Seriously, it was a cool experience to get to see two days of presentations from Eva Brann. I had never heard of her before and I am one of those people who like listening to old people. I just think it's fascinating to hear from someone who has been around for a long time and seen a lot of things.
I don't really know a lot about the Odyssey, and even if I did it wouldn't amount to the level of Dr. Brann, but she sparked enough interest in me that I am planning on reading the Odyssey for my own personal pleasure. Seeing the level of passion that she had for this book makes me wonder what I'm missing out on.
One subject that came up during the question and answer session was about the Gods. She brought up the question of what the point of Gods were in Greek Literature. Gods can be fooled, they don't seem to really help people that much, they are not omnipotent, and they seem to enjoy watching humans go through trials, tribulations, and warfare. I had actually thought of this many times before. Honestly, being a Christian was my reason for questioning the Greek Gods and comparing them to the God of the Christian faith (sue me). Brann's conclusion was that maybe the Gods are just there as an audience and that maybe it makes people feel better knowing that the Gods are always watching.
One last note on Eva Brann, I thought it was crazy that such a sweet little old lady could be so intimidating just by the amount of knowledge she had. Craziness.
I must agree Evan Brann Was truly intimidating and yet she seems so humble. The god’s however I slightly disagree. I think they did play a rather significant role; in many ways they keep order. The simple idea of their existence is quite necessary for the Greeks. I think the fear of offending obligates a certain order in the city states. The gods are not as the Christian god they are more human than divine. For example in Odysseus and even in the Iliad the roles of the God are quite significant. Homer endlessly draws a parallel between both the human and the Greek gods. The similarities between the two explicate a lot of the Homeric character traits.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Gods are more human than they are divine and also that the fear of offending the Gods obligates a certain order in the city states. In all cases, Christian God or Greek God, the Gods always seem to be in control or having some significant influence on what is going on. At the same time, Eva pointed out that the Greek Gods don't always seem to be there when they should be. Also, that they seem to just be more interested in watching events that happen instead of being involved. I don't think that there is much respect in that.
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