Book Notes: "The Iliad" by Homer

Michel Martin Drolling's "Wrath of Achilles" (1810). Source: Wikimedia.

The Iliad by Homer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This version was quite the tome and I suffered from RSI just from holding the book. I have embarked upon the Great Books series as set out by Hutchins and Adler at the University of Chicago and this great tale is number 1. This is no small task but it is essential. Time and again I have seen movies about Achilles and the fall of Troy but there is something to be said about the various translations and notes that direct the reader to a long history of debates, arguments, and disagreements over Homer (or whether it was Homers), and then the translations that incorporate the Latin amendments (such as Samuel Butler's), and then how the "folk tradition" has twisted and turned this nation-building epic to suit different times. The movies have it that Hector was simply out-classed, not that he ran three laps around the walls of Troy trying to escape Achilles, not that the gods intervened time and again, even helping to kill other soldiers and so on. I like the introduction's idea of Hector as a complete man, husband, father, prince, warrior; whereas Achilles is the unbalanced warrior, hell-bent on death and glory. I have now started on The Odyssey and I did not know that the Trojan horse was not of the first book, I had suspicions but I did not know that Ulysses was the Latin name, and so on. Even the unpacking of these issues helps with my reading of Plato and Aristotle. I felt I had arrived at a place where reading more of the classic scholars made no sense unless I had at least a working grasp of Homer. But the manly ideal that has been bastardised by Hollywood and others has set me thinking deeply. Honour didn't mean masculine aggression at all costs, or that any man could do anything, or that class could not hold one back and so on. In the translation (rather than bastardisation) of the original, an entirely different view of masculinity emerges. These people were all fallible, all helped or thwarted by fortune, the gods played a major role in the plot (religion is all but excluded from the Brad Pitt version of the story), and Paris, a snivelling coward, is not helped out by Hector. Hector hates him! So much to unlearn from reading one of the oldest "western" texts. I shirk at this title - much like the re-writing of Greek ideas about masculinity, all of a sudden the Eastern Europeans get a guernsey in the Great Race Race because they were so brilliant. But it really does set me at ease to now see the portrayals of the Greek ideal and be able to see it for what it was meant to be. This does not help me to feel more secure in the world, but it does help me to see the world differently, and, maybe, more accurately.

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Book Notes: "Rhetoric" by Aristotle

Raphael's "School of Athens" (c.1510). Source: Wikimedia.

Rhetoric by Aristotle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Some of this book reads like a manual for living with what seem to be the simplest instructions imaginable. Wake up, lift the cover, put your feet on the floor, stand up, go to the bathroom, etc. Yet when one thinks about this being some of the earliest writings in recorded history, this instruction manual in how to be persuasive in speech and in writing states exactly what we teach our university students today. And therein lies the simplicity that belies its brilliance. This is my first cover-to-cover reading of Rhetoric. There are many references to Topics, Poetics, and Politics, and other works on rhetoric by other authors, but the reading of this work has inspired me to embark on a proper reading of the Great Books series, as set out by Hutchins and Adler at the University of Chicago, and I have begun at the beginning with Homer's Iliad. I recall a commentary on Darwin - George Bernard Shaw I think it was - that ran something like "once Darwin had proved, through systematic use of the evidence, that natural selection was a very real phenomenon, he did it over again with even more examples to the point of tedium". But Aristotle was the original. Simply reading this points me to the problem with all of my rejected papers - they are not systematic. I recall the guidance of my old professor: "When it is so simple it sounds too easy, then it is good". I also recall Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's [etc] "...has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away". Aristotle points to this and, much like Darwin, points to it again and again so as to remove all doubt. While reading Aristotle is much like my reading of J.S. Mill and Trotsky, as in it feels like I am reading my own knowledge in a book. Not because I am so knowledgeable, but because these authors permeated my education. Now, at least, I can see clearly where that education came from, and I am, strange as it may seem, excited about reading the Great Books I am yet to read.

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Pleasures and Palaces: Parlour Music comes to Old Gunning Courthouse

Old Gunning Courthouse, first opened 1879, now a community facility. Photo by Michael de Percy.

The Gunning Focus Group hosted a mid-winter afternoon of parlour music for an enthusiastic audience of about 40 people today in the Old Gunning Courthouse.

The acoustics of the old courtroom are quite good, and the Yamaha upright piano is in good condition and well-tuned. This was confirmed by the dexterous Crookwell maestro, Katrina Rivera, who is no stranger to Gunning. Ms Rivera delighted with Debussy's Clair de Lune, my personal favourite, among other classics from Mozart and Handel.

Ms Rivera also explained the instruments some of the pieces were originally written for, including the forte piano and the square piano. It really is true that you learn something every day!

Katrina Rivera and Susan West performing Swan Lake.
Photo by Michael de Percy

Today's highlights included several original arrangements by Ms Rivera and flautist (and self-styled "parlour" pianist) Susan West, with vocals performed by the talented soprano, Georgia Pike. 

While Dr West's renditions of Swan Lake and Princess Leia's Theme, accompanied by piano, were standouts, Dr West also accompanied Ms Pike's wonderful vocal work.

Soprano Georgia Pike
leading the audience in song.
Photo by Michael de Percy.

Gunning local and Gunning Focus Group host, Mike Coley, said there were three "firsts" at today's event. 

This was the first time that the heater didn't work (but we were saved by our talented vocalist, so despite the cold weather, the courtroom was quite comfortable), it was the first time a piano duet (by Ms Rivera and Dr West) had been performed for the group, and it was also the first time that audience participation was part of the entertainment.

Concert Details

Ms Pike led the audience in a number of songs (the lyrics conveniently provided by our vocalist), including Home Sweet Home (Payne & Bishop); Loch Lomond (Traditional); and If You Were the Only Girl in the World (Grey & Ayer). The participation was welcomed by the enthusiastic audience, many of whom were obviously well-versed in the lyrics!

The Gunning Focus Group have more in store for us this July with a piano and cello concert. 

Davis Pereira, cello, and Ed Neeman, piano, will present a concert of works by Rachmaninov and Prokofiev in the Courtroom, Old Gunning Courthouse, at 2.30pm on Sunday, 30 July. Tickets $30, concessions and Focus Group members $25. Presented by Gunning Focus Group.

Enquiries and bookings (02) 4845 1566, 0417 663 045 or michael.coley@bigpond.com. Please note the later start time due to Gunning markets.

Why not make a day of it and visit the Gunning Lions Club Markets beforehand?