Event Title
How to Read a Homeric Simile - and Why
Department
Classics
Start Date
5-4-2014 10:00 AM
Description
The Homeric epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, famously use long and detailed similes as a poetic technique. How should we understand the comparisons being made with the similes, and why should we read these three-millennia-old poems at all? We will start with two similes from Homer’s Iliad that, perhaps surprisingly at first glance, compare warriors to mothers and their children. After some background about the oral, traditional nature of this epic, we will then use appropriate methods to interpret these and other similes within the poem. This poetic investigation will show what these similes can tell us about the experience of war that remains true for today’s soldiers and how the ancient poetry can resonate emotionally for modern audiences.
How to Read a Homeric Simile - and Why
The Homeric epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, famously use long and detailed similes as a poetic technique. How should we understand the comparisons being made with the similes, and why should we read these three-millennia-old poems at all? We will start with two similes from Homer’s Iliad that, perhaps surprisingly at first glance, compare warriors to mothers and their children. After some background about the oral, traditional nature of this epic, we will then use appropriate methods to interpret these and other similes within the poem. This poetic investigation will show what these similes can tell us about the experience of war that remains true for today’s soldiers and how the ancient poetry can resonate emotionally for modern audiences.