William Scott
Wednesday 9:30 – 11:30 AM
January 11 through March 1, 2006
D.O.C. House
Homer produced the first works of Western literature - essential myths for the Greeks, models for writers of epics, and basic war stories for later generations. The Odyssey is Homer's account of a veteran's return from the war at Troy to a post-war civilization. As Odysseus journeys homeward he critically reflects on the warrior's individualistic quest for eternal fame in battle ("the heroic code"). Through this "odyssey" he reacquaints himself with the wider world and learns to live successfully among non-warriors who share a broader ethic and a richer view of a cultured society.
Yet Homer himself remains a mystery. His stories and basic characters are all familiar, but his style is not; we are not used to the formal epithets accompanying each mention of a character ("Odysseus of many wiles"), the repetitions of scenes, the contradictions and gaps in the tale, the continuous use of similes, and the strict "speech vs. narrative" structure. Through a reading of the Odyssey we will reconstruct the conditions which led Homer to his individual style and come to understand how this epic is a foundation myth for Greek culture.
In this course we will read the full Odyssey in the Fagels' translation, which are available in paperback. For orderly discussion it is important that we all use the same translation.
The reading in this course is relatively easy. We will try to read about four books of the Odyssey each week. It is important that you plan the time to keep up with the reading so that discussions can develop in an orderly way.
This course has only one session of overlap with last year's course on the Iliad.
Class format: some lectures and discussion
WILLIAM C. SCOTT earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton University. He has just retired from the Classics Department of Dartmouth College. He has been teaching and writing on Homer for many years and led last year's course on Homer's Iliad.
