Homer: Iliad

About this Course

About the Course

In this course, Professor Barbara Graziosi (Durham University) explores Homer’s Iliad. In the first module, we focus on the so-called ‘Homeric Question’, focusing on how and when the poem was composed, who composed it, as well as what it was like in performance. After that, we turn our attention to the driving force of the poem—namely, the rage of Achilles. In the third module, we think about the scope of the poem—both geographical and chronological—despite the fact that the narrative itself only covers eleven days of the ten-year war. In the final two modules, we focus on the character of Hector—first his appearance in Book 6, where he meets several members of his family, and then his appearance in Book 22, where he is killed by Achilles.

About the Lecturer

Barbara Graziosi is Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature at Princeton University. Her research focuses on ancient Greek literature and the ways in which audiences and readers make it their own, with a particular focus on Homeric epic and Greek representations of the gods. Some of her major publications include Inventing Homer (Cambridge, 2002), The Resonance of Epic (London, 2005), The God of Olympus: A History and Homer (Oxford, 2016).