WLIT 2323. READING REACTIONS.
Illustration: Zeus battles Typhon. Black-figure
Hyrdia. Chalcidian, probably made at Rhegion in Sicily, ca. 540-530 BCE.
Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glpytothek, Munich (596). From The Centaur’s
Smile, figure 20, p. 95.
The professor will assign readings for nearly every class. Each student
will read all of each assignment before coming to class, and will bring
to class a typed paragraph or two in reaction to the day’s reading assignment.
The professor will not accept late Reading Reactions.
The “reading reaction” papers may be in the third person or
in the first person. They must cite one or two passages, by quoting or paraphrasing.
The papers may cite other sources, if relevant. It is a good idea to include
a question, if your reading prompts you to ask one. Please proofread your
papers for proper spelling and grammar. Be sure to cite passages by line
number.
Reading Reactions will be in your own words, with appropriate attributable
quotations. Do not copy material from other sources to hand in as
your own. Papers that include plagiarized material will receive the grade
of 0. The professor will report acts of plagiarism to the Office of Community
Standards and Student Ethics.
Students may choose any part of the reading for their comments. The important
thing is to interact with the material you read, and show that you have
thought about the text and can say something intelligent about part of it.
I encourage you to refer back to material we have already read, in relation
to current assignments. That is, when reading about nymphs in Odyssey
17.220-270, for example, you could refer to nymphs in the Homeric Hymn to
Aphrodite (5.226), and/or Hesiod (Theogony 130, 187), and/or
a previously-read section of the Odyssey (such as 13.105-115, and/or
13.368-379).
Reactions may be personal comments, and/or academic observations. Reactions
may show what you have learned, and what difficulties the text presents.
You might show that you understand a key fact about a god, or how s/he is
described in literature. Reactions should not be vague: include examples,
specifics, and solid supporting material.
Please type the assignments, and fold them with your name on the outside
only.
If you are not sure how to react to what you have read, you might consider
answering one or more of the following questions about the assignment, with
one or two quotations from the text that relates to your ideas:
How is this story told? What is its form? What is its context? Who is
the audience?
Why is this story told? What are the motives in telling it?
What is the role of the divine in the story?
What is the role of the mortal or mortals in the story?
What is the nature of the interaction between gods and mortals in the
story?
What is the role of prayer in the story?
What religious beliefs does the story reveal?
Here are some examples to give you an idea of what the professor would
like to see.
One good example:
“I found it fascinating that Hesiod tells Perses that ‘when you
work, you are a lot dearer to the gods, and to people too. Everybody hates
a layabout (W&D 353)’ and ‘Better for you, too, Perses, if you’d
only get your mind off of other folks’ property and work at earning a living,
as I keep telling you” (W &D 361). I had not known that
a Greek valued physical labor so much, and that they despised a lazy man.
The fact that labor is tied to the gods’ favor gives Hesiod some authority
over his brother: It is like saying that the gods are on my side, which
is the message he seems to give throughout the poem.
This kind of preachy message reminds me a lot of a sermon someone might
give based on Ephesians 4:28 “The one who steals must steal no longer;
rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have
something to share with the one who has need.” The value of labor,
and its godliness, represent a value shared in both Christian and pre-Christian
thought. In Hesiod’s case, the injunction to work is to keep a man from
becoming destitute; in the New Testament passage, the motive is eleemosynary.”
A question: What other examples are there in Greek myth of gods favoring
or encouraging or rewarding human work?”
Grade: 95.
Another good example:
“Zeus’ speech to the gods (Odyssey 1.38-48) summarizes an
important question in myth: Who is responsible for human sufferings — men
or gods? The Olympian Father blames mortals for their own miseries, giving
as an example the death of Aegisthus, whom Orestes killed for his crime
against Agamemnon — in spite of the fact that the gods had warned him by
sending Hermes to tell him not to kill the king or woo his wife. This concept
seems to contradict the story in Hesiod about Pandora, the first woman,
who was created to bring misery to men to punish Prometheus’ disobedience
of Zeus. In Hesiod, human suffering results from the gods sending Pandora,
not by any fault of mortals themselves. ‘Zeus made life hard for humans’
(W &D 67).” Maybe the difference is that Pandora brought the need
to work (making life hard), and not exactly a specific ‘punishment’ in addition
to having to make a living.
A question: Are Odysseus’ sufferings in the Odyssey brought on
by something that he did to displease the gods? Do others in the Odyssey
get punished for their evil actions?”
Grade: 95.
Another good example:
“In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, I learned that Hades abducted
Persephone with the collusion of Zeus: ‘Far-seeing, thundering Zeus had
sanctioned it’ and ‘by Zeus’ tactics.’ (Hymn to Demeter 3, 9). So,
the rape of Demeter’s daughter was part of the divine will of Zeus, the
king of the gods, who is renowned for justice, as Hesiod said (W&D
52, 380). This shows that the justice of the gods is idiosyncratic: what
is right is what they decide at a given time. It also shows that a father
may do what he likes with his daughter; he may give her to the husband he
chooses, in this case, his brother Aidoneus. It is a little confusing that
both Hades and Zeus are called the sons of Cronus. You have to read carefully
here to understand which one is meant. In line 21, the ‘son of Cronos’ is
Zeus, and in line 31 the ‘son of Cronus’ is Hades.
A question: What are the ‘sacred, inviolable’ mysteries of Demeter?”
Grade: 95.
Another good example:
“The Homeric Hymn to Dionysos is very short (less than two
pages), but in it there are no fewer than three references to the weird
birth of this god. Zeus gave birth to Dionysos from his thigh, after having
taken cut open his leg and put Dionysos’ unborn fetus inside it. Therefore,
the god is called ‘stitched-in god,’ (1), ‘sewn god’ (17), and ‘seam-born’
(20).
A Question: Zeus gave birth to Athena from his own head and to Dionysos
from his thigh; doesn’t this make him a sort of mother figure? And isn’t
that kind of ironic, seeing that he is often called the father of gods and
of men?
Grade: 95.
Another good example:
“I find it interesting that the ages of man in Hesiod are mostly
named after metals (gold, silver, bronze, heroes, and iron: W&D
129ff). I wondered if the expression ‘to test one’s mettle’ or ‘to show
one’s mettle’ was related to metal, so I looked up ‘mettle’ and found that
it does come from the word ‘metal,’ so we use the metaphor of men as metals,
just as Hesiod did.
[mettle. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House,
Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mettle (accessed: January 06,
2009).]
A Question: I wonder why Hesiod did not refer to the ‘stone age,’ since
that is also a description that is common in the modern world for very early
civilizations.”
Grade: 95.
A not-so-good example:
“In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, a mortal dude had a one-night
stand with Aphrodite, the goddess of love. That’s really hot, except that
then she tells him not to tell anybody that he had slept with her and knocked
her up. Bummer. But at least he became the father of somebody famous.
A Question: How can I get into bed with a goddess?”
Grade: 75%
[Professor’s comments: This reaction does refer to two passages
in the Hymn, but only vaguely, and without line numbers. It is too
informal. It does not deal with the bigger picture of the relations between
the gods and mortals, which this story stresses. It does not ask who the
famous son will be, or his importance. It does show some thought, and expresses
a reaction, but not in a serious way. (which is still better than not doing
the assignment at all).]
Note: Students are not
to use this assignment to simply quote a passage and then summarize it as
something they have learned:
A Not-So-Good Example:
“I found the following passage interesting/fascinating/educational/awesome:
“When birth-pain Eileithyia came to Delos,
Then only did birth’s urgency seize Leto.
She grasped a palm tree in her arms, knees driven
Into the soft grass. Earth beneath her smiled.
The god leaped lightward; every goddess shouted.
Then Phoebus of the holy shriek, they washed you”
(Homeric Hymn to Apollo 115-120)
This describes Apollo’s birth on the island of Delos. Leto was
his mother, and Eileithyia is the goddess of childbirth. I had not
known this before, and am glad to have learned it. It’s really cool.”
Grade: 65%
[Professor’s comments: This reaction does include line numbers
and a quotation, but the reaction simply states the facts of the passage’s
contents. It does not show thought or analysis. Is does not
really say anything. Someone interested in this passage will write
something about Eileithyia, and how she is portrayed in the Hymn,
and find out something about this childbirth goddess and add that to the
assignment, or speak of the role of childbirth goddesses, or speak of the
promise of a ‘salary’ for this job (104), or mention her in the Odyssey,
or the Iliad, or stories of the Birth of Athena. It would be good
in this regard to discuss Theogony 927 (Lombardo): the birth of Eileithyia
from Hera and Zeus.]
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