To find out more about the nature of seminars offered in this programme, please see the profile section at the bottom of this page.
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The written record of European literature begins with epic poetry in Greece. By portraying an objective world, these epics open a window into the past. In many cases, they even provide a key to deciphering it. And the reverse is true as well, for our recorded epics pose a host of challenges to understanding that require insight into the history of religion, military practices, economy, seafaring and politics among others.
To truly understand our epics, we must, however, consider the texts themselves. “Iliad” and “Odyssey” date back to the 8th century BCE. They mark not only the beginning of Greek literature but are at the same time a pinnacle of it. Greek culture laid the bedrock for all the major poetic domains in Europe, creating exemplary masterpieces of epic, lyric and dramatic poetry. “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, the greatest representatives of an otherwise mostly lost epic tradition, have in turn been the models for the whole of Greek literature, most notably for Greek lyric and the immensely influential dramatic poetry of 5th-century Athens. Hence, the reputation of their author as the father of European poetry is well-deserved.
But who was this man? Homer, the fabled poet gifted the songs about an epic world by the Gods themselves, has been shrouded in mystery all along; and although he would become the greatest teacher of the Greek world, modern science attempted to relegate him – more precisely: his authorship of “Iliad” and “Odyssey” – to the realm of fable for good.
With the so-called ‘Homeric question’ occupying the minds of philologists for over 200 years now, tremendous scientific, learned and, not least, enthusiastic effort has been mustered to explain all sorts of inconsistencies, oddities and obscurities contained within the 24 books of either epic poem. Even so the strictly authorial question proved ultimately to be a Danaidean tub, the furtherance in the understanding of both epics afforded by these debates is still invaluable. Anyone wishing to become acquainted with Homer’s great epics of the heroic and the cunning is well-advised to draw on their knowledge for guiding his or her own careful, critical and aesthetically conscious reading.
This seminar intends to provide exactly that.
According to the different composition of “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, we will proceed one or more books at a time. The aim will be the thorough understanding of the text at hand, for which purpose we will familiarise ourselves also with historical circumstances of pre- and post-Homeric times.
As always, the seminar is meant for anyone from first beginner – be that in Homer, in Greek/European literature or in literature in general – to advanced ‘Homeride’. Depending on your interests, we can also include sessions on Homer’s influence on later Greek or modern literature, on his treatment in ancient poetics or modern literary theory and suchlike.
You need not have any knowledge of ancient Greek, but if you are interested in it, important notions and phrases will be explained to you. In any case, the translation we choose will be discussed in such a way as to make the original text transparent to you. You might be surprised as to how great differences between the two can be, and as to what different languages can or simply cannot express.
