(Mycenean age = 1600-1200, Fall of Troy = about 1220, destructionof Mycene = about 1150 Dark Ages 1200-800) poet writing about the Mycenean Age,about 1200 B.C. Legends: Did the Greeks believe in the historicityof their heroes? (Yes!) Were they right? (Well, thereon hangs a tale.Let's begin with the question of the Trojan War).Similes (Paris & the stallion, excerpts p.212, lines 601ff.).Poetry: the music of the words (He obeyed the order,/ turning, trailing away in silence down the shore / where the roaringbattle lines of breakers crash and drag, -excerpts, p.Command of rhetoric (Achilles oath, excerpts p.85).Vivid, transporting description (battle description,excerpts p.Characterization (Zeus & Hera, excerpts pp.95-98 Thersites, excerpts pp.Lots of dialogue and action: crafted for performance.Structure of tale: begins in medias res:in the middle of the action, rather than at the logical beginning of thetale.First Greek poet within this tradition to survivein writing.Oral poet of about 750 B.C., working withina long tradition of oral poetry.Who was Homer? Why do we think of Homer's Iliadas the beginning of the western literary tradition? What is different aboutHomer's way of telling a tale and the Epic of Gilgamesh? The way the material is presented: for example,Homer jumps intothe middle of things (in medias res), and works out fromthere, rather than beginning at the beginning.The material presented: the Iliad coversonly 52 days, concentrating on about 5 days, of the ten year war (thoughalong the way many aspects of the war outside of these 52 days are introduced).What is the difference between the storyof the siege and Fall of Troy, and the story of Homer's Iliad?
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