CMS150 - Winter 2001

Trials of Conscience: Litigation

and the Rhetoric of Identity

Background Material on Homer

• We Read Homer As Students of History:
  
  
  1. Time Line of Greek history:
     1. Minoan (1600-1400)
        Mycenaean (1400-1100)
        Dark Age (1100-800)
        Archaic (800-490)
        Classical (500-400)
        

      

  2. Problems Homer poses to historians:
     • recalls events that occured centuries before the poems were composed and the poems weren't written down for centuries more.
     • the evidence of oral traditions tends to lose factual accuracy within three generations.
       
       

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• We Read Homer As Students of Human Social Experience
  
  
  1. Homer provides a detailed and totalizing account of a society.
     • The Iliad describes a society at war.
     • The Odyssey describes a society disrupted by civil discord, and factional struggles during a vacuum of leadership power.
       
       
  2. Whatever the problems Homer's origins pose to historians, the consequences of the success of Homeric poetry are profound and can be studied.
     
     
  3. Homer was the first in the Western tradition to pose "first order" questions about social order and individual identity.
     

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• How we learned that there never was a Homer.
  
  
  • The "Homer was a genius" period.
    1. Europe has no access to Homer until the 14th century.
       
       
    2. When the Europeans rediscover Homer, they go neo-classical in a big way until the 17th century.
       
       
  • The "Was Homer a genius?" period.
    1. Homer was a bum (the Analysts).
       e.g. Abbe d'Aubignac: "Dissertation on the Iliad" (1664).
       
       
    2. Homer was way cool (the Unitarians).
       • Robert Wood: "Essay on the Original Genius and Writings of Homer " (1769).
       • F. A. Wolf: "Preliminary Inquiries into Homer, Part I" (1795).
         
         
  • The "Death of Homer" period.
    • Gilbert Murray: "The Rise of the Greek Epic" (1907).
    • Milman Parry: Oral Poetics
      

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• How to write a really long poem, without an author or a pen.
  
  
  • Have a regular metric line (dactylic hexameter)
    i.e. six units of either dactyls (-uu) or spondees
    
    

        1       2       3       4        5      6
    - u u | - u  u| -u  u|| - u  u| - u   u| - - 
    
    

  • Use stock phrases of similar metric shape in the same part of each line.
    
    
  • Use a similar pattern of description for similar types of scenes (e.g., a warrior getting dressed in his armor).
    
    
  • Base your song on traditional tales/myths that everybody in your culture knows and has always known.
    

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• The Picture of Social Life Drawn in the Iliad
  
  
  • Private/Domestic Life
    
     
    1. Shown through Trojans (Books 3 & 6)
       
        
    2. Gendered -City -> home -> women
       
        
    3. Complicated by sometimes conflicting identities of men as members of family and community.
       1. Men need to leave their families in order to win kleos.
          
           
  • Public/Male Life
    
    
    1. "Kleos" is your reputation; what people say about you.
       
        
       • Homeric Society as a "shame culture." 
       • The function and purpose of Homeric Poetry is to record and transmit the "kleos" of the great warriors of Homeric society.
         
          
    2. "Xenia" is the means by which social relationships with people who are not part of the family or community are organized.
       
        
    3. Political Institutions of Homeric Community
       
       
       • "King"
       • Council
       • Assembly
       • Note - law courts mentioned but not shown (except on Achilles' shield).
         
          
    4. Military Institutions
       
       
       • Agamemnon as "commander in chief"
       • individual or local "kings"
       • fighting in individual combat
       • fighting for personal spoils
         

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• Narrative Techniques in the Iliad
  
   
  • A. Simile
    1. definition: simile is a rhetorical or literary trope/figure that compares two apparently dissimilar things. It's classic formulation uses "like" or "as." E.g.: he's as smart as a bowling ball.
       
        
    2. Homeric use of Simile
       
       
       • Example: Menelaos' wound: Book 4. 141-147: his blood is like the dye used to stain ivory for ornamental gear for horses: the color of his blood is compared to the color of the dye.
       • Example: Descriptions of the army
         • Book 2.87-94 (Greek army)
         • Book 2.455 - 482 (Greek army)
         • Book 4. 433 - 438 (Trojan army)
       • Effect and Function 
         1. cinematographic
         2. conceptual
         3. narrative

             

  • B. Catalogues 
    1. Catalogue of Ships (Book 2.494ff)
    2. Review of Army (Book 4. 251ff)
       

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Background Material on Delphi

• History
  
  • Archaic Age marked by development of Pan-Hellenic sites and institutions: e.g. Olympus, Delphi, Delos, Dodona
    1. None show remains for temples before 700 B.C.E. - although activity as shrine (and festival) attested in 8th century.
    2. All located in remote areas, far from centers of political power.
    3. Each was of exceptional religious importance to Greeks.
    4. Both Delphi and Olympus, in addition to their importance as oracular shrines, also were famed for their festivals (Delphi's was originally musical and after 582, athletic and musical).
       
       
  • Locale -
    1. Delphi is located on Mt. Parnassus, 2,000 ft above the Gulf of Corinth.
    2. The site shows evidence of pre-Greek religious activity, Mycenean houses, and certain features of Delphic religious activity suggest there may have been a memory of, if not a connection with, Cretan religious practices.
    3. The sanctuary included, monuments erected by city-states in honor of victories; 20 "treasuries" which contained public and private donations (statues, carvings, tripods, etc.), the main temple of Apollo, and temples to a number of other gods. The road leading from the main mountain road to the sanctuary was called the "Sacred Way."
    4. The sayings "know thyself," and "moderation in all things" were carved on the temple of Apollo.
       

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• Activities at Delphi:
  
  
  • Shrine to Apollo, at which the god prophesied through his priestess, the Pythia.
    
    
    • procedure
      1. Greek cities and Kings of Asia Minor through embassies and private individuals consulted the priestess.
      2. Inquirers went through a ritual of purification and offered sacrifice.
      3. On the days that the Pythia received, the order of inquirers was chosen a) by special privilege; and b) by lot
      4. A male priest put the inquirer's question to the priestess (an elderly virgin) who had entered into an ecstatic trance (induced by a variety of not well understood practices; bay leaves; holy water, etc. (chasm story seems unfounded).
      5. The priestess responded, often in hexameter (Homeric) verse, often in quite ambiguous language.
         
         
    • kinds of prophecy
      1. issues of internal city-state politics - e.g. "Should the usurper keep his throne (cf. Gyges).
      2. issues re colonization - e.g. "Should we found a colony; if so where, and under the protection of what god?" Delphi fostered the Olympian and local gods in a fairly even handed manner.
      3. issues of intra-state politics - e.g. "Should Sparta attack Tegia?" (c.f., "should Lydia attack Persia?"). Note, the details of recorded oracles suggest that Delphi kept itself well informed on political issues of great importance to Greeks.
      4. issues of Greek-non Greek relations - e.g. "Should Athens resist Persia?" Some say that Delphi "Medized," but others contest this strongly.
      5. issues of private morality and life - e.g. "what should I do about my childlessness; whom should I marry; should I start an import business with a Lydian partner?" Delphi was conservative on matters of morality and religious practice.
         

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• Religious Festivals
  1. Regular festivals to Dionysus were held at Delphi. Dionysus was believed to share the shrine in junior partnership with Apollo, who left it in his safekeeping during the winter months (while Apollo vacationed).
  2. Women from all Greek city-states, as representatives of their cities were sent to take part in the rituals.
     
     
• Pythian Games
  1. The earliest festivals held at Delphi were artistic competitions. These competitions continued, but in 582, athletic competitions were added.
  2. The Pythian Games quickly became the second most important games in Greece (after Olympics).
  3. Only Greeks could participate in the Games.
     
     

• Function of Delphic activities
  
  1. Site of communication, exchange between Greek city-states and Greek and non-Greek political entities.
  2. Fostered "pan-hellenic" identity.

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