Reading Homer's Iliad and Odysey?

[scrapbabe]

How familiar do you need to be with these books, before reading the originals? We have read a book about the Odyssey, but not the Iliad. Would my 9th grader next year need more of a background, or could he manage reading the originals (translated of course)? I wanted to do them along with the Teaching Company DVDs.

[Dana]

I don't think you'd need anything else.

 

If you want, have him read the brief summary in Edith Hamilton's Mythology first.

[regentrude]

I think it would be easier if he read a simple retelling of the story first - some retelling for young readers would suffice- so he can actually concentrate on the details, the language, etc. I find this particularly important because the Iliad was written for an audience that was absolutely familiar with the story of the Trojan war; the Iliad itself covers only a small section of the war, but it is implied that the audience knows the surrounding story. The Iliad starts in the ninth year of the war and I would imagine it to be confusing if he did not know what the war was about, who fought, who the main characters are, what the outcome will be.

 

It would definitely help if he were familiar with the Greek mythology.

The Teaching Company lectures by Vandiver are wonderful, we used them too.

[angela in ohio]

My 7th and 9th grader flew through them at the beginning of the year, but they had read The Children's Homer and some children's books of mythology before. I think that helped a lot. It allowed us to discuss themes, instead of just figuring out what was happening.

 

We didn't use the Teaching Company tapes (we are doing the Ancient Archaeology ones instead,) but we did read the appropriate sections of WEM, Heros of the City of Man, and Invititation to the Classics. The TC videos look great, though!!

[Ester Maria]

While you definitely don't need an elaborate preparation, it would be advisable to be generally familiar with the chronology of each work (this is particularly important for Odyssey), i.e. a general sequence of events and basic characters (especially for Iliad, to get an idea of who fights on which side) before you start reading and/or learning about that at the initial stages of reading. Something like an encyclopedia entry on the works, just to provide enough information for initial orientation in the works.

 

Basic familiarity with the Greek mythology is also advised, as there are just so many references to it, and I also advise a basic familiarity with the meter (hexameters), to get the "flow" of it, understand better the fundamental orality of those works (rather than belonging "fully" to a written culture).

[stephanier.1765]

You might want to be familiar with the Judgement of Paris since it is a factor behind some of the motivations of the gods.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Paris

[ouzel]

My 9th grade son read Edith Hamilton's Mythology first, which he felt gave him a good foundation for reading The Iliad and The Odyssey. He says that knowing all the characters beforehand was especially helpful. He actually listened to the books (almost 29 hours), translation by Samuel Butler, narrated by John Lescault. He loved these epic poems, with The Iliad being his favorite.

Renee

[Julie in MN]

My son's reading (listening to) the Iliad right now, & we're using sections of TTC videos. He's read The Children's Homer (4th) and Black Ships Before Troy (6th) but I don't think he remembers the details. However, he knows the general story of the Trojan War etc.

 

In my opinion, the most helpful thing for him is the little preview in the MFW teacher's manual, telling him what to listen for, giving him a focus. I also add some tidbits. It helped, for instance, to remind him of the reason for the war (the golden apple thing) and that the Iliad starts in the 9th year of the war. You could do something similar with SparkNotes or something, if you felt your student needed it. (My ds is not a reader by nature.)

 

Julie

[Phoatogirl]

We did not read the Ilaid this year due to time, but chose the Odyssey. My son choose the Fagles since Ian McClellan narrated it (we bought the disks also). Be forwarned, listening to an actor read it is surely wonderful and makes the text come alive, but does add the the amount of time it takes to get through the book. Fagles did the Illiad as well (and the Aeneid). My son found the Odyssey trans. Fagles completely understandable. I found the translation by Lombardo even more so.

 

What I learned about choosing ancient lit. is to take time to consider what translation you wish to use. My son thought the older translations sounded more "greek", but I reasoned that the Greeks heard these works in their language, in a way that was completely understandable to them, without commentary, footnotes, and SparkNotes. The Fagles is accessible, the Fitzgerald still used in schools a lot, but the Lombardo is starting to be used in schools too. Lombardo is a living professor of classics at Un. of Kansas and has performed his Odyssey live across the U.S., so his work is held in esteem.

 

Yes, I agree with a previous poster that familiarity with Greek mythology would be helpful. Most of the these books have glossaries in the back, if needed.

 

I wouldn't have a high schooler read the children's versions of these books, but would rather spend the time on another classic.