E4: The Iliad and The Odyssey Notes

The Greeks—a collective of city-states that housed some of the greatest thinkers, scientists, and story-tellers the world has ever known. Their religion was as varied as their gods and goddesses.

Key Philosophers/Philosophies

• Plato (393 BC)
• The Question: What is real/reality?
• The Answer: Not us. We are only reflections of a greater reality.
• Aristotle's response to Plato (354 BC): We can only live in the world we are in—
• Think about it
• Do it
• Learn from it
• Immanuel Kant (1754) 
• Consensual Reality: agreed upon rules for the universe and society regarding what can and cannot exist
• Knowledge: data organized into concepts; outside perception 
• Analytical Knowledge: breaking down the sense and understanding of an experience 
• Synthetic Knowledge: connecting sense, understanding, and experience 

Key Players in the Trojan War (The Iliad)

• Achilles: Son of Thetis who dipped him in the River Styx
• Agamemnon: King of Mycenae; Sacrifices daughter, Iphigenia, to gain favorable winds to sail to Troy; Killed by his wife and her lover
• Priam: King of Troy
• Hector: Crown Prince of Troy and great warrior; Husband of Andromache; Killed by Achilles in war after killing Achilles' best friend
• Paris: Prodigal son of Priam; Always trying to prove he’s as good as his many brothers
• Helen: Wife of Menelaus; Lover of Paris; Considered “the most beautiful woman in the world” 
• Cassandra: Daughter of Priam and priestess of Apollo; She is doomed to always tell the truth and never be believed after she refuses to have sex with Apollo

The Iliad by Homer (750-800 BCE)

• Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman in the world. Agamemnon convinced all the leaders of Greek islands and city-states to support his brother, Menelaus, as Helen's husband. 
• Paris and Cassandra were born a prince and princess of Troy. 
• Due to several prophecies about how Paris would cause the destruction of Troy, he was sent to be raised in the mountains. He ended up judging a beauty contest among three goddesses and is promised Helen in return. 
• Meanwhile, Cassandra becomes a priestess of Apollo and refuses to have sex with him since she's a sworn virgin; Apollo curses Cassandra to see and tell the truth while no one will believe her. 
• By the time Paris returns in triumph to Troy, Cassandra has been branded as a total crazy.
• Odysseus likes the Trojans and has no wish to fight them. He pretends to be crazy until his son's life is threatened.
• Once he gets all his warriors on board, Agamemnon, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia in order to convince the gods to give him the winds he needs to get to Troy. This comes back to bit him later...
• Achilles has spent his whole life being hidden from the world by his mother, Thetis, who dipped him in the river Styx to keep him from harm. This mama's boy ended up in the Greek army.
• Petroclus, Achilles best friend, takes his place in a pivotal battle to save the Greek ships and is killed by Hector. Even though the Trojans give Petroclus the same honors they give to their own fallen warriors, Achilles freaks out and kills Hector. Instead of giving Hector's body back, Achilles desecrates it before offering to exchange it for Cassandra who happens to be a virgin priestess of Apollo.
• Some sources claim it was Apollo, others claim it was Paris, who shot an arrow from the walls of Troy into the heel of Achilles thus killing him.
• Most of the greatest warriors of the Greeks and Trojans were killed during the ten years of the war. Before the end, Hector and Paris both died. Aeneas was the only Trojan warrior known to escape. He led a small group of refugees outside the walls of Troy on the last night of it's existence and went on to found Rome.
• Ten years into the fighting Odysseus convinces the Greeks to build a horse (which is sacred to Poseidon) and fill it with soldiers while moving all their ships out to sea. The Trojans are so excited to finally be winners that they bring the horse inside their walls. Later that night, the Greeks open the gates, destroy Troy, kill and rape and pillage...
• Cassandra is claimed by Agamemnon. By the time his ships return to Mycenae she is pregnant. According to the Iliad, Agamemnon and Cassandra are both murdered by Clytemestra (his wife) and her lover, Aegisthus which causes Orestes and Electra to avenge their father. There are sources that claim Cassandra and her child survived...

Paragraph 1: Which warrior from The Iliad truly deserves to be remembered? Explain fully.

The Odyssey by Homer (800-850 BCE)

Odysseus: 

• Ogygia—Odysseus is the reluctant lover of the nymph Calypso until Athena finally convinces the gods to free him. 
• The Phaeacians—after leaving Ogygia on a raft, Poseidon sends a storm to drown Odysseus who ends up on a friendly island. While there, Odysseus tells the story of his ten year absence from Ithaca which includes the Lotus Eaters, The Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Hades (to talk to Tiresias from way back in the Oedipus plays), Scylla, and Calypso.
• The Phaeacians help Odysseus return to Ithaca, but all the sailors die...

Telemachus:

• Telemachus was a baby when Odysseus went to war. For most of his life a large group of men have taken over his house and lands while they try to get Penelope, his mom, to give up Odysseus as dead and marry one of them.
• Athena shows up, pretends to be an old friend of Odysseus', and convinces Telemachus to bail on Ithaca for awhile. She sends him to Pylos
• Since he didn't learn from from King Nestor of Pylos, Telemachus journeys to Sparta where he learns about Odysseus' feats during the Trojan war from Menelaus and Helen.
• Finally, Telemachus returns to Ithaca

Penelope:

• Left behind to raise and son and keep the lands, Penelope doesn't have the money or fire power to get rid of her suitors. She does manage to make them wait several years for her to weave a shroud for her father-in-law. Eventually, one of her maids betrays her.
• Telemachus has a total hissy-fit and blames all his problems on Penelope. Faced with increasingly impatient suitors and abandoned by her son, Penelope manages to keep a step ahead of all the men who think they know best.

The Final Battle:

• Odysseus returns to Ithaca and hides out with Eumaeus, a swine-herd 
• Odysseus and Telemachus have a happy reunion and plan the slaughter of the suitors
• Odysseus pretends to be a beggar and fools almost everyone. His nurse recognizes him and Penelope suspects who he is. She organizes a contest to see who can string and shoot Odysseus' bow
• All the suitors fail, Odysseus and Telemachus kill the suitors. He then decides to "test" Penelope fearing she wasn't loyal...

Paragraph 2: Compare and contrast Cassandra of Troy and Penelope of Ithaca. OR Compare and contrast Agamemnon of Mycanea and Odysseus of Ithaca.