Introduction

• The Homeric Question: "blind bard" or gradually evolving text? Gregory Nagy et al. versus the traditional view
• Rhapsodes ("song-stitchers") and the Panathenaia
• Oral poetry and formulaic language; Milman Parry
• Epic dialect
• What does the written text of the Iliad and Odyssey represent?  What was its original purpose?

Book 1
 

• Repetitions:  sacrifice/dining; fighting and dying; arming; dueling
• Repeated events as ceremonies; consistency and variation in these repetitions
• Repeated/recursive speeches:  e.g., Achilles to Thetis (Book 1), Agamemnon/Odysseus/Achilles (Book 9)
• The development of the quarrel in Book 1; Achilles' struggle throughout the Iliad to claim the honor due him
• The implications of Zeus' granting Thetis wish: Hektor's death, Achilles' death, Troy's fall
• Achilles as mortal, not immortal: the mythological background
• Repetitions as structural devices (continued): scenes of supplication (broadly defined) in Book 1
• Repetitions: human and divine quarrels in Book 1

Book 2
 

• The Catalogue of Ships and Helen's description of the Greek princes:  why here?
• Zeus' deception of Agamemnon: why Dream ~ Nestor?
• Thersites' appearance/status/complaints
• Crisis of power: why does Agamemnon test the Achaians in Book 2?
• The dramatic impact of the deception

Book 3
 

• Paris, lions, and leopards; "god-like" Paris
• Helen's weaving of the war (in more than one sense)
• The gifts of the gods (to Paris and to Helen, and in the view of Priam)
• Narrative focus: Achaians through Trojan eyes
• Odysseus as a speaker: snowflakes or a winter blizzard?

Book 4
 

• Zeus, Hera, and the destruction of Trojans and Greeks:  how "friendly" can a deity ever be?
• Athena, Pandaros, and his bow
• The wounding of Menelaos: contrastive similes
• Agamemnon's (over?-)reaction; Agamemnon as a wounded and uncertain leader
• Agamemnon rouses the troops: the apportioning of praise and blame
• Diomedes as Tydeus' son

• Pandaros' second assault; farewell to his bow; his death
• Athena's response to Diomedes' prayer (a jackpot)
• Diomedes' killing of pairs of warriors
• Aineias, Aphrodite, and Apollo: cf. Paris and Aphrodite
• Odysseus and Aineias in the Iliad: cf. the characters in the Odyssey and Aeneid
• Dione and Aphrodite: gods' travails at the hands of mortals
• Apollo warns, Diomedes yields: cf. Patroklos in Book 16
• Sarpedon kills Tlepolemos: cf. Sarpedon's later fate
• Hera, Athena, Diomedes: the attack on Ares

Book 6
 

• Diomedes encounters Glaukos: end of his aristeia
• Hektor's three encounters in Troy: Hekabe, Paris/Helen, Andromache/Skamandrios (Astyanax)
• The strategies of Helen and Paris for avoiding blame
• Hektor's relationship with Helen
• Hektor's first reply to Andromache and the episode with Astyanax , i.e., Hektor's foretelling of doom, Astyanax's crying, and Hektor's prayer to Zeus, 6.440-484, as an expansion or "fold" in the narrative  (Hektor's speech in 486ff. is a "normal" reply to Andromache's words at 6.406-439)

• Aias and Hektor: duel and exchange (cf. Menelaos and Paris, Diomedes and Glaukos)
• Antenor's proposal; Paris' and Priam's fateful response (note that this is separated from the duel; contrast Book 3)
• the silence as corposes are retrieved
• Zeus' promise to Poseidon:  short-lived Greek ramparts
• ill-omened feasting of the Greeks
  

• Zeus, Hera, and Athena: non-intervention
• Diomedes' retreat (with contributions by Nestor and Zeus; cf. Apollo in Book 5)
• The night encampment scene: 8.548 and 550-552 are not in the manuscripts!  (cf. Plato, Alcibiades II 149d)

• Agamemnon's offer to Achilles: apoina vs. poine
• Odysseus' editing of Agamemnon's offer
• Phoinix's nursery tales: is Phoinix an interpolation?  (the problem of the duals)
• Aias' interpretation
  
• Achilles' responses (note what Odysseus reports back): has Achilles renounced the "heroic code"?

• Is the Doloneia part of the Iliad?
• M. Nagler's objections:
• "folkloristic departures from normalcy"
• "disgraceful conduct" of Diomedes and Odysseus
• night-time setting
• Achaian victory

Books 11 and 12 

• Agamemnon's aristeia (?)
• the relevance of Nestor's long story of his first battle
• healing: Machaon, Chairon, Patroklos, Achilles
• Poseidon, Apollo, and destruction of the Greek wall
• the portent of the eagle and the snake: Zeus, Poulydamas, and Hektor
• the same words:  Paris to Antenor (7.357-360) = Hektor to Poulydamas (12.231-234)
• Sarpedon on mortality and immortality (12. 310-328)

Books 13 and 14
 

• Idomeneus and Meriones: a comic interlude
• challenges to the power of Zeus
• Hera's deception of Zeus: why the emphasis on "primordial" gods?
• ambiguous omens from Zeus

Books 15 and 16
 

• the Poseidon/Zeus conflict as "ringing" Hera/Zeus: Zeus has something at stake
• Hektor's ironic triumphs: emphasis on Hektor's coming downfall
• Why does Sarpedon die?  Why does he die when he does?  Why does the mortal horse Pedasos die just before him?
• Hektor's assault and Patroklos' assault
• responsibility for Patroklos' death
• battle-similes in Book 16: a separate, developing scene in nature [mentioned, not yet discussed]

• Hektor and Achilles' armor:  ou kata kosmon ("not in order")
• the importance of possessing Patroklos' corpse
• foreshadowing: Achilles' horses
• Achilles' mourning / Achilles' funeral
• Hektor and Poulydamas

Books 18 and 19 
 

• the shield of Achilles: the arbitration-scene; what's missing on the shield?
• the non-reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon: Achilles' fast
• Briseis, Patroklos and Achilles' (non-)future
• mortal Achilles: nectar, ambrosia, horses

Books 20 and 21
 

• the fighting of Achilles
• supplications by Tros and Lykaon
• fighting with gods (cf. Diomedes)
• the gods' comic fighting
• foreshadowings of Achilles' fate
• Aeneas' future
• the first encounter with Hektor

Books 22 and 23
 

• Priam and Hekabe: narrative focus
• fire and shining: Achilles terrifies Hektor
• "swift-footed" Achilles?
• Hektor's states of mind; his final decision
• Andromache's discovery and lamentation: cf. Book 6
• the irony of Andromache's picture of Astyanax's future
• the funeral games: Achilles' generosity/Agamemnon's submission
• foreshadowing of the future:  Diomedes, Aias son of Oileus, Odysseus, Antilochos
• Achilles/Antilochos, Antilochos/Menelaos: quarrels resolved (cf. Book 1)

Book 24
 

• Priam's supplication of Achilles: other supplications compared
• Achilles' victory over Agamemnon and near-spurning of Priam's gifts:  "magnanimity" redefined
• mirror-elements in books 24 and 1: supplications, funerals, Thetis' journeys, assemblies of the gods (cf. Cedric Whitman's chart)

Odyssey, Book 1
 

• the structure of the Odyssey: four-book units
• why start here?
• the Telemacheia
• characterization of the absent Odysseus
• signs that Telemachos is coming of age

Odyssey 2, 3, 4
 

• Telemachos and the sceptre
• Halitherses' prophecy
• Telemachos and Antinoos: a new relationship
• Nestor's hospitality
• the models of Peisistratos and Orestes
• chaos after the fall of Troy
• Agamemnon/Klytaimestra and Menelaos/Helen as paradigms
• Telemachos' tactful correction of Menelaos
• Penelope: limited authority and information

• Kalypso's paradise as death
• Odysseus' choice (cf. Achilles' choice)
• Odysseus' rebirth
• Ogygie and Phaiakia compared
• Nausikaa and Odysseus

Odyssey 7, 8

• the Phaiakians' recognition of Odysseus
• Odysseus as suitor
• Demodokos' songs: Odysseus and Troy
• Arete as hostess and threat
• farewell to Nausikaa

Odyssey 9, 10, 11, 12

• the arrangement of the adventures: two series
• varieties of temptation
• crucial trials: Aiolos' bag of winds and the Sun's cattle
• Odysseus' transformation: Troy to Kalypso
• Hades: Teiresias, Antikleia, Agamemnon, Achilles, Aias
• famous ladies; pause in the narrative: Arete as audience

Odyssey 13, 14, 15

• the Phaiakians' fate: the end of mythology
• Odysseus and Athena practice deception on each other
• Athena: the challenge to Odysseus
• Eumaios' hospitality
• Odysseus' and Eumaios' tales
• Telemachos in command: Peisistratos; Theoklymenos

Odyssey 16, 17, 18

• father and son
• the wickedness of Melanthios
• the "hospitality" of the Suitors
• comic warfare: Iros
• the "beggar" delays his audience with Penelope
• Penelope wheedles gifts from the Suitors

Odyssey 19, 20

• Eurykleia and the scar
• interview with the "beggar": Penelope's dream
• Penelope's idea for a contest
• Theoklymenos and the portent
• Penelope listens

Odyssey 21, 22

• the bow: Telemachos, Leodes, Eurymachos, Antinoos
• Odysseus' effortless success
• slaughter: Antinoos' appropriate death
• recompense: Eurymachos' futile plea
• Telemachos' mistake
• supplications: Leodes, Phemios, Medon
• recompense: the serving girls; Melanthios

Odyssey 23, 24

• tokens of recognition
• Penelope's recognition(s)
• recompense: the Suitors' relatives
• the second scene in Hades: balance and closure (cf. Books 1, 3, 4, 11)
• the end of the Iliad: Achilles' funeral
• a final deception: Laertes
• recompense: the complex final intervention of Zeus and Athena (cf. Book 1)
• how should we judge the ending of the Odyssey?