Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Yahoo Study Loop

Our study group is located at Yahoo. Membership is restricted and requires approval (to prevent spammers) from the moderator. Anyone is welcome to join our study group -- please sign up and send us a short introduction that tells us a little about yourself and why you would like to join our group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical/

For more information, please contact us at areteclassical-owner@yahoogroups.com.

Great Books Lists

All of the books we will be reading are available online as easy to read e-texts. You are welcome to read using any translation you may have on hand or can borrow from your public library. Many readers enjoy reading from more than one translation and feel they can better experience the beauty of the writing when they read a more modern translation (in english prose).

Links to Great Books

St. John's College Reading Lists

Mortimer Adler's Great Books Reading List

Homer's The Odyssey

Our next book in our Ancient History rotation will be Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

As usual, we will post to the User Group using one of the online e-texts (Samuel Butler translation). You are welcome to read along with us through the group list, or at your own pace using another text/translation. We will be posting study questions from Dr. Donald Mills Greek Literature Course (Syracuse University). These questions are posted as discussion starters -- feel free to join in or post any of your own questions that you may have during your reading assignment.

Our reading pace will be approximately two chapters per week for 12 weeks. This will allow us to finish Homer around the end of March.

Homer's The Odyssey

In Print

  • Greek/English Hardcover edition in two volumes, translation by A.T. Murray (Harvard Univ Pr, 1995):
    Vol. 1 - Books I-XII
    Vol. 2 - Books XIII-XXIV
  • Paperback edition, translated by E.V. Rieu, introduction and notes by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 1992, 394 pg).
  • Paperback edition, translated by Richmond Lattimore (Harper Perennial, 1999, 374 pg).
  • Paperback edition of The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy - a condensation of the Iliad and Odyssey (Aladdin, 1982, 247 pg).

Study Guides and Discovery Questions

The Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi (1792 to 1750 B.C.)

The next book in our Ancient History rotation will be a study of the ancient laws of Hammurabi. For this study we will be using the Avalon Project at Yale University for our source. Charles F. Horne, Ph.D. writes this about King Hammurabi:

"Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi's reign [1795-1750 BC] have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. Hammurabi is the first "example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them."

A brief overview of Babylonian law is explained here by Rev. Claude Hermann Walter Johns, M.A. Litt.D: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammpre.htm

Historical Context

"The Code of Hammurabi (also Hammurapi), the most complete and perfect extant collection of Babylonian laws, was developed during the reign of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 B.C.) of the first dynasty of Babylon. The code consists of Hammurabi’s legal decisions, which were collected toward the end of his reign and inscribed on a diorite stele set up in Babylon’s Temple of Marduk, a temple named for the national god of Babylon. The 282 case laws include economic provisions (prices, tariffs, trade, and commercial regulations), family law (marriage and divorce), as well as provisions dealing with criminal law (assault, theft) and civil law (slavery, debt). Penalties for breaking the laws varied according to the status of the offender and the circumstances of the offense. The code survives only in the Semitic Akkadian tongue, but it is clear that it was also meant to apply to the non-Semitic Sumerians, representing an integration of the traditions of both peoples. Hammurabi’s Code is the most complete record of ancient law in existence." (Source The LibertyFund.org http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/AuthorBioPage.php?recordID=0113)

Wikipedia has an excellent biography on King Hammurabi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi Please read this short bio or use your encyclopedia and lookup background reference information on this ancient ruler.

Helpful Explanations and Other Versions

The Avalon Project's e-Text at Yale Universities School of Law has the L.W. King translation (1901) online with commentary by Charles F. Horne, (1915) and Claude Hermann Walter Johns, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed, 1910. This is the version I will be posting to the list.

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammenu.htm

Fordham University has King's translation online as well. This version is a 'plain' copy which might prove useful for those who would like to print a section to read at a time.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html

The LibertyFund has a downloadable e-text of this codex, translated by Robert Francis Harper in 1904. For those of you who prefer reading a printed book, this might be a good translation to download and print out:

http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/Book.php?recordID=0762

Richard Hooker's (Washington State University) Online Archive has King's 1901 version here,
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/CODE.HTM

Please feel free to choose an e-text version that works best for you.

Paperback Resources

For those who prefer a paperback edition, here are some popular choices. Your library may have copies, so check there first. Neither book was available in my public library so I am not sure of their exact availabilty worldwide.

The Code of Hammurabi (Paperback)by L. W. King, ISBN 1419157035 (in print through Amazon.com)
The Code of Hammurabi King of Babylon (Paperback) by Robert Francis Harper, ISBN 1410201023 (OOP available through used booksellers - pricey!)

Reading Schedule

The Code of Hammurabi is broken into three parts: introduction, the law, and epilogue. There are approximately 282 laws and while they cover a number of topics, they really do not break out into specific groupings to aid in our reading. My suggestion is that we simply read through them as follows:

1st post: Introduction
2nd post: Laws 1-50
3rd post: Laws 51-100
4th post: Laws 101-150
5th post: Laws 151-200
6th post: Laws 201-end
7th post: Epilogue

This will take us through November and into December. We will break for the holidays and then pick up Homer's The Odyssey in January.

Study and Discovery Questions

As you read each law, consider the following:

  • Who is involved?
  • What are they told to do or not to do?
  • What are the stated consequences of complying or not complying with the law?

For general discussion on this book:

  • What was “The Code of Hammurabi”?
  • Why was it important?
  • What do we learn from it about attitudes toward gender, class, and justice in Mesopotamian societies?

Other Good Links

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The next book in our Ancient History rotation will be another epic poem entitled, The Epic of Gilgamesh (author unknown). There are several good translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Popular Modern Versions - Reprints

In addition to these online e-texts, there are many good translations available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, many classics collections, as well as Dover and Signet Thrift collections. Listed below are a few of the more popular modern prose translations.

  • Paperback edition, verse translation by Danny P. Jackson, illustrated by Thom Kapheim (Bolchazy Carducci, 1997, 115 pg).
  • Paperback edition, verse translation by Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford Univ Pr, 1989, 122 pg). Paperback edition, translated by Benjamin R. Foster (W.W. Norton & Co, 2001).
  • Paperback edition, prose translation by John Harris (Writers Club Press, 2001, 105 pg).
  • Paperback edition, verse translation by John Gardner and John Maier (Random House, 1985, 304 pg).

Other Good Links

Study Guides and Book Notes

Many people find study guides helpful when reading classical literature. The following links include study guides, notes, and discovery questions to help you in your reading assignment.

Tenative Reading List

Ancient Period (to 240 B.C.)

Unknown: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Code of Hammurabi
Homer: Iliad, Odyssey
Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus
Euripides: The Trojan Women, Medea Electra
Aristophanes: Clouds
Thuycidies: Peloponnesian War
Herodotus: Histories
Plato: Apology, Crito and Phaedo
Aristotle: Poetics; Ethics

Late Roman to Early Middle Ages (240 B.C. to 1000 A.D.)

VirgilL: Aeneid
Caesar: Gallic and Civil Wars
Livy: History of Rome, Books I-V
Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars
Horace: Odes, Epodes, Satires and Poetry
Ovid: Metamorphoses, Book I
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews
Plutarch: Lives (various)
Epictetus: The Discourses
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Meditations
Tertullian: Writings
Eusebius: Ecclesiastical History
Anthanasius: On the Incarnation
Augustine: Confessions
St. Benedict: Rule of St. Benedict
Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the Church
Beowulf
Tales from 1001 Arabian Knights

Middle to High Medieval Period (1000 to 1400 A.D.)

St. Anselm of Canterbury
The Mabinogion
Peter Abelard
The Song of Roland
The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs
St. Francis of Assisi
(Magna Carta)
St. Thomas Aquinas
Dante Alighieri
Francesco Petrarch
Geoffrey Chaucer
Thomas à Kempis
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Renaissance to Reformation (1400 to 1600)

Sir Thomas Malory
Nicolò Machiavelli
Desiderius Erasmus
Baldassare Castiglione
Sir Thomas More
Martin Luther
St. Ignatius of Loyola
François Rabelais
John Calvin
Michel de Montaigne
Miguel de Cervantes
The Book of Common Prayer
Edmund Spenser
Francis Bacon
Christopher Marlowe
William Shakespeare
John Donne
Thomas Hobbes
Izaak Walton
Rene Descartes

Age of Revolution and Enlightenment Book List (1600 to 1800 A.D.)

Brother Lawrence
John Milton
The Mayflower Compact
Moliere (1622-1673)
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
John Bunyan (1628-1688)
John Locke (1632-1704)
Jean Baptiste Racine (1639-1699)
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
John Wesley (1703-1791)
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
David Hume (1711-1776)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
James Boswell (1740-1795)
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
John Jay (1745-1829)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
James Madison (1751-1836)
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804)
William Blake (1757-1827)
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Articles of Confederation (1777)
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Constitutional Convention Debates (1787)
Constitution of the United States (1787; effect. 1789)
Anti-Federalist Papers (1787-88)
Federalist Papers (1787-88)
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
John Keats (1795-1821)
Mary Shelley (1797-1851)
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)

Industrialization to the Modern Era (1800 to Present)

Alexandre Dumas (père) (1802-1870)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1859)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
George Eliot (1819-1880)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Jules Verne (1828-1905)
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Mary Mapes Dodge (1830-1905)
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Lewis Carrol (1832-1898)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
William James (1842-1910)
Henry James (1843-1916)
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
William Butler Yeats (1856-1939)
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Max Planck (1858-1947)
John Dewey (1859-1952)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
H. G. Wells (1866-1946)
Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Jack London (1876-1916)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
James Joyce (1882-1941)
Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975)
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
William Faulkner (1897-1962)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
George Orwell (1903-1950)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991)
Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn (1918- )
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Why Read Classical Literature

The Areté Classical Study Program was created out of a sincere desire by the moderator to study the 'great books' of Western Civilization using a path to progress approach, from antiquity to the modern era. The goal is first and foremost for self-education with a secondary purpose of being able to construct and defend a coherent, biblical worldview as a result of this self-studied approach.
For most of us, the idea of attending a Great Books school, such as St. John's or even Biola University, is the farthest thing from our minds. Our lives are rich and full with home, children, and other ministry obligations. College studies are behind us and now we earnestly seek to prepare our children for such things. Yet the desire to continually learn and grow is God-given and is always before us. What role does education play in the lives of mothers? Are we to forgo new studies and simply concentrate on helping our children learn? This moderator believes that the role of education for a mother is of vital importance and that our job to nurture, to train, and to raise Godly children will only be enlarged when we undertake the task to study along side of them.
Mrs. Alfred Booth offers the following commentary on the subject of "The Influence and Teaching of the Educated Mother," in a paper given at the Bristol Conference of Women Workers, 1893/4:
What, then, is education? Who is the educated mother? What ought her teaching and influence to be?
What is education? We are apt to think we know very well what education is, and when asked this question give an answer which we hope will satisfy ourselves and others. When, however, we begin to think seriously on the subject we are surprised to find how dim and hazy our opinions are, and we cannot be satisfied until we try to classify them and arrive at some definite conclusions. Speaking of education therefore in reference to women as mothers, I should venture to say its first and prime object ought to be to make women think, and that all education which does not tend to make thinking easy and natural fails of its object and is not education.
The original meaning of the word educate is to draw forth; education should therefore aim at drawing forth all the different powers of human beings. True education should train the intellect, establish principles, and regulate the heart. In answering the question, what is education? --especially in reference to girls --I would strike this threefold cord, believing that if the intellect is trained to habits of thought by the development of its faculties, the conscience to the perception of the reasonableness of principles founded on intelligible moral laws, and the heart to a wise regulation of its spontaneous action, we may hope for results which will be most likely to prepare women for the particular duties and responsibilities which motherhood brings.
She continues with...
Who, then, is the educated mother? The educated mother is pre-eminently a woman who thinks, and the results of her regulated thought will be seen in the daily administration of her home.
The educated mother must, however, be much more than a nursery machine and a technical instructress. Realising that the children of to-day will rapidly develop into individuals keen to learn and be taught, she will always be alive to the necessity of cultivating her own mind, and the work of self-education and improvement will go on for her while life lasts. It is absolutely necessary a mother should know how to care for the small bodies, but it is equally important she should understand and satisfy the unfolding intellects of her children. It is a painful spectacle, that of a mother who has allowed her children to outstrip her as thinking beings, and can no longer keep pace with them in their pursuits and interests.
The educated mother knows this, and will keep well in touch with all the interests of life. Religion, politics, social and philanthropic problems are all of absorbing interest to her, and she recognises she can keep her children's confidence, some of whom probably are cleverer then herself, only by habits of thoughtful interest in all which concerns humanity. Beyond this the educated mother will seek to prepare her sons and daughters for that trying period in their lives when, emerging from childhood, they stand on the threshold of woman and manhood, oppressed often by new, bewildering thoughts, and open to guidance in a peculiarly sensitive and receptive manner. For this critical period the mother has already prepared herself by her knowledge of laws human and divine, and she earnestly endeavours to be herself the guide of her developing children.
and concludes with the following remarks:
In conclusion, the influence and teaching of the educated mother is all for righteousness; and the formation in her children of character, based on self-control and self-sacrifice, the daily object of her life.
The Influence and Teaching of the Educated Mother By Mrs. Alfred Booth [Paper read at Bristol Conference of Women Workers. Reprinted by kind permission of Bristol Ladies' Association for the Care of Girls.] 1893/4 Parents Review Volume 4 pgs 081-090
It is therefore our desire to enable mother's to continue to educate themselves through a classical study program. With the advent of the Internet the canon of Western thought is now readily available to everyone regardless of their physical location. There is therefore no reason for a mother to not be able to continue to enrich and enlarge her education for any reason: whether cost, inconvenience, or lack of companionship.

Please http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical consider joining us as we study the great minds and masterpieces of our civilization. It is an education you will not want to miss!

Reading Rules

Our desire on the Areté Classical Study list is to create a spirit of sharing and discussion where everyone is welcome to post comments, thoughts and opinions on the books we read. As such we do ask that every post be respectful and that all comments are made without causing offense to other readers. We understand that our readers perspective will vary according to their upbringing and their religious beliefs. It is therefore imperative that we show respect at all times and that we remember to pose our questions in a thoughtful manner worthy of intellectual discovery.

  1. All readers are welcome to join us
  2. We are a predominately Christian reading group
  3. We read with a Biblical Worldview
  4. We discuss readings in light of the Bible
  5. We all agree to disagree on some points
  6. We do not allow any foul or abusive language on the list
  7. We do not allow any solicitation whether for products or services
  8. We understand that we all are learning and that there isn't always a 'clear cut' answer
  9. You do not have to read every book listed
  10. You do not have to read at the suggested pace
  11. You are welcome to post your comments and or questions to the group
  12. You are free to unsubscribe and resubscribe at your discretion
  13. All posts are screened for content and at the sole opinion of the moderator may be edited or removed
  14. Members may be removed at any time and for any reason (although this has never happened) should they break the rules above or become aggressive or antagonistic towards the Moderator or any member.
  15. This is a slow paced non-intellectual reading group -- you do not have to be a Biblical or Classical studies scholar to read. Most of our members are home schooling parents, retiree's or book lovers who like to read at a gentle pace.
If you can abide by our reading rules, you are welcome to join us! You can subscribe via the website at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/areteclassical/

About Our Program

About The Program

This list was created in March of 2005 by Carol Hepburn (List Moderator). Initially, her desire was to read the 'great books' of Western Civilization and wondered (rather innocently) if anyone else would be interested in joining her. She posted to the Ambleside Online and Charlotte Mason discussion lists and much to her surprise, several readers expressed an interest in participating. In very short order a group list was setup at Yahoo and a reading schedule created.

About The Moderator

Carol Hepburn is a former home schooling mother who studied the "great books" during the course of her college studies. Through her degree program she came to love the study of Humanities (History, Art, Music, Literature and Philosophy). Her son is now a college-student and she no longer home schools. Carol shares her love of 'great books' with her English Literature students at Grand Canyon University.

Statement of Faith

Many people have inquired if this study group maintains a statement of faith or a biblical standpoint as a guideline for discussion and study of these books. The short answer is yes and no. While Carol is a Christian, she believes in creating a spirit of study without placing specific boundaries on the members/participants (other than her strict code of ethics when it comes to email and group discussion lists). The Areté study loop is open to all interested readers and while predominately Christian, there is no 'faith based' requirement to join. We welcome readers of all faiths and backgrounds. However, please note that the purpose of this group is to read and discuss the great books of Western Civilization through a Biblical Perspective (see below).

Biblical Worldview

The term "Biblical Worldview" has become popular recently and means different things to different people. In an effort to provide some standard measurement, this group list endeavors to study the 'great books' of our civilization through a Biblical Worldview or perspective. This means that we use the Bible as our standard and maintain the position that God is Creator of the Universe and Author of all life. Everything we read and study we use for edification (understanding and learning); therefore, everything we read must be viewed with the Bible as our starting point in time and place.

Why We Choose to Read and Study Classical Literature

Our goal in studying Classical Literature will be:
  • to learn to listen and to read carefully (slowly and purposefully)
  • to learn to think clearly and to learn to express oneself persuasively
  • to comprehend our position in space, time, and culture and our relationship to other places, other times, and other people
  • to appreciate and learn from the differences between our own time and place and those of other cultures
  • to enjoy a wider range of beauty as we widen our exposure to great works of literature
  • to devote oneself to continued learning, using the tools of learning acquired in the previous five points
  • to evaluate and ascribe the proper significance to all of the above in the light of a biblical perspective
  • to construct and defend a coherent, biblical worldview as a result of our on-going education
(excerpted from http://www.schola-tutorials.com/prepare.htm and modified by the moderator)

A Community of Learning

Our desire on the Areté Classical Study list is to create a spirit of sharing and discussion where everyone is welcome to post comments, thoughts and opinions on the books we read. As such we do ask that every post be respectful and that all comments are made without causing offense to other readers. We understand that our readers perspective will vary according to their upbringing and their religious beliefs. It is therefore imperative that we show respect at all times and that we remember to pose our questions in a thoughtful manner worthy of intellectual discovery.

The Books and Content

Some of the classical books we will read will have adult themes and content. This may cause discomfort to some readers who feel that it is inappropriate to read or study classical books. We understand that tolerance of such themes and content will vary and therefore there is no pressure to read any book listed or to participate in the associated discussion. We do offer the following caveat: the books listed are those considered to be GREAT BOOKS and deemed through the test of time to contain significant value for intellectual study. We believe that there is value in studying the culture and the beliefs of the peoples and nations in our past and that through persistent study of these books today we can gain a deeper understanding of our modern world. It is only through our dedication to this study and our pursuit of self-education that we will be able to defend our own faith and biblical viewpoint when called upon to comment or expound on the significance of these great works.

We hope you will consider joining us as we study the great minds and masterpieces of our civilization. It is an education you will not want to miss!

About The Program Coordinator

Carol Hepburn has been a life-long learner. She has loved reading classical literature since she was a child. Although she always felt her public school education lack sufficiency, Carol found great enjoyment in studying literature and art. Her current interests are in education, teaching, and in language studies. Carol home educated her only child through high school using the online classically-inspired curriculum, Ambleside Online.

Carol holds a Bachelors of Art degree in English (European Studies), a Masters of Art degree in English Literature, and she is working toward a PhD in Communication. She currently works as an adjunct English and Communications Instructor for Grand Canyon University and Arizona Christian University. In her spare time, she studies languages (currently brushing up on her French), and she plays the cello. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her college-age son, and her two adorable cats.

Carol welcomes any questions or comments about this group. Feel free to email her.

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Homer's The Iliad

Homer's Iliad

Our first book in our Ancient History rotation will be Homer's epci poem, The Iliad. There are many, many translations available online, in libraries, and reprinted and distributed through popular booksellers (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookstar). The links below include online translations as well as suggested translators (most popular). Please feel free to use whatever source you may have on hand or locally available.


Popular Modern Versions - Reprints

In addition to these online e-texts, there are many good translations available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, many classics collections, as well as Dover and Signet Thrift collections. Listed below are a few of the more popular modern prose translations.

  • E.V. Rieu (Penquin Classics)
  • A.T. Murray (Loeb Classics)
  • Stanley Lombardo (Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated)
  • R. Lattimore (University of Chicago Press)
  • R. Fitzgerald (Everyman's Library Edition)
  • W.H. Rouse (Signet Classics)
  • A.Lang (Collector's Library)
  • R. Fagles (Penguin USA)
  • S. Butler (Dover Thrift Edition)

Other Good Links

Study Guides and Book Notes

Many people find study guides helpful when reading classical literature. SparkNotes has a complete classics library available online for free.

Study and Discovery Questions for Homer's The Iliad

Study and Discovery Questions are courtesy of http://duke.usask.ca/~porterj/CourseNotes/IliadStiles.html#unit2 by Lewis Styles; The Iliad Study Questions from SparksNotes.com, and Carol Hepburn (Arete Moderator).

Books I and II

  1. As we ease into Book I and II, we need to begin to focus on the main characters as Homer portray's them. Homer uses descriptive language to help us gain an understanding into each character's personality as well as their strength's and weaknesses.
  2. In Book I, we are introduced to the main characters as well as to the central theme of the story. How would you describe the following characters (use Homer's words):
    • King Agamemnon
    • Achilles
    • Argives/Achaeans/Danaans (the Greeks)
    • Odysseus/Ulysses
  3. Do you note any behavior, actions or attitudes that seem to show up throughout this first book?
  4. In addition to mortal characters, Homer gives us a glimpse into the life of the gods on Mt. Olympus. What impression do you have of the gods? How do they behave? What characteristics would you use to describe each god (again use examples from Homer's words):
    • Zeus/Jupiter
    • Hera/Juno (Pallas)
    • Athene/Minerva
    • Aphrodite/Venus
    • Poseidon/Neptune
    • Ares/Mars
    • Hephaestus/Vulcan
  5. Lastly, share with us your impression of the book thus far. Did you like it? If you would like to share your narration with us on Book I, please do so.

Books III and IV

Thersites = "bold one."

the ugliest = aischistos = "most ugly, most shameful."

It seems like just yesterday . . . at Aulis: actually, it was nine years before.

aegis = a sort of shawl that Athena (and other gods) wear and use like a shield—for protection and to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies.

Ares . . . sister Eris = "Strife."

  1. What do you think Homer intends to show the reader (about Agamemnon's character, about the morale of the Achaeans, about Odysseus) in the scenes detailing Agamemnon's plan to "test" his troops and its result?
  2. Why do you think Homer included the episode of Thesites' abuse of Agamemnon and his chastisement by Odysseus? Why is it OK for Achilles to abuse Agamemnon but not OK for Thersites to disrespect him? Why do you think the troops laugh?
  3. What do you think the scepter / staff could symbolize?
  4. What do you think of Paris' answer to Hector? Why do you suppose the people of Troy haven't just gotten rid of Paris and / or Helen?
  5. Why do you think Menelaus agrees to the truce and single combat?
  6. What do you think is Helen's view of her situation? Who does she blame for her predicament? Who would you blame?
  7. Now a strange question: where do you think Helen's emotions come from?
  8. What do you think would happen to Helen if Aphrodite "let go" of her?
  9. Why does Aphrodite rescue Paris? Why do you think Helen gives in to Paris?
  10. why do you think the gods love some men, women, and cities and try to destroy others? Why does Hera want peace?
  11. Why do you think breaking the truce brings "glory" to Pandarus?

Books V and VI

  1. Now that we have actually experienced war for the first time in the story -- what are your thoughts, feelings, impressions of the Greek's battle with the Trojans?
  2. In Book 4, we see Helen in more detail. What do you think of Helen? Do you think she loved Paris? Do you think she planned on a 10 year war being fought over her and the attempt to recover her?
  3. Many scholar's refer to the 'rage of Achilles' in this book. Do you see Achilles' rage? If so, how would you characterize it and do you see it develop/change from book to book?
  4. Near the beginning of Book 6, a seer (his brother) tells Hector to do something. Compare his reaction to the reaction of Agamemnon when a seer tells him to do something; what is revealed, or rather, re-emphasized?
  5. At of the end of Book 6, what do you think of Hector and Priam, in contrast to Agamemnon and Achilles? Why? What exactly is each side fighting for? How would you evaluate each of these two things?
  6. Compare Hector's interview with Helen in Book 6 with the scene between Priam and Helen in Book 3. What is odd about both these scenes? What do you make of Helen, in light of them? Of Priam and Hector?
  7. At the end of Book 6, we have seen much of the horror of war. What do you think Homer is telling us about war? Does he like it?