AN ILIAD Teacher Information Packet

T EACHER INF ORM AT ION PACKET

2018-19 SEASON

TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET Compiled and Written by: Madelyn Ardito Director of Education Ayla Davidson Lead Teaching Artist Christine Scarfuto Literary Manager and Dramaturg

EDUCATION

Layout by Claire Zoghb, Graphics Director

T EACHER INF ORM AT ION PACKET

JACOB G. PADRóN

ARTISTIC Director

18 19

PRESENTS

ADAPTED FROM HOMER

BY LISA PETERSON & DENIS O’HARE TRANSLATION BY ROBERT FAGLES DIRECTED BY WHITNEY WHITE

MARCH 20 – APRIL 14, 2019

JOSHUA BORENSTEIN MANAGING Director

LONG WHARF THEATRE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE GENEROSITY OF OUR EDUCATION SUPPORTERS

ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST FREDERicK A. D e LUCA FOUNDATION THE ETHEL & ABE LAPIDES FOUNDATION, INC. henry nias foundation, inc.

THEATRE FORWARD WELLS FARGO FOUNDATION yale repertory theatre

FOR THE FIRST−TIME THEATERGOER: YOU! Long Wharf Theatre hopes that your first time at the theater is magical and life changing, so here a few rules we would like to suggest you follow on this new experience...

DO e s a Ple early. arrive

Please ave e l T ’ N DO e g a b r a g your e. r t a e h t in the Food and drinks are usually not permitted during student matinees except for bottled water. Be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby.

Actors feed off of you, the audience, so don’t be afraid to laugh, clap or cry if it moves you. But remember everyone engages with theater in a different way, so please be mindful of your neighbors.

Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes.

Please DO tur your cell phon off ne.

for T I A W Please ission. interm

ABOVE ALL: Please ENJOY the Show!

Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre. The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

Intermission is a great time to get a drink of water, use the bathroom, check your cell phone and talk to your friends about what just happened in the performance.

Doing any of these things during the performance oftentimes causes disruption and can mess with the actors’ flow on stage.

contents A B O U T T H E P L AY

8 Setting

10 Characters

13

About the Playwrights

T H E W O R L D O F T H E P L AY

17

Homer: A Biography

20

The Iliad: How It All Goes Down

21

Excerpt from The Iliad

22

Map of Ancient Greece

22

Why This Play Now?

S U P P L E M E N TA L M AT E R I A L S

Look for this symbol to find discussion and writing prompts, discussion questions and classroom activities!

25

READ a Review—then WRITE your own!

30

The Shield of Achilles

ABOUT THE PLAY

SETTING

Where does the play take place?

“It’s the room that [The Poet] walks into. It could be an auditorium, an empty theatre, a warehouse… or even a bar.

Wherever people are gathered and ready to hear his song – this is the appropriate setting for our play.”

– Lisa Peterson

The stories The Poet tells take place in Ancient Greece, during The Trojan War. The mythological war is said to have lasted 9 years in the 12th century BC.

A reconstruction of the Homeric city of Troy.

8

Illustration: G Dagli Orti/De Agostini/Getty Images

Greek warrior Achilles meets his doom when Paris shoots an arrow (guided by Apollo) directly into Achilles’ heel.

9

CHARACTERS

Who are the people in the play?

THE POET “An ancient teller of tales who might still exist in the universe, doomed to tell the story of the Trojan War until the day when human nature changes, when our addiction to rage comes to an end, when the telling of a war story becomes unnecessary. A day that has yet to come, of course.” – An Iliad

Denis O’Hare at New York Theatre Workshop, (Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)

Stephen Spinella at McCarter Theatre Center’s Matthews Stage.

Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson.

Tarah Flanagan at Robert Cohen Theatre

THE MUSICIAN (THE MUSES) The musician does not speak with words but rather through the electric guitar, creating a dialogue of melodic emotion with The Poet.

This musician represents The Muses of Greek storytelling, who were primarily responsible for inspiring mortals to practice their artistic talent (in The Poet’s case, storytelling).

10

GLOSSARY of Characters Mentioned WHO’S WHO IN THE ILIAD

https://www.milwaukeerep.com/RepGlobal/archive/iliad-playguide.pdf

THE GODS Zeus – Known as “god of the sky,” Zeus ruled the Olympian gods and all men and creatures on Earth. He used the weather and nature to keep order on the Earth and most notably employed lightning bolts to spite his enemies.

Hera – Zeus’ wife and goddess of marriage and childbirth.

Athena – Zeus’ daughter and the goddess of war, reason, intelligence, the arts, and literature.

Busts of Zeus and Hera

Aphrodite – Zeus’ daughter and the goddess of love, desire, and beauty.

Apollo – Zeus’ son, refered to as the “sun god” since he used his chariot to drive the sun across the sky each day.

THE GREEKS Achilles – A part-immortal, part-mortal man, Achilles is known as one of the great heroes of the Greek army. He was also known for his rage and stubbornness during the Trojan War. Agamemnon – The commander of the Greek army.

Briseis – Achilles’ lover, taken by Agamemnon causing conflict between the two soldiers.

Helen – Known as the most beautiful woman in the world, she left her husband Menelaus in Greece to live with Paris in Troy.

Menelaus – Helen’s Greek husband, King of Sparta, and Agamemnon’s brother.

Achilles and Patroclus

Patroclus – Achilles’ good friend. His death encouraged Achilles to return to battle.

THE TROJANS Hector – The commander of the Trojan army, he kills Patroclus during battle, igniting the conflict between he and Achilles.

Andromache – Hector’s wife who has a newborn son.

Astyanax – Hector’s newborn son.

Paris – Hector’s younger brother who steals Helen from Menelaus as his wife, bringing her to Troy, and starting the Trojan War. Priam – The King of Troy and father to Hector and Paris.

Hecuba – Priam’s wife and Hector’s mother.

Andromache, Astyanax, and Hector

The Dardan – The soldier from Troy who wounded Patroclus before he was killed by Hector. www.MilwaukeeRep.com • page 5

11

GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS MENTIONED continued

MUSES THETHE MUSES THE MUSES

The Nine Muses, classified as divinities, were born from Zeus’ relationship with Mnemosyne, the inventor of language and The Nine classified as divinities, borntradition. from Zeus’ words andMuses, the patron goddess of poetswere and oral relationship with Mnemosyne, the inventor of language and The Muses are Clio (History), Urania (Astronomy), Melpomene words and the patron goddess of poets and oral tradition.

(Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Terpischore (Dance), Calliope (Epic The Muses are(Love Clio (History), Urania (Astronomy), Poetry), Erato Poetry), Polyhymnia (Songs toMelpomene the Gods), and (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Terpischore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Euterpe (Lyric Poetry). They lived on Mount Helicon in Central Poetry), which Erato (Love Poetry), Polyhymnia to the Gods), Greece, was also a spot frequented(Songs

by Apollo, the god and Euterpe (Lyric Poetry).

They lived on Mount Helicon in Central of music, light, and sun. They were expected to sing at various Greece, which was also a spot frequented

by Apollo, thefestivals, god events for the gods on Mount Olympus, such as feasts, of music, light, and sun.

They were expected to sing at various weddings, and funerals. Their most important job, however, was events formortals the gods Mount Olympus, such as feasts, festivals, to inspire inon their particular artistic category. weddings, and funerals. Their most important job, however, was In Iliad,mortals the main of Theartistic Poet references to An inspire in character their particular category. The Muses by calling out to them during his storytelling. Because the Muses In Anthe Iliad, theofmain character of The Poet The Muses held task inspiring mortals from thereferences gods, the subsequent by calling out various to themforms during storytelling.

Because the Muses idea was that ofhis artistic storytelling would keep the held the task of inspiring mortals from the gods, the subsequent tales of the gods alive. The narrator of An Iliad is the Poet, which idea was that various forms artistic would directs attention toward theof idea that storytelling the Muses help himkeep to the tales of the gods alive.

The narrator of An Iliad is the Poet, which retell and give life to the tales of Hector, Achilles, and the Trojan directs attention toward the idea that the Musesnecessary help himto toour War, a tale the gods of Ancient Greece deemed retell and give life to the tales of Hector, Achilles, and the Trojan moral history.

War, a tale the gods of Ancient Greece deemed necessary to our moral history.

HELEN OF TROY HELEN OF TROY HELEN OF TROY

Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898 6 • An Iliad Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898 6 • An Iliad

12

Detail of The Muses in the painting Parnassus by Raphael Detail of The Muses in the painting Parnassus by Raphael

Helen, also commonly referred to as Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda (the wife of the King of Sparta). She was known to havealso many suitors (Theseus, Meneleus, Paris,was to name a few) Helen, commonly referred to as Helenand of Troy, the daughter and hadand overLeda 45 men her hand marriage. of Zeus (the vying wife offor the King of in Sparta).

She Her waspopularity known with men spawned her title as “the most woman on to have many suitorsfrom (Theseus, Meneleus, and beautiful Paris, to name a few) Earth. ” Artistic representations Helen her with allpopularity the obvious and had over 45 men vying forof her handdepict in marriage.

Her signs of beauty, but from she may haveaspossessed that purely with men spawned her title “the mosttraits beautiful womanmortal on women may not have had.

Earth.” Artistic representations of Helen depict her with all the obvious signs of beauty, but she may haveand possessed traits thataspurely mortal Throughout ancient texts, poets storytellers such Herodotus, womenand maySappho not have had. varying contradictions as to whether Cypria, offered Helen left Sparta withtexts, Parispoets of herand own volition orsuch whether she was Throughout ancient storytellers as Herodotus, kidnapped will. According to the Ancient authors Cypria, and against Sapphoher offered varying contradictions as Greek to whether Euripides Stesichorus, even went to Troy, and Helen left and Sparta with ParisHelen of hernever own volition or whether she instead was escaped to against Egypt where sheAccording stayed forto the duration the Trojan War. kidnapped her will. the AncientofGreek authors Euripides and Stesichorus, Helen never even went to Troy, and instead History has painted two very different pictures of Helen: one as a escaped Egypt where she stayed forabandoned the durationher of husband the Trojanand War. connivingtoand unfaithful woman who caused great war, and a helpless woman was used History ahas painted two one veryas different pictures of who Helen: one as aas aconniving puppet by war-mongering and blood-thirsty men.

The dialogue and unfaithful woman who abandoned her husband and surrounding Helen and as continues to woman be, prominent in used various caused a great war, was, and one a helpless who was as art forms:by poetry, paintings, vase sculpture,men. opera, dance, film, a puppet war-mongering and art, blood-thirsty The dialogue and television.

All ofwas, the and uncertainties both in Helen and surrounding Helen continuessurrounding to be, prominent various her reputation contribute tovase the evolving conversation about film, our art forms: poetry, paintings, art, sculpture, opera, dance, society’s views All on of both power andsurrounding destruction of female beauty. and television. thethe uncertainties both Helen and her reputation contribute to the evolving conversation about our society’s views on both the power and destruction of female beauty.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Writer, Director Lisa Peterson Named Associate Artistic Director at Berkeley Rep https://www.broadwayworld.com/san-francisco/article/ Writer-Director-Lisa-Peterson-Named-AssociateArtistic-Director-at-Berkeley-Rep-20160720

B

erkeley Rep’s Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone today announced the appointment of Lisa Peterson as the artistic director. Peterson, who will direct the 2016-17 season opener, It Can’t Happen Here, joins the Theatre’s artistic team effective Thursday, September 1.

Peterson will fulfill various artistic duties including directing for Berkeley Rep’s main stage, developing new work through The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work; and supporting ongoing artistic endeavors.

“I am excited to welcome Lisa to our staff” says Taccone. “She has an impressive track record as a preeminent director, of both new works and classics.

Lisa is a terrific collaborator, and I feel lucky to be working with her on It Can’t Happen Here.”

“This is a kind of homecoming for me,” says Peterson, “because I have always loved working at Berkeley Rep, and feel honored to join their team. Berkeley Rep produces some of the most exciting, challenging, and thoughtful work in the country. I look forward to being part of that crazily creative organization.”

Lisa Peterson is a two-time Obie Award-winning writer and director. Previous projects at Berkeley Rep include An Iliad (2012), which Lisa co-wrote with Denis O’Hare, and which won Obie and Lortel Awards for Best Solo Performance; Mother Courage (2006); The Fall

Lisa Peterson Denis O’Hare

(2001); and Antony & Cleopatra (1999). For California Shakespeare Theater, Lisa directed King Lear, The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Other recent West Coast productions include Hamlet, Henry IV Pt 2, and Othello (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); and Chavez Ravine (Ovation Award for Best Production), Palestine New Mexico, Electricidad, Water, The House of Bernarda Alba, Body of Bourne, and Mules (Mark Taper Forum). In New York, Peterson has directed The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek; Bexley, OH(!), or, Two Tales of One City; Traps; and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Obie Award for Direction), all at New York Theatre Workshop; King Liz (2nd Stage Uptown); Hamlet in Bed (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); To the Bone (Cherry Lane Theatre);The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters and The Chemistry of Change (Playwrights Horizons); The Square and Tongue of a Bird (The Public Theater); Fourth Sister and Batting Cage (Vineyard Theatre); Collected Stories (Manhattan Theatre Club); and The Model Apartment (Primary Stages). In Canada, she recently directed The Philanderer (Shaw Festival) and The Trouble with Mr. Adams (Tarragon).

She has directed world premieres by many major American writers, including Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Donald Margulies, Jose Rivera, Ellen McLaughlin, Mac Wellman, Marlane Meyer, Polly Pen, Stephen Belber, Naomi Wallace, and many others.

She regularly works at the Guthrie Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Center Stage in Baltimore, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Intiman, Seattle > 13

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS continued

Rep, Arena Stage, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Midwest Playlabs, Ojai Playwrights Conference, and Sundance Theatre Lab. Upcoming projects include You Never Can Tell (Cal Shakes), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Sheen Center), and a tour of An Iliad to Santiago and Abu Dhabi. Lisa and Denis are working on a commission for the McCarter Theatre titled The Song of Rome, and Lisa is writing a new music-theatre piece with Todd Almond called The Idea of Order, co-commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, and Seattle Rep. Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to an international leader in innovative theatre.

Known for its core values of imagination and excellence, as well as its educated and adventurous audience, the nonprofit has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. In four decades, four million people have enjoyed nearly 400 shows at Berkeley Rep. These shows have gone on to win five Tony Awards, seven Obie Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, one Grammy Award, and many other honors. In recognition of its place on the national stage, Berkeley

Rep received the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre in 1997. Its bustling facilities - which include the 400-seat Peet’s Theatre, the 600-seat Roda Theatre, the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, the Osher Studio, and a spacious new campus in West Berkeley - are helping revitalize a renowned city. Learn more at berkeleyrep.org.

As the umbrella for all new play activity at Berkeley Rep, The Ground Floor is a bold initiative designed to raise the bar on the Tony Award-winning nonprofit’s already successful record of artistic innovation. Think of it as an incubator for theatrical start-ups or a top-notch R&D facility for artists. The Ground Floor was launched with seed funding from the James Irvine Foundation’s Artistic Innovation Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and ArtPlace. This year’s program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtWorks, Bank of America, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and individual supporters of Berkeley Rep’s Create Campaign. For more information on each project, and for future announcements or opportunities to interact, visit berkeleyrep.org/groundfloor.

LWT

Interview: Denis O’Hare From ‘American Horror Story’ Posted December 07, 2011 http://screenpicks.com/2011/12/interview-denis-ohare-from-american-horror-story/

I

f you watch American Horror Story, you might not recognize Denis O’Hare. That’s partially due to the extensive make-up he dons to play Larry the Burn Guy. But it’s also because the brilliant actor is entertainment’s greatest chameleon.

From his twisted turn as Russell Edgington on True Blood to roles in rom-com’s like The Proposal, Denis always becomes the character he portrays. In a recent conference call interview he talked about Larry Harvey and how he steps into his shoes – literally and figuratively.

Denis described the physical transformation he undergoes to become Larry. “Makeup takes about three and a half hours.

And it’s this great company that works with American Horror Story… And it’s a long process, obviously. It’s multi-layered appliances, and then there’s a lot of hand painting. And then there’s a wig involved and then that goes on. And then the hand has to be cinched in and the hand gets makeup-ed. And it’s exhausting. But it’s really great, because it allows me to step down into the character gradually. I don’t ever get chopped into shooting. By the time I am shooting I am very well ready.”

14

As a result of all of the physical preparation, Denis find that it’s quite an emotional metamorphosis. He confessed, “When you first put it on I was walking around the lot at Paramount in California, and I went to the cafeteria. And it was very uncomfortable, because the makeup is so good, and it looks so real that people assumed I wasn’t an actor. They assumed that is was, ‘Oh, look at that poor guy.’ So people would avert their eyes, or they would nod politely. And it’s a great exercise in exploring what the character’s daily reality must be like.”

Because of this, Denis admitted that he’s become a bit of a recluse on set. “I found myself, and I find myself, not wanting to be in public. So when I’m shooting I tend to sit in my trailer alone… I don’t want to walk around.

I don’t want to be gawked at. It’s really weird. I just find myself in the position… Not that I’m ashamed — I don’t want to be the freak show. That’s a really interesting experience I didn’t expect to have. It’s an intense thing.”

That’s fitting for the character that Denis plays. Larry the Burn guy is complex to say the least. And, frankly, he isn’t the most likeable person on TV. But O’Hare explained that he feels a very strong connection to Harvey. “I love this character and I love him because I feel like he is engaged in a sort of timeless epic struggle. And I see him as a Dante-esque figure. He’s somebody who is trapped in a circle of hell and he’s trying to work his way out. And he’s a human being who’s flawed and he’s obviously weak, and he’s given into temptation and made bad choices.”

He compared Larry to a few other iconic characters, “I have an innate sense of who he is, and when I’m playing him it’s all very instinctual. But to describe it I find myself running to literature, and so it’s like Igor in the Frankenstein mythology or an amanuensis in some other mythologies or a psychopomp as they call them sometimes — somebody who traffics between worlds.

And it’s a really odd, beautiful character.”

Unusual roles aren’t foreign to Denis. He constantly is able to get lost in a wide variety of parts — some darker than others. He reflected on why he is able to disappear into each performance. “Part of it is the richness of the character. A part of the reason I’m drawn to characters like this guy or like Russell Edgington or like even the guys like John Briggs in Milk, is that they’re sharply etched, and they’re clearly defined. And so I, as an actor, have an easier task.”

He continued, “I know where I’m going. And if you add to it an aspect that’s larger than life like someone like Russell Edgington, who’s 2800 years old or someone like Larry who’s got a very severe physical deformity, it takes away part of your resistance as an actor. And you simply give over to the character’s features and the character’s characteristics. Ryan [Murphy] wanted me to have a wooded arm and a limp. So the minute you start putting these things on you feel different and you feel like someone else and that then forms everything.”

Watch Denis’ brilliant performance on American Horror Story on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m.

Central on FX. LWT

In the Classroom

DISCUSSION: The Poet is stuck in a sort of “storyteller purgatory,” where he is cursed to tell the same stories over and over until “the day when human nature changes.” What would your storytelling purgatory be? What stories, from your family, your history, your culture, might you be cursed to continue telling?

GOING FURTHER: Playwrights Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare give the director the freedom to create the exact setting for the Poet. Imagine that you are going to perform your story. What would be the best setting for your performance? A childhood home? School? A field? Think about how your setting and surroundings would affect the telling of your story.

15

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

16

HOMER: A BIOGRAPHY https://biography.com/people/homer-9342775

THE HOMERIC QUESTION Although very little is known about the life of Greek poet Homer, credited with being the first to write down the epic stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey, the impact of his tales continues to reverberate through Western culture.

Synopsis

The Greek poet Homer was born sometime between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, possibly somewhere on the coast of Asia Minor. He is famous for the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which have had an enormous effect on Western culture, but very little is known about their alleged author.

The Mystery of Homer

Homer is a mystery. The Greek epic poet credited with the enduring epic tales of The Iliad and The Odyssey is an enigma insofar as actual facts of his life go. Some scholars believe him to be one man; others think these iconic stories were created by a group.

A variation on the group idea stems from the fact that storytelling was an oral tradition and Homer compiled the stories, then recited them to memory.

Homer’s style, whoever he was, falls more in the category of minstrel poet or balladeer, as opposed to a cultivated poet who is the product of a fervent literary moment, such as a Virgil or a Shakespeare.

The stories have repetitive elements, almost like a chorus or refrain, which suggests a musical element.

However, Homer’s works are

designated as epic rather than lyric poetry, which was originally recited with lyre in hand, much in the same vein as spoken-word performances.

All this speculation about who he was has inevitably led to what is known as the Homeric Question—whether he actually existed at all. This is often considered to be the greatest literary mystery.

When He Was Born

Much speculation surrounds when Homer was born, because of the dearth of real information about him.

Guesses at his birth date range from 750 BC all the way back to 1200 BC, the latter because The Iliad encompasses the story of the Trojan War, so some scholars have thought it fit to put the poet and chronicler nearer to the time of that actual event. But others believe the poetic style of his work indicates a much later period. Greek historian Herodotus (c.

484–425 BC), often called the father of history, placed Homer several centuries before himself, around 850 BC. Part of the problem is that Homer lived before a chronological dating system was in place. The Olympic Games of classical Greece marked an epoch, with 776 BC as a starting point by which to measure out fouryear periods for the event.

In short, it is difficult to give someone a birth date when he was born before there was a calendar.

Where He Was Born

Once again, the exact location of Homer’s birth cannot be pinpointed, although that doesn’t stop scholars from trying. It has been identified as Ionia, Smyrna or, at any rate, on the coast of Asia Minor or the island of Chios. But seven cities lay claim to Homer as their native son.

There is some basis for

>

17

HOMER: A BIOGRAPHY continued

some of these claims, however. The dialect that The Iliad and The Odyssey are written in is considered Asiatic Greek, specifically Ionic. That fact, paired with frequent mentions of local phenomena such as strong winds blowing from the northwest from the direction of Thrace, suggests, scholars feel, a familiarity with that region that could only mean Homer came from there.

The dialect helps narrow down his lifespan by coinciding it with the development and usage of language in general, but The Iliad and The Odyssey were so popular that this particular dialect became the norm for much of Greek literature going forward.

What He Was Like

Virtually every biographical aspect ascribed to Homer is derived entirely from his poems. Homer is thought

was personally familiar with the plain of Troy, due to the geographical accuracy in the poem.

The Odyssey picks up after the fall of Troy. Further controversy about authorship springs from the differing styles of the two long narrative poems, indicating they were composed a century apart, while other historians claim only decades –the more formal structure of The Iliad is attributed to a poet at the height of his powers, whereas the more colloquial, novelistic approach in The Odyssey is attributed to an elderly Homer.

Homer enriched his descriptive story with liberal use of simile and metaphor, which has inspired a long path of writers behind him. His structuring device was to start in the middle–in medias res–and then fill in the missing information via remembrances.

Countless attempts to recreate the life and personality of the author from the content of his epic poems have occupied writers for centuries. to have been blind, based solely on a character in The Odyssey, a blind poet/minstrel called Demodokos. A long disquisition on how Demodokos was welcomed into a gathering and regaled the audience with music and epic tales of conflict and heroes to much praise has been interpreted as Homer’s hint as to what his own life was like. As a result, many busts and statues have been carved of Homer with thick curly hair and beard and sightless eyes.

“Homer and Sophocles saw clearly, felt keenly, and refrained from much,” wrote Lane Cooper in The Greek Genius and Its Influence: Select Essays and Extracts in 1917, ascribing an emotional life to the writer. But he wasn’t the first, nor was he the last. Countless attempts to recreate the life and personality of the author from the content of his epic poems have occupied writers for centuries.

The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer’s two epic poems have become archetypal road maps in world mythology. The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Even if The Iliad itself seems unfamiliar, the story of the siege of Troy, the Trojan War and Paris’ kidnapping of Helen, the world’s most beautiful woman, are all familiar characters or scenarios. Some scholars insist that Homer 18

The two narrative poems pop up throughout modern literature: Homer’s The Odyssey has parallels in James Joyce’s Ulysses, and his tale of Achilles in The Iliad is echoed in J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Fall of Gondolin.

Even the Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? makes use of The Odyssey.

Other works have been attributed to Homer over the centuries, most notably the Homeric Hymns, but in the end only the two epic works remain enduringly his.

Legacy

“Plato tells us that in his time many believed that Homer was the educator of all Greece. Since then, Homer’s influence has spread far beyond the frontiers of Hellas [Greece]….” wrote Werner Jaeger in Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture. He was right. The Iliad and The Odyssey have provided not only seeds but fertilizer for almost all the other arts and sciences in Western culture. For the Greeks, Homer was a godfather of their national culture, chronicling its mythology and collective memory in rich rhythmic tales that have permeated the collective imagination.

Homer’s real life may remain a mystery, but the very real impact of his works continues to illuminate our world today. LWT

THE ILIAD: A SUMMARY How It All Goes Down

Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Iliad Summary.” Shmoop.

Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2018.

I

n the tenth year of the Trojan War, tensions are running high among the Achaians (a super-ancient name for the Ancient Greeks). First, the priest Chryses comes to ask their leader, King Agamemnon, to release his daughter, whom Agamemnon was holding captive. When Agamemnon refuses, the priest prays to the god Apollo to send a plague against the Achaians.

After nine days of plague, the Achaians assemble again and demand that Agamemnon give the girl back.

Agamemnon eventually agrees, but only if he gets to take Briseis, the girlfriend of Achilleus, the greatest warrior of the Achaians. Even though Achilleus gives her up, he becomes so enraged that he refuses to fight any more.

That and he prays to his mother, Thetis, who happens to be a goddess, to pull some strings with the other gods so that the Achaians will start getting defeated in battle and realize how much they depend on him.

gods don’t like this, and send a message down to Achilleus telling him to give up the body. When the Trojan King Priam—Hektor’s father—comes unarmed, by night, to ask for his son’s body, Achilleus agrees. The two men eat together and experience a moment of shared humanity. Achilleus grants the Trojans a grace period to perform their funeral rituals. The poem ends with the funeral of Hektor—though we know that soon Achilleus will die and Troy will be captured.

The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer’s Iliad.

The intricately detailed imagery on the shield has inspired many different interpretations of its significance, with no definitive answer.

Agamemnon

Achilleus’s mom definitely spoils him. She gets Zeus, the king of the gods, to agree to Achilleus’s request. Sure enough, the next day the Trojans make a successful counterattack, led by Hektor, their greatest warrior. Several days of violent fighting follow, at the end of which the Trojans have the Achaians pinned against the beach, and are threatening to burn their ships.

In the poem, Achilles lends Patroclus his armor in order to lead the Achaean army into battle. Ultimately, Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, and Achilles’ armor is stripped from his body and taken by Hector as spoils. The loss of his best friend (often times, called soul mate), prompts Achilles to return to battle, so his mother Thetis, a nymph, asks the god Hephaestusto provide replacement armor for her son. He obliges, and forges a shield with spectacular decorative imagery.

At this point, Achilleus’s best friend Patroklos asks for permission to go into battle in Achilleus’s place. Achilleus grants Patroklos’s request, and even lets him wear his armor. Patroklos’s gambit is successful—when the Trojans see him, they think he must be Achilleus and become absolutely terrified. The plan goes off the rails, however, when Hektor kills Patroklos—with the help of the god Apollo and a minor Trojan warrior named Euphorbos.

Hektor then takes the armor off Patroklos’s body.

Homer’s description of the shield is the first known example of ekphrasis in ancient Greek poetry; ekphrasis is a rhetorical figure in which a detailed (textual) description is given of a (visual) work of art. Besides providing narrative exposition, it can add deeper meaning to an artwork by reflecting on the process of its creation, in turn allowing the audience to envision artwork that they can’t see.[1]

When Achilleus learns of the death of his friend, he experiences terrible grief and swears revenge. He sends his mother, Thetis, to get a new suit of armor made especially for him by the fire-god, Hephaistos. The next day, Achilleus rejoins the battle and kills many Trojans, including Hektor in a one-on-one battle.

But Achilleus isn’t satisfied. For the next few days, he continually abuses Hektor’s body in gruesome ways, even after Patroklos has received a proper funeral. The

The passage in which Homer describes the creation of the shield has actually influenced many later poems, including the Shield of Heracles once attributed to Hesiod.[2] Virgil’s description of the shield of Aeneas in Book Eight of the Aeneid is clearly modeled on Homer.[3] The poem The Shield of Achilles (1952)

by W. H. Auden reimagines Homer’s description in 20th century terms. Of other significance, this passage is recognized as the first example of cosmological mapping in the history of Greece.[4] LWT 19

EXCERPT FROM THE ILIAD RAGE:

Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage,

Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks

Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls

Of heroes into Hades’ dark,

And left their bodies to rot as feasts

For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done.

Begin with the clash between Agamemnon--

The Greek warlord--and godlike Achilles.

Which of the immortals set these two

At each other’s throats?

Apollo

Zeus’ son and Leto’s, offended

By the warlord. Agamemnon had dishonored

Chryses, Apollo’s priest, so the god

Struck the Greek camp with plague,

And the soldiers were dying of it.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/iliad-book-i-lines-1-15

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: Read the quote below from playwright Lisa Peterson. What does war mean to you? Why is it important to tell the story of war and what can we learn?

“We began talking about performing The Iliad not long after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. We were both thinking about war, and plays about war—thinking that at the time, the best thing a theater artist could do was to find a way to talk about what it means to be a country at war.” – Lisa Peterson GOING FURTHER: What are you “at war” with in your life? Getting out of bed early? Eating Doritos? Remembering to say Thank You? How would you tell a story of war?

20

MAP OF ANCIENT GREECE AND TROY MAP OF ANCIENT GREECE AND TROY https://www.milwaukeerep.com/RepGlobal/archive/iliad-playguide.pdf

MOUNT OLYMPUS Home of the gods

SPARTA Home to:

Menelaus Helen

MYCENAE Home to: Achilles Agamemnon Briseis Patroclus

TROY

Location of the Trojan War and home to: Hector Andromache Paris Priam Hecuba Astyanax

www.MilwaukeeRep.com • page 7

21

WHY THIS PLAY NOW? AN ILIAD at McCarter Theatre Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare discuss their adaptation.

Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare discuss their adaptation of AN ILIAD, starring Stephen Spinella. Adapted from Robert Fagles translation, and directed by Lisa Peterson, AN ILIAD will be presented by McCarter Theatre Center October 19 - November 7, 2010. www.mccarter.org.

Lisa Peterson: The great thing about The Iliad is that it is, The Iliad is not an anti-war poem, it is a war poem, you know, it presents the dual… it presents both the horror of war and also the kind of staggering attractive beauty of it. The brotherhood. We call it An Iliad because, for us, it’s not The Iliad. For us, it’s only one view and in a way it’s really more about Homer than it is about the whole Iliad.

Dennis O’Hare: Everything is, is, to reach the audience’s ears and hearts. To make them complicit in the tale. They cannot escape by being a passive viewer.

They are implied. So, we at one point list the ships. You

know, Homer lists the, the row of ships and it goes on for thirteen pages and it says first came the Boeotian units led by Lay-i-tus and Pen-e-lay-os, it’s this long list of names. And our poet stops himself and says, “That’s right, you don’t know these people. Well it’s as if they came from…” and he begins to name towns in America. He begins to name places in America so that the audience isn’t metaphorizing, they’re not saying, “Oh, it’s like that,” they’re going [smacks heart], “I have a son. I’m from Iowa. I’m from Florida.” So that they can no longer escape the impact of the story. They are in the story. And so when we have our contemporary riffs, they’re not a gimmick, they’re not an attempt to make a dumb audience understand a tough old tale. They’re ways of making that audience breath, and smell, exactly what this is in their own terms. They cannot escape it. They have become part of it. And it’s incredibly effective. And we didn’t know it would be effective until we began to put it on its feet and, it forces people to be in the experience. And that’s tantamount for us. It was one of our driving motivations to be in a bar, to go to a Military base, to stop people in the street corner and tell the story. That they are, YOU are being told a story, YOU are here. And that’s really important for us.

For the full interview visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkOpPOLkO7k

22

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: Read the quote below from Long Wharf Theatre Company’s Literary Manager, Christine Scarfuto, who shared some inspirations of the Director’s: Christine: The story is set in a transient place with a transient storyteller. The storyteller shows up and feels the NEED to tell the story. One of the places [director Whitney White] was inspired by is the Frankfurt airport, a transient space. She pictured a huge board in the terminal that shows all the flights and they all were canceled. Something about it felt very relevant to the world of An Iliad.

Imagine you were to write a scene that takes place in a transient space—an impermanent space usually lasting for a short period of time. Your characters have no cell phone, book, or material item to hold your attention. What would they do? Who would they meet? What stories would be told?

23

supplemental materials

24

READ A REVIEW – THEN WRITE YOUR OWN! The following is a review from the March 2012 performance of AN ILIAD at the New York Theater Workshop. Read this review and, after seeing Long Wharf’s production, write your own!

Troy... um, War ... You Know

by CHARLES ISHERWOOD MARCH 7, 2012

An Iliad Stephen Spinella, left, and Denis O’Hare alternate performances of this adaptation at the New York Theater Workshop. Photographs by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

25

READ A REVIEW – THEN WRITE YOUR OWN! continued

G

reat armies are clashing on the stage of New York Theater Workshop. Sharpened spears fly through the air, tearing into flesh as they strike their targets. Swords clatter on shields, blood soaks the sand, and myriad souls are dispatched to the underworld. Above the fray the gods look on with studied interest, rushing to the aid of their favorites when peril threatens.

But Homeric specialists should be warned that this is not simply a condensed recitation of the poem, but a retelling that emphasizes contemporary vernacular over poetry. Although the narrator throws out snatches of verse at moments of heightened drama, and occasionally even bellows a few lines in the original Greek, most of the story is rendered in casual contemporary language that puts both mortals and gods on our own level.

Gamers looking for a live gore fest should be warned, however, that all this tumultuous violence is evoked merely through the words of a single actor in “An Iliad,” an adaptation of Homer’s epic by the actor Denis O’Hare and the director Lisa Peterson, and performed alternately by Mr. O’Hare and Stephen Spinella. Drawing on the muscular translation by Robert Fagles, Mr. O’Hare and Ms. Peterson have telescoped the mighty expanses of Homer’s great poem into an evening that scales the conflict of the Trojan War down to an intimate solo show illuminating both the heroism and the horror of warfare.

“What drove them to fight with such a fury?” the narrator asks as he begins the tale. “Oh ... the gods, of course .... Um ... pride, honor, jealousy ... Aphrodite ... some game or other, an apple, Helen being more beautiful than somebody — it doesn’t matter. The point is, Helen’s been stolen, and the Greeks have to get her back.”

“It’s a good story,” says our narrator, a batteredlooking fellow carrying a suitcase who confides that he has been singing this story through the ages: in Mycenae, in Babylon, in Gaul. A cracking good yarn it certainly is. The fierce trash-talking between the Greek leader Agamemnon and the great warrior Achilles; the death in battle of Achilles’ great friend Patroclus; the culminating combat between a raging, mournful Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector: these are tales that captivate in any form and continue to provide meaty fodder for popular culture. (Anyone see the silly “Troy,” with Brad Pitt as Achilles?)

Denis O’Hare in “An Iliad.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The strength of “An Iliad” resides in the combination of a naturally exciting narrative and the engaged, virtuosic performances of both Mr. O’Hare and Mr. Spinella.

26

That’s the overriding tone: chatty, informal, occasionally spiced by digressions that, echoing Homer’s brilliant use of simile, seek humble parallels in contemporary life to the passions that inflamed the Greeks and Trojans.

Trying to explain why the exhausted Greeks didn’t abandon the battle, weary after nine years of fruitless fighting, our narrator compares their attitude to the frustration you feel in a supermarket line: “You’ve been there 20 minutes, and the other line is moving faster,” he says. “Do you switch lines now? No, goddamn it, I’ve been here for 20 minutes, I’m gonna wait in this line. Look — I’m not leaving ’cause otherwise I’ve wasted my time.” The subtle, dramatic music of Mark Bennett is primarily played live by the bassist Brian Ellingsen, coaxing an amazing variety of sounds from his instrument. Stalking the bare stage, under the nicely varied lighting scheme of Scott Zielinski, the actor mostly narrates the story while occasionally embodying its primary characters, from the major combatants on both sides to supplementary figures like Hector’s devoted wife, Andromache; the diffident, preening and battle-fleeing Paris; and the infamous Helen, selfaccused whore whose kidnapping set the whole shebang in furious motion.

Both Mr. O’Hare, a Tony winner for “Take Me Out” who is familiar to television audiences from his appearances on “True Blood” and “American Horror Story,” and Mr. Spinella, who took home not one but two Tonys for the original production of “Angels in America,” are supple, gifted and engaging performers. I am not going to get in the game of choosing one performance over the other; both negotiate the leaps in rhetorical register, from the plain-vanilla vernacular to the robustly lyric, with impressive nimbleness.

Stephen Spinella in “An Iliad.” Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Perhaps because he spent so much time on the rampaging-vampires series “True Blood,” Mr. O’Hare seems to relish the battle passages, bringing alive the murderous chaos of battle and the bloodlust it unleashes. Mr. Spinella, on the other hand, seems to channel the grandeur of the conflict in his more august, less contemporary-inflected portrayals of figures like Agamemnon.

Mr. O’Hare and Ms. Peterson have condensed the long sweep of the “Iliad’s” narrative — despite its focus on just a few weeks in a war lasting a decade — with intelligence, naturally eliding much of the endlessly detailed to-ing and fro-ing between the armies and the interfering gods above. Despite being the cuckolded husband whose abducted wife ignited the conflict, for example, Menelaus is scarcely mentioned here.

I might have skipped the passage describing the creation by Hephaestus of a new set of armor for Achilles, which slows the momentum just when this hour-and-40-minute evening should be racing to its climax. The litany of human conflict that the narrator recites — ranging from the Peloponnesian War through the Crusades and including such new-to-me conflicts as the Pastry War and the War of the Two Brothers — is impressive in its inclusiveness, but it seems a heavy-handed attempt to underscore the continuity of humanity’s violent impulses through history.

The point is made more subtly, and more effectively, at the top of the show when the narrator confides, with a weary sense of sorrow, “Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last time.”

>

27

WRITE YOUR REVIEW

28

In the Classroom Discussion: Homer is one of the most famous poets of all time. As such, his great works are often quoted. Below are some for you to read. What are some themes in these quotes? How can you relate them to what you know about An Iliad?

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.

– The Iliad, Homer

The journey is the thing.

– Homer

No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.

– The Iliad, Homer

Is he not sacred, even to the gods, the wandering man who comes in weariness?

– The Iliad, Homer

The sort of words a man says is the sort he hears in return.

– The Iliad, Homer

29

the shield of achilles

The Shield of Achilles, from an 1832 illustration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_of_Achilles

Description Homer gives a detailed description of the imagery which decorates the new shield. Starting from the shield’s centre and moving outward, circle layer by circle layer, the shield is laid out as follows: 1. The Earth, sky and sea, the sun, the moon and the constellations.

2. “Two beautiful cities full of people”: in one a wedding and a law case are taking place; the other city is besieged by one feuding army and the shield shows an ambush and a battle.

3. A field being ploughed for the third time.

4. A king’s estate where the harvest is being reaped.

5. A vineyard with grape pickers.

6. A “herd of straight-horned cattle”; the lead bull has been attacked by a pair of savage lions which the herdsmen and their dogs are trying to beat off.

7. A picture of a sheep farm.

8. A dancing-floor where young men and women are dancing.

9. The great stream of Ocean.

30

INTERPRETATIONS The Shield of Achilles can be read in a variety of different ways. One interpretation is that the shield represents a microcosm of civilization, in which all aspects of life are shown. The depiction of law suggests the existence of social order within one city, while feuding armies depict a darker side of humanity.

The imagery of nature and the universe also reinforce the belief that the shield is a microcosm of Greek life, as it can be seen as a reflection of their perception of the world. Also, the sun and the moon are shown shining simultaneously, which some consider representative of a general understanding of the universe and awareness to the cosmological order of life and as such, its akin to a mandala of antiquity.

The shield shows images of conflict and discord by depicting the shield’s layers as a series of contrasts – i.e. war and peace, work and festival. Wolfgang Schadewaldt, a German writer, argues that these intersecting antitheses show the basic forms of a civilized, essentially orderly life.This contrast is also seen as a way of making “us…see [war] in relation to peace.”

LWT

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: Look at the images on Achilles shield. Consider why Homer may have chosen different pictures to be included and think about what stories they tell. What would be included on your shield? What would you save for the center and what would you include on the perimeter? Design your own shield in the space provided below.

31