mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== _Homeric Innovation_ _Drama rather than narration:_ _In older epics, such as Gilgamesh, we find "events and situations of an idefinite, vague duration. Nowhere do we find an incisive immediate action in the Homeric sense, powerfully bound to one moment and one spot" (Vivante 14). The story of Achilles, "From a mythical point of view. . . is something quite insignificant. Moreover, the story has no proper conclusion in a conventional sense: Troy is not taken, the chief hero is left in a miserable state waiting for his death. It is unlikely that such a stoy could have been a great epic theme celebrated by generations of bards. Here again it looks as if Homer had touched a new chord . . ." (Vivante 14)._ _ _ _A new spirit in the Iliad. The effect on religion was profound. "The dramatic moment brings a god into play to commune directly with a man or a woman . . but spontaneously present in the hour of need, such as Athena is to Achilles in the Iliad or to Telemachus in the Odyssey. The gods are thus felt or seen at close quarters, and their closeness is more important than their transcendental powers" (Vivante 15). What we have in the Iliad that is new is the inner sense of the gods, "an intimate presence" (Vivante 15)._ _Works Cited_ _Paolo Vivante. The Iliad: Action as Poetry. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991._ [1][wl1.gif] [2][aw.jpg] [3][back.gif] References 1. http://iws.ccccd.edu/Andrade/andrade/andrade.html 2. http://iws.ccccd.edu/Andrade/andrade/aw.html 3. http://jade.ccccd.edu/Andrade/WorldLitI2332/IliadOdyssey.HTML