Characteristics of Homeric Text

Beginning in medias res

Cinematic presentation of events and of
warfare
Sense imagery
Exaggerated, leisurely pace of story-telling
Dislike of suspense
Fondness for lists (genealogies,
catalogues), may derive from an oral way
of organizing information



Homers Style
Use of PARALLELISM when discussing events,
characters and gods
Special formulaic language of the aoidos (like
bard) such as fixed and recurring epithets and
type scenes Homeric epithet
an element of poetic diction
Use of SIMILES Homeric simile
Similes - far more common in the Iliad than the
Odyssey
a way of stopping the action, commenting on it,
enriching or judging it



Homeric epithet

A non-Germanic analogue of kenning
An adjectival term (Homer joined adjective)
Usually a compound of two words
Homer used it as formulas in referring to
someone or something
express the characteristic of a person or thing
Example:

fleet-footed Achilles
bolt-hurling Zeus
the wine-dark sea
rosy-fingered dawn.
white-armed Hera
well-grieved Achaeans
bronze-clad Achaeans
cloud gathering Zeus
loud roaring sea
god like Paris
kenning
concise compound or figurative phrase replacing a
common noun, especially in Old Germanic, Old
Norse, and Old English poetry.
A kenning is commonly a simple stock compound
such as
whale-path or swan road for sea,
God's beacon for sun,
ring-giver for king.
Many kennings are allusions that become
unintelligible to later generations.

Homeric Similes
An extended simile
Some cases running to
15/20 lines
The comparisons are
elaborate in considerable
detail
common feature of epic
poetry
also found in other genre
to intensify the heroic
stature of the subject and to
serve as decoration.


Simile
the simile is one of the hallmarks of
Homers style
a simile is an explicit comparison of two
things, using like or as
e.g. my teacher drinks like a fish and,
because of that, he looks like Ramses II
The Homeric Simile - example
Fallen on one side, as on the stalk
a poppy falls, weighed down by showering spring,
beneath his helmets weight his head sank down.
Iliad 8.306-8 (the death of Gorgythion)
the flower and the dying hero bend over in a
like manner
both have colorful tops: one has a flower and
the other a crested helmet


The Homeric Simile
but the flower and the hero are more different
than alike:
man vs. plant
dying in battle vs. growing in the rain
noisy dirty battlefield vs. serene rainfall
this sort of union of opposites is called oxymoron
literally in Greek, sharp-blunt
e.g. a bittersweet love
a deafening silence
a sophomore (smart fool)

The Homeric Simile- example
As when the shudder of the west wind
suddenly rising scatters across the water,
and the water darkens beneath it, so
darkening were settled the ranks of
Achaians and Trojans in the plain.
But swift Aias the son of Oleus would not at all
now take his stand apart from Telamonian Aias,
not even a little; but as two wine-coloured oxen
straining
with even force drag the compacted plough
through the fallow land,
and for both of them at the base of the horns the
dense sweat gushes;
only the width of the polished yoke keeps a space
between them
as they toil down the furrow till the share cuts the
edge of the plough land;
so these took their stand in battle, close to each
other.
Homer and Plot
Aristotle analyzed plot as a literary
representation of a single action (praxis): its
beginning, middle, and end.
The action of the Iliad: the anger of Achilles.
Modern films have 3 parts separated by a plot
point (an incident that changes the direction of
the story).
Primary plot points of a 120 minute film appear
at minutes 30 and 90, with a subordinate plot
point at minute 60, the midpoint of the film.

tripartite structure in Homeric epic
The Iliad
Plot point 1: the quarrel between Achilles and
Agamemnon, who takes away his concubine
(Books 1-16).

Secondary plot point: the embassy to Achilles

Plot point 2: the death of Patroklus (Achilles
avenges him and abandons his anger).
Narrative Units
Invocation: The
Anger of Achilles
(1.1-7)
Homer places the
theme before us, in
fact, in the first word.
He begins not such
much in medias res but
at the beginning of
his story (the anger).