Man Made Monsters

From Wikipedia’s entry on Achilles:

The death of Achilles, as predicted by Hector with his dying breath, was brought about by Paris with an arrow (to the heel according to Statius). In some versions, the god Apollo guided Paris’s arrow. Some retellings also state that Achilles was scaling the gates of Troy and was hit with a poisoned arrow.

All of these versions deny Paris any sort of valor, owing to the common conception that Paris was a coward and not the man his brother Hector was and Achilles remained undefeated on the battlefield. His bones were mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games were held. He was represented in the Aethiopis as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube.

Another version of Achilles’s death is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan princesses, Polyxena. Achilles asks Priam for Polyxena’s hand in marriage. Priam is willing because it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world’s greatest warrior. But while Priam is overseeing the private marriage of Polyxena and Achilles, Paris, who would have to give up Helen if Achilles married his sister, hides in the bushes and shoots Achilles with a divine arrow, killing him.

Achilles was cremated and his ashes buried in the same urn as those of Patroclus.

Paris was later killed by Philoctetes using the enormous bow of Heracles.

The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1562)

Book 16 at 2:04:42, 2:28:00, 2:47:00

The poet that makes his audience see everything so clearly—even to the flies that gather about a milk-pail—does not shrink from showing the hideous sights on a battlefield. But he never lingers over them. We who take our Homer from the printed page experience a shock at the sight, made all too vivid, of what one sword-thrust can do to a human body. Horrified, we stop, and perhaps reread the words with increasing revulsion. But if we had been listening, in the poet’s audience, this delay, or repetition, would have been impossible; our attention would have been instantly carried forward to another picture. (Wilson 269-70)

Here is the complete essay, Battle Scenes in the Iliad

Foreshadowing or guessing ahead is a literary device by which an author hints what is to come. It is used to avoid disappointment. It is also sometimes used to arouse the reader … foreshadowing only hints at a possible outcome within the confinement of a narrative. (From Wikipedia)

The literary device foreshadowing refers to the use of indicative word or phrases and hints that set the stage for a story to unfold and give the reader a hint of something that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling the suspense. Foreshadowing is used to suggest an upcoming outcome to the story. (From The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms)

Describe the picture, using both broad strokes and microscopic observations. No detail is too trivial. Evoke the image with your words, as though illustrating it for someone who is blind. 

Write about this epic simile. In particular, what can you glean about Agamemnon?

Think of lightning: Hera’s rich hair streams

In the sky when her husband builds storms–

Heavy rain, or unspeakable hail, or snow

That sifts down over cultivated land,

Or the barbed-wire mouth of a battlefield.

Thus Agamemnon, the density of the groans

From his heart’s deep core, his visceral fear. (10.5-11)

Please read “The Robots are Winning!” and write a one-page paper that addresses Mendelsohn’s question:

How do we distinguish between the maker and the made, between the human and the machine, once the creature, the machine, is endowed with consciousness—a mind fashioned in the image of its creator?

Your paper is due at the beginning of class on Friday, September 25th. If you won’t be in class on Friday, please submit it to me in class on Thursday. This extra assignment is not optional since it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure no phones are on in class. This assignment will be graded and the effort reflected in the 10% you receive for Response Papers.

Each of these prompts asks you to dig into the story and make meaning from the passage or situation. Why is Homer singing about this scene in particular? How can you relate it to what you’ve read so far? Don’t just reiterate the events in the text; rather divine a meaning from the scenario as it is presented.

1. Discuss Nestor’s story and how it relates to the epic. (7.141-70)
2. Discuss the truce between Hector and Ajax. (7.292-320)
3. Discuss Zeus’s counsel to the gods at the opening of Book 8. Draw on lines 71-82 in particular.
4. Discuss the scheme of negotiation in war. We’ve seen it among men, but also among the gods. Look at Zeus’s words to Hera (8.490-6).
5. Discuss Agamemnon’s call to retreat (9.20-5). Is this Achilles’s plan succeeding?
6. Discuss Phoenix’s story about his past. (9.461-508)
7. Discuss Phoenix’s story about Meleager. (9.544-615)

Buffalo in Bloom by David Goodrich