Study Materials – by Paul Brians
Lecture 9: The Homeric World
Note: This study guide is presented here as a historical document only. Paul Brians is retired and his courses are no longer offered by WSU.
(Duiker 90-96: Brians 52-58)
Questions about Duiker: *How did the geography of Greece tend to encourage Greek communities to be fiercely independent? *Where did the Minoan civilization arise? What were the main characteristics of Mycenaean civilization? What were the titles of the two most famous Greek epic poems? *Why was Homer so important to the Greeks?
Questions about Homer: The Odyssey, “Odysseus & the Cyclops”: Why is it so easy for Odysseus to get the cyclops drunk? What is the point of Odysseus telling Polyphemos that his name is “Nobody?”*How does Odysseus manage to escape Polyphemos? *What character traits can you deduce from Odysseus’ actions and words besides his obvious cleverness? Explain your answer. Lecture topics:
Lecture topics:
- Minoan Civilization
- Myceneans
- Mythology
- The Gods
- The Trojan War
- The Odyssey
Supplementary materials:
- Sports in Minoan Crete.
- Winged Sandals: Greek Mythology
- Greek Mythology
- The Pantheon
- Euripides: The Cyclops (A comic play based on the Polyphemus episode from the Odyssey)
- The Odyssey: An interactive Web game
- More pictures from Mycenae
- Homer’s Iliad (Translated by Samuel Butler)
- Homer’s Odyssey (Translated by Samuel Butler)
- Sophocles: Agamemnon (A Greek tragedy depicting the return from the Trojan War of the leader of the Greeks.
- Images from Western art of the classical gods
- More images of classical gods