Homer and the Homeric Hymns: Mythology for Reading and Composition

by Helaine L. Smith

Overview

Through eight Homeric Hymns and through excerpts from The Iliad and The Odyssey, this volume tells the story of each epic, and introduces students, teachers, and general readers to mythology and literary study. Clear and copious footnotes reveal the essence of the epic poet's art. Analytical and creative writing suggestions and sample essays provide training in composition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761855613
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	08/12/2011
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Helaine L. Smith has taught English in grades six through twelve for over thirty-five years at Hunter College High School and The Brearley School. She is the author of Masterpieces of Classic Greek Drama, journal articles for CANE and CAMWS, and pieces about teaching The Odyssey for Literary Matters. She was a reader of AP English exams for The College Board and is currently completing a book adapting Aristophanes' comedies for middle school performance.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: The Gods in The Iliad
Chapter 1: Hera's Seduction of Zeus
Chapter 2: Aphrodite, Athene, and Ares on the Battlefield
Chapter 3: Hephaistos at Feast and Forge
Chapter 4: Apollo at the Ramparts
Chapter 5: Athene and Peitho
Chapter 6: Destiny and the Limits of Zeus' Power
Chapter 7: Hermes Eriounios

Part II: The Gods in The Odyssey
Chapter 8: Poseidon's Anger
Chapter 9: Athene's Humor

, Chapter 10: Calypso and Hephaistos, Unlucky in Love
Chapter 11: The House of Hades

Part III: The Gods in The Homeric Hymns
Chapter 12: Aphrodite and Anchises
Chapter 13: Demeter, Persephone, and Hades
Chapter 14: Dionysos
Chapter 15: The Birth of Aphrodite, Athene, and Apollo

Glossary
Index
Index of citations


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Editorial Reviews

Homer and the Homeric Hymns is loaded with resources-glossaries, questions for discussion, analytical and creative exercises, writing models, and suggestions for supplementary reading. Each chapter is self-contained and can be studied individually, so the text can be used as both a close-at-hand resource for the swamped teacher and as a core text for teachers who are designing an entire semester's course of study.

Mara Taylor-Heine

I know of no Greek mythology textbook to rival Homer and the Homeric Hymns. Helaine Smith has dipped her net into Homer's epics and the Homeric Hymns and pulled out the stories, alive and flashing, fresh from the Greek, which Smith has translated with loving sensitivity. This book will teach students how to read, analyze, and write. It is a treasure.

Rosanna Warren

Homer and the Homeric Hymns is equally strong as a text for English composition, as an education in mythology, and as an introduction to Greek literature. Needless to say, there are few good books that achieve any one of these aims, and this text does all three with finesse and charm.

Frank Nisetich

Clear and challenging, Homer and the Homeric Hymns provides college students in freshman writing and survey classes with context, analytic glosses, and narrative bridges that link crucial and substantial passages from the poems, presenting them for special attention as though they were sets of diamonds on a long string of gems.

John C. Briggs

I know of no Greek mythology textbook to rival Homer and the Homeric Hymns. Helaine Smith has dipped her net into Homer's epics and the Homeric Hymns and pulled out the stories, alive and flashing, fresh from the Greek, which Smith has translated with loving sensitivity. This book will teach students how to read, analyze, and write. It is a treasure.--Rosanna Warren, professor of Humanities, Boston University; poet and critic

Homer and the Homeric Hymns is loaded with resources-glossaries, questions for discussion, analytical and creative exercises, writing models, and suggestions for supplementary reading. Each chapter is self-contained and can be studied individually, so the text can be used as both a close-at-hand resource for the swamped teacher and as a core text for teachers who are designing an entire semester's course of study.--Mara Taylor-Heine, Chair, Upper School English Department, The Chapin School

Clear and challenging, Homer and the Homeric Hymns provides college students in freshman writing and survey classes with context, analytic glosses, and narrative bridges that link crucial and substantial passages from the poems, presenting them for special attention as though they were sets of diamonds on a long string of gems.--John C. Briggs, University of California, Riverside

From the Publisher