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The Iliad – Interactive Lesson B

Hi, this is AJ and welcome to our interactive B lesson, B. In part B I’m going to ask you very easy questions and you will answer with just one or two words is fine. You’ll get a lot more repetition and you will learn the phrases and indeed all of the essay much more deeply. Let’s begin again.

The Iliad is one of the monuments of our own magnificence.

Is the Iliad a monument?

Yeah, kind of. This is a metaphor, so yes according to the writer the Iliad is a monument.

It’s like a symbol of what? The Iliad is a monument of what?

Of our own magnificence, of our own magnificence.

Our own what?

Magnificence, magnificence.

What does magnificence mean?

Greatness. Greatness. So the Iliad is a monument of our own magnificence. Our, meaning humans.

What is a monument of our own magn

The realm of the ugly or the realm of the beautiful?

Beautiful. The realm of the beautiful. Lifts these events into the realm of the beautiful. Makes them beautiful somehow.

The Iliad shows us how vast and serene the mind can be Can our mind be small, is that what the Iliad shows that our mind can be small?

No that’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying, the Iliad shows us how vast, how large and open our mind can be. How vast and serene.

Does serene mean calm?

Yeah, serene means calm. So open, large and serene. The Iliad shows us how vast and serene the mind can be, even when it contemplates the horrors of war.

Does contemplate mean, to think quickly or to think deeply?

Think deeply. To contemplate means to think deeply about something.

So the Iliad contemplates what?

The horrors of war. The terrible things of war.

Does it think quickly about the horrors of war?

No, no, no, it contemplates, thinks deeply. Contemplates the horrors of war.

Every time I study this priceless work, Goethe said, I am thrust into a state of astonishment.

How did he feel about the Iliad?

Astonished, surprised, happily surprised. Astonished.

He was thrust into a state of what?

Astonishment. Astonishment, now we’re using the noun. He was thrust into, pushed into a state of astonishment. It just means he felt happily surprised.

When was he thrust into a state of astonishment?

When he studied the Iliad. When he read it or studied it. When he read or studied the Iliad he was thrust into, pushed into a state of astonishment. Amazement.

The Iliad has always been a popular poem, in every sense of the word, completely popular. In ancient Athens, more than 20k people would go to listen to it.

So, is that in modern Athens?

No, no, no, not in modern Athens, in ancient Athens, old, old, old Athens.

In ancient Greece?

Yeah, in ancient Greece. Athens is in Greece. So, in ancient Athens, in ancient Greece, more than 20k people as we know from Plato’s Ion that’s how we know this, that he wrote about it in his book.

Where would they go?

They would go to the marketplace, theater or open hillside.

To hear, to hear what or to hear whom?

To hear a famous rhapsode recite the death of Hector or the meeting of Priam and Achilles; chapters from the Iliad.

A famous what?

Rhapsode. Rhapsode. We don’t have many rhapsodes now in the modern world. A rhapsode performed poetry in public, so this is really more something from ancient Greece, which is why we don’t use this word very much anymore, but we do use the next word a lot.

What would the rhapsode do?

Recite. The rhapsode would recite. He would recite. HE would repeat out loud. He would recite chapters from the Iliad.

Who recited chapters from the Iliad?

The rhapsode. The rhapsode recited.

Recited what? What did the rhapsode recite?

Chapters from the Iliad. Chapters from the Iliad. He recited chapters from the Iliad.

Recite is a very common word. It’s a good one to know.

Most people in these crowds weren’t educated, were not educated, and they must have gone bringing picnic baskets.

What did they bring with them?

Picnic baskets. We don’t know this for sure he’s guessing. He’s imagining. The writer imagines that they brought picnic baskets to listen to the rhapsode recite the Iliad.

The audience was prepared to be transported by the power of the story.

So taken in their imagination, transported by what?

The story. By the power of the story. Transported by the power of the story, and by the gorgeousness of the language.

So, by the ugliness of the language or by the gorgeousness of the language?

The gorgeousness of the language. The super beauty 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.

Does it have the power to create strong emotions still?

Yes, it does. It still has the power to create strong emotions. It has the power to move us, to give us strong feelings, to give us strong emotions, to move us.

What can still move us?

The Iliad. The Iliad, the story of the Iliad can still move us. The language of the Iliad can still move us, can still make us feel strong emotions.

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

Can we see? Can we be aware of anything?

No, no, no, not anything he’s saying we will only see what we bring, what we bring to it, what we bring to the Iliad.

What will we see, according to Steven Mitchell, the writer?

We will see, we will perceive what we bring to it. We bring our own ideas. We bring our own beliefs. We bring our own life experiences, so that will change how we perceive the Iliad, how we see it, how we understand it, how we perceive it.

And there are as many ways to see it as there are minds that see. So, there are many, many, many, many, many ways to see it, to understand it, to perceive it.

Simone Wiel, in a brilliant and famous essay, portrayed, showed the Iliad as an indictment of war.

So Wiel believed the Iliad was anti-war or pro-war?

Anti-war. Wiel believed that the Iliad was anti-war, an indictment of war, an accusation against war, a criticism against war. An indictment of war.

Who thought the Iliad was an indictment of war?

Wiel, Simone Wiel. Simone Wiel thought the Iliad was an indictment of war, an accusation, a criticism against war.

Who thought the Iliad was pro military and pro-war?

Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great used to sleep with it under his pillow, esteeming it as a treasury of all military virtue.

Did he value it or not value it?

He valued it. He esteemed it.

Who esteemed the Iliad, valued the Iliad?

Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great esteemed the Iliad. He slept with it under his pillow, esteeming it as a treasury of all military virtue.

A treasury, it’s like a bank account right, something that holds treasure.

So a treasury of what?

Military virtue. Military virtue.

What kind of virtue?

Military virtue. Something connected to the Army or to fighting, military virtue.

Virtue is a value, a value… something we feel is important. A moral value. Virtue.

So who thought the Iliad contained military virtue or military virtues?

Alexander the Great thought that it contained military virtues.

But all readers, whatever their point of view- doesn’t matter, any point of view- can still appreciate the sheer power, the complete power, the total power of Homer’s language, even in the most prosaic or mediocre translations.

So, even in what kind of translations?

Prosaic or mediocre. Prosaic or mediocre.

Are prosaic translations exciting and poetic?

No, the opposite. Prosaic translations are not exciting, not poetic, they are dull and plain.

So prosaic means dull and plain or poetic and beautiful?

Dull and plain. Prosaic means dull and plain.

What about mediocre, does mediocre mean great or average, so-so?

Mediocre means average or so-so.

So even with a prosaic or mediocre translation, can you still appreciate the Iliad?

Yes. Even with the so-so prosaic, mediocre translations, you can and will still appreciate the power, the sheer power, the total power of Homer’s language. Homer is the writer.

All right, that is the end of our interactive B lesson. I will see you in the commentary.