درسنامه اول

The Iliad – Interactive Essay Lesson A

Hi, this is AJ and welcome to our Interactive A lesson. In this part I will read a short essay about the Iliad and then I will teach you some of the vocabulary, the more difficult vocabulary. In part B I’ll ask you questions to give you deep learning using that mini story technique in part B, but in part A you need to learn the vocabulary. Let’s begin… this is from the introduction to the Iliad by Steven Mitchell.

The Iliad is one of the monuments of our own magnificence. Its poetry lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful and it shows us how vast and serene the mind can be, even when it contemplates the horrors of war. Every time I study this priceless work, Goethe said, I am thrust into a state of astonishment.

It has always been a popular poem, in every sense of the word. In ancient Athens, more than 20k people– as we know from Plato’s Ion– would go to the marketplace, theater or open hillside, the way we might attend a concert, to hear a famous rhapsode recite the death of Hector or the meeting of Priam and Achilles. Most people in these crowds weren’t educated and they must have gone, bringing picnic baskets and prepare to be transported by the power of the story, and the gorgeousness of the language.

This was poetry that gave pleasure to everyone… men and women, adults and children, the simple and the very sophisticated. It still has that power to move us all. Of course, we can only perceive in the Iliad what we bring to it and there are as many ways to see it as there are minds that see. Simone Wiel, in a brilliant and famous essay, portrayed the Iliad as an indictment of war, while Alexander the Great used to sleep with it under his pillow, esteeming it as a treasury of all military virtue.

But all readers, whatever their point of view can appreciate the sheer power of Homer’s language, even in the most prosaic or mediocre translations.

All right, let’s go back to the beginning and learn the vocabulary.

This one has a little more academic language, especially the sentence structure, so it’s a little more advanced. So we need to understand both the words and the phrases, so you completely understand. So let’s go back to the beginning.

Vocabulary

The Iliad is one of the monuments of our own magnificence. This is a metaphor, he’s comparing the Iliad, the poem, the book to a monument. What is a monument?

Monument – is like a big building that we put up for some famous person usually, or some famous event.

In Washington, DC they have the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial. They are big buildings to honor George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. So it’s a monument. The pyramids of Egypt might be called monuments. So, he’s comparing the Iliad as a kind of monument. Of course it’s not really made of stone or wood, it’s not a building, but it’s kind of the same thing because it has lasted for so many years. What does it honor? What does it symbolize? What does the Iliad symbolize? It’s a monument of our own magnificence.

Our Own – meaning humans, all humans; our human kind.

Magnificence – means greatness, so our own greatness.

So he’s saying the Iliad is a monument. It’s a symbol. It’s a sign of our (humans) greatness. Its poetry, the Iliad’s poetry lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful. That’s a nice sentence. So the poetry of the Iliad it lifts, it brings up even the most devastating human events.

Devastating – means destructive, damaging… for example, war. The Iliad is about a war, so that’s a devastating event right, lots of people are hurt, lots of things and people and lives destroyed. It’s devastating.

So he’s saying that the Iliad, even though it’s describing something very devastating, a terrible war where lots of people die, but somehow the poetry, the language, the way that it’s told it lifts these events, these terrible events… it lifts them up to be beautiful. Into the realm of the beautiful. The realm of… it’s like…

A realm – is like a kingdom or area.

… into the area or the kingdom of the beautiful. A little bit of poetic language. So he’s saying that the Iliad makes these terr

It has always been a popular poem, in every sense of the word.

In every sense of the word – meaning it has been popular in every way, in every way of this definition of the word popular. So it’s been popular in every way is what that means.

In ancient Athens…

Ancient – means very, very old, very old- ancient. Typically ancient, when we’re talking about history ancient usually means like BC, before the year 0 in the west or in the western calendar, but it can also just have a very general meaning of very old, very, very old.

So, in ancient Athens, the city of Athens in Greece, more than 20k people would gather to listen to this poem. So he says 20k people, and he says as we know from Plato’s Ion. So, how do we know 20k people gathered to listen to the Iliad? Well, because Plato mentioned it in his book, Ion. So that’s how we know that that many people did it.

So what did these 20k people do? They would go to the marketplace or a theater or open hillside and he says it’s kind of…like we would attend a concert. Sometimes we have concerts outside today. People go to hear music today. Well, it was kind of like that, but instead of going to hear a musician or a band, in that time 20k people would go to hear a rhapsode recite the Iliad.

Rhapsode – a person who would perform poetry in public.

It’s kind of an old word. We don’t use that word much. A lot of people don’t know the meaning of that word, rhapsode.

Now, to recite – means to read or to say something that is memorized.

So, you can recite a speech, for example. Right, it’s kind of like performing, publicly performing out loud, repeating something out loud. And then he gives examples, so maybe the rhapsode (the public performer) would recite, would say out loud, the death of Hector or the meeting of Priam and Achilles. These are two chapters from the Iliad. So maybe sometimes the performance would not be all of the Iliad, because it’s very long. Maybe the performance would be just one chapter from the Iliad.

Most people in these crowds weren’t educated, were not educated, and they must have gone bringing picnic baskets… so now the writer, Steven Mitchell, he’s kind of imagining that kind of like the modern day, maybe these ancient Greeks would bring picnic baskets and they would sit and listen to the rhapsode tell the story of the Iliad. And these people were prepared to be transported by the power of the story, and the gorgeousness of the language.

Transported by – means to take or to carry, to take or to carry.

Of course, here it’s not the direct meaning to take and to carry. We can physically take or carry something. We can transport it of course, but we can also do it with our imaginations and our minds. If I describe to you a foreign country, a foreign city. In your mind I can transport you to that city. Of course, your body stays where you are, but your mind is traveling, it’s transported to, taken to that place. That’s what he means. It’s like the audience would be transported to the Battle of Troy in their minds.

How were they transported? How were they taken? They were taken by the power of the story and the gorgeousness of the language.

Gorgeousness – means beauty. Gorgeousness means beauty, beauty, beauty.

Gorgeousness…

This was poetry that gave pleasure to everyone… men and women, adults and children, the simple and the very sophisticated. It still has that power to move us all. It has the power to move us. Here, again, the word move direct meaning again is something like, to take from one place to another. But, it also has an emotional idea. When we say ah, I was moved by that movie, it means that you have a strong emotional reaction, a strong emotional feeling from the movie.

So, it’s a little bit of slang when you say, I was moved by something or he moved me.

Say his speech moved me. It means, gave me a great feeling of emotion, of deep emotion, of strong emotion. So to be moved, in this definition, this kind of slang or idiom definition… To be moved – something makes you feel strong emotion.

Of course, we can only perceive in the Iliad what we bring to it.

Okay, we can only perceive…

To perceive – means to see. It could also mean to hear, but probably most commonly is to see, to become aware is the full definition.

So, we can become aware of something in the Iliad. We can see meaning in the Iliad, but we can only see what we bring to it, meaning we bring our own life. We bring our own ideas. We bring our own experiences when we read the Iliad. That’s what he’s saying. So, you can only see, you can only find the meaning that connects to your life and so every person will see something different. Every person will find a different meaning in the Iliad, because every person has different life experiences.

And there are as many ways to see it as there are minds that see. Then he gives two examples, of two people who had completely different ideas about the meaning of the Iliad. First is Simone Wiel, in a brilliant and famous essay, portrayed the Iliad as an indictment of war. So portrayed the Iliad as an indictment of war. So this person, this writer, portrayed… Portrayed – means showed, showed the Iliad as an indictment of war.

There’s a good word. This is a legal word. It’s an accusation, a formal charge and it has the idea almost of a criticism. So it’s a formal charge, a formal accusation. You accuse someone, you did this. You are guilty. So, for example, in legal areas if you’re indicted (using the verb), if you’re indicted for a crime it means they charge you for the crime. You are officially charged. They say you did this, but it can also have the idea of a criticism and that’s the meaning here, a criticism of war.

So Simone Wiel felt that the Iliad was a criticism, a strong criticism of war, an indictment of war.

So Simone Wiel thought the Iliad is anti-war, but then the next example, Alexander the Great used to sleep with the Iliad under his pillow, esteeming it as a treasury of all military virtue. So Alexander the Great, the great, famous Greek general and commander, and King, he slept with it under his pillow. He loved this book the Iliad. He esteemed it, esteeming it… To esteem – means to value, to value. So he valued it. He esteemed it as a treasury, like a treasure; something very, very, valuable… a treasury of all military virtue.

Virtue – means moral standards, values…

So what he’s saying, Alexander the Great thought that the Iliad was basically pro-military and pro-war. Isn’t that interesting? So, Simone Wiel, whom I guess is a more peaceful, maybe pacifist type person and more modern, thinks the Iliad is anti-war and Alexander the Great, the king in general and conqueror, thought it was pro-military, pro-war. So they have completely different views on it.

But all readers, whatever their point of view, can appreciate the sheer power of Homer’s language. So it doesn’t matter what meaning you find in this book, everyone can appreciate the sheer power, power you understand right. It’s strong, it’s powerful and here sheer kind of means the total power, the sheer power, the total power, the complete power of Homer’s language.

Homer is the author of the Iliad.

Even in the most prosaic or mediocre translations. So, even if you read a translation that is prosaic or mediocre, you will still appreciate how powerful it is. These are our final two words… Prosaic – comes from the word prose, so it means not poetic, not poetry, not poetic. It has a little bit of the idea of dull or plain, kind of a plain, direct, non-poetic style, prosaic.

Mediocre – means kind of medium, not good, not bad, kind of so-so.

So the author here, Steven Mitchell is saying, that even if you read a so-so kind of not poetic, not powerful version, it’s still going to be powerful. Even the bad or mediocre or so-so translations are still powerful and meaningful. Even if they’re prosaic, not poetic, a little dull, a little boring or mediocre, so-so.

All right. That is the end of our interactive A lesson. I will see you in part B, where we will practice more of this, so you really get it deeply.