The most striking quality of Greek literature, poetry and prose alike, is that it is

alive and relevant today as it was when it was first written, We cannot fail to respond to
the extraordinary power with which it present to issues of perennial urgency. We may
admire it for its technical skill, but what binds us to it is its profound humanity, its wise
appreciation of human values. It deals with precise issues in a universality way, and it
gains our attention not by arguing for this side or for that, but by presenting a situation
full, in all its powerful implications. Its extraordinary immediacy and directness drive
home its imaginative thoughts with an irresistible power, and behind it we feel the living
force of people who were eager to examine their destinies with the outmost candor
passion.
Poetry was the Greeks immediate response to a wide range of experience, and to
reflect this variety they invented or perfected many of the poetic form we now know.
They seem to have begun with the heroic epic, which is objective storytelling in verse of
exciting and tragic events. They followed this with a more personal and emotional poetry,
which was sung to the lyre and it, is called lyric for this reason. And their high noon, the
Greeks invented both the tragedy and the comedy, even in the later years, they continued
to write charming poetry though its strength had become diminished and its subject less
majestic.
Talavera& Ate Norte:
The Greek Epics
Though shrouded in the mists of antiquity, the Illiad and the Odyssey
emerged as the greatest epic in Western literature. The so-called Homeric question as to
authorship is overshadowed by the power and beauty of the works themselves. The
consensus is that from the myths and legends, the floating literature and the works of the
rhapsodist, the shaping of the epics and imposition of form was accomplished by a
literary genius with the name of Homer. Origin and development have conferred on the
epics and classification of folk epics of growth. The poems, however, bear the imprint of
the style and technique of an individual author.

Homer is credited with the epic conventions, which affected the development of this
poetic form. These are:
1. The exploits of the hero (usually national) which furnish the theme.
2. The invocation to the Muse.
3. The beginning in media res.
4. The epithets and epic similes.
5. The divine intervention in human lives.
6. The length monologues.
7. The use of the dactylic hexameter.
The subject matter Illiad portrays the life and the ideals of the heroic age. With a
reliable historical basis, the action moves swiftly and vigorously from the dramatic
quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon to the death of the heroic Hector and the fall
of Troy. The narrative is divided into twenty-four books, division not attributed to
Homer, but in keeping with the natural, logical pauses in the development of action
which the ancient bards must have found convenient. The events comprising the plot
achieve organic unity through the inter-relationship of action and a definite setting;
through the unifying theme, the wrath of Achilles and its consequences. The memorable
and striking incidents are numerous but unforgettable are the parting between Hector and
Andromache, the death of Hector and the aged Priams pleas to the victorious Achilles
for the return of Hectors body. Though the action of the poem covers ten years, Homer
limited the time to forty-seven days of the last year in which Troy fell. Aristotle praised
Homer for this economy and for his keeping his eyes on the narrative instead of intruding
personality into the story.
Homer used a large canvas for painting of situations involving intertwined
destinies. Around the central figure of Archilles are warriors worthy to stand with him;
the indomitable resourceful Odysseus, Agamemnon, commander of the Achain Forces,
the fearless Diomedes, the valiant Ajax, the youthful Patroclus. Among the foes stand out
Hector, the noblest of heroes his wife Andromache, the aged King Priam and others.
Around the central figure of Acvhilles are warriors worthy to stand with him; the
indomitable, resourceful Odysseus, Agamemnon commander of the. Achain Forces, the
fearless Diomedes the valiant Ajax, the youthful Ptroclus. Among the foes stand out
Hectors the noblest of heroes, his wife, Andromache, the aged King Priam and others. A
master craftsman effortlessly wove their lives into a unified pattern. The Homeric
characters are colorful, gallant and noble intensely alive but recognizably human in their
defects and blemishes of character. This humanization is extended to the gods who walk
among men and are made understandable to the human intellect and imagination. Homer
is essential Greek of the Greeks, but endowed with a sensitive and fineness which made
him recognize and admire nobility and gallantry of spirits even when found in an enemy
as in the case of Homer.
Homer presents each character with a few bold strokes and then stars filling in the
sketch by revealing details which individualize and clarify their particular traits. He uses
devices now considered modern, for an example, the dramatic, indirect techniques of
characterization by which a character reveals himself through the eyes of the old men of
Troy who watched her graceful progress along the walls of Toy and likened her to the
immortal goddesses.
The Odyssey obviously written at a much later date, reveals a matured and
more serene point of view. Philo M. Buck says that the Iliad is in essence a tragedy,
the Odyssey, a romantic comedy. Instead of the confined setting of the Iliad along the
plains of Troy, the Odyssey takes its hero to almost all the unknown parts of the world
at that time. But this is multiplicity of setting does not impair the basic unity gained
through emphasis on one central character. Odysseus, and on the theme: his unwavering
resolves to each Ithaca and be re- unite with Penelope and Telemachus. Other points of
contrast are perceptible; the predominance of the hero in the Odyssey, the theme of
Achilles anger and its tragic result, that of the longing for home and family and its
fulfillment for Odysseus: the stress, physical and emotional in the Iliad, the exhilarating
spirit of adventure in the Odyssey, the search for glory in one, that the peace of the
other. There is a contrast, too, in the plot structure of the Iliad and its organic unity; the
loosely strung episodes in the odyssey. Both epics recapture the Greek social systems
their politics and religious practices.
Together these two great epics portray the whole spectrum of mans existence, his
indomitable will, his imperishable spirit his unending quest for glory and immortality.




THE SUMMARY
The Iliad
The Greek have been besieging Troy for nine years, trying to win back Helen who
was abducted by Trojan prince Paris. A plague spread through their camp, and the gods
tell Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, that in order to restore health, he must return a
prize a girl that he has captured. Agamemnon obeys, but to compensate for his loss, he
takes a girl who belongs to Achilles, the greatest warrior among Greeks. Achilles
insulted, refuses to continue fighting. His defection weakens troop morale; many of the
Greeks want to return home, but, eventually, they are persuaded to stay. Paris then,
challenge Helens husband Menelaus to a duel to settle the war. Menelaus accepts and
they fight, but as Paris about to killed Aphrodite snatch him up and take him to Helens
bedchamber. So no one is victorious and the war goes on. The heroes on both sides aided
by their favorite gods fight nobly and show their valor, while Achilles sulks in his tent.
Finally, Agamemnon sends envoys to him offers to give back his girl, and promises many
valuable gifts if he will rejoin the army. Achilles refuses.
With the help of a divine stratagem, the Trojans begin to gain the advantage.
Achilles friend Patroclus, who had also withdrawn from the fighting, insists on returning
to the battle. Achilles reluctantly consents to his going lend him his own armor. Patroclus
fights nobly, but he cannot overcome the great Trojan hero Hector. Hector kills him and
strips him of the armor.
Now Achilles is infuriated and decides to fight Hector. His goddess mother
procures him new armor from the god Hepaistos, in which and with the aid of another
divine stratagem, he is able to kill Hecto. To avenge the loss of Patroclus he drags the
body three times around thewall of Troy. When he returns triumphant, the Greeks hold
funeral games in Patroclus honor.
Meanwhile Hectors father, King Priam of Trojan War, prepares to approach
Achilles and begs for the body of his son. The gods grant him safe-conduct through the
Greek lines.Archilles, moved by the old mans grief grants his request. Thus, Hector is
buried with honor.

The Odyssey
Odysseus, one of theGreek victors of the Trojan War, has been trying to return
home for ten years bur has been prevented by the enmity of the God. When the epic
opens, he is prisoner of the island of the nymph Calayso, who wants him to stay with her
forever.
Meanwhile, at home in Ithaca, his wife Penelope is trying to put off the many
suitors ho, presuming Odysseus dead, want to marry her and control his estate. While
waiting for her to choose one of them the used uo Odysseus wealth- eating, drinking, and
carousing.
It is now twenty years since Odysseus left home. His son Telemanchus has grown
to manhood. No longer able to endure the arrogance of the suitors, he determines to find
his father. Accompanied by the goddess Athena in disguise, he goes to Laecedemon,
where Menelaus is king. There he finds the beautiful Helen living with her husband as
happily as if the Trojan War had never taken place. They welcome Telemanchus and
entertain him bountifully, recalling the exploits of his fateher in the Trojan War.
While Telemanchus is feasting in Laecedemon, the gods order Calypso to let
Odysseus to go. She helps him built a raft, and he carried through the storm to the land of
King Alcinoos. The kings daughter Nausicaa finds him in the beach and takes him to his
father. He is welcomed and, after excelling in the athletic games the next day, recounts
for the company the story of his wandering since the war.
He tells how his men ate the drugged fruit in the land of Lotus-Eaters and had to
forced back to the ships, how they went on the land of the Cyclopes, where they were
captures and several of them were eaten by the Cyclopes and Poluphemus before
Odysseus blinded the monsters single eye and escaped. He recounts their adventures on
the Island of the Winds in the Land of the Midnight Sun, and their transformation into
animals the sorceress Circe. Odysseus explains that the gods rescued him from this fate
but told him he had to visit the kingdom of the dead, to seek advice from the blind to seer
Teiresias, before he could find his way home. Odysseus then describes how after
returning from the journey, he set sail again and manage to escape the lure of the singing
sirens, and the terrors of the Scylla and the Charrybdis. In the land of the Sun God, his
men killed the gods cattle and were punished by drowning. He tells how he alone
survived that fate and was cast up on Calypsos island, where he had stayed seven years.
Now, he says, he wants only to return home.
King Alcinoons impress by his story, provide him with a ship, and he sails to
Ithaca. There hhe is met by Athena, who helps him devise a stratagem to foil the traitors.
While she goes off to Laecedemon to fetch Telemanchus, Odysseus, disguised as an old
man, visit a loyal swine-herd from him of the situation at the palace. He tells only
Telemanchus who he is before returning to his home, still in disguise. There he is
recognized by his dog and his old nurse, but not by his wife.
Following Athenas advice, Penelope announces that she will marry whoever
suitor can win a shooting contest using her husbands bow. Odysseus enters the contest
and wins easily. He then reveals himself to the suitors, and, with Telemanchus help,
massacres them. Penelope is afraid to accept him until he convinces her of his identity by
telling the secret of their marriage bed. Athena blesses their reunion by holding back the
dawn so they can enjoy a long night together. Then Odysseus regain his home and
kingdom.
















Suggestion for Discussion:
1. What are the similarities and differences of Archilles and Odysseus as epic
heroes? Enumerate their traits, abilities strengths and weaknesses to clarify your
answers.
2. Between Achilles and Odysseus, whom do you consider the ideal epic hero?
Support your answer.
3. What aspects of human nature are manifested by the gods and goddess in
interviewing in the story? How does it become their personal weaknesses and
strengths as divinities? How does it affect the fate of the heroes?
4. What are the flaws in the character of the heroes that allow them to meet the
tragic events they have encountered? Supporting your answer.
5. What Greek national and cultural aspects are reflected of highlighted in the epics?