Is Achilles just a big jerk?

The book which provokes the most spark from students is book 9, the Embassies to Achilles.  If time constraints dictate that only one book be read, this is probably the one to go with.

At first, students may feel a straight-forward reaction of antipathy to Achilles.  What a jerk, refusing to help his comrades!

However, over the course of the discussion, they begin to defend Achilles.  They point out the public nature of the slight, and the clandestine nature of the offer to make amends.  Is taking a bribe honorable?  And isn't Agamemnon's offer just a huge bribe without an apology attached?  Isn't the very magnitude of the bribe an implied swipe at Achilles' honor?  It implies that his grievance is all about the prizes.

By the end of the discussion, while they may not be defending Achilles' choice, students may come to have much more understanding of the reasons that he rejects Agamemnon's offer.

The gods as ungodly characters

As early as book one, we have Apollo both sending and removing plague to the Greek camp in response to the prayer of his priest Chryses, and Thetis rushing to the comfort of her son Achilles.  These gods and goddesses are engaged with human affairs, but their motivations seem comprensible.  After all, Agamemnon was pretty disrespectful to the Apollo's priest, and Thetis is Achilles' mother.

The scene at the end of book one, where the gods feast and sleep together, having put their strife aside, is also comprehensible.  Aphrodite intervening on behalf of Paris is acceptable.

It is at the beginning of book four that the gods begin to vex us:  we have a difficult time accepting Hera and Athena's ceaseless rage against Ilium.  Why do these two goddesses hate the Trojans so?  Does the Apple of Discord story really help us understand this?  

Especially Hera's response to Zeus, who tells her he will allow her to destroy Troy as long as he gets to destroy one of her favorite cities in return:

"Excellent!  The three cities that I love best of all

are Argos and Sparta, Mycenae with streets as broad as Troy's.

Raze them--whenever they stir the hatred in your heart.  

My cities...I will never rise in their defense,

not against you--I'd never grudge your pleasure."

(Fagle's translation)

How to explain the intervention in human affairs that is based not on intervening on behalf of a favorite priest or son, but on implacable hatred for a city or race?

But seriously, the Catalogue of Ships?

How can I expect students to be interested in the catalogue of ships in book 2?

Students assigned to read Book 2 may at first panic at the thought of being tested on the minutiae of the catalogue.  It is best to allay that fear at the start.  One can simply decide not to use this minutiae on quizzes and tests, or one can decide to allow the students to create and use a study aid, or one can provide such a study aid oneself.

But what value does reading the catalogue give?  Firstly, the reader gets a sense of what a vast army the Greeks had assembled on the Trojan shore, and how outnumbered the Trojans were.  

Then, as one reads, one comes across the big names and begins to be able to assess what kind of status each leader should have had.  Often this is predictable--Agamemnon led one hundred ships, for example.  But some of the mightiest heroes led smaller contingents--for example:

Out of Salamis Great Telamonian Ajax led twelve ships...

and

That mastermind like Zeus, Odysseus led these fighters on.

In his command sailed twelve ships, prows flashing crimson.

(Fagles' translation)

What kind of leadership and respect was this, that placed the leaders of twelve ships above those man who led thirty, forty or fifty ships--described here in the catalogue--yet appear only sparsely in the action of the poem?

Is background information necessary?

Can you sit down and enjoy an episode of Star Trek without knowing all the back story of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, the Federation and all the rest of it?  Of course you can, because you are familiar with the general idea of exploration, of a captain as an authority figure, of a problem that needs a solution within the time frame of the episode, etc.

In fact, if you were presented with a whole back story that you had to learn BEFORE you could watch that first episode, you might never bother to watch it at all.  It is the interest in the characters and the action that inspires you to watch more and more, and thus to learn the back story as it is revealed.

The first two books of the Iliad stand on their own.  You do not need to know all about the Apple of Discord, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and all the rest of it in order to make sense of the action.  It is after chapter two, when a student is starting to wonder just why Athena and Hera are so implacably opposed to the Trojans, that it makes sense to add the mythological context.  

The Iliad plunges right in to a dramatic confrontation between two leaders who do not hesitate to tell each other exactly where to get off.  If we as teachers get out of the way and let the poem speak for itself, the bright student will come looking for more background.

Hey, this poem's in ancient Greek.

What to do with the original language of the poem?

For students reading the poem in English, it may seem irrelevant to introduce complicated terminology about dactyls and spondees and hexameter.  But it is interesting that the poem in Greek is very melodic.  Just as

But soft what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet the Sun!

is a melodic line in English, using a natural English cadence, so in Greek the lines have a natural rhythm and flow that is native to the Greek.

If you can read Greek, it is nice to read some of the lines out loud and let the students hear the flow of the sound.  The first few lines are nice, and the third line gives a good example of the spondee adding extra weight to the line.

 

Preconceived notions

When teaching Homer's Iliad, it is interesting to ask what preconceived notions students already have about the work.  Sometimes students have read Greek myths and may have some ideas about what the Greek gods and goddesses are like.  Some students may have read the Odyssey.  Many students have a vaguely pictorial notion about these ancient warriors with spears and bronze armor, and ancient women with elaborate hair-dos.

Students may also have preconceived ideas about what a long poem should or should not be like.  And definite ideas about whether or not they "like" long poems.

It is useful to take the time to unpack these preconceived notions before beginning to read the poem.