Unit 3

English 201:    Masterpieces of Western Literature

Questions:
Chat:  Consider these questions before you log-on to the chat session.  You do not have to write essay answers, but you should look at relevant passages of the text & jot down several points before the chat session so that you can easily contribute to the discussion.

• Is PAT's life acceptable?  Is he a role model?  In spite of all his flaws, AK remains awesome.  PAT is far more human.  Is PAT responsible for his teenage end?  Does AK (dad) bear some responsibility for PAT's death?  What does PAT accomplish?  He kills 50 or more Trojan champions in his brief explosion of power.  Why isn't this celebrated?
• HK takes AK’s armor from PAT’s corpse. Thetis asks Hephaistos to make new armor for AK. There is a long section describing this armor: 18.551—699. Consider the scenes rendered in the armor, e.g., the harvest scene, 18.633. Explain why this ironic.
• Can HK be blamed for (1) disobeying his father & mother, & (2) for his vanity in deciding to stand against AK?
• What do you think of The Iliad?  Why would some of us nominate as the quintessential Western classic; the work that best explains Western values?

Hektor's Farewell to his wife, mother, & son

Short Answers: E-mail your answers.  Make sure the subject line says: unit03.

1. After PAT slays Sarpedon, he vows to strip the corpse of armor & desecrate the body.  What happens to the armor & the corpse?
2. Who is being spoken about?

spirit from body fluttered to undergloom,
bewailing fate that made him leave his youth
& manhood in the world
3. Who guides Priam through the Greek guards to reach AK's tent unseen?
4. Who is Kassandra?  What is her talent?
5. Who is "laughter's darling,"

that Grace
the bowlegged god had taken to wife.