication.” The Classical Bulletin 81 (2005) 145-164.

D. Frame, Hippota Nestor. Cambridge 2009. Chapter 5 (Iliad 23)

G. Nagy, Homer the Classic. Cambridge 2009. Chapter 1.s13-s14, pages 160- 186 ("Sunt lacrimae rerum")

G. Nagy, The Best of the Achaeans. Chapters 7 and 8, pages 118-150.

T. Van Nortwick, “Like a Woman: Hektor and the Boundaries of Masculinity.” Arethusa 34 (2001) 221-235.

WEEK TEN : Iliad 24

March 5: Iliad 24.

zooming in: Iliad 24. 478-595, 718-804.

Things you might read this week:

G. Nagy, Homer the Preclassic. Berkeley 2010. Chapter 10, pages 273- 310 ("The Sorrows of Andromache Revisited")

L. Muellner, The Anger of Achilles. Ithaca 1996. Chapter 5 ("The Menis of Achilles and its Iliadic Teleology")

J. Burgess, “The Hypertext of Astyanax.” Trends in Classics 2 (2010) 211-224.

C. Mackie, "Iliad 24 and the Judgement of Paris." Classical Quarterly 63.1 (2013) 1-16.

R Muich, “Focalization and Embedded Speech in Andromache’s Iliadic Laments.” Illinois Classical Studies 35-36 (2010-2011) 1-24.

S. Mills, “Achilles, Patroclus and Parental Care in Some Homeric Similes.” Greece & Rome 47 (2000) 3-18.

K. Carvounis, “Helen and Iliad 24.763-764.” Hyperboreus 13 (2007)

EXTRA: some readings on Homeric epithets

"Troy" slides (mostly useful for links)

Also recommended on Troy and available on youtube:

Jonathan Hall, Archaeology and Myth: some reflections

FINAL PROJECT DUE MARCH 13: SUBMIT HERE