Monday, October 3 ~ Finish the Iliad

Let's finish this beast of a movie and the journals too!

Block Day, Sept. 30 ~ Troy continues!

Some Vocab for Epics and the rest of The Iliad:

1. philos - love for fellow warriors
2. menis - rage (almost a demonic, god-like rage)
3. kleos - a glorious reputation AND its poetic propagation
4. arete - virtue (manliness)
5. aidos - shame
6. aristeia - prowess

Journal 18: The Iliad via Troy
*BTW, Journals 12-17 were the various learning activities from student presentations. 

1. Give at least five examples from the movie when the concept of kleos is shown.
2. Compare the arete of Hector and Paris. 
3. How does Achilles project his aristeia. Why doesn't Menaleus discipline him? 
4. How are Achilles and Paris at opposite extremes of the spectrum when it comes to heroic identity/values? 
5. What is wrong with Agamemnon’s gift, his offer of reconciliation, to Achilles? In other words, how is his huge offer an assertion of superiority?

Monday, Sept.26 ~ Go Shoghi!

Shoghi will tell us about the traits of an Epic.

Friday, Sept. 23 ~ Zoe will tell us more about the influence and significance of our story.

EQ: How has our text influenced Western culture?

Shoghi, you will present on Monday!

Thursday, Sept. 22 ~ Isabella will tell us about the structure of the text.

EQ: How does the way Homer wrote the Iliad affect the meaning of it?

Zoe, you're up tomorrow!

Tuesday, Sept.20 ~ Grace will tell us about Homer.

EQ: Who was Homer and what was Greece like at the time of the Iliad?






Sarah, you are up tomorrow. No block day this week!

Monday, Sept.19 ~ Come my warriors!

 Brie will tell us about the Trojan War!



Thank you Mattie and Kaylee for summarizing the story so well.

• Let's go over the journal if we have time.

Sarah, you're up tomorrow!

Block Day, Sept.15 ~ The Iliad Summarized

Hey! Check out this awesome synopsis of the chapters, compliments of Yale.





Here is the part that is pretty helpful today. (Note that some chapters are skipped.)

• Book 1—
  The poem begins with a dispute between the Greek king, Agamemnon, and the great soldier and Greek prince, Achilles. After a recent battle, each Greek hero has received spoils as his reward for victory. The king has received the most wealth and a beautiful woman, Chryseis, and each warrior has received his share of the spoils according to his rank and heroism. 
  Chryses, a priest of Apollo and Chryseis’ father, comes to Agamemnon with gifts and offerings to ransom his daughter. Against the advice of the army, however, Agamemnon refuses to let Chryseis go and Chryses prays to Apollo for revenge. Apollo sends a plague into the Greek army and many men die. 
  Achilles realizes that this scourge may is divine retribution for Agamemnon's offense to Apollo. 
  Achilles confronts Agamemnon who grudgingly agrees to return Chryseis, but who then takes Achilles’ woman, Briseis, as a reminder that he, Agamemnon, is king. Achilles is inconsolable and asks his mother Thetis (a goddess of the sea) to persuade Zeus to punish Agamemnon by aiding the Trojans until his, Achilles’, honor is restored. 
  Thetis does as her son bids, and Zeus agrees with the result that the gods, already divided in their loyalties, enter the fray, each god fighting for or protecting his or her own: Athena and Hera supporting the Greeks while Apollo and Aphrodite support Troy. This expansion of hostilities further complicates the relationships among the Trojans, the Greeks, and their gods, and the resulting disputes form the basis of this epic poem.
• Book 2—Shows the armies gearing for war. The first half tells of a dream Zeus sends predicting early victory. The second half of the chapter is a catalog of the troops. I recommend reading the first half including the introduction of the troop catalog, which explains that the Muses were conceived as actual sources of information.
• Book 3—This book introduces Paris who has provoked the war, Helen, and Menelaus (Helen’s first husband and Agamemnon’s brother) and the people of Troy. For the first time we get a glimmer of the reason the Greeks and Trojans are fighting.
• Book 6—In book 4 the Trojans with divine help break the truce and for the rest of books 4 and 5 the battles continue with the Greeks carrying the day. Book 6 is a personal favorite because it includes one of the more humane scenes, a meeting between Hector and his wife, Andromache. Additionally, the plight of the women (Helen, Hekabe [Hector’s mother], and Andromache), which is calamitous. In this chapter also Hector shames Paris into returning to battle.
• Book 9—In books 7 and 8 the battles continue. The Greeks have fortified their position and both armies take time to bury their dead. In book 8 Zeus turns the tide of battle towards Troy. Book 9 presents the Greeks sending three envoys—Odysseus, Phoinix and Aias—to plead with Achilles to help them after their terrible defeat. Achilles refuses their offer and says he will not fight unless the Greeks attack his ships.
• Book 11—Book 10 shows Agamemnon and Menelaus passing into the Trojan camp to spy. They find a Trojan spy and obtain information about the Trojan positions. In book 11 the major Greek heroes are wounded and Patroclus’ heart is moved to enter the war.
• Book 16—The battle continues in books 12 through 15. The Trojans are first victorious, then because Zeus, who is fulfilling his promise to Thetis is tricked, the Greeks rally. Finally Zeus regains control and Troy breaks through to the Greek ships. In book 16 Patroclus, Achilles’ closest companion, pleads with Achilles who is still angry, but who allows Patroclus to enter the fray. Patroclus is killed.
• Book 18—The Greeks fight for and finally retrieve the body of Patroclus in book 17. In book 18, Achilles learns of his friend’s death and the army mourns Patroclus. At the end of the book a special shield is made for Achilles.
• Book 19—Achilles makes peace with Agamemnon and will join the fight. Achilles’ own death is forecast. The tide of battle turns toward the Greeks.
• Book 22—Books 20 and 21 show the turnabout once Achilles has joined the battle. The Greeks come up to the very walls of Troy. Book 22 is the climax of the story. Hector and Achilles meet and Hector is slain. Achilles drags the body around Troy and the Trojans display their grief.
• Book 24—Book 23 contains the funeral rites of Patroclus and also the funeral games. In book 24 Priam, King of Troy, comes to ransom his son’s, Hector’s, body, and Achilles is finally able to assuage his anger in a touching scene between the two men. Achilles agrees to return Hector’s body to Troy.

Kaylee and Mattie will present a fuller picture!

J12 Read Book 1 of the Iliad and create a character chart that explains who they are and how they are related.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 13 & 14 ~ Work on your Iliad Project/Lesson

Hey guys,

Let's craft these lessons for the Iliad Project. Please, take time to research and craft a lesson that will allow other students to master your topic. Here are some helpful requirements:

• Make sure your lesson answers one essential question.
• Make sure students walk away with some sort of notes or journal to study.
• Make your lesson visually and conversationally stimulating by using multi-media and/or conversation, etc...
• Food for thought: often people enjoy learning by being led toward their own ahah moment. Direct instruction is awesome, but it's also fun to give people the bits and pieces that will lead them to their own answer. 

Please! Let me know how I can help. I'm happy to listen and brainstorm with you.

Due Dates:
Kaylee and Mattie, your project is due this block day.
Monday 9/19 - Brie (Trojan War Background)
Tuesday 9/20 - Sarah (Significance and Influence)
Wednesday 9/21 - Grace (Homer and Greece)
Block 9/22 - Isabella (Structure)
Block 9/22 - Zoe (Significance and Influence)
Monday 9/26 - Shoghi (Epic Archeatype)

Monday, Sept.12 ~ Iliad Projects....get em' done!

Go over J11.

Work on Projects.


Kaylee and Brie, I'm so sorry you girls were robbed!

Block Day, Sept. 8 ~ Iliad Here We Come!

Quizzes returned (and taken by Zoe and Shoghi?)

Discuss and email written project proposals.

Just for kicks....let's watch a video to begin.

• A very cute summary.

HW: Read Heroes and the City of Man pages 85-96 "Fighters Killing, Fighters Killed"
Journal 11

1. According to the myths, how did the war begin?
2. What part of the war is the Iliad about?
3. What is the ancient Greek view of death?
4. Describe the hero's attitude toward death.
5. What does Homer think of the "heroic ethic"?
6. What accounts for the "despair" that, according to C.S.Lewis, pervades Homer's epic? 
7. Explain the "geography" of the epic. Why is this spacial division important?
8. Describe the "chiastic" links between Books 1-3 and Books 22-24.
9. Describe some of the poetic techniques that Homer uses to unify the poem. 
10. Research and cite few facts about ancient Greek warfare that you find interesting. 

Wednesday, Sept.7 ~ Hesiod Quizze

Last chance for questions on Works and Days???

Hesiod Quizze

HW: Write up your proposal for the Iliad project before block day! Email it to me when you've got it defined. Make sure you give your...

• Essential question
• Method of transmitting the info.
• Learning activities
• A rough break down of how the 30 minutes will be used

Tuesday, Sept.6 ~ Goodbye Hesiod!

Go over Works and Days.

Discuss Iliiad projects.

Our goal: To understand what The Iliad was about, it's affect on both Classical and contemporary cultures, as well as its significance as a literary work.

How: You will design an essential question and a lesson plan to teach the answer to your peers. You Should think not just about your own presentation style, but also what your peers are doing as a learning activity. You will have a 35 minute block to lead us to understanding in any way you please. Consider that you could lead a discussion, assign a journal, display multimedia or tell a story in your own way. How do you like to learn? Give us a learning experience.

When: How about next week? We'll start on Monday and go forward until Wednesday 9/21.

My hit list of topics:

• Historical background (Trojan War)
• Historical background (Homer and Greece)
• Content (We need to know the story well)
• Structure (How is this written? What meanings can we draw from researching the way Homer composed this)
• Influence/Significance (What affect has this story had on the world?)

HW: On block day, you must give me a written proposal of your project.

Block Day, Sept.1 ~ Catch up on Theogony

Let's talk over Journals 6-8 and compare our lovely drawings of the Greek cosmos.

What impressions do you have of the Greek mentality now?

What themes do you see in this origins poem?

Journal 9: Intertextual Criticism

• First record the definition of Intertextual Criticism - from the Latin intertexto, meaning to intermingle while weaving, intertextuality is a term first introduced by French semiotician Julia Kristeva in the late sixties. In essays such as "Word, Dialogue, and Novel," Kristeva broke with traditional notions of the author's "influences" and the text's "sources," positing that all signifying systems, from table settings to poems, are constituted by the manner in which they transform earlier signifying systems. A literary work, then, is not simply the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the strucutures of language itself. "[A]ny text," she argues, "is constructed of a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another"
• Now try it out. Read Romans 8. We know from Acts 17:23 that Paul addresses the people at the Temple of the Unknown god. He is addressing the Greeks of this mentality. Are there any verses in which Paul may be directly appealing to the Greek thoughts about the nature of God?

HW: J10 - Works and Days: Use your digital version of Works and Days. Read lines 1-404. Just skim through and get a general idea of what Hesiod is discussion about living a good life, etc... For each section, give it a mini-title. Also, record any questions that come to mind as you are reading. Are there any references to Theogony?