/lit/ - Literature

homer was a bard drawing from a vast narrative that was molded to suit contemporary (8th century greek) audiences and therefore concerns.

the work of milman parry prove homer was an oral poet drawing on previous traditions. think of homer as drawing from a collective set of stories (epic cycle) in much the same way that fictional universes are plucked from today to create individual simpsons episodes or star wars movies. homer takes his audience's knowledge of this larger narrative for granted.

the iliad plucks from the larger narrative a smaller one about the wrath of achilles, his feud with agamemnon, the death of patroclus, and the burial of hector. we know troy will fall today; an ancient audience even moreso.

it is not necessary to say this. instead, homer uses his selected narrative to talk about the contradiction of the heroic code: that kleos or, undying glory in bardic song, necessitates the death and shame of another. this is the tragedy of the iliad, and part of what makes it so genius. note the iliad does not end with the fall of troy and the glorying of the argives. no: it ends with the funeral laments of three women and the burial of the last capable man in troy. we know what will happen next, so the pathos is intensified.

homer's audience would find it even more intense as andromache will be enslaved to another man, hector's son will be tossed off the walls of troy, priam will be slain on the altar. the pent up rage of the argives is not depicted in the iliad because homer's audience would already know.

>>8817615
CRASH--Sing, O Goddess, of that great calamity,
which wrought unto the Achaean countless knocks;
which spurned a thousand piercing cries of malice;
which deceived the Achaeans with it's sound.
Sing, Goddess, of the deception rung unto their ears,
of the non-sizzle of sun-gold pancakes from Thetis,
which resounded as a saw runs bleeding through a pine,
sending its dust throughout the forest like a plague.
O! Muse, sing of the deception which wrought them,
whispered in their ears the adoption of war-hounds;
which yippering like a new-born's fresh-lain cries,
were not so--the will of Zeus was moving to its end.

homer was to antiquity as shakespeare is to modernity. he was 'the poet' in the same way we see shakespeare as 'the bard'. homer is constantly praised, quoted, used as a moral example, and drawn from in future works.

>herodotus praises him
>plato quotes him EXTENSIVELY, and through him demonstrates the power of poetry in the republic
>aristotle wrote on homeric inconsistency and tragedy along with the rest of the epic cycle
>sculpture, red and black-figure vases
>the plethora of visual art drawing from scenes from homer
>aeneid, divine comedy, dunciad, etc.
>joyce's ulysses
>troy starring brad pitt

he's really, really great in his own objective right--and i think should be a mandatory read in schools if only to demonstrate the both horror and glory of warfare. "the things they carried" by tim o'brien perhaps is the only thing resembling it in showing the vague terror and joy in war. it's goddamn beautiful: read the fagles, lattimore, pope, and original greek if you can.

as for authorship? most smart guys recognize that homer was drawing from a pool of oral tradition, thereby making the iliad/odyssey to some extent the work of a group. yet, this gets tricky as "Homer", whoever the blind bastard was, wrote it down and thus consolidated this vast collection of texts, epithets, phrases, and scenes that were created through almost jazz-like oral composition.

homer is a lot like shakespeare in a way; nobody seems to believe that one man (or, black lesbian woman if you prefer) could possibly create such an extraordinary work of sublime beauty and intricacy on their own. to answer the question: sort of.

homer wrote himself and his brand of composition into book ix of the iliad:

>They found him there, delighting in his heart now,
>Plucking strong and clear on the lyre
>Beautifully carved, its silver bridge set firm
>He won from the spoils when he razed Eetoins city.
>Achilles was lifting his spirits with it now,
>Singing the famous deeds of fighting heroes
>Across from him Patroclus sat alone, in silence,
>Waiting for Aeacus son to finish with his song.

homer was as old as he was modern, i think. we can learn something from the old meta bastard.

>>8731611
bernard shaw's saint joan, you can't go wrong with him
aristophanes' lysistrata, clouds, he's hilarious
aeschylus' oresteia
beckett's waiting for godot
shakespeare richard iii, hamlet, etc.
maybe consider looking to browning's monologues: my last duchess, porphyria's lover. kind of dark stuff
check out major works by chekhov, strindberg, ibsen, sophocles

for a curveball, maybe some scenes from homer? priam finding achilles to ask for the body of hector or whichever

>>8725088
also, two of my favourite gems from shakespeare and joyce:

>But look, the morn in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill

>The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.

>>8659506
just read it, the beginning is set in a cold, cold nantucket village. incredibly warm and intimate narration by ishmael, who's funny and charming without losing any biting wit. read the first few chapters and it'll fly by.

imo, the majority who don't like moby dick (see: goodreads reviews) likely do not like shakespeare, either. just gloss over the book and take special care to see his collection of extracts about whales: from genesis to contemporary whaling accounts, melville has read the classics to the fuckin hilt, and knows how to spin them into something transcendent of travel literature. look up some excerpts and soliloquys, i like ahab's "40 long years" one. i think that's what it's called, anyways.

cheers