Iliad and Its Afterlife
- Sheila Murnaghan
- College of Arts & Sciences
- First-Year Seminar Grant
As the first work in the western tradition, Homer’s Trojan War epic, the Iliad, has been a constant point of reference for thinking about heroism, friendship, the search for meaning in the face of mortality, and the effects of war on individuals and societies. We will begin with a close reading of the Iliad in English translation, paying attention both to the story of its hero Achilles as he experiences disillusionment, frustration, anger, triumph, revenge, and reconciliation and to the poem’s broader portrait of a society at war; this portrait incorporates the diverse perspectives of invaders and defenders, men and women, old and young, gods and mortals, along with tantalizing glimpses of peacetime life. We will then consider how later writers and artists have drawn on the Iliad to present a range of perspectives of their own — whether patriotic, mock heroic, romantic, or pacifist — with particular attention to 20th and 21st century responses by such figures as W.H. Auden, Simone Weil, Jonathan Shay, Cy Twombly, David Malouf, Alice Oswald, and Adrienne Rich. No previous knowledge of the Iliad is required. The course is intended for anyone who is interested in how cultures use their shared myths both to affirm and to question their central values.