Components of the epic
memory and recollection ~ temporality
the monument  (including the writing
of epic itself)
contexts of profound cultural change

located bodies – one

the heroic body
Hades
how are the shades of the dead described in this place?
family
where they came from
what they did or what happened to them
Achilles rejoices in the deeds of his son
(the epic itself announces its topic of the deeds of men and gods 1.338)
real death is silence, obscurity, amnesia

Phaeacia
Odysseus confronts his own fame
his glorious deeds immortalized in song
in an aristocratic household where he reveals his family and lineage
proves himself in the games
and receives the goods appropriate to his rank
to enable his return home

the monsters
the Cyclops - wholly asocial
the Sirens – the duplicity of language (and women)
Scylla and Charybdis – wholly ‘other’, consuming the self without grace or burial
Calypso – divine but holding only the promise of being alone and forgotten
Proteos (Book 4)
these are the means also by which the hero becomes himself

the hero
agathos – head of the household/oikos
a man of arete – position, wealth, excellence, the privilege of leisure
a man of time – honor and the wealth owing to position, the goods possessed
a man of philoi – those people and things held dear

the agon
good intentions are irrelevant to the loser or the dead
the compensation for the agathos fighting in the front rank is kudos – success and its renown
and kleos – fame
the culture of the agathos is a public one of results and fame or shame – hero and actions are identical

the heroic body
what is its location?
outside itself
to be found in what others say
confronting otherness and death
‘in a beautiful death excellence no longer has to be measured indefinitely against others and keep proving itself in confrontation; it is realized at one stroke and forever in the exploit that puts an end to the life of the hero’ Vernant

Slide 9