Greek 203

Greek 204/324 | Homer

Guides

Worksheets and Handouts

VOCABULARIES
Homeric Vocabulary 1-32
Homeric Vocabulary 33-67
Homeric Vocabulary 68-100
Homeric Vocabulary 101-147
Homeric Vocabulary 148-187
Homeric Vocabulary 188-244
Homeric Vocabulary 245-303
Homeric Vocabulary 304-363
Homeric Vocabulary Summary 1-363 (combined)

RAPID READING SHEETS
Rapid Reading 68-100
Rapid Reading 188-244
Rapid Reading 318-348
Rapid Reading 430-492

HANDOUTS
First lines 1-7
Homeric Hexameter (1)
Homeric Hexameter, ctd. (2)
Formulaic Scenes - Homeric Sacrifice
Homeric Ships
Ring Composition - the Niobe Episode

Presentation/Paper Topics

You will work independently on ONE topic (to be chosen). The result will be both a brief paper and a presentation to the class. The paper should be 3-5 pages, designed both to summarize and to BRING OUT THE INTEREST of the topic. That paper will be due at the class in which you make your presentation. The class presentation can be made from an outline or brief notes, but you should not simply read your paper. You should engage your audience and speak articulately, cogently, with a clear and focused structure to your remarks and well-chosen details. For the presentation, think how best to teach this topic to your classmates: what they need to know by way of background, what details you should select to engage and interest as well as inform, what problems or connections you’d like to bring to attention. The presentation itself needs to be crisp, clear, and short: 12-15 minutes.
Students taking the 324 class are expected to do a modest amount of further reading in getting a clear sense of the contours of the topic. Two of the assignments can be for a pair of students.

Type Scenes. Mark W. Edwards, Homer, Poet of the Iliad 71-77, and go ahead and look at the brief chapter (following p. 77) on battle scenes while you’re at it. (on reserve). At the end of that chapter (p. 77) is a suggestion for further reading. Pick a type-scene that interests you from these more specialized studies, and use that article/book to bring to us one example of a type (sacrifice, battle, hospitality, etc.) and sketch out how Homer deploys it. You’ll need to control how much detail to present — enough to make clear the nuances, without so much that you lose your audience.
Similes. Mark Edwards, Homer: Poet of the Iliad, pp. 102-110 and for a more technical treatment by the same author, The Iliad: A Commentary vol. V, pp. 24-41 (on reserve). Cambridge Companion to Homer, pp. 139-155 (online).
Gods, Religion, and Belief in the Homeric Epic. Mark Edwards, Homer: Poet of the Iliad, pp. 124-142 (on reserve). Cambridge Companion to Homer, pp. 59-73 (online). Burkert, Greek Religion (1985) esp. pp. 119-125 (online). Jasper Griffin, Homer on Life and Death, pp. 144-204 [provided as PDF directly to students].
Gender in Homer 1. Feltson/Slatkin, "Gender and the Homeric Epic," Cambridge Companion to Homer, pp. 91-116 (online). M. Katz, “The Divided World of Iliad VI,” in Reflections of Women in Antiquity, pp. 19-44 (not on reserve). T. Van Nortwick, “Like a Woman: Hector and the Boundaries of Masculinity,” Arethusa 34.2 (2001) 221-235 (journal available on-line through library).
Gender in Homer 2. This topic can be done by a pair of students; if so they will work to split the materials above, and will read a bit further into the topic.
Homer and Archaeology 1. A New Companion to Homer, chapters by John Bennet, “Homer and the Bronze Age,” pp. 512-533 and by Ian Morris, “Homer and the Iron Age,” pp. 534-559. Concentrate more on the former than the latter. (on reserve) G. S. Kirk, The Iliad: A Commentary, Vol. II, “History and Fiction in the Iliad,” pp. 36-50. (on reserve)
Homer and Archaeology 2. This topic can be done by a pair of students; if so they will work to split the materials above, and will read a bit further into the topic.
Homeric Style and Oral Poetics. A New Companion to Homer, chapter by Mark Edwards, “Homeric Style and ‘Oral Poetics,’ pp. 261-283. (on reserve) Gregory Nagy, “Oral Poetics and Homeric Poetry,” Oral Tradition 18 (2003), 73-75. For this brief note, Nagy lists a variety of essential bibliography. Choose one from that list that you would like to pursue (perhaps Martin if you want something more theoretical, or Lord if you want something more foundational on the orality side — but your choice). Since these are books, you’ll probably need to read selectively.
"Hero" and Epic. James Redfield, Nature and Culture in the Iliad, chapter 2 and 3 (an interesting argument that Hector is the true "tragic hero" of the Iliad) + background in Greg Nagy's introduction to Robert Fitzgerald's translation of the Iliad (in Carpenter Reading Room) or, for a short book treatment, Seth Schein, Mortal Hero, or parts thereof.
Hebrew Bible and Iliad. Needs to be a student already very familiar with both Hebrew Bible and how it came to be (as scholars understand that). Student will need to develop her own bibliography.
Homeric Society. Walter Donlan’s essay, “Duelling with Gifts in the Iliad: As the Audience Saw It,” Colby Quarterly 29 (1993) 155-172: How does Donlan’s argument recast what we have read in Book 1? Is the argument convincing? Are there problems or limitations to this approach?

Exam Guide

Exam 1
Part 1 will be a request that you write out the first seven lines of the Iliad in perfect Greek. Extra credit if you get the accents correct as well.
Parts 2-3 will be two passages from our readings since the last exam.These may include passages from the Rapid Reading sheets; if so, the RR sheets will be provided to the Greek 204 students; not to the Greek 324 students.
Part 4 will be another passage from our reading since the last exam, which you will not translate; instead, you will be asked to parse and explain forms and syntax.

Exam 2
Parts 1-2 will be two passages from the readings since the last exam. These may include passages from the Rapid Reading sheets; if so, the RR sheets will be provided to the Greek 204 students; not to the Greek 324 students.
Part 3 will be another passage from our reading since the last exam, which you will not translate; instead, you will be asked to parse and explain forms and syntax.
Part 4 will be a passage, for which you will be asked to scan and mark the primary caesura of each line.

Final Exam
Part 1 will be a request that you write out the first seven lines of the Iliad in perfect Greek. Extra credit if you get the accents correct as well.
Parts 2-3 will be two passages from our readings since the last exam.
Part 4 will be another passage from our reading since the last exam, which you will not translate; instead, you will be asked to parse and explain forms and syntax.
Part 5 will be a brief passage to translate at sight.

The painting at top is a detail of hoplites running, from a black-figure vase, 6th c. BCE, currently in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.