These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. CLASSICS 100 1nd Edition 1nd EditionThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. CLASSICS 100 1nd Edition 1nd Edition Lecture 20: Oral Literature and it's Beginnings Outline of Last Lecture I. Delphi II. Why and What at Delphi III. New Delegates IV. What Kind of Answers? V. Attack on Athens VI. How Did Delphi Work? VII. Elements of the Ritual Outline of Current Lecture I. Oral Literature II. 600 B.C. III. Classification of Poems IV. The Cycle of the Trojans V. The Cycle of Returns Current Lecture I. Oral Literature A. Literature was told orally before there was a writing system implemented in Ancient Greece. Previously, poems and stories had been told from person to person and were recited. Sometimes, depending on the situation, the teller of the tale might have changed a few things about the characters and their actions. There was no set way to “tell” a story because they were never written down and depending on the lesson the teller was trying to get across, they had the opportunity to change the story at their will. B. However, by 600 B.C. we can clearly tell that hundreds and hundreds of poems had been written down once writing became popular. Oral traditions had been taken down each andevery way that they had been told. This causes some stories to be interpretted differently even if they are the “same.”4 C. In Greece, poetry was written before prose. This was because poetry was never recited, but always sung aloud and performed. There was always music present. Today we have something similar called “Lyric Poetry.”II. 600 B.C. A. The Iliad and the Odyssey, poems attributed to Homer, are found. Both of these poems look further into the past. They both have Mycenaean likenesses and take place during the Mycenaean period. This has caused some speculation: Did Homer come up with these tales himself or did he simply write them down as he was told them? B. The reason these two tales by Homer survived (only 2 from the Mycenaean age made it through the centuries, though we know there are more) was for a number of reasons. When writing and reading became mandatory, these became the school texts children used. Also, they were “geared” towards students in some respects, though to do this some aspects of the original stories may have been/probably were changed. This was because of that flexibility the tellers had. In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope remains loyal to Odysseus and doesn't like the suitors at all. In other versions, Penelope has sex with all 112 suitors in one night, betraying Odysseus. The school texts had to be more “PG.” III. Classification of Poems A. The term “Cycles” is used to classify poems from Ancient Greece. It described the general theme around which a number of poems were grouped. B. An example would be a Cycle about Hercules. In the “Cycle of Hercules” it is believed there may be 12 poems, each one for a labor he performed. IV. The Cycle of the Trojans A. The Cycle of the Trojans is the most important cycle. The earliest Poem in this cycle is titled Cypria. It was a very detailed poem, but not all of it survived the ages. The origins of the Trojan war were included. At the end of the first poem, Helena is kidnapped. B. The title of the 2nd in the cycle is lost to history. It is known that in this poem, all the Greeks gathered in Asia minor, where they thought Helena was being held, but after fighting for 10 years, discovered they were at the wrong place. C. The 3rd detailed the first 8 years of war. There is no title and no great details. D. The 4th is the Iliad and details the adventures and battles of Achilles. E. The 5th poem was called the “Etheopian Poem” though the real title never survived.We have most of the plots and parts of some stories from it. After Hector is killed by Achilles, Troy does6 not have a champion and chooses an Ethiopian to fight; Achilles kills, rapes, and eats him. Next they send for an Amazonian. Achilles makes eye contact with the woman briefly while fighting, striking a connection, but he kills, rapes, and eats her anyway. F. The “Little Iliad,” where Achilles dies. G. The 7th poem in the series details the sacking of Troy (how it happened and came about). V. The Cycle of Returns A. The Cycle of Returns came right after the Cycle of the Trojans. It detailed the returns of those who fought in Troy. The Odyssey was a poem in this cycle. B. The Odyssey is a very stand out poem in this cycle because everyone else who has a poem about returning home after the wars if killed once they come back home. Agamemnon had a poem in this cycle, he was killed by his wife. However, Odysseus is allowed to return peacefully to his homeland. C. The Telegony comes after the Odyssey, and also a continuation of sorts. It did not survive in full, but we do know it was well loved by