Homer on Life and Death (C Cpb T Clarendon Paperbacks)
by Jasper Griffin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jasper GriffinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1983-12-15
ISBN: 0198140266
Number of pages: 234
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Homer on Life and Death (C Cpb T Clarendon Paperbacks)
Book Review: Fading into the gloom.
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I want to direct you to the review by Mr. Henderson if you haven't already read it. What he feels toward this book is what I feel. What I want to do in my review is to go a little more into the specifics of what the great Jasper Griffin (hereafter JG) has to say in Homer on Life and Death (hereafter HLD because I am hereafter lazy).
I am starting to believe that the best books about Homer are those take the approach that there was one guy who created both epic poems and that any interpretation must deal with all the problems inherent in such an approach.
Another key to JG's approach is to situate the poems along side some contemporary texts from the Near East including the Old Testament. I think this is one key to understanding why JG is so insightful.
Even otherwise very good students of Homer (e.g., Eva Braan) seem to have a hard time taking the Greek religion seriously. By taking it as a legitimate and profound alternative to the other religions and epics that were being written at around the same time, JG is able to tease out similarities and to clearly demarcate what makes the world of the Homeric epic so profoundly moving.
JG's methodology also makes use of the scholiasts for confirmation of his ideas. He wants his reading of Homer to be something that ancient readers of Homer would recognize. JG quotes the scholiasts over and over in support of his own view and I must say I find that an effective argument. He is basically claiming that his own view is something like that of that of the ancient Greeks themselves.
"[T]he great aim of the poem as a whole: the presentation of symbolic scenes which show us the meaning and the universality of human doom" (p.69).
The Iliad is a poem about death and how to face it. There is no other work like it. Time and again we witness the moment of death in an amazing variety of gruesome and awful ways. It is impossible to do justice to the overall uneasiness these scenes create in the reader. Time and again men whom we come to admire and like, e.g., Sarpedon, are killed in the most dramatic yet objective fashion.
In the first few chapters, JG teases out how Homer uses everyday things and incidents to demarcate dramatic moments of great intensity. Homer does so while maintaining what seems to be an objective and detached voice. Some of the symbols that Homer used so powerfully are the simplest most quotidian things, e.g., feasting or items of clothing. At the end of the Odyssey, Penelope proves to herself the identity of the husband she has not seen for twenty years by asking him a question about their bed. JG discusses the different way the use of a scepter is used to elucidate the character and decisions of Agamemnon, Achilles and Telemachus.
JG devotes a chapter to the way that Homer reveals character and psychology without stating it explicitly. Mr. Henderson mentions that JG writes polemically at times- these moments are directed toward those scholars whose theories would limit our ability to read the subtleties of Homer.
In chapter three, JG really starts to go to work on outlining Homer's vision of our mortality. JG gives us a masterful presentation of Homer's thought in these final four chapters. He elucidates how Homer uses gods and mankind to define each other.
The thing that has always struck me as unique about the Greeks is their vision of Hades. In the afterlife, there is a minimum of punishment unless you have insulted the gods. For most of us, life in Hades seems to be an extremely attenuated version of our everyday life. Hades is life without any flavor, any color, any pleasure. There is no reward or punishment. Maybe not even for heroes (see Achilles in Hades in The Odyssey- there seems to be no Elysium from his perspective).
JG see this as one end of a continuum. In the middle is our human life. At the other end are the immortal gods.
The defining quality of humanity is our mortality. It is that which gives meaning and dignity to so many of our actions, our traditions, our ways of life. Chapter 4, "Death, Pathos and Objectivity" explores the themes and variations that Homer uses to explore the meaning and horrific finality of death. JG points out all the ways that bereaved fathers play a part in the Homeric epics. He points out how important it was to the Greeks and Trojans that the body be cared for after death. There is the horror of being left to the dogs, crows, eels and worms. There is the possibility of mutilation by one's enemies as opposed to being tended and prepared for your journey to Hades by loved ones. JG is great at teasing out example after example of a theme like this explicating all the shades of meaning that Homer derives out of similar situations.
I could go on but I cannot do justice to this book in summation. You can do justice to it only by reading HLD and then reading Homer again to recognize all that you missed. This is simply one of the best books of lit crit I have ever read. It happens to be on one of the central works in the cultural heritage of the West. This may not be the best single book ever written on Homer but it is the best one of which I know. I challenge you, O reader of this review- read HLD and then name me another better.
p.s. One final bitter point. Publishers of the very best scholarly works are, I think, ignorant of the concept of elasticity of demand. Let me say just this. Sometimes by publishing a cheaper edition, you can make a lot more money. If this book was available in an edition that sold for around $10, I think you would eventually sell a million of them and myself and Mr. Henderson would be but two of many reviewers. Then again I may be an idiot when it comes to the publishing business.
Summary of Homer on Life and Death (C Cpb T Clarendon Paperbacks)
This book demonstrates how Homeric poetry manages to confer significance on persons and actions, interpreting the world and the lives of the people who inhabit it. Taking central themes like characterization, death, and the gods, the author argues that current ideas of the limitations of "oral poetry" are unreal, and that Homer embodies a view of the world both unique and profound.Classics Books
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