WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.930 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.930 --> 00:00:04.680 align:middle line:84% I think, in the case of Chapman-- 00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:09.620 align:middle line:84% and Chapman being a dramatist as well, and Chapman 00:00:09.620 --> 00:00:15.760 align:middle line:84% being really fascinated by the texture of Homer's language-- 00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:18.125 align:middle line:84% Chapman was intrigued by character. 00:00:18.125 --> 00:00:19.750 align:middle line:84% In a way, he gives the lie to my notion 00:00:19.750 --> 00:00:21.125 align:middle line:84% that there's no psychology there, 00:00:21.125 --> 00:00:23.380 align:middle line:84% because he does actually give the Homeric character 00:00:23.380 --> 00:00:24.560 align:middle line:90% some psychology. 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:27.340 align:middle line:84% But what most intrigues me about Chapman's reading of Homer 00:00:27.340 --> 00:00:30.610 align:middle line:84% is that he reads it as poetry, as a poem, and as poetry. 00:00:30.610 --> 00:00:34.120 align:middle line:84% And he writes some of his most extended and most brilliant 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:35.410 align:middle line:90% syntactical structures. 00:00:35.410 --> 00:00:38.980 align:middle line:84% He has got enormous, long sentences in his translation. 00:00:38.980 --> 00:00:41.170 align:middle line:84% No other translation that I've read actually 00:00:41.170 --> 00:00:43.510 align:middle line:84% does this kind of architecture with language. 00:00:43.510 --> 00:00:45.700 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's sort of pre-Miltonic. 00:00:45.700 --> 00:00:46.600 align:middle line:90% It's very brilliant. 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:53.050 align:middle line:84% And I think, for Chapman, Homer represents the otherness 00:00:53.050 --> 00:00:54.050 align:middle line:90% of poetic language. 00:00:54.050 --> 00:00:55.842 align:middle line:84% In other words, it doesn't approach speech. 00:00:55.842 --> 00:00:57.370 align:middle line:84% At no point does it approach speech. 00:00:57.370 --> 00:01:02.650 align:middle line:84% For Auden, of course, sees Homer as, in some way, pre-dramatic, 00:01:02.650 --> 00:01:04.660 align:middle line:84% and as his characters are speaking. 00:01:04.660 --> 00:01:06.130 align:middle line:84% Well, of course, they are speaking. 00:01:06.130 --> 00:01:07.102 align:middle line:90% But none of them-- 00:01:07.102 --> 00:01:07.810 align:middle line:90% I speak about it. 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:09.250 align:middle line:90% I talk about archaeology. 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:11.470 align:middle line:84% If you look at Homeric language, it 00:01:11.470 --> 00:01:15.340 align:middle line:84% has in it so many different dialect elements and levels. 00:01:15.340 --> 00:01:19.150 align:middle line:84% Nobody in Greece ever spoke Homeric Greek. 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:22.510 align:middle line:84% And I think that Auden makes a big mistake when he suggests 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:24.610 align:middle line:84% that it, in a sense, plays into a kind 00:01:24.610 --> 00:01:26.798 align:middle line:90% of spoken dramatic prose. 00:01:26.798 --> 00:01:28.840 align:middle line:84% I think that's the big difference between Chapman 00:01:28.840 --> 00:01:29.340 align:middle line:90% and Homer. 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:31.960 align:middle line:84% Chapman is intrigued by the otherness and the strangeness 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:33.377 align:middle line:84% of Homer's language, and is trying 00:01:33.377 --> 00:01:36.610 align:middle line:84% to replicate it in his brilliant and wonderful translation. 00:01:36.610 --> 00:01:38.950 align:middle line:84% Whereas Homer is more interested in the subject matter 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:42.520 align:middle line:84% and its relevance to the historical moment of fascism, 00:01:42.520 --> 00:01:44.830 align:middle line:84% and then, the emergence of Nazism and the Second World 00:01:44.830 --> 00:01:45.370 align:middle line:90% War. 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:47.800 align:middle line:84% So that would be their difference. 00:01:47.800 --> 00:01:50.680 align:middle line:84% It's like with Henry V. You have the interpretation of Henry 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:56.030 align:middle line:84% V, Olivier's version, which is, of course, patriotic, 00:01:56.030 --> 00:01:56.530 align:middle line:90% and so on. 00:01:56.530 --> 00:02:00.970 align:middle line:84% And you have the later anti-war versions of Branagh, and so on. 00:02:00.970 --> 00:02:03.120 align:middle line:90% And they're different plays. 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:05.970 align:middle line:84% And in fact, I think that's the one I think they betray rather 00:02:05.970 --> 00:02:09.880 align:middle line:90% than use the templates. 00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:11.777 align:middle line:90% Yes? 00:02:11.777 --> 00:02:20.654 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] than what I was used to, which was that-- 00:02:20.654 --> 00:02:23.480 align:middle line:84% kind of opposing what you just said, anyway-- 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:26.390 align:middle line:84% that basically, Homer glorifies the heroes. 00:02:26.390 --> 00:02:30.309 align:middle line:84% And [INAUDIBLE] I know why Odysseus is not 00:02:30.309 --> 00:02:32.267 align:middle line:84% to be considered a hero, because he doesn't die 00:02:32.267 --> 00:02:35.178 align:middle line:90% a beautiful death, [INAUDIBLE]. 00:02:35.178 --> 00:02:36.549 align:middle line:90% Doesn't make him cool. 00:02:36.549 --> 00:02:37.910 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:41.420 align:middle line:84% And I was wondering [INAUDIBLE],, because I never quite 00:02:41.420 --> 00:02:43.152 align:middle line:90% got into it. 00:02:43.152 --> 00:02:45.607 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] Odysseus [INAUDIBLE] too much. 00:02:45.607 --> 00:02:49.230 align:middle line:84% And I always want to disregard him as a hero. 00:02:49.230 --> 00:02:52.100 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] there has been that other view. 00:02:52.100 --> 00:02:55.152 align:middle line:84% And it's just always been kind of intriguing to me. 00:02:55.152 --> 00:02:56.860 align:middle line:84% I think you're dead right about Odysseus. 00:02:56.860 --> 00:02:57.610 align:middle line:90% I mean, Odysseus. 00:02:57.610 --> 00:02:59.530 align:middle line:90% Wily Odysseus, wise Odysseus. 00:02:59.530 --> 00:03:03.745 align:middle line:84% He loses every single one of his shipmates on the way home. 00:03:03.745 --> 00:03:06.760 align:middle line:84% And when he gets home, he then kills all the young men 00:03:06.760 --> 00:03:10.420 align:middle line:84% in Ithaca because they're fighting against him. 00:03:10.420 --> 00:03:12.850 align:middle line:90% So you're right. 00:03:12.850 --> 00:03:15.567 align:middle line:84% I mean, he's, in a funny sort of way, a kind of anti-hero, 00:03:15.567 --> 00:03:17.150 align:middle line:84% though we always regard him as a hero. 00:03:17.150 --> 00:03:18.608 align:middle line:84% I think he's a loathsome character. 00:03:18.608 --> 00:03:21.490 align:middle line:84% Whereas Telemachus is rather cheerful, isn't he? 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:22.630 align:middle line:90% Nice sort of fellow. 00:03:22.630 --> 00:03:23.500 align:middle line:90% No. 00:03:23.500 --> 00:03:26.200 align:middle line:84% Again, but are we right to read him in this way? 00:03:26.200 --> 00:03:28.240 align:middle line:84% Are we right to read in this way at all? 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.210 align:middle line:84% Or are we supposed to see his actions as, 00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:34.615 align:middle line:84% in some way or other, historical, 00:03:34.615 --> 00:03:36.130 align:middle line:90% neutral in some way? 00:03:36.130 --> 00:03:37.325 align:middle line:90% Because Homer doesn't judge. 00:03:37.325 --> 00:03:39.190 align:middle line:84% Well, I guess Homer does judge, in a sense. 00:03:39.190 --> 00:03:40.390 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:40.390 --> 00:03:42.170 align:middle line:90% I don't see it that way at all. 00:03:42.170 --> 00:03:45.070 align:middle line:84% I think that it's a representation 00:03:45.070 --> 00:03:47.830 align:middle line:84% of the form of justice that they had in those days, 00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:50.470 align:middle line:84% and that they didn't have justice like we see it, 00:03:50.470 --> 00:03:52.930 align:middle line:84% where we can have a trial and judge. 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:55.690 align:middle line:84% In those days, justice had to do with hospitality 00:03:55.690 --> 00:03:56.690 align:middle line:90% and with honor. 00:03:56.690 --> 00:03:57.190 align:middle line:90% Mm-hmm. 00:03:57.190 --> 00:04:02.330 align:middle line:84% And his society dishonored him, the men 00:04:02.330 --> 00:04:05.760 align:middle line:84% that we're left who are the suitors of the woman Penelope 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:06.730 align:middle line:90% was there. 00:04:06.730 --> 00:04:09.220 align:middle line:84% They're spoiling his goods, his lands, 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:11.110 align:middle line:84% trying to become the king themselves 00:04:11.110 --> 00:04:13.870 align:middle line:84% if they can be chosen by her, because she only has 00:04:13.870 --> 00:04:15.490 align:middle line:90% a position if she's married. 00:04:15.490 --> 00:04:17.800 align:middle line:84% An unmarried women didn't have status. 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:20.649 align:middle line:84% So she only has status as long as he's still alive 00:04:20.649 --> 00:04:22.560 align:middle line:90% and can return. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:24.510 align:middle line:84% So the only justice that's available-- 00:04:24.510 --> 00:04:27.740 align:middle line:84% and it's driven by the gods, not by the men-- 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:31.820 align:middle line:84% is that they have to be removed because they violated 00:04:31.820 --> 00:04:34.430 align:middle line:84% the hospitality, which is the way the civilization is 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:37.225 align:middle line:90% interpreted at that time. 00:04:37.225 --> 00:04:44.150 align:middle line:84% And so his honor, his class, has to be sustained by the gods, 00:04:44.150 --> 00:04:46.610 align:middle line:90% because they invented it. 00:04:46.610 --> 00:04:47.360 align:middle line:90% But do you think-- 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:48.193 align:middle line:90% [INTERPOSING VOICES] 00:04:48.193 --> 00:04:51.230 align:middle line:84% --have a human participant in their drama. 00:04:51.230 --> 00:04:52.610 align:middle line:90% He's the one. 00:04:52.610 --> 00:04:58.250 align:middle line:84% That's why he is the chosen person that Athena supports. 00:04:58.250 --> 00:05:01.400 align:middle line:84% She supports him because he does everything he wants him to do, 00:05:01.400 --> 00:05:02.657 align:middle line:90% and he does it correctly. 00:05:02.657 --> 00:05:04.490 align:middle line:84% But what about all the other people in his-- 00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:05.150 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:05:05.150 --> 00:05:08.930 align:middle line:84% What about all the other people in his crew? 00:05:08.930 --> 00:05:10.830 align:middle line:84% And why is it necessary at the end? 00:05:10.830 --> 00:05:11.480 align:middle line:90% I agree with you, actually. 00:05:11.480 --> 00:05:13.397 align:middle line:84% I think you're right, because I've been really 00:05:13.397 --> 00:05:15.350 align:middle line:84% puzzled, in the other poem, about why 00:05:15.350 --> 00:05:20.270 align:middle line:84% Achilles swallows Menelaus and Agamemnon's horrible character. 00:05:20.270 --> 00:05:21.800 align:middle line:90% I mean, Agamemnon is a monster. 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:23.327 align:middle line:84% It's because Agamemnon is the king, 00:05:23.327 --> 00:05:24.410 align:middle line:90% and he has to, in the end. 00:05:24.410 --> 00:05:27.080 align:middle line:84% And Agamemnon makes himself as repulsive as possible, 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:30.560 align:middle line:84% really, to enforce the fact of hierarchy, if you like. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:33.500 align:middle line:84% But why, at the end of "The Odyssey," 00:05:33.500 --> 00:05:36.098 align:middle line:84% does he actually end up killing the kids? 00:05:36.098 --> 00:05:37.640 align:middle line:84% I know they're resisting, and they're 00:05:37.640 --> 00:05:38.510 align:middle line:90% going to put up a fight. 00:05:38.510 --> 00:05:39.843 align:middle line:90% But why doesn't he talk to them? 00:05:39.843 --> 00:05:41.090 align:middle line:90% He's a great talker. 00:05:41.090 --> 00:05:42.710 align:middle line:90% He talks to Priam. 00:05:42.710 --> 00:05:43.790 align:middle line:90% He talks to Achilles. 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:45.430 align:middle line:90% He's a great reasoner. 00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:50.570 align:middle line:84% The reason that he cannot leave them alive is that they could 00:05:50.570 --> 00:05:53.510 align:middle line:84% rebel against him later and take over his land. 00:05:53.510 --> 00:05:54.650 align:middle line:90% This is Stalin, isn't it? 00:05:54.650 --> 00:05:56.220 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:56.720 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:02.650 align:middle line:84% --that he and descendants should be forever kings, 00:06:02.650 --> 00:06:05.560 align:middle line:84% because kingship is the only form of government 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:06.760 align:middle line:90% that they know. 00:06:06.760 --> 00:06:09.430 align:middle line:84% They do not really have democracy yet. 00:06:09.430 --> 00:06:12.370 align:middle line:84% They don't have participatory government in any way. 00:06:12.370 --> 00:06:14.170 align:middle line:90% He is a missing king. 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:15.520 align:middle line:90% He comes back. 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:18.670 align:middle line:84% And he can be king again if he can survive. 00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:19.170 align:middle line:90% He has to-- 00:06:19.170 --> 00:06:19.670 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:06:19.670 --> 00:06:22.960 align:middle line:84% But he has to be able to remove the threats. 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:27.007 align:middle line:84% And so all of these young suitors who wanted to be king, 00:06:27.007 --> 00:06:28.840 align:middle line:84% they don't care whether Odysseus comes back. 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:30.840 align:middle line:84% They're going to remove Telemachus anyway. 00:06:30.840 --> 00:06:33.730 align:middle line:90% 00:06:33.730 --> 00:06:36.047 align:middle line:84% Athena has to remove him so that he could survive it. 00:06:36.047 --> 00:06:36.880 align:middle line:90% But it seems to me-- 00:06:36.880 --> 00:06:37.310 align:middle line:90% I agree. 00:06:37.310 --> 00:06:38.650 align:middle line:84% I think you're probably right in terms 00:06:38.650 --> 00:06:39.340 align:middle line:90% of the structure of the poem. 00:06:39.340 --> 00:06:40.965 align:middle line:84% And in a way, what you're saying proves 00:06:40.965 --> 00:06:43.150 align:middle line:84% that the Odyssey is probably earlier than the Iliad. 00:06:43.150 --> 00:06:45.250 align:middle line:84% Because had it been, if they had the man 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:47.470 align:middle line:90% who came back to Ithaca-- 00:06:47.470 --> 00:06:55.040 align:middle line:84% Because the reason that Odysseus weeps and is moved by 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:56.400 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:06:56.400 --> 00:06:56.900 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:06:56.900 --> 00:07:00.140 align:middle line:84% --telling of the building of the horse, 00:07:00.140 --> 00:07:01.828 align:middle line:90% is because he invented it. 00:07:01.828 --> 00:07:02.370 align:middle line:90% I know, but-- 00:07:02.370 --> 00:07:03.110 align:middle line:90% And his fame-- 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:03.610 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:07:03.610 --> 00:07:05.240 align:middle line:90% --is why he [INAUDIBLE]. 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:08.158 align:middle line:84% No, but I think the composition could be earlier, couldn't it? 00:07:08.158 --> 00:07:09.950 align:middle line:84% It's like, in fact, "Paradise Regained" was 00:07:09.950 --> 00:07:12.050 align:middle line:90% written before "Paradise Lost." 00:07:12.050 --> 00:07:13.910 align:middle line:84% And the composition could be earlier. 00:07:13.910 --> 00:07:15.770 align:middle line:84% And in fact, we don't know who composed it. 00:07:15.770 --> 00:07:17.990 align:middle line:84% But what I'm trying to say is that the Odysseus who 00:07:17.990 --> 00:07:21.230 align:middle line:84% reasons with Achilles, the Odysseus who keeps peace 00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:24.890 align:middle line:84% among the warriors in Troy, is not 00:07:24.890 --> 00:07:27.842 align:middle line:84% necessarily the Odysseus who will only be violent in Ithaca. 00:07:27.842 --> 00:07:29.300 align:middle line:84% In other words, in Ithaca, it would 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:31.880 align:middle line:84% have been possible for the statesman Odysseus 00:07:31.880 --> 00:07:33.110 align:middle line:90% to be a statesman. 00:07:33.110 --> 00:07:35.900 align:middle line:84% But instead, he is actually a very primitive warlord. 00:07:35.900 --> 00:07:36.550 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:07:36.550 --> 00:07:40.550 align:middle line:84% I was curious about when you talk about psychology 00:07:40.550 --> 00:07:43.610 align:middle line:84% and how these characters don't have psychology. 00:07:43.610 --> 00:07:46.640 align:middle line:84% I guess I'm curious if you could maybe 00:07:46.640 --> 00:07:52.690 align:middle line:84% just describe what psychology is, and why [INAUDIBLE].. 00:07:52.690 --> 00:07:57.966 align:middle line:84% Is psychology necessarily a modern thing 00:07:57.966 --> 00:08:02.900 align:middle line:84% that replaces the gods and all these other things [INAUDIBLE].. 00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:05.360 align:middle line:84% Well, when we read Shakespeare, modern critics 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:07.550 align:middle line:84% often pretend or suggest that his characters 00:08:07.550 --> 00:08:08.930 align:middle line:90% have psychologies. 00:08:08.930 --> 00:08:12.920 align:middle line:84% And I think most of us might agree 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:14.540 align:middle line:90% that in Shakespeare's poems-- 00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:16.670 align:middle line:84% I mean, Ted Hughes wrote a whole book about this-- 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:18.795 align:middle line:84% the characters don't have psychologies, but humors. 00:08:18.795 --> 00:08:21.597 align:middle line:90% They have dominant humors. 00:08:21.597 --> 00:08:23.430 align:middle line:84% As in, I think, suppose, in the Greek drama, 00:08:23.430 --> 00:08:29.942 align:middle line:84% you have various characteristics that don't, as it were, 00:08:29.942 --> 00:08:30.900 align:middle line:90% add up to a psychology. 00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:35.742 align:middle line:84% A psychology implies-- well, how would we define a psychology? 00:08:35.742 --> 00:08:37.200 align:middle line:84% I think what I'm trying to suggest 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.309 align:middle line:84% is that the characters in Homer aren't deep in the way 00:08:41.309 --> 00:08:44.940 align:middle line:84% that characters in O'Neill or Miller are deep. 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:46.800 align:middle line:84% They're not dramatic, if you like. 00:08:46.800 --> 00:08:49.140 align:middle line:90% They're historical. 00:08:49.140 --> 00:08:52.410 align:middle line:84% They're tied, as that gentleman was saying, into certain rather 00:08:52.410 --> 00:08:53.850 align:middle line:90% rigid social forms. 00:08:53.850 --> 00:08:56.880 align:middle line:84% There are certain actions that are expected of them. 00:08:56.880 --> 00:08:59.190 align:middle line:84% And that to break the patterns of expectation, 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:01.980 align:middle line:84% as Achilles does at the very end of "The Iliad, " 00:09:01.980 --> 00:09:06.180 align:middle line:84% are moments of great beauty and great, if you like, 00:09:06.180 --> 00:09:07.770 align:middle line:90% forgiveness. 00:09:07.770 --> 00:09:10.260 align:middle line:84% But to have a psychology would be 00:09:10.260 --> 00:09:14.250 align:middle line:84% to have a much more complex set of motives, to be free. 00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:16.380 align:middle line:84% If we have a psychology within those contexts, 00:09:16.380 --> 00:09:18.620 align:middle line:84% would be to be free to act in certain ways. 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:20.220 align:middle line:84% And I don't think that freedom is 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:23.640 align:middle line:84% allowed to most of the characters in the Greek poems. 00:09:23.640 --> 00:09:25.063 align:middle line:90% Am I wrong? 00:09:25.063 --> 00:09:25.980 align:middle line:90% You look as I'm wrong. 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:29.782 align:middle line:84% I'm just wondering [INAUDIBLE] that's a literary thing 00:09:29.782 --> 00:09:33.450 align:middle line:90% or if that's a cultural theme. 00:09:33.450 --> 00:09:35.162 align:middle line:90% What's the difference? 00:09:35.162 --> 00:09:38.870 align:middle line:84% Is it just that that's the way that they're written about? 00:09:38.870 --> 00:09:40.728 align:middle line:90% Or is that an actual-- 00:09:40.728 --> 00:09:43.120 align:middle line:84% I mean, maybe there's [INAUDIBLE].. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.480 align:middle line:84% Is it actually the way we are as humans? 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:50.430 align:middle line:90% Is that what's [INAUDIBLE]? 00:09:50.430 --> 00:09:53.040 align:middle line:84% I think the way we think about our humanity is very different. 00:09:53.040 --> 00:09:55.741 align:middle line:90% 00:09:55.741 --> 00:09:57.390 align:middle line:84% I think what, again, that gentleman 00:09:57.390 --> 00:10:00.810 align:middle line:84% was saying about Odysseus going home and the certain things 00:10:00.810 --> 00:10:06.630 align:middle line:84% that were expected of him, that there are certain roles we have 00:10:06.630 --> 00:10:13.660 align:middle line:84% to fulfill if we are certain types of person in earlier 00:10:13.660 --> 00:10:14.160 align:middle line:90% poems. 00:10:14.160 --> 00:10:16.500 align:middle line:84% I guess a good point of illustration 00:10:16.500 --> 00:10:21.270 align:middle line:84% might be Hamlet, where almost everyone in the play 00:10:21.270 --> 00:10:23.880 align:middle line:84% is acting according to role, apart from Hamlet. 00:10:23.880 --> 00:10:27.652 align:middle line:84% And Hamlet is struggling to break a kind of mold. 00:10:27.652 --> 00:10:29.610 align:middle line:84% And with Hamlet, you have a kind of psychology. 00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:31.680 align:middle line:84% Whereas, possibly, with the other characters, 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:34.200 align:middle line:84% you have less of a sense of-- it's probably a loose word. 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:35.190 align:middle line:84% I should probably-- but don't know 00:10:35.190 --> 00:10:37.320 align:middle line:84% what word I would use if I don't say, a psychology. 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:39.780 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's a bourgeois thing, isn't it? 00:10:39.780 --> 00:10:43.410 align:middle line:84% Psychology is a sort of bourgeois construct. 00:10:43.410 --> 00:10:45.630 align:middle line:84% People exist in relation to one another, 00:10:45.630 --> 00:10:47.590 align:middle line:84% or they exist in relation to themselves. 00:10:47.590 --> 00:10:50.885 align:middle line:84% And I think in the epics, they exist entirely in relation 00:10:50.885 --> 00:10:51.510 align:middle line:90% to one another. 00:10:51.510 --> 00:10:56.440 align:middle line:84% Even Odysseus, as he sheds his mates, as it were, 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:57.447 align:middle line:90% as he comes home. 00:10:57.447 --> 00:10:59.030 align:middle line:84% So I guess part of what you're saying, 00:10:59.030 --> 00:11:04.170 align:middle line:84% I think it would be fair to say, that an actual ancient Greek 00:11:04.170 --> 00:11:08.250 align:middle line:84% individual would have a psychology in the way 00:11:08.250 --> 00:11:12.330 align:middle line:84% that literary characters in the [INAUDIBLE],, 00:11:12.330 --> 00:11:17.222 align:middle line:84% a psychology that's shaped by their own personal histories 00:11:17.222 --> 00:11:23.729 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] the expectations of their roles of the part 00:11:23.729 --> 00:11:26.870 align:middle line:84% that they're playing in the structure of the [INAUDIBLE].. 00:11:26.870 --> 00:11:28.890 align:middle line:84% So that wouldn't be written into the poem. 00:11:28.890 --> 00:11:29.390 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:11:29.390 --> 00:11:29.890 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:11:29.890 --> 00:11:35.594 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] kind of [INAUDIBLE] poetry 00:11:35.594 --> 00:11:41.925 align:middle line:90% because Homer [INAUDIBLE] 00:11:41.925 --> 00:11:43.400 align:middle line:90% 00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:44.249 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:11:44.249 --> 00:11:51.918 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] whatever god represents the emotion 00:11:51.918 --> 00:11:55.160 align:middle line:90% that is being [INAUDIBLE]. 00:11:55.160 --> 00:11:59.105 align:middle line:84% Does that happen, or does the god come in to, as it were-- 00:11:59.105 --> 00:12:03.300 align:middle line:84% when Hector is fleeing from Achilles, 00:12:03.300 --> 00:12:05.460 align:middle line:84% the goddess comes and says to Achilles, 00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:07.230 align:middle line:90% I'm going to stop him running. 00:12:07.230 --> 00:12:09.210 align:middle line:84% And so she pretends to be his close friend. 00:12:09.210 --> 00:12:10.982 align:middle line:84% And he and his close friends stop. 00:12:10.982 --> 00:12:12.690 align:middle line:84% And they're going to fight with Achilles. 00:12:12.690 --> 00:12:14.790 align:middle line:84% And he turns around, and his friend isn't there. 00:12:14.790 --> 00:12:17.820 align:middle line:84% And he suddenly realizes he's been duped by the goddess. 00:12:17.820 --> 00:12:20.010 align:middle line:84% In other words, they're playing tricks. 00:12:20.010 --> 00:12:23.070 align:middle line:84% But what you're suggesting is that the tricks they play 00:12:23.070 --> 00:12:26.490 align:middle line:84% are, in a sense, some aspect of a [INAUDIBLE].. 00:12:26.490 --> 00:12:29.490 align:middle line:84% It could be their passion, or their [INAUDIBLE].. 00:12:29.490 --> 00:12:33.854 align:middle line:84% Or [INAUDIBLE] by a god coming [INAUDIBLE].. 00:12:33.854 --> 00:12:43.031 align:middle line:90% 00:12:43.031 --> 00:12:46.080 align:middle line:84% That's very much the case when you get to Apollonius of Rhodes 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:47.937 align:middle line:90% and the voyage of the Argonauts. 00:12:47.937 --> 00:12:49.020 align:middle line:90% But that comes much later. 00:12:49.020 --> 00:12:53.445 align:middle line:84% I think that use of the gods to express a subjectivity 00:12:53.445 --> 00:12:55.990 align:middle line:84% through an objectivity, if you like, that comes a bit later. 00:12:55.990 --> 00:12:57.990 align:middle line:84% But I'm not sure if you could say that of Homer. 00:12:57.990 --> 00:13:00.402 align:middle line:90% Maybe you could. 00:13:00.402 --> 00:13:04.210 align:middle line:84% I see Achilles as an anti-hero, not Odysseus. 00:13:04.210 --> 00:13:05.820 align:middle line:90% And the reason is this. 00:13:05.820 --> 00:13:08.310 align:middle line:90% Achilles has got a choice. 00:13:08.310 --> 00:13:12.180 align:middle line:84% His mother tells him that he can have a long life 00:13:12.180 --> 00:13:12.990 align:middle line:90% if he goes home-- 00:13:12.990 --> 00:13:14.580 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:13:14.580 --> 00:13:15.900 align:middle line:90% --and abandons the war. 00:13:15.900 --> 00:13:16.950 align:middle line:90% He can go on home. 00:13:16.950 --> 00:13:20.220 align:middle line:84% He can have a long life if he likes, and without pain. 00:13:20.220 --> 00:13:22.920 align:middle line:84% Or we can have a short life with pain. 00:13:22.920 --> 00:13:24.390 align:middle line:90% "Let me die soon," he says. 00:13:24.390 --> 00:13:29.070 align:middle line:84% Because this society is driven by honor, 00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:31.140 align:middle line:84% and because Patroclus, his great friend, 00:13:31.140 --> 00:13:36.150 align:middle line:84% has been killed by Hector, he has to avenge that. 00:13:36.150 --> 00:13:41.665 align:middle line:84% And so he therefore is driven to choose the short life. 00:13:41.665 --> 00:13:43.290 align:middle line:84% Doesn't he chose the short life before? 00:13:43.290 --> 00:13:46.290 align:middle line:90% He has to sustain his honor. 00:13:46.290 --> 00:13:52.380 align:middle line:84% But later in "The Odyssey," when he talks to Odysseus-- 00:13:52.380 --> 00:13:56.490 align:middle line:84% Achilles talks to Odysseus in the underworld. 00:13:56.490 --> 00:14:00.000 align:middle line:84% He says, "it would have been better 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:03.420 align:middle line:84% to have been the slave of a man of poor means 00:14:03.420 --> 00:14:06.510 align:middle line:84% than the king of all of these dead." 00:14:06.510 --> 00:14:08.550 align:middle line:84% In other words, he realized, when 00:14:08.550 --> 00:14:12.900 align:middle line:84% he made the choice for fame and the short life, 00:14:12.900 --> 00:14:14.370 align:middle line:90% that it was the wrong choice. 00:14:14.370 --> 00:14:16.067 align:middle line:84% When he made it, or after he'd made it? 00:14:16.067 --> 00:14:18.150 align:middle line:84% No, he realized when he was in Hades, talking to-- 00:14:18.150 --> 00:14:18.660 align:middle line:90% Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:14:18.660 --> 00:14:20.010 align:middle line:84% He realized he made the wrong choice. 00:14:20.010 --> 00:14:21.510 align:middle line:84% He should have just said, I'm going 00:14:21.510 --> 00:14:22.677 align:middle line:90% to go home, get out of here. 00:14:22.677 --> 00:14:24.090 align:middle line:90% This is stupid. 00:14:24.090 --> 00:14:25.590 align:middle line:90% But he didn't do that. 00:14:25.590 --> 00:14:27.775 align:middle line:84% [INAUDIBLE] was because it's a fame-driven society. 00:14:27.775 --> 00:14:29.400 align:middle line:84% But that doesn't make him an anti-hero. 00:14:29.400 --> 00:14:33.240 align:middle line:84% --of the man was more important than the life of the man. 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:38.260 align:middle line:84% In our society today, if we see a lost cause, we just go home. 00:14:38.260 --> 00:14:38.927 align:middle line:90% We don't always. 00:14:38.927 --> 00:14:40.510 align:middle line:84% I mean, sometimes the government says, 00:14:40.510 --> 00:14:42.840 align:middle line:84% well, we're going to go fight for this stupid cause, 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:45.330 align:middle line:90% so we can't do it. 00:14:45.330 --> 00:14:46.500 align:middle line:90% But we shouldn't do it. 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:48.780 align:middle line:84% In our society today, we should say, you know what? 00:14:48.780 --> 00:14:51.000 align:middle line:84% This is not a cause we want to fight for. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.130 align:middle line:84% So finally, everybody went home from Vietnam. 00:14:53.130 --> 00:14:53.920 align:middle line:90% But who is we? 00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:54.420 align:middle line:90% I mean-- 00:14:54.420 --> 00:14:55.165 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:14:55.165 --> 00:14:57.540 align:middle line:84% I don't think you found one man after another coming home 00:14:57.540 --> 00:14:58.082 align:middle line:90% from Vietnam. 00:14:58.082 --> 00:15:00.450 align:middle line:90% You found a great withdrawal. 00:15:00.450 --> 00:15:03.270 align:middle line:84% And I think that the Greeks in Troy 00:15:03.270 --> 00:15:05.070 align:middle line:84% had the choice of leaving individually. 00:15:05.070 --> 00:15:08.010 align:middle line:84% Achilles had the choice of going, and chose not to go. 00:15:08.010 --> 00:15:09.795 align:middle line:90% So it's a different situation. 00:15:09.795 --> 00:15:10.900 align:middle line:90% --really have that choice? 00:15:10.900 --> 00:15:11.280 align:middle line:90% Because-- 00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:11.780 align:middle line:90% He says so. 00:15:11.780 --> 00:15:13.530 align:middle line:84% There's a speech in book 12 where he says, 00:15:13.530 --> 00:15:14.370 align:middle line:90% I could go home now. 00:15:14.370 --> 00:15:15.270 align:middle line:90% I could-- yeah. 00:15:15.270 --> 00:15:15.665 align:middle line:90% He could do that. 00:15:15.665 --> 00:15:16.060 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:15:16.060 --> 00:15:17.395 align:middle line:90% He realized that he can't do it. 00:15:17.395 --> 00:15:19.470 align:middle line:90% Hmm. 00:15:19.470 --> 00:15:21.750 align:middle line:84% Then his mother brings him the armor. 00:15:21.750 --> 00:15:23.970 align:middle line:90% So now he's got the armor. 00:15:23.970 --> 00:15:25.810 align:middle line:90% Now, here's the question. 00:15:25.810 --> 00:15:28.251 align:middle line:90% This is what I want answered. 00:15:28.251 --> 00:15:28.930 align:middle line:90% Uh-oh. 00:15:28.930 --> 00:15:33.120 align:middle line:84% Odysseus gets this armor when he fights Ajax. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:34.200 align:middle line:90% And he beats Ajax. 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:37.320 align:middle line:84% And Thetis gives him the armor as the reward. 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:38.790 align:middle line:90% What happens to the armor? 00:15:38.790 --> 00:15:40.150 align:middle line:90% Where is it? 00:15:40.150 --> 00:15:42.360 align:middle line:84% Well, there's a big fight over the armor later on, 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:43.030 align:middle line:90% isn't there? 00:15:43.030 --> 00:15:44.730 align:middle line:90% No, Odysseus wins it. 00:15:44.730 --> 00:15:45.420 align:middle line:90% Odysseus wins. 00:15:45.420 --> 00:15:45.920 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:15:45.920 --> 00:15:47.760 align:middle line:90% But where is it now? 00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:50.142 align:middle line:84% Doesn't Astyanax get it when he comes in? 00:15:50.142 --> 00:15:50.850 align:middle line:90% I can't remember. 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:51.480 align:middle line:90% You tell me. 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:55.332 align:middle line:84% He was taking it on board ship, or something with him. 00:15:55.332 --> 00:15:56.790 align:middle line:84% And he must have had it all the way 00:15:56.790 --> 00:15:59.100 align:middle line:84% till the time when his ship was lost, 00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:01.390 align:middle line:84% the last ship with the last comrades 00:16:01.390 --> 00:16:06.846 align:middle line:84% after they went through the whirlpool, the [INAUDIBLE] 00:16:06.846 --> 00:16:08.700 align:middle line:90% or something like that. 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:11.280 align:middle line:84% So he must've lost his armor there. 00:16:11.280 --> 00:16:12.480 align:middle line:90% So where is it? 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:13.650 align:middle line:90% Who has it? 00:16:13.650 --> 00:16:18.420 align:middle line:84% Because armor that's made by Hephaestus is immortal armor. 00:16:18.420 --> 00:16:19.890 align:middle line:90% It has to go to somebody later. 00:16:19.890 --> 00:16:22.200 align:middle line:90% It has to be reborn. 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:24.640 align:middle line:84% That just a question I've never got [INAUDIBLE].. 00:16:24.640 --> 00:16:28.155 align:middle line:84% Well, it's a bit like the Holy Grail, isn't it? 00:16:28.155 --> 00:16:30.060 align:middle line:84% Well, we know where the grail is. 00:16:30.060 --> 00:16:32.170 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:16:32.170 --> 00:16:32.670 align:middle line:90% Well, no. 00:16:32.670 --> 00:16:36.360 align:middle line:84% I mean, if you watch Harrison Ford, the grail [INAUDIBLE] 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:43.380 align:middle line:84% Lot 42 [INAUDIBLE] with 7,000 other grails in a parking lot 00:16:43.380 --> 00:16:45.128 align:middle line:90% with the government. 00:16:45.128 --> 00:16:46.860 align:middle line:90% It's the government's grail. 00:16:46.860 --> 00:16:48.977 align:middle line:90% Yeah, yeah. 00:16:48.977 --> 00:16:50.310 align:middle line:90% There was a question over there. 00:16:50.310 --> 00:16:50.850 align:middle line:90% Over there. 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:52.834 align:middle line:90% Do you have a question. 00:16:52.834 --> 00:16:54.040 align:middle line:90% Do you have a question? 00:16:54.040 --> 00:16:54.540 align:middle line:90% No? 00:16:54.540 --> 00:16:55.500 align:middle line:90% Go on, ask a question. 00:16:55.500 --> 00:16:56.490 align:middle line:90% No, [INAUDIBLE]. 00:16:56.490 --> 00:16:57.100 align:middle line:90% Oh, go on. 00:16:57.100 --> 00:16:57.600 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:59.330 align:middle line:90% It was a comment to something-- 00:16:59.330 --> 00:16:59.970 align:middle line:90% Oh, comments? 00:16:59.970 --> 00:17:00.480 align:middle line:90% Say it. 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:01.260 align:middle line:90% --forgot, so. 00:17:01.260 --> 00:17:01.770 align:middle line:90% Oh, OK. 00:17:01.770 --> 00:17:02.830 align:middle line:90% No worries. 00:17:02.830 --> 00:17:03.330 align:middle line:90% Good. 00:17:03.330 --> 00:17:06.119 align:middle line:90% 00:17:06.119 --> 00:17:06.990 align:middle line:90% We have a silence. 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:10.010 align:middle line:84% Either an angel is passing, or it's all over. 00:17:10.010 --> 00:17:12.000 align:middle line:90%