Paper Topics | Fall 2003 | Paper 1
Due Date: Saturday, September 20, 2003, 5 p.m. in the Faculty mailboxes in Eliot.
5 - 6 pages
In book 6, lines 406-439, Andromache implores Hektor not to return to the battle. One of her appeals is that "Hektor, thus you are father to me, and my honoured mother,/you are my brother, and you who it is who are my young husband" (lines 429-430). How do these lines fit into Andromache's argument in the passage as a whole? Based on what you know of Homeric ideas about the family, consider why Andromache's appeal would or would not have been successful. In your paper you may draw upon the Homeric poems, the lectures, and the readings from Vernant and Murray but you should not undertake further outside research.