Topics for Further Study
Last Updated August 1, 2024.
- What role do the gods play in the Iliad? Compare and contrast their role with that of deities in a modern religious tradition, whether it be your own or one that interests you.
- In his book Homer: The Poet of the Iliad, Mark Edwards states: “From the very first lines Homer will raise the origins of human suffering.” What conclusions does Homer draw about these origins? Compare and contrast Homer’s views on “the origins of human suffering” with the principles of contemporary psychology or anthropology.
- Examine the interaction between Glaucus and Diomedes starting at line 119 of Book 6. Compare this narrative to the story of Baucis and Philemon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book 8, 619ff.), the tale of Abraham at the oak of Mamre (Genesis 18:1-8), or the reception of Telemachus by Nestor (Odyssey, Book 3, 31ff.) or Menelaus (Odyssey, Book 4, 30ff.). What conclusions can you draw about the ideal relationship between hosts and guests from these stories? Does Diomedes treat his guest-friend justly? How does Homer portray their interaction?
- Pay close attention to how Homer characterizes Helen. Do you believe Helen genuinely regrets leaving Menelaus, or is she feigning remorse? How do you think Homer intended his audience to perceive Helen? What does her portrayal suggest to you about the role of women in Homeric society?
- Consider this passage from Pericles’ funeral oration for the Athenian dead in the first year of the Peloponnesian War (431-430 BC), as recorded by Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War, Book II, chapters 42 and 43, adapted from the Crawley translation published in 1982 by the Modern Library): “For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country’s battles should be as a cloak to cover a man’s other imperfections; for the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual. . . . These men, therefore, died in a manner befitting an Athenian. . . . The offering of their lives in a common enterprise gained for each of these men a fame that never grows old; instead of a tomb in which to lay their bones to rest, they gained the most noble of all shrines, in which their glory is placed, to be remembered on every occasion which calls for a commemoration of that glory, whether by word or action. For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast an unwritten record, with no tablet to preserve it except that of the heart.” Do you agree with Pericles that excellence in war (or other civic service) should compensate for a person’s flaws? Why or why not? What might Pericles have said about some of the Homeric heroes like Hector, Achilles, Patroclus, or Agamemnon?
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