Key Terms
Print culture (us)
We refer back to a fixed text. We memorize by looking, reciting, correcting.
Oral culture (ancient Greeks)
No fixed text to consult. Memory was the medium.
Why
Greek epic poetry used strict metrical patterns based on long and short vowel sounds. Epithets were pre-built phrases th
Latin
In the middle of things. The Iliad begins mid-story.
What Andromache offers
A strategic plan to pull troops inside the walls and concentrate them at the weakest point. It is tactically sound.
What Hektor says
He knows Troy will fall. He knows he will die.
Andromache
Loses father, mother, all seven brothers to Achilleus. Now facing the loss of her husband.
Briseis
War-prize. Lost husband and brothers in the war.
Helen
Possible victim, possible agent. Her status is deliberately ambiguous.
Hekabe
Queen of a doomed city. Loses sons, husband, kingdom.
Book XVI - Sarpedon episode
Zeus wants to save his son Sarpedon from death. He has the power to do it.
WHAT THIS SCENE MEANS
Two enemies. One young, one old.
Setup
Achilleus has killed Hektor and refused to return the body. He desecrates it.
What Priam does
Crosses through enemy lines at night with Hermes (disguised as a Trojan youth) guiding him. Enters Achilleus's tent.
Surface level
They are quarrelsome, frivolous, and partisan. They pick sides, bicker with each other, scheme and plot.