Unit 1

English 201:    Masterpieces of Western Literature

Questions:

Chat:  Consider these questions before you log-on to the chat session.  You do not have to write essay answers, but you should look at relevant passages of the text & jot down several points before the chat session so that you can easily contribute to the discussion.

• 1.232   Athena, stepping

            up behind him, visible to no one
            except AK gripped his red-gold hair
What does this passage tell you about the Greek conception of the divine?  How did the Greeks differ from the Hebrews on this point?
• 1.657    Why does Hephaistos get in the middle between Zeus & Hera?  Footnote 44 (p. 151) tells you something about Hephaistos.  Find something more, e.g., in your Penguin Dictionary.  You know that The Iliad is about violence.  What does Hephaistos' early life illustrate?  What does his nervous function in the scene on p. 151 illustrate?  Why could you predict that he would be fascinated with power?  He fabricates the weapons for AK.  He is married, not to Helen, but to Aphrodite herself.
• AK, AG & HK each personify power.  Obviously they are not all identical.  How do they differ?  Precisely characterize each in a word or phrase.  Can we (i.e., the polis) nurture one man or form of power & dispense with the others?  Why or why not?
• 6.379   HK addresses Paris: "Unquiet soul, why be aggrieved in private?"  Explain the tone & meaning here as well as in Paris' response: "Ah, HK, this call to order is no more than just."
• In the explication, I said: "We have already been presented with several moral dilemmas:

Can beauty be evil?  What is the relationship between beauty & morality?
Why does Paris deserve beauty?
Why is HK destined for tragedy?  Why should he defend the ignoble (Paris)?
Of the 3 great champions, HK is morally superior to AK & AG, yet he is the only one destined to perish in The Iliad.  What does this say about power or fate or divinity?"  Choose one of these philosophical questions & identify some of the relavent dimensions or concerns.

1. How many ships did the Greeks have?
2. Which Olympian is the chief patron & defender of Troy?
3. Kalkhas says:

A great man in his rage is formidable
he cherishes the burning in his belly
until a reckoning day.  Think well
if you will save me.
Save him from whom?  Who is Kalkhas thinking about?
4. Who is the voice of experience who tells the Akians that their fathers:

listened to my reasoning,
took my advice.  Well, then, you take it too.
5. Who is speaking & about whom?

This man's ambition,
remember, is to lead, to lord it over
everyone, hold power over everyone,
give orders to the rest of us!