Reading Homer

by Myrsiades, Kostas

• ISBN13: 9780838642191
• ISBN10: 0838642195
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-06-30
• Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Pr

Summary

These nine new essays on Homer's epics deal not only with major Homeric themes of time (honor), kleos (fame), geras (rewards), the psychology of Homeric warriors, and the re-evaluation of type scenes, but also with Homer's influence on contemporary film. Following the introduction and an essay which sets the historical background for the epics, four essays are devoted to fresh analysis of key passages and themes while another four turn to a discussion of the film Troy and Homer's influence on two other genres of American cinema.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Read Homer?	p. 7
Homer as History: Greeks and Others in a Dark Age	p. 21
Geras and Guest Gifts in Homer	p. 58
Homer's Odyssey, Books 19 and 23: Early Recognition; A Solution to the Enigmas of Ivory and Horns, and the Test of the Bed	p. 89
Conversation in the Odyssey	p. 117
The End of Speeches and a Speech's End: Nestor, Diomedes, and the telos muthôn	p. 136
Achilles'Heel: The Historicism of the Film Troy	p. 163
Redefining Homeric Heroism in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy	p. 186
The Odyssey and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life	p. 208
Reading The Gunfighter as Homeric Epic	p. 229
Contributors	p. 253
Index	p. 255
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