Homer: The IliadThis volume is a distinctive critical introduction to Homer's Iliad, the earliest epic poem, and the earliest known work of literature in ancient Greece. Michael Silk deals with the poem's historical context, its composition and its extensive influence, and relates its literary power to the peculiar coherence and inter-relation of such aspects of the poem as its style, character-portrayal and ideology. This revised edition takes account of recent scholarship in the field and includes an updated guide to further reading. It is essential reading for students of literature and classics. |
Contents
Homers world and the making of the Iliad | 1 |
2 The Dark Age and eighthcentury panHellenism | 2 |
3 The date of the Iliad | 3 |
4 Homer | 4 |
5 Do we have Homers Iliad? | 6 |
Oral poetry performance and public | 11 |
the formulaic system | 14 |
conclusions | 21 |
14 Translation | 40 |
15 Stylisation and immediacy | 47 |
16 Heroism | 61 |
17 War | 64 |
18 Gods and men | 69 |
19 The characters and their presentation | 72 |
20 Achilles | 76 |
21 Achilles and heroic ideology | 84 |
9 The language of the Iliad | 23 |
10 Society in the Iliad | 24 |
11 The religious background | 25 |
The poem | 28 |
13 Shape and structure | 32 |
22 Conclusions | 85 |
The Iliad and world literature | 93 |
24 The Iliad the Odyssey the Aencid and Paradise Lost | 95 |
Guide to further reading | 99 |
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Common terms and phrases
Acamas Achaeans Achilles action Adam Parry Aeneas Aeneid Agamemnon Ajax analogy Andromache Aphrodite Apollo armour articulate Athene battle belong Briseis characters coherent combat context contrast Danaans death Diomedes dios Akhilleús divine duel effect elements epic simile epithets equivalent Erymas evokes experience fate feelings fighting Fitzgerald formulaic Glaucus glory gods Greece Greek Hector Helen Hephaestus heroes heroic ideology Hesiod Homeric poetry Homeric verse honour human idiom Idomeneus Iliad immediacy immortal instance killed kléos later Leaf and Myers less literary literature Menelaus metrical Milman Parry modern Mycenaean narrative Nestor Odyssey offers Oral composition oral poetry ordinary pan-Hellenic Paradise Lost Paris Parry particular Patroclus Peleus performance phrase Pisistratus poem poem's poet poetic Pope's presented Priam recitation representative Sarpedon scene sense sequence ships sixth century speech stylised swift tradition tragedy translation Trojans Troy Virgil's warrior washing-tanks whole wolves words XVIII XXII XXIV Zeus