Mendoza, Kyme N BEED 2 GREAT BOOKS
The Iliad translated by Robert Fitzgerald (Book 1)
Identify the elements and conventions of epics
Elements of Epic
a. Hero
–Achilles
b. Settings
–Troy
c. Supernatural Elements
–“The gods who hold Olympos, may they grant you plunder of Priam’s town and
a fair wind home…”
–“Phoibos Apollo walked with storm in his heart from Olympus crest, quiver and
bow at his back, and the bundled of arrows clanged on the sky behind…”
–“The lord of storm and lightning, Zeus,…”
d. Narrator
–Omniscient Narrator
Epic Conventions (Garcia and Dimalanta, 1994)
1.The exploits of a hero (usually national) which furnish the theme
–“We sailed out raiding, and we took that storm by that ancient town of Eetion called
Thebe plundered the place, brought slaves, and spoils away. At the division later, they
chose a young girl
2. The invocation to the muse
– “and he prayed and prayed again, as he withdrew to the god whom silken-braided
Leto bore: “O hear me with the silver bow, protector of Tenedos and the holy towns,
Apollo, Sminthian, if to your liking ever in any grove I roofed a shrine or burnt
thighbones in fat upon your altar—bullock of goat flesh—let my wish come true: your
arrows on the Danaans for my tears!””
–“Said Akhilleus: “Courage. Tell what you know, what you have light to know. I swear by
Apollo, the lord god to whom you pray when you uncover truth, never while I draw
breath, while I have eyes to see shall any man upon this beachhead dare lay hands on
you—not one of all the army, not Agamemnon, if it is he you mean, though he is first in
rank of all Akhaians.””
–“Startled, he made a half turn and he knew her upon the instant for Athena: terribly her
grey eyes blazed at him. And speaking softly but rapidly aside to her he said: What now,
O daughter of the god of heaven who bears the stormcloud, why are you here? To see
the wolfishness of Agamemnon? Well, I give you my word: this time, and soon, he pays
for his behavior with his blood
3. The beginning in medias res
–none
4. The epithets and epic similes
–“the bundled arrows clanged on the sky behind as he rocked in his anger, descending
like night itself”
–“Round his heart resentment welled, and his eyes shone out like licking fire.”
–“A pain like grief weighed on the son of Peleus,…”
–“Gliding she rose and broke like mist from the inshore grey sea face,…”
–“and rising like a dawn mist from the sea into a cloud she soared aloft in heaven…”
–“and the bowstring slammed as the silver bow sprang”
–“Hera, whose arms are white as ivory,…”
–“Akhilleus, fast in battle as a lion,…”
-“The great runner, Akhilleus…”
5. The divine intervention in human lives
–“The Olympian is difficult to oppose. One other time I took your part he caught me
around one foot and flung me into the sky from our tremendous terrace. I soared all day!
Just as the sun dropped…”
6. The lengthy monologues
– Akhilleus: “We sailed out raiding, and we took that storm by that ancient town of
Eetion called Thebe plundered the place, brought slaves, and spoils away. At the
division later, they chose a young girl Khryseis for the king. Then Khryses, priest of the
Archer god, Apollo, came to beachhead we Akhaians hold, bringing no end of ransom
for his daughter; he had the god’s white bands on a golden staff and sued for grace
from the army of Akhaia mostly the two Atreidai corpse commander. All of soldiers
murmured in assents : what he lost when he dishonered me, peerless among
Akhaians.”
7. The use of the dactylic hexameter
–none
