WE ARE IN THE THICK OF BATTLE. What would Campbell say about this myth's meaning? What would Jung say about Achilles's struggle between fate and honor? Your written, marginal notes should reflect the reader's dialogue with the text, not just about what's happening, but with meaning as well. Remember: writing is a form of thinking. Your written notes should reflect the reader's thinking.

MONDAY

Collecting your notes on the chapter from Why Homer Matters. Examination of book seven, and in class writing assignment on book seven. What lessons do we take from this book about how one should behave in war?.
Reading book eight.

TUESDAY

Discussion of book eight, the fall of Teucer the Archer. Introduction to the wrath of Zeus: “Not even then will I care that you are angry, / Because there is nothing more shameless than you” (8:495-6).
Read book none of the Iliad.

WEDNESDAY

Brief lecture on book nine. Why do the Gods abandon the Trojans: “But the blessed ones disdained to partake. They abhorred holy Ilion, and Priam, and the people under Priam’s ash spear.” For are they forsaken, when they have seemingly done everything a religious and righteous person should? Careful reading of Book nine. Here we see the brutal slaying of Dolon by Odysseus and Diomedes.
Finish writing assignment on book nine by end of advisery tomorrow. Read the first 10 pages of book eleven.

THURSDAY

Clash of the Gods: a mashup of Survivor Island and Naked & Afraid, documentary that recounts Zeus’s confrontation with the Titans in Hesiod’s Theogany.
Finish reading book eleven.

FRIDAY

We will read book twelve together. Here we see the tide turn against the Trojans, and Zeus finally relents, the Trojans going no further than the wall built by the Greeks around their ships. We will also see Zeus’s son Sarpedon help tear down the Greek wall, while Zeus himself will lighten the mighty rock Hector uses to smash down the wall, thus fulfilling Zeus’s promise to Poseidon that no wall will remain of the Greek battlements in the shadow of his Trojan wall.
Take stock of the first half of Homer’s tale. How is the war going for the Greeks? Where do they stand in comparison to the Trojan and their allies’ defenses? From this point, we will see the tide turn against the Greeks, as Achilles’s fated return to battle occurs, and his divine wrath (menis) is unleashed upon Hector and his comrades.

MONDAY

No school for President’s Day
No homework.

TUESDAY

Examination of the House of Atreus. What role does prophecy play in the epic poem? How is Agamemnon playing out a fated role? What happens to him when he leaves Troy? We will use this web site from the University of Pennsylvania’s Classics Dept.
Read book 13 and 14 for class on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY

No school for standardized testing.
13 and 14 for Thursday.

THURSDAY

Examination of book fifteen.
Read books 15-17 for class on Monday.

FRIDAY

No school for Institute Day.
Be read UP TO book eighteen for Monday (17 should be read and annotated).