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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
HOMER'S ILIAD:
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First a word about the genre of "epic." An epic is a long
narrative poem written in an elevated style and presenting characters in
high positions involved in a series of adventures heroic and
nationalistic in proportions. The hero is of imposing stature and of
national legendary importance. The setting is vast, involving nations or
even the cosmos. The action focuses on deeds of valor and superhuman
courage. And the supernatural is often involved: otherworldly forces take
an interest and intervene. Epic Conventions Theme: the opening lines should state a theme, and here
it’s not war but rage -- the wrath of Achilles. Incomprehensibly,
this rage starts with Agamemnon and is interestingly contagious since he
in turn ticks off Achilles. Cleverly, this is all bound up with a time of
plague. Invocation: The opening lines should call upon the relevant
Muse for inspiration and instruction of the lowly poet (70), like
"channeling." In medias res: The story should begin "in the
middle of things." The exposition will come, possibly in bits, later
in the work. Why do this? (Beyond the American advertising assumption
that the reader’s attention must be manipulated out of him.) How is
this more natural a beginning? (It’s like joining a soap opera,
rather than tv sitcoms’ awkward and stilted premiere episodes with
their belabored introductions. Like getting into a soap, you gradually
learn names and connections which are initially baffling. You join soaps
and, in fact, life in medias res. You’re plunged into an
ongoing story and you have to backtrack gradually later to fill in the
blanks.) Epic Similes: These are extended comparisons added for poetic
flavor and sometimes subtle detail to the narrative dramatic moment. They
follow a pattern: "Just as ..., so ...." Their mundane purpose
is to draw from a wider variety of images so that readers get a better,
fuller, and more picturesque sense of the culture and an enriched
appreciation for the topic. But some of these actually do a lot more!
(See 92, 93.) Epic Catalogues: Long lists of warriors (the second half of
Book 2!), or of ships, armies, weapons, trees, and so forth appear in
epics. Be impressed and skip them. Epithets / Formulaic Repetitions: You’ll grow weary of
hearing certain phrases such as "the strong-greaved Achaeans,"
"cow-eyed Hera," "the great tactician Odysseus,"
"swift-footed Achilles," "the son of ...," etc. These
partly developed from the mneumonic and poetic needs of oral poetry. Formal Speeches: Grandiosity aside, how can these lengthy
pontifications be taking place in the heat of battle? How can anyone hear
each other unless they’re close enough, in which case, just shut the
guy up by heaving a spear! Suspend disbelief. These Greeks have to go
through the whole ritual, and sometimes they have interesting things to
say, or at least goofy and entertaining.
"Homer does not provide any kind of guidance to life if the lessons derived
are the usefulness of violence, the lack of regret at killing, the subjection
and selling of women, the extinction of all men in a surrendering city or
the sense that justice resides in personal revenge" (Nicholson 244).
"These poems are not sermons. We do not want Achilles or even Odysseus
to be our model for a man. Nor Penelope or Helen for a woman. Nor do we
want to worship at the shrine of Bronze Age thuggery. What we want is
Homeric wisdom" (245).
"Homer will enlarge your life. Homer is on a scale that stretches across
human time and the full width of the human heart. Homer is alive in anyone
who is prepared to attend. Homer is humanity" (31).