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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Hey everyone,<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Happy new year! I hope you are enjoying Iliad Books 1-8.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Below are two sets of questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- General questions for everyone to look at<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- Specific questions which I've assigned to individual readers to think about<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>These questions were prepared by a team of readers and scholars from Reading Odyssey. But don't be intimidated by these questions. The most important thing to do is to do the reading itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>I look forward to our first session:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Session 1: Iliad, pages 1-159 - Monday, Jan 9 @8pm ET<br>+1 (888) 298-1699<br>3470834#<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Bill<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>General questions<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>----------<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Every reader should read through these first three questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>1. Oral poetry<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Homer’s poems come out of an oral tradition that was hundreds of years old before it was written down. Homer himself, if he really existed, may have lived on the cusp of the era of literacy, perhaps in the first generation of poets who had the means to write down, and reshape with writing, these oral songs.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Consider these questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- What was surprising to you about the language and style of Homer? Was there anything that was initially difficult that became enjoyable?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- Jot down one or two examples of your favorite passages or phrases.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- How do you think oral poetry, or oral culture, may be different from written?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- Modern readers also live at the cusp of a new media era, the dawn of the digital age. How do you think the means of transmission (the "media") affect styles of literature?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>2. The gods<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>To read Homer for a modern reader is to grapple with the gods.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Consider these questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- Are the gods merely puppet masters or is something else going on?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- The first scene on Olympus (pp. 14-17) gives an early opportunity to understand the gods and their role in the poem. What's going on here? What do we learn?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- What does the appearance of lame Hephaestus (p. 17) show us about the world of the immortals, where injuries and torments end up as jokes in the course of centuries, and that of humans, which is bounded by death?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>3. Achilles and the heart of the Iliad<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Homer jumps right in with the stunningly forceful depiction of the angry Achilles: those first few lines of Iliad are gripping. Readers may be tempted to see Achilles as spoiled or whiny, or to regard his fight with Agamemnon as a jealous scrap over a girl.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Consider these questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- Did it annoy you that the great poem seemed to be driven by something so banal or, depending on your perspective, such a tired (and "sexist") cliché as men fighting over a woman? (Note: we write this with some irony knowing that the whole Trojan was, of course, a fight over a woman)<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- As you read through the first books did you find yourself grappling with whether there is something deeper going on? Or something more relevant? What did you decide?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>- And did the answer to that question inform the other question that most every reader has: why has this poem lasted so long?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>----------<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Questions To Be Assigned<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>----------<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Here are the individual question assignments. Please prepare some thoughts ahead of time to help kick off the discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Bill: Book 1: Honor<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>What is “honor” and why is it so important to the Greeks? To the gods? How is Achilles able to give up Briseis without fighting for her?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Hedy: Book 2: Dreams, Thersites and history<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>At the beginning of Book 2, why do you suppose that Zeus decides to use a dream to carry out his “will” (see p. 1, line 7)?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Why should the will of Zeus (the king of the gods) be carried out by means of a deceptive dream?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Thersites (pp.23-4) is one of Homer’s most vivid characters, and the only one who is not noble in lineage and appearance. Why would Homer include him? Is Odysseus right to abuse him so violently? Does Homer find him sympathetic, or vile?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>The so-called Catalogue of Ships is supremely boring for first-time readers but also offers an opportunity to discuss the Iliad’s relationship to history. Did Homer, or his original audience, regard this poem as a historical narrative? To what degree should we?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Pat: Book 3: Paris and Menelaus duel; Helen and Troy<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>What are Paris’ strengths and weaknesses? How are both portrayed in Book 3 on the battlefield? Why does Menelaus agree to the duel?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Our first look inside Troy is dominated by Helen, her lover Paris, and the sexualized, domestic life they share. Discuss how Homer uses this domestic world, as he uses Olympus, to pose contrasts with the principal sphere of action, the battlefield. What are the values and qualities of the household, and of women (as seen through Helen)? How do they compare with the values of the warrior? How does Homer regard Paris, the warrior who most easily crosses over to the domestic world?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Bruce: Book 4-5: The war revives<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>How and why does Zeus provoke Hera in the opening lines of Book 4? Is Hera really able to somehow persuade Zeus to prolong the war and allow the suffering of mortals to continue? Or was this still Zeus’ will all along?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Which side, Trojan or Greek, is favored in any way in these opening moments of battle? Is Homer pro-war or anti-war?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>What about yourself - were you rooting for peace even though you knew more battles were coming? Were you disappointed or excited (or something else) when the two sides 'tripped' into battle?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>The poem’s first major battle scenes offer an introduction to the conventions of Homeric warfare: One-on-one duels accompanied by exchanges of speeches, long lists of casualties with details of their wounds, interventions by gods. These points all call for discussion, especially the second: Why does Homer record so many deaths, even of minor characters, and discuss their maimings in such detail? Does the answer to this question relate to the question above - i.e. Homer's pro or anti-war position?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Tim: Book 6: The force of war<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>At the beginning of Book 6, should Menelaus take Adrastus prisoner? Why are Diomedes and Glaucus talking to each other about their lineage? What do we learn about Hector as he withdraws to the city of Troy temporarily? How effective are the Trojan prayers to Athena? What does this tell about ancient worship practices?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>As Hector and his wife Andromache converse, what is the tension between them? How does Homer try to make us sympathize with Paris at the end of Book 6? (Consider especially the simile on p.127).<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>The scenes inside Troy show us Hector’s connections to his family, including scenes with his mother, wife, son, and brother. As Hector’s son Astyanax cries (pp. 125-126), how does this exemplify the effect of war on the younger generation? Discuss how such familial relationships, or the lack of them, define some of the poem’s main figures, especially Achilles (note that Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, is nowhere mentioned in the Iliad and seems not to exist; indeed Homer seems to portray Achilles as a man too young to have a grown son.)<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>---<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>Kim: Book 7-8. Hector and Ajax duel; divine and human; Homer's cinematic moments.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>What terms or conditions does Hector propose for an individual duel? What does it take to get Greek warriors to volunteer to fight against Hector? What does this say about Hector’s formidability? How does Hector react to being pitted against Ajax? Who stops the duel and under what authority is this demand made?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>A long stretch of battle, punctuated by a long scene on Mt. Olympus (pp. 131-4), offers more contrasts between the divine and human worlds. Discuss how Homer portrays leadership and authority in human figures like Menelaus and Hector, as compared with the god Zeus. How does a divine king wield power, as compared with a mortal one? Does Homer offer any judgments about Zeus’ exercise of power?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Consolas;color:black'>The pace of the poem changes in Book 8 - it shifts into high gear. Modern readers may describe the experience of reading Book 8 as "cinematic." What was your experience? How does Homer change the pace and quicken the heart of readers? Why does he do so at this point in the poem?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#3B0084'>William Swislow</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#3B0084'>CIO/Senior Vice President for Product</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><div><div class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><hr size=1 width=168 style='width:1.75in' noshade style='color:#A0A0A0' align=left></span></div></div></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#3B0084'>Cars.com</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>175 W. Jackson Blvd, Suite 800</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br></span><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Chicago, IL 60604</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><br></span><span style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>T 312.601.5023<br>C 312.286.3486<br>F 312.601.6433</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-size:11.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'> </span></span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></body></html>