MODULE II
Chapter 2 – The Glory that was
Greece, the Grandeur that was Rome
Lesson 1 Iliad
Lesson 2 Odyssey
Lesson 3 Aeneid
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MODULE II
CHAPTER 2 – THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE,
THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME
INTRODUCTION
This module delves on the world created by the Greek and Roman epics.
Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid are the representative samples of the literary tradition
called epics. An epic is a narrative poetry which tells the exploits of heroes and even
gods and goddesses. It can talk about wars, deeds of glory, love, roles of men and
women, lesson of triumph and humility, and journey both physical and spiritual.
Herein, we see the rise and fall of men based on their deeds and as judged by a
mightier being. We can also see the growth of the main characters from simply being
heroes of old to heroes of virtue and unspeakable powers.
OBJECTIVES
a. Make appropriate references to relevant texts
b. Analyze the importance of literature as it relates to its socio-cultural
context and to its “universal” appeal
c. Explain how and why socio-cultural factors influence our understanding and
experience of a literary piece and impact the significance and meaning of a
literary piece
DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER
This module is divided into three lessons. Each lesson has five parts. The
first part is a video that gives a background or an overview of the story. The link is
provided for you and it is also attached in the google classroom. The second part is
the synopsis of the story / play for the lesson. Although the synopsis is presented in
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the lessons, it is important for the student to read the literary text indicated in the
lesson. The student must refer to the companion reference stated in the synopsis.
The third part is a set of activities to be accomplished both to gauge
comprehension of the presented content. These can be in the form of an essay or a
set of comprehension questions or an objective quiz. The fourth part is a list of
available materials or supplemental reading materials you can download, browse, and
read.
The fifth part is a reflection log (Learning Log Component) wherein you will
answer a checklist of the competencies or skills that you should have acquired, write
a summary of what you have learned, and list at least two things that you still want to
be discussed.
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LESSON 1 ILIAD
“The Iliad”
-an epic poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer
-recounts some of the significant events of the final weeks of the Trojan War and the
Greek siege of the city of Troy (which was also known as Ilion, Ilios or Ilium in ancient
times)
-written in the mid-8th Century BCE
-usually considered to be the earliest work in the whole Western literary tradition, and
one of the best known and loved stories of all time.
Synopsis
The story covered by “The Iliad” begins nearly ten years into the siege of Troy by
the Greek forces, led by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. The Greeks are quarrelling about
whether or not to return Chryseis, a Trojan captive of King Agamemnon, to her father,
Chryses, a priest of Apollo. When Agamemnon refuses and threatens to ransom the girl to
her father, the offended Apollo plagues them with a pestilence.
The Greeks, at the behest of the warrior-hero Achilles, force Agamemnon to return
Chryseis in order to appease Apollo and end the pestilence. But, when Agamemnon
eventually reluctantly agrees to give her back, he takes in her stead Briseis, Achilles‘s own
war-prize concubine. Feeling dishonored, Achilles wrathfully withdraws both himself and
his Myrmidon warriors from the Trojan War.
Testing the resolve of the Greeks, Agamemnon feigns a homeward order, but
Odysseus encourages the Greeks to pursue the fight. During a brief truce in the hostilities,
Paris and Menelaus meet in single combat over Helen, while she and old King Priam of Troy
watch from the city walls and, despite the goddess Aphrodite’s intervention on behalf of
the over-matched Paris, Menelaus is the victor. The goddess Athena, however, who favours
the Greeks, soon provokes a Trojan truce-breaking and battle begins anew.
The Greek hero Diomedes, strengthened by Athena, drives the Trojans before him
but, in his arrogance and blood-lust, strikes and injures Aphrodite. Despite the misgivings
of his wife, Andromache, the Trojan hero, Hector, son of King Priam, challenges the Greek
warrior-hero Ajax to single combat, and is almost overcome in battle. Throughout all, in
the background, the various gods and goddesses (particularly Hera, Athena, Apollo and
Poseidon) continue to argue among themselves and to manipulate and intervene in the
struggle, despite Zeus’ specific orders to the contrary.
Achilles steadfastly refuses to give in to pleas for help from Agamemnon, Odysseus,
Ajax, Phoenix and Nestor, spurning the offered honours and riches and even Agamemnon‘s
belated offer to return Briseis to him. Diomedes and Odysseus sneak into the Trojan camp
and wreak havoc. But, with Achilles and his warriors out of battle, the tide appears to
begin to turn in favour of the Trojans. Agamemnon is wounded in the battle and, despite
the heroics of Ajax, Hector successfully breaches the fortified Greek camp, wounding
Odysseus and Diomedes in the process, and threatens to set the Greek ships on fire.
Torn between his allegiances, Achilles orders his friend and lover, Patroclus, to
dress in Achilles‘own armour and to lead the Myrmidons in repelling the Trojans.
Intoxicated by his success, Patroclus forgets Achilles‘ warning, and pursues the fleeing
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Trojans to the walls of Troy and would have taken the city were it not for the actions of
Apollo. In the heat of the battle, though, Hector finds the disguised Patroclus and, thinking
him to be Achilles, fights and (again with Apollo’ help) kills him. Menelaus and the Greeks
manage to recover Patroclus’s corpse before Hector can inflict more damage.
Distraught at the death of his companion, Achilles then reconciles with Agamemnon
and rejoins the fray, despite knowing his deadly fate, and drives all the Trojans before him
in his fury. As the ten year war reaches its climax, even the gods join in the battle and the
earth shakes with the clamour of the combat.
Clad in new armour fashioned specially for him by Hephaestus, Achilles takes
revenge for his friend Patroclus by slaying Hector in single combat, but then defiles and
desecrates his corpse for several days. Now, at last, Patroclus’ funeral can be celebrated in
what Achilles sees as a fitting manner. Hector‘s father, King Priam, emboldened by his
grief and aided by Hermes, recovers Hector‘s corpse from Achilles, and “The Iliad” ends
with Hector‘s funeral during a twelve day truce granted by Achilles.
From [Link]
LEARNING ACTIVITY. Read the following stories in your companion book: THE
HEROES OF THE TROJAN WAR; I The Trojan War; Prologue: The Judgment of Paris;
The Trojan War. After reading, accomplish the following activities.
A. Discussion Questions. Answer the following questions. Please refer to the
instructions in your course guide regarding discussion questions.
1. Why do you think Homer use medias res in telling Iliad?
2. Explain why Helen leaves King Menelaus.
3. Why do you think there are so many character backstories in The Iliad?
4. Why did King Priam accept Helen and Paris in Troy when it was clear that they
bring war to his doorsteps?
5. What do you think Nestor means when he claims that those who think for
themselves won't win for the team?
6. What do Nestor and Achilles have in common?
7. What similarities and differences are there between the armies of Troy and
Achaian?
8. Why do you think Homer includes so much information about each soldier who
dies?
9. Who do you think is more skilled at warfare: Agamemnon or Hector? Why?
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[Link] you were Andromache, would you have hated Helen? Why or Why not?
[Link] didn’t hector blame Helen?
[Link] is Nestor trying to tell Patroclus with his story when the young warrior
visited him?
[Link] does Patroclus demonstrate compassion for fellow soldiers in this book?
[Link] about all the different ways that warriors are killed in this book, what
words would you use to describe the battles?
[Link] do you think shows the most courage? Why?
[Link] why Hera and Zeus may have different ideas about how to interact with
morals.
[Link] Paris. What do you think made him sacrifice an entire city for a
woman?
[Link] Helen. What do you think made her agree to elope with Paris?
[Link] are the following described/characterized/represented in Iliad:
a. women
b. family
c. hero
d. justice
e. faith
f. gods and goddesses
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LESSON 2 ODYSSEY
“The Odyssey”
- the second of the two epic poems attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer
(the first being “The Iliad”)
-usually considered the second extant work of Western literature
-was probably composed near the end of the 8th Century BCE and is, in part, a
sequel to “The Iliad”
-widely recognized as one of the great stories of all time, and has been a
strong influence on later European, especially Renaissance, literature.
Synopsis
Ten years after the Fall of Troy, and twenty years after the Greek hero
Odysseus first set out from his home in Ithaca to fight with the other Greeks against
the Trojans, Odysseus’ son Telemachus and his wife Penelope are beset with over a
hundred suitors who are trying to persuade Penelope that her husband is dead and
that she should marry one of them.
Encouraged by the goddess Athena (always Odysseus’ protector), Telemachus
sets out to look for his father, visiting some of Odysseus’ erstwhile companions such
as Nestor, Menelaus and Helen, who have long since arrived home. They receive
him sumptuously and recount the ending of the Trojan War, including the story of
the wooden horse. Menelaus tells Telemachus that he has heard that Odysseus is
being held captive by the nymph Calypso.
The scene then changes to Calypso’s island, where Odysseus has spent seven
years in captivity. Calypso is finally persuaded to release him by Hermes and Zeus,
but Odysseus’ makeshift boat is wrecked by his nemesis Poseidon, and he swims
ashore onto an island. He is found by the young Nausicaa and her handmaidens and
is made welcome by King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, and begins
to tell the amazing story of his return from Troy.
Odysseus tells how he and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms,
and how they visited the lethargic Lotus-Eaters with their memory-erasing food,
before being captured by the giant one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus (Poseidon’s son),
only escaping after he blinded the giant with a wooden stake. Despite the help of
Aeolus, King of the Winds, Odysseus and his crew were blown off course again just
as home was almost in sight. They narrowly escaped from the cannibal
Laestrygones, only to encounter the witch-goddess Circe soon after. Circe turned
half of his men into swine, but Odysseus had been pre-warned by Hermes and made
resistant to Circe’s magic.
After a year of feasting and drinking on Circe’s island, the Greeks again set
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off, reaching the western edge of the world. Odysseus made a sacrifice to the dead
and summoned the spirit of the old prophet Tiresias to advise him, as well as the
spirits of several other famous men and women and that of his own mother, who
had died of grief at his long absence and who gave him disturbing news of the
situation in his own household.
Advised once more by Circe on the remaining stages of their journey, they
skirted the land of the Sirens, passed between the many-headed monster Scylla and
the whirlpool Charybdis, and, blithely ignoring the warnings of Tiresias and Circe,
hunted down the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. For this sacrilege, they were
punished by a shipwreck in which all but Odysseus himself drowned. He was washed
ashore on Calypso’s island, where she compelled him to remain as her lover.
By this point, Homer has brought us up to date, and the remainder of the
story is told straightforwardly in chronological order.
Having listened with rapt attention to his story, the Phaeacians agree to help
Odysseus get home, and they finally deliver him one night to a hidden harbour on
his home island of Ithaca. Disguised as a wandering beggar and telling a fictitious
tale of himself, Odysseus learns from a local swineherd how things stand in his
household. Through Athena’s machinations, he meets up with his own son,
Telemachus, just returning from Sparta, and they agree together that the insolent
and increasingly impatient suitors must be killed. With more help from Athena, an
archery competition is arranged by Penelope for the suitors, which the disguised
Odysseus easily wins, and he then promptly slaughters all the other suitors.
Only now does Odysseus reveal and prove his true identity to his wife and to
his old father, Laertes. Despite the fact that Odysseus has effectively killed two
generations of the men of Ithaca (the shipwrecked sailors and the executed
suitors), Athena intervenes one last time and finally Ithaca is at peace once more.
From [Link]
LEARNING ACTIVITY. Read the following stories in your companion book: THE
HEROES OF THE TROJAN WAR; II The Fall of Troy; III The Adventures of Odysseus.
After reading, accomplish the following activities.
A. Discussion Questions. Answer the following questions. Please refer to the
instructions in your course guide regarding discussion questions.
1. At the beginning of The Odyssey, we are told that Odysseus suffered much on his long,
arduous journey homeward. How much of his suffering was the result of his own choices and
how much of it was beyond his control? How are the two to be distinguished?
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2. What is the relationship between the actions of humans and the dictates of the gods
throughout this poem?
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3. Do you think Odysseus was a good leader? Why or why not?
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4. What roles do women play in The Odyssey? Which women hold the most power? Why do you
think this is?
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5. Hubris, a Greek word for excessive pride, is one of the downfalls of many characters in
works of ancient mythology. Does this apply to The Odyssey?
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6. Do you know of any other books or movies about home and the challenges of reaching
home that come to mind when reading The Odyssey?
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7. How does reading The Odyssey affect your thinking about telling the truth? Are there ever
situations in which it is justified to hold back some true things?
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8. In several places, Odysseus tells long, elaborate, and untrue stories about his life to
introduce himself to others. Why does he do this?
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9. Many people value being sincere or guileless or transparent. How does reading The Odyssey
affect your thinking about these things? The poem is filled with accounts of their opposites--
disguises, transformations, and attempts to hide true appearances. Why is this?
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10. Homer scholar John Rexine has written that Odysseus “represents humankind in its
supreme form, a combination of physical strength, intellectual ability, and the will to survive
all obstacles, all odds.” How do you respond to this characterization? Is Odysseus an exemplar
for you? Why or why not?
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11. One of the most important cultural values in The Odyssey is xenia, a Greek word for
hospitality, generosity, or courtesy shown to those who are far from home. Where do you see
this? Why do you think hospitality was held in such high regard in Homer’s time? In what ways
is this value still applicable today?
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12. How does reading The Odyssey affect your thinking about piety? Is Odysseus a pious man?
Why or why not? Is there anything about piety that you can learn from The Odyssey?
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13. The Iliad especially focusses on kleos, a Greek word for glory or renown. The Odyssey
focusses more on nostos, a Greek word relating to the challenges of reaching home when far
from it. How do you think about these two things? What is the value of kleos (glory) compared
with that of nostos (home)?
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14. How does reading The Odyssey affect your thinking about fidelity and faithfulness? Should
these to be understood as universal moral and ethical goods? Why or why not?
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LESSON 3 AENEID
Aeneid
-Latin epic poem written from about 30 to 19 BCE by the Roman poet Virgil
-the Aeneid incorporates the various legends of Aeneas and makes him the founder of
Roman greatness.
Synopsis
In Book I Aeneas, journeying to his fated destination, encounters foul weather and is
forced to land his fleet on the Libyan coast. There he is welcomed by the widowed Dido,
queen of Carthage. Books II and III contain Aeneas’s account (told to Dido) of events both
natural and supernatural that have led him to her shore. In Book IV Dido confesses her love
for Aeneas, who (though he regrets his fate) is then forced by the gods to set sail again.
She prepares to kill herself. The Trojans, in Book V, journey to Sicily, where they engage in
a series of competitions to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Aeneas’s father,
Anchises. They then set sail again. Book VI is the account of Aeneas’s journey to the
underworld and Elysium, where he meets the ghosts of Dido and Anchises, among others. In
this book the destiny of Rome is revealed. Books VII through XII relate the fate of the
Trojans as they reach the Tiber River and are received by Latinus, the king of the region.
Other Latins (encouraged by the gods) resent the arrival of the Trojans and the projected
marriage alliance between Aeneas and Lavinia, Latinus’s daughter; notable among the
resentful are Latinus’s wife and Turnus, leader of a local tribe known as the Rutuli and
heretofore Lavinia’s favoured suitor. War breaks out, but the Trojans, with the help of the
Etruscans, prevail, and Turnus is killed. As fated, Aeneas marries Lavinia and founds
Lavinium.
Homer was Virgil’s model. The story of Aeneas’s journey, recounted in the first six
books, is patterned after the Odyssey, with many imitative passages and even direct
translations, while the description of the war in the last six books abounds with incidents
modeled after those in the Iliad. More basically, however, Virgil made use of another
model, Rome’s own national legend about the war fought under Romulus against the
Sabines. This legend preserves, in a historical disguise, an original Indo-European myth
about a conflict between the gods of sovereignty and war and the gods of fecundity, ending
with the unification of the two divine races. In Virgil’s development of this theme, Aeneas
and the Etruscans can be seen as representing the gods of sovereignty and war, and the
Latins as representing the gods of fecundity.
From [Link]
LEARNING ACTIVITY. Read the following stories in your companion book: THE
HEROES OF THE TROJAN WAR; IV The Adventures of Aeneas; Part I: From Troy to
Italy; Part II: The Descent into the Lower World
Part III: The War in Italy. After reading, accomplish the following activities.
A. Discussion Questions. Answer the following questions. Please refer to the
instructions in your course guide regarding discussion questions.
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1. How would you describe Aeneas as a hero? What character traits define him? How
would you compare and contrast him with other heroes of the classical tradition?
2. How would you begin to compare and contrast the Aeneid with both the Odyssey and
the Iliad? To what extent does Virgil write in the shadow of each? How would you
compare and contrast Aeneas with Odysseus and Achilles?
3. What is the significance of Carthage in this story? How would you begin to
characterize Dido and what role does she play in the epic? How would you compare
and contrast the origins of the Carthaginians and the origins of the Romans? Their
fates? Their relationship with the gods? How would you compare and contrast the
Carthaginians in the Aeneid with the Phaecians in the Odyssey?
4. How is the Underworld portrayed in the Aeneid? What is most interesting about this
portrait?
5. How would you characterize the Aeneid's depiction of Greece and the Greeks?
6. How would you describe the gods of the Aeneid? What is the nature of the relationship
between the gods and humans? How would you compare and contrast the gods of the
Aeneid with those of the Iliad and the Odyssey? How would you compare and contrast
the role of Juno in the Aeneid with that of Poseidon in the Odyssey? How would you
compare and contrast the relationship of Venus and Aeneas in the Aeneid with that of
Odysseus and Athena in the Odyssey or Achilles and Thetis in the Iliad?
7. Who is the Sibyl and how does she fit into the story?
Additional Discussion
Six Elements of the Epic:
1) Plot centers around a Hero of Unbelievable Stature. The epic hero completes what
everyone only attempts. In ancient epics, the hero often is either partially divine or
at least protected by a god or God.
2) Involves deeds of superhuman strength and valor. Accomplish feats no real human
could.
3) Vast Setting. The action spans not only geographical but also often cosmological
space: across land, sea, into the underworld, or thru space or time etc.
4) Involves supernatural and-or otherworldly forces. Gods, demons, angels, time/space
travel, cheating death etc.
5) Sustained elevation of style. Overwritten. Overly formal, highly stylized (poetry,
lyricism (singing), exaggeration)
6) Poet remains objective and omniscient. The narrator sees and knows all and
presents all perspectives.
Epic Origins: Generally, epics are also mythologized histories.
1) A conglomeration of pre-existing stories and characters.
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2) Often of oral origin.
3) At least loosely based around historical or quasi-historical characters or events or
characters.
4) Set in a mythologized distant time, traditionally in the past.
Epics as Moral Codes (Or Political Propaganda): The epic nearly always:
1) Represents moral ideals and taboos in the behavior of the hero and antagonist. The hero's
behavior and the lessons he learns along the way represent the culture's ideals; what the hero
does, all men should strive toward. The Other (monster or antagonist) is shown as
essentially/inherently inferior to the hero; the Other represents either those who break moral
taboos or the inferiority of Other cultures/peoples/nations etc.
Taken as a whole, we find that moral codes deal with, and all people in all stories are
obsessed with:
a) Sex. Who gets to bangeth whom? How are these rules divided/differentiated
between the sexes? How are these rules divided/differentiated between social class
or birth rank?
b) War and Violence. When are or aren't we justified killing one another?
c) The Distribution of Wealth. How is property treated within the culture and between
the culture and the Other?
d) Food and Alcohol. How is the treatment of both ritualized, usually in a religious
context, and why? What does this tell us about the origin of religious belief and law?
2) Grants cosmological significance to historical events; root causes are nearly always traced
back to the will of the gods or God; the hero's heroism and the triumph of the people is
divinely ordained. In this way history itself is given moral significance and the people feel
divinely guided toward their fate, especially if not always in relationship to the Other. As a
representative of the people, the hero proves the people/tribe/nation's will and actions are
uniquely divinely justified. The economic root causes of human relations -- between warring
nations, between master and slave, between men and women -- are entirely hidden beneath
an exciting, mythological, action adventure pitting good against evil.
Note that this last one is closely tied to the first, especially in terms of sex, war,
wealth and, yes, even food (the most basic form of wealth) and booze.
Epics as Cognitive or Spiritual Models of Development
Beginning with Gilgamesh and continuing on thru Achilles, Odysseus, Beowulf and Sir
Gawain -- not to mention Spiderman and Batman or Ricky Bobby -- the epic also culminates
around the hero's journey of self discovery and emotional/psychological/spiritual maturation.
Again, all epics seem to start with Gilgamesh's journey to involve the hero:
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a) Confronting the reality of death and thus realizing heroism is a spiritual or psychological
quality, not just a physical one. This often involves a journey beneath the earth, to the
underworld, where death itself abides.
b) Learning that love is more valuable than material wealth or life itself.
Epic Examples.
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Both The Hebrew Scriptures and The New Testament
The Iliad and The Odyssey
Beowulf
King Arthur and the Knights of Round Table
Dante's Inferno
The Lord of the Rings
Most Superhero Series (Superman, Batman...)
The James Bond Series
Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica
The historical narratives of the Revolutionary War, The Civil War, WWI, WWII, Fox
News coverage of the War In Iraq, any coverage of the Kennedy family.
From
[Link]
MODULE
Module 2 discusses the three epics – Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid. Whenever
epic is mentioned, these three are most often than not are mentioned as example. In
the first lesson, the beginning is narrated using the Iliad as the platform. The story of
the heroes of Iliad is continued in the second lesson which centers on the Odyssey.
Lastly, the fate of the Trojans is shown and explained in the third lesson which deals
on the Aeneid. Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, and Aeneas are the models of Greek and
Roman warriors of old. Their exploits have become the basis for a multitude of works
in the literature world but nothing narrates their stories better than these three
epics.
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