Reading Homer

Film and Text

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Edited by Kostas Myrsiades

Type: Studies
Subject: Genre > Historical films
Keywords: adaptation
Publishing date: 2009
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 258 pages
6 ½ x 9 ¾ inches (16.5 x 24.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-61147-423-7

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Book Presentation:
These nine new essays on Homer's epics deal not only with major Homeric themes of time (honor), kleos (fame), geras (rewards), the psychology of Homeric warriors, and the re-evaluation of type scenes, but also with Homer's influence on contemporary film. Following the introduction and an essay which sets the historical background for the epics, four essays are devoted to fresh analysis of key passages and themes while another four turn to a discussion of the film 'Troy' and Homer's influence on two other genres of American cinema.
The background essay by Shawn Ross, 'Homer as History: Greeks and Others in the Early Iron Age', argues that understanding Homeric epic as the product of a longstanding oral tradition facilitates its use as a source for early Greek history. The next four essays delve into Homer's texts themselves focusing on a number of fresh approaches to the epics. Rick Newton's 'Geras and Guest Gifts in Homer' draws parallels between xeineia (hospitality and guest-gifts) in the Odyssey and geras (gifts from plunder) in the Iliad. John B. Vlahos's 'Homer's Odyssey, Books 19 and 23: Early Recognition: A Solution to the Enigmas of Ivory and Horns, and the Test of the Bed' tackles certain aspects of the Odyssey that have created problems for Homerists since the epics were composed. Scott Richardson's 'Conversation in the Odyssey' focuses on character conversation while Joel Christensen in 'The End of Speeches and Speech's End: Nestor, Diomedes and the telos muthon' turns back to the Iliad and offers a close reading of a crucial passage in Iliad 9 concerning the phrase telos muthon.
The second set of four essays turn to film beginning with two contributions on Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. Jonathan S. Burgess's 'Achilles Heel: The Historicism of the Film Troy' finds the film's weakness in its trying to portray a factual Trojan War rather than concentrating on the myth of the Trojan War while Charles C. Chiasson in 'Redefining Homeric Heroism in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy', observes tha

About the Author:
Kostas Myrsiades is professor of comparative literature at West Chester University.

Press Reviews:
Delightful, amazing, and full of surprising insights, this modest study includes nine new essays on both old Homeric questions (key themes and scenes) and modern concerns: e.g., it offers analyses of Wolfgang Peterson's blockbuster film Troy (2004) and other American films. Issues of orality, historicity, and Hellenism are dealt with, as are matters relating to gift-giving and the sacred law of hospitality. One essay probes and explicates the famous recognition scenes in the Odyssey (books 19 and 23). Two others examine the rhetorical sway of conversation and speech in the Iliad and the Odyssey. The careful scrutiny of Troy looks at how the film rewrites Homer audaciously and even redefines Homeric heroism. One contributor explores the charming It's a Wonderful Life as a skillful reworking of the Odyssey (Clarance the angel as Athena . . .). The book closes with an essay that compares the Iliad and the Odyssey with Henry King's film The Gunfighter (1950) in terms of the warrior's glory, self-recognition, and homecoming. The volume would have been more user friendly had Myrsiades fused the bibliographies at the end of each essay into one full grouping. Useful index. -- R. Cormier ― Choice Reviews

For the most part, all of the essays in this text are cogent, well argued, and worth reading. The book is well produced. I am impressed by their quality and also by the order in which they are placed, with one essay often offering commentary or contrast with what precedes, the essays create an inner dialogue among themselves. -- Robert J. Rabel, University of Kentucky ― Bryn Mawr Classical Review

See the publisher website: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

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