Epic, Community, and Identity

Summation

All of the texts we covered this semester have some features of epic that we have discussed - they read and interpret a mythical past to say something about the present, the search for origins, multiple points of view, and a community under threat and its salvation or destruction. But this course could just have easily been titled "War and Literature in the Ancient and Medieval World" - for though all of these texts share these features we have identified, we have said little about the elephant in the room before us: their pre-occupation with wars offensive, defensive and civil. Are epic and warfare inevitably tied together? The Odyssey tells of the aftermath of war, and the return home of one of its veterans, and the new conflicts he faces on his return, his attempt to reintegrate himself into his society. Beowulf I think asks its audience to re-evaluate its own heroic past in the light not only of Christian morality, but in the context of a newly united England and Scandinavia, which would soon face its end in an invasion by a Norman conqueror who had claims to the throne that could not be dismissed easily. The Arthurian texts have as their constant looming horizon the inevitable fall and defeat of Arthur and the destruction of the society he and his fellow knights built. It is as if epic would tell us that no peace is permanent, and all victories are fleeting. Identities both individual and collective are shaped in the long, dreary years of continual warfare and conflict, but also in the heated moments on the battlefield, and in some ways the stories of epic tradition are meant to point to gloriously bloody campaigns, old wounds, and dimly recalled feuds as collective signposts for their intended audiences. These patriotic indices are often lost on us modern readers; the ancient grievances of Rome and Carthage are dry historical facts for which we have only dimly understood reference points in the present day.

Chris Hedges, a longtime war correspondent who now chronicles the effect of war on the human psyche notes the connection between myths of the past - of ethnic, religious, and national conflict - and their use in the present day to justify conflicts in the Middle East, Kosova and other war-torn regions. He notes in War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning that
"Most national myths, at their core, are racist . . . By finding our identity and meaning in separateness the myth serves another important function: It makes communication with our opponents impossible" (24). That is, the myths that underwrite warfare ask that we ignore our common humanity. He also quotes Simone Weil, who wrote about the nature of violence in the Iliad: "Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, . . . as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates" (21). The heady narcotic of wielding force unmakes a million years of evolution in a single instant, and turns the most peaceful, ordinary setting - a city park, a busy street, a college campus -- into a place of slaughter.
But I would also point out that epic in its most interesting and finest moments points the utter sameness of opposed forces and cultures, even as it seems to revel in bloodshed. The sins of the protagonist are often revisited and reborn in the enemy -- if the enemy is not identical with the protagonists themselves. Beowulf's enemies are as human as they are monstrous, and so our own monstrosity is inextricably bound with our humanity. Priam and Achilles find their common humanity in perhaps the only two cultural universals: food, and grief for the dead. If you find value in the epics of the ancient and medieval worlds, that value is bound to be idiosyncratic and different for each of you. But I would ask you to consider what ethical demands these texts make on us: do they ask us to accept the hero uncritically, the cause for war without question, the results without mourning?

Britons, Trojans, Saxons, Normans

There's a great deal more to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History than you were given to read. It begins with the supposed origin of the Britons (i.e. the Welsh who had been driven to the periphery of Britain after the successive invasions of Anglo-Saxons), through the exploits of Arthur (which you read), and the fall of Britain to the Saxons, up to the time of the Norman invasion. In Geoffrey's version of history, the Norman conquerors are treated as ethnically and culturally allied with the long-suffering Britons. But more importantly, Geoffrey invents a pre-history of the Britons that allies them with the greatest story of antiquity, and makes them past conquerors of an empire that was, for a time, even greater than Rome.

Brutus comes to Albion

Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, kills his own father accidentally by an unlucky shot with an arrow - he is exiled from Italy. After many travels reminiscent of Aeneid 1-5, he gains allies in Greece and accomplishes a re-conquest of Greece, but leaves after being directed to Britain by an oracle of Diana.

"Brutus, beyond the setting of the sun, past the realms of Gaul, there lies an island in the sea, once occupied by giants. Now it is empty and ready for your folk. Down the years this will prove an abode suited to you and your people; and your descendants it will be a second Troy. A race of kings will be born there from your stock and round circle of the whole earth will be subject to them" (65).

"Brutus called the island Britain after his own name, and his companions he called Britons. . . A little later the language of the people, which had up to then been known as Trojan or crooked Greek, was called British for the same reason" (72).

MacDougal:

"Geoffrey's motivation . . .  was a desire to provide an heroic epic on the origins and exploits of a people subdued successively by Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans. By portraying the British as a once great people with extensive domains he could a t once raise their status is the eyes of their new Norman overlords and suggest a precedent to the new Norman kings in their imperialistic ambitions" (1).

How do we read Arthur's heroic exploits and final defeat at the hands of his (incestuous) nephew? If Geoffrey's tale of Arthur becomes a kind of prose epic, does it matter than his hero is ultimately defeated? Or is "defeat" the right way to characterize this tale? Given Geoffrey's rather explicit desire to please his Norman patrons, how does the identification of the Britons and Arthur with Armorica (northern France) play into our reading of this text?

Geoffrey of Monmouth; MacDougal

In case anyone missed it: Here is the link to download readings for W5

https://wfs.pomona.edu/xythoswfs/webui/_xy-64544_1-t_CKcWsAfQ

Beowulf as epic?

To get ourselves in the right frame of mind for W5 (which is still two weeks away, I know, but we're doing the big Bee-wulf, so I'm stoked), maybe we should discuss a bit about what makes (or doesn't make) Beowulf an epic, in either broad or narrow senses.

Beowulf is often said to be sui generis in English: one of a kind - and it is. But it's always been an assumption that there is a great lost epic tradition in Old English and the Germanic languages that never made it into writing, or if it did, was largely lost. We have the fragmentary "Fight at Finnsburgh," a sketchy version of which was incorporated into the text of Beowulf. We also have the Old Saxon "Heliand," which is a versification of the Gospels told in heroic-epic poetry. And we have Old Norse sagas, both prose and poetry, but the evidence for this is late (ca. 1300). We have conjecture, and the reports of ancient historians like Tacitus who recounts the Germans singing songs about their gods/heroes "Tuisto" and "Mannus." The fragmentary evidence notwithstanding (remember we do not have consensus on when , by whom, or for whom Beowulf was written), how does Beowulf stack up with our self-defined criteria for epic:

• Invokes a mythical or distant past to say something about the present
• Uses poetry and storytelling as a search for origins, and thus identity, of a specific community
• The story often involves a community under threat, and its salvation, or destruction.
• The story contains multiple points of view, which can tend to highlight moral and ethical ambiguities.

More than that, how does Beowulf compare to Virgil or Homer; did the Beowulf poet know classical epic (Virgil)?

Tacitus and Virgil

Both the Agricola and the Aeneid at some level are meditations on what it means to be Roman. Virgil and Tacitus led very different lives: Tacitus, the soldier, senator, Imperial official and functionary. Virgil the rural man of letters, a poet who came to prominence and the attention of the emperor Augustus. But both were men of letters who thought deeply about Romanitas: its origin, nature, and meaning. In other words, Agricola (and to a certain extent Germania), like parts of the Aeneid is an exploration of Roman identity.

As with Virgil, duty and pietas, rather than heroism or individual charisma, define a true Roman. Tacitus describes his father in law as a man who practiced moderation in all things - hardly sounds like Achilles, or Hector. A man who "knew how to obey and had learned to combine expedience with propriety" (7) and who practiced modesty and humility; who combined virtue and morality even in the exercise of power over others: ". . . he was serious and attentive, strict but often merciful. When he had completed his official duties, he no longer wore the mask of power" (8). Most remarkable, Agricola  eschewed the sort of quotidian corruption that was part of daily administration in even the distant reaches of the empire, the ancient equivalent of the no-bid contract. He even reformed the administration of the province and made it run more efficiently. For Tacitus, the age of gods and heroes is past, and he is searching for a way to be a good man even in the age of "bad emperors," when Rome has willingly given up its former "freedom" for "stability" in the years after nearly continual civil wars. Agricola, ever duty bound, disclaimed any suspicion even on his deathbed that the emperor Domitian was responsible for his death, the suggestions of Tacitus and others notwithstanding (31).

"Those whose habit is to admire what is forbidden ought to know that there can be great men under bad emperors, and that duty and discretion, if coupled with energy and a career of action, will bring a man to no less glorious summits than are attained by perilous paths and ostenatious deaths that do not benefit the Commonwealth" (31).

New Research Journals and documents from W3

Martin, Nikki, Liliana and Lynda have begun blogging - add them to your RSS reader, Google or Yahoo homepage, or whatever - and give them the benefit of your comments, suggestion and support. . . .

http://lilianameetsaeneas.blogspot.com/

http://mightywarriorkingkillerofthebear.blogspot.com/

http://nikkidv.blogspot.com/

http://whyhera.blogspot.com/

Documents from W3. Download pkgw3hum212.zip
Remember to bring both Beowulf and Tacitus for W4.

research journals

The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to. -Chuang Tzu

Your research projects are ultimately about ideas, not words. However, words are still necessary until we learn to capture thoughts and transfer them via the internet or some still to be invented wireless standard (80211.!!!). Words (and images, and links, and sound files, and videos) are all we have.

If you are taking the great leap into online journaling, remember a few caveats:

• write early, write often
• write about the process of your research, not just the content
• use the forum to try out ideas. Assume others are reading, and are interested (we are) and Will respond.
• think, reflect, write, and re-write.

I've added some examples of people who write about their research and their ideas, and their intellectual journeys. Do not be intimidated by copia, or slick visual designs. Be yourself above all. I recommend trying www.blogger.com - it's free and easy to get started. Send me your URL/RSS feed once you have begun.

• Matt Kirschenbaum (http://www.otal.umd.edu/~mgk/blog/),
• Scott Eric Kaufman (http://acephalous.typepad.com/acephalous/)
• Chuck Tryon (http://chutry.wordherders.net/)
• Timothy Burke (http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/).
• Bryan Alexander (http://infocult.typepad.com/)

Kathleen Fitzpatrick also blogs extensively about her work, her life, and is admirable for her dedication to the medium and signal/noise ratio.

Aeneid 4:". . varium et mutabile semper femina"

Woman is "a thing that is always changing, shifting like the wind." (Book 4)

It doesn’t take a genius to see a pattern emerge in the Aeneid with regard to women: The good ones (Creusa) are dead; the powerful ones become mad, enraged, irrational; the bad ones are just evil (the Harpies); the rest are open to influence, weak willed (as when the Trojan women burn the ships at the urging of the goddess).

Or is that too simplistic? Are women in the Aeneid also catalysts who actually drive the narrative, and help “unroll the scroll of fate?” After all, Aeneas would never have escaped without the urging of Venus; he would have died there trying to take as many Greeks with him as he could. Without the rage of Juno/Hera, there would be no conflict. Aeneas it seems can do nothing of himself, at least in 1-6, without a woman urging him on.

Discuss some of the possible ways of looking at gender in Book 4 - how does love change both Aeneas and Dido? What consequences their relationship have for both the Carthaginians and the Trojans (Romans)?

Further reading on Vergil; Documents from W2

Here are a few suggestions for further reading on Virgil, epic,  and on the era of Augustus.

Lucan, Pharsalia. Lucan writes an anti-Imperial epic during the reign of Nero. It didn't go over well. He locates the death of the republic at the battle of Pharsallus, where Pompey was defeated by Caesar.

Julius Caesar, Civil Wars.

I also recommend further reading in Quint, Epic and Empire.

A good place to start for background on Roman history and literature is a collection of essays edited by Oliver Taplin, Literature in the Roman World (Oxford U Press).

Notes, etc. from W2:
Download w2.zip

Research Questions

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.
  - Thorstein Veblen

There are questions we ask because we can find the answer, and questions we ask because they help us ask more and better questions. A successful research project in this class, and in the humanities generally, is measured not in whether a question was answered with finality (such questions of fact that have specific solutions that can be found are all too rare). Rather, a successful research agenda in this class will allow you to learn something that you didn't know before, but also to see the material you are working with in a different way. You will be educating yourself, your colleagues, and your readers in a new way of thinking about the texts and issue you are dealing with.

When you take a shot at creating a research question, you have several criteria to consider:

• Is it specific and narrow enough for you to say something compelling in 15-20 pages, and in the next 12 weeks or so?
• Is it merely factual (i.e. was Homer really blind?) The answer to such a question can only be yes or no, can probably never be known anyway. So turn it into something that is not a "yes" or "no" question.
  
• Is it open and flexible enough to suggest more questions?

With the admittedly trivial example of Homer's blindness above, it could lead you to an actual research agenda by following up on the trail it suggests. Answer: we don't know, but how did the tradition of Homer's blindness start? If historians and philosophers repeated this tradition, what investment did those writers have in the idea of a blind poet named Homer? And so on. . .

Most important is your own investment in the question or topic. It has to be something that interests you enough to want to spend some serious time and energy on it. If you care about what you are doing, your work will reflect it of course.

As with all research, even if you don't know what you are doing, you will eventually.

To pretend, I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend. - Jacques Derrida