Study Guides

I am working on a new project while I am unemployed. I have been writing study guides for books I teach for years now for my students, but have never really had the opportunity to revise them at all. While I am trying to find a job, I am doing some revision of those guides and thinking of ways to earn a little money with them. I finished the Iliad yesterday and am almost done with the Odyssey as well.

They are pretty straightforward guides. They have author, date, and context introductions as well as a summary of the book, themes, and literary notes for things to watch for and understand while reading. Each have several multiple choice comprehension quizzes periodically throughout the book which have answer keys, but the most important thing is that I have included no answers to anything but the quizzes. I did this intentionally. Daily reading is accompanied by either review and recitation worksheets which are pretty straightforward or specific worldview discussion sessions which are a little more complicated. In either case, the ideal is that Mom and Dad, or the teacher/tutor are reading this book along with their kids and they can talk through the answers together. On the review and recitation pages, there isn't much to dig for. On the discussion sessions, I wanted to allow for honest discussion in a group or even amongst members of a family. So I didn't provide answers for questions like, What is pride? I think the family/classroom discussion is far more valuable than any answer I could provide would ever be.

If you are interested in one of the guides I've got ready, let me know and I'll send you a sample. I haven't worked out a price yet for the whole guide, but it'd be under $10.

Aristeia

Aristeia is a Greek word meaning excellence. When used in the Iliad, it refers to the best fighting a hero may accomplish. An excellent example of this is in book 21 when Achilleus almost single-handedly routs the entire Trojan army and succeeds in killing Hektor, the hero of the Trojans.

Pride in the Iliad

This theme of the Iliad is mentioned in the proem (the first several lines of the poem) and describes the most basic outline of the plot of the story. While the main theme of the work is widely recognized as “the wrath of Achilleus” it is obvious with the most cursory read-through that this wrath stems from Achilleus’ sense of pride. Pride is the most basic problem in Greek literature. Taken from the Greek term hubris which means an exaggerated self-pride or self-confidence, our conception of pride is very fitting. Pride is thinking too highly of oneself and acting like everyone else should think as highly of you as you do.
Both Achilleus and Agamemnon are guilty of pride (or hubris) in the Iliad. The argument that erupts between them over the war bride Briseis is a perfect example of this. Agamemnon feels that since he is the great king of the war fleet, he should have the best prizes. When Chriseis is taken from him to appease Chryse and Apollo, he demands that he get Achilleus’ war bride in return for his loss. This is an amazing amount of pride on Agamemnon’s part, but Achilleus’ response is no less prideful.
Achilleus responds to Agamemnon’s demand by retreating from the battle, sulking at his own ships, and begging his goddess mother to make Agamemnon pay for his rash behavior and dishonoring of her son. He insists that for the dishonor he has been shown he will no longer fight with the Achaians.
As Christians we know that pride is one of the greatest sins we can fall into. It was the very sin that cast Lucifer, that angel of light, from the presence of God in heaven and doomed him to spend eternity in hell. Therefore as we see pride writ large upon the characters of Homer’s Iliad, we must consider the worldview implications of such thinking. Homer, like most Greek writers, often condemned hubris, but also recognized that a certain amount was necessary for survival. In the Christian life, our greatest strength often becomes our most challenging weakness as well. Are you a gifted athlete? That can be a source of pride for you as well then. Do you do well in classes without much labor? That can also turn into a pride issue. Unlike the Greek heroes in the Iliad, we have the opportunity to lay our pride before God and recognize our own weakness. The Greeks, in some ways, felt their gods were simply stronger, immortal, people. There was no majesty involved. No holiness before which they could humble themselves. This represents one of the chief reasons so many Greek heroes get in trouble with the gods. They too often act like gods and take glory away from the gods themselves.