58勛圖

CL4420 Fame, Tradition and Narrative: Homer's Iliad

Academic year

2026 to 2027 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Available to General Degree students with the permission of the Honours Adviser

Planned timetable

To be arranged

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr J P Hesk

Dr J P Hesk
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Dr J Hesk

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module will give students the opportunity to study Homer's celebrated martial epic, the Iliad, in translation and in detail. It will consider the relevant social and cultural-historical questions which are prompted by this tale of heroic savagery and suffering: why might archaic Greeks have needed an epic like this? Why is the Homeric conception of the heroic so fraught with conflict and so obsessed with honour, memory and power? The module will also analyse and interpret the epic's rich poetic texture and 'oral-derived' style (formulae, similes, type-scenes...); it will explore the character of its heroes and their relationship with divinity. For all its depictions of battle and slaughter the Iliad is a poem about language as much as action and participants will consider the complex rhetoric of heroes who fight with words as well as swords. Finally, the module will ask how and why famous artists and poets of the modern era have returned to the Iliad's ideas and imagery.

Assessment pattern

3-hour Written Examination = 50%, Coursework = 50%

Re-assessment

Examination = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

2-hour seminar x 11 weeks

Scheduled learning hours

22

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

278

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Identify, understand, and describe the key features of Homer's Iliad and its modern interpretation.
  • Analyse and interpret the epic's rich poetic texture and 'oral-derived' style showing critical awareness of the problems of evidence around questions of the poem's genesis.
  • Display advanced skills in translating and commenting on selected passages of the poem.
  • Analyse the poem in relation to its aesthetic, social, cultural and political contexts of production and reception, and the values and ideology which inform it.
  • Analyse and critically evaluate published research on Homer's Iliad and its modern reception.
  • Devise coherent and critically aware arguments both orally and in writing on key aspects of Homer's Iliad and its modern interpretation or reception via a thorough analysis of the set primary texts and the evaluation of relevant published scholarship.