1 An architectural walking tour through downtown New Haven & Yale is easily planned. Even a little more than an hour suffices to show the students numerous examples of Greek influence on buildings of all kinds, civic, university, and private. In addition to these buildings, the Sterling Memorial & Beinecke Libraries both offer glimpses at a great wealth of books, and an architecture monumentally dedicated to their preservation. One beautiful point for comparison is the corner of High & Grove. There one can see examples of Greek, as well as Egyptian, neo-classical French, medieval gothic, & modern styles of architecture. Students I have taken to see these sights have always responded with vigorous intellectual curiosity, given a modicum of explanation.
2 See Jaeger. Jaeger offers a thorough discussion of Greek education, justice, and the use of Homer . His book is a classic, an essential to the study of Greek literature and culture.
3 Curtius offers a brilliant investigation into the way ancient literature survived through the “dark” ages. The works of Greece did not survive in a vacuum,. The clerics & scholars who bridged the gap between the last days of Rome, and the Renaissance, a thousand years later, left their mark on our perception of literature and our methods of study. The use of examples from the classics as authorities extends the continuous link to the example set by Homer. Those who followed Homer’s example, Virgil in particular, became the authorities. Even when the link to Homer was not direct, there was a link by authority.
4 For further information on the development of the Homeric epic consult Wright. This book offers close analyses of the influence of the Iliad on the Odyssey, the nature of epic similes, and the structural aspects of key speeches, and should prove helpful to the teacher wishing to dig deeper into elements of composition.
5 See Kirk for a discussion of the pre-Homeric influences on Homer, including archeological evidence from and consideration of Mycenae.
6 See both Kirk and Griffin
7 See the famous essay by Auerbach
8 For further elaboration of the role of epithets see Lattimore’s introduction to his Translation of the Iliad, or the introduction to Griffin. Griffin’s book, though focused on the ninth book of the Iliad, offers a very insightful overview of Homeric scholarship, including an extremely helpful look at pre-Homeric influences on the both epics.
9 I refer to the tape & accompanying booklet entitled “The Pronunciation of Ancient Greek: A Practical Guide” by Stephen Daitz.
10 We see in Lattimore’s translation an hexameter line, in that it has six stresses, but it would not be accurate in a strict sense to call it “dactylic” hexameter. Lattimore plays loosely with two & three syllable feet. The line does, as a counterpoint, resemble the Greek, both in appearance, & rhythm, when at its best.
11 In his famous essay On Translating Homer, Matthew Arnold challenged future translators to render Homer without rhyme. He wanted something noble throughout, and he wanted an English hexameter line worthy of Homer. He did not dismiss blank verse, only Miltonic blank verse, for Homer must be forward moving, & speedy. Richmond Lattimore’s Iliad answers the call for an hexameter line, Robert Fitzgerald’s Odyssey answers Arnold’s challenge with a durable five-beat line. For a look at the value of Fitzgerald’s translation see the final essay, “Epilogue: Homer & the Writers” by Robert Fagles, from the collection of essays edited by Fagles and Steiner (listed under student bibliography).
12 For a wide variety of translations and their sources see “Homer in English” edited by Steiner. The book is a good starting point for comparing various translations of a particular passage. The bibliography is especially useful. It lists printings of the translations I have selected, and many more.
13 Chapman, George Trans. The Odysseys of Homer. New York, Scribner’s (Date?)
14 See the scholarly edition of Pope’s Homer edited by Mack for information on Pope’s understanding of Homer, and the scholarship which followed on the heels of Pope’s work. Also see Arnold.
15 Pound, Ezra. A Draft of Thirty Cantos. New Directions, 1934.
16 See Lesson 36 in A Reading Course in Homeric Greek, by Schoder (Loyola, Chicago, 1986)
17 See Preminger.
18 See Three Centuries of New Haven: 1638-1938 by Rollin G. Osterweis (Yale, 1953) P.168.
19 Listed under “q” in most editions of Webster’s
20 From p.139 “The Child of Civilization”, an essay on Mandelstam’s concerns with classical culture, in the larger collection of essays Less Than One by Joseph Brodsky (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1986)
21 See Watson, p48
22 These readings may be found in The Norton Reader, Sixth Edition, Shorter. Eastman, Arthur M. General Editor. Norton, New York, 1984.
23 Compare the first lines of Chapman’s Odyssey with the sonnet by Keats, “Upon First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”