Censor Homer? Plato's Opinion    Clas. 4110 Sept. 23
Death of Hector

1.1 From Plato's Republic, trans. P. Shorey
'Then, Glaucon,' said I, 'when you meet encomiasts of Homer who tell us that this poet has been the educator of Hellas, and that for the conduct and refinement of human life he is worthy of our study and devotion, and that we should order our entire lives by the guidance of this poet, we must love and salute them as doing the best they can, and concede to them that Homer is the most poetic of poets and the first of tragedians, but we must know the truth, that we can admit no poetry into our city save only hymns to the gods and the praises of good men. For if you grant admission to the honeyed muse in lyric or epic, pleasure or pain will be lords of your city instead of law and that which shall from time to time have approved itself to the general reason as best.' (606e-607a)
1.2 Ancient objections to Homer's gods: ill-behaved, fictional.
1.3 Greek religion: local cults, role of poets in dissemination of stories.
1.4 The Iliad: emphasis on the Olympian deities. Anthropomorphism. Using the gods as foils, relief.

2.1 The death of Hektor. What's at stake (22.99-130). Hektor's choice. Hektor's culpability?
2.2 The chain of deaths. Death of Achilles. His attitude towards death.
2.3 The meaning of mortality? Comparison with Gilgamesh.
Bibliography
Feeney, Dennis, The Gods in Epic. Oxford: 1991.
Shorey, Paul, Plato. Vol. II. Harvard University Press, Cambridge: 1970.