Great Books & Ideas I  Fall 2014 -- Mr Furr

Homework Page

Back to Home Page for this course.

I will post all writing assignments on this page.. You should create a 'bookmark' of your own to this page, so you can go to it without having to first go to the Home Page for the course.

NOTE: BE SURE TO USE THE PROPER SUBJECT LINE ON ALL HW ASSIGNMENTS! SEE BOTTOM OF HOME PAGE FOR EXAMPLE!

Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL your homework assignments!

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments on Finley, World of Odysseus

M.I Finley, The World of Odysseus, has long been considered one of the top books in the field of Classical studies.
  • Here is a quotation from a post on a Classics mailing list in 1998 (Classics-L; but this is no longer on line)
    "Now when I was in Greece, I asked John Camp what, in his opinion, was the best single thing to read on the subject of Bronze Age archaeology and the Homeric epics. Before he could answer, a chorus of Bronze Age archaeologists in the group shouted in unison, "M.I. Finley's _The World of Odysseus." He didn't gainsay them, so I assumed that he thought it worthwhile as well, and since *ipsi dixerunt*, I, being a mere philologist amongst archaeologists, assumed it represented the accepted wisdom on the subject, at least in American archaeological circles."
  • Here are some quotations from a more recent Classics page:
    "After five decades, "The World of Odysseus," the 1954 classic by M.I. Finley, is still a valuable resource for anyone interested in Homeric Greece, the story of the Odyssey, ancient morality and hospitality, or appreciating the long catalogue lists in the Iliad.M.I. Finley's The World of Odysseus is often paired with E.R. Dodds' The Greeks and the Irrational because both make the Greek world come alive even for those modern readers who managed to avoid the Classics in school.
    The latest (2002) edition of The World of Odysseus is introduced by Bernard Knox who points out minor shortcomings of Finley's "model," before calling the book a classic "indispensable to the professional" and "accessible to the general reader."
  • Here is a good page on the archaeology of the same topic as Finley's book (which is also mentioned positively) -- what the historical background of Homer's poem is.

Assignments on Plato, Apology

Homework on the article "I.F. Stone Breaks the Socrates Story":

Homework assignments on Winspear and Silverberg, Who Was Socrates?:

Homework assignments on the Higher Criticism of the New Testament.

Homework assignments on Beowulf and Y Gododdin

Thursday, November 27 - Thanksgiving Day! No class today

Homework for Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Prolog and Tale"


http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/gbi/gbihw14.html | furrg@mail.montclair.edu | Created 1 September 2014