Socratic Seminar #1: What Makes a Hero?

The unexamined life is not worth living.--Socrates

For our first Socratic seminar, our essential question deals with the qualities that make up a hero in our readings. The seminar should cover both THE ODYSSEY and GILGAMESH. You will be graded on both the questions you generated before class and on your participation.

Here are some guidelines for preparing your questions, taken from Studyguide.org. You must prepare TWO of each type of question.

WORLD CONNECTION QUESTION: Connects the text to the real world.

Example: If you had a parent who had been missing for twenty years, would you go on a quest to find him/her?

OPEN-ENDED QUESTION: an insightful question about the text that will require proof
and group discussion and "construction of logic" to discover or explore the
answer to the question.

Example: Why did Odysseus hesitate to reveal his true identity to Penelope?

UNIVERSAL THEME/ CORE QUESTION: a question dealing with a theme(s) of the text that will encourage group discussion about the universality of the text.

Example: After reading GILGAMESH, can you pick out the theme of impermanence?

LITERARY ANALYSIS QUESTION: a question dealing with HOW an author
chose to compose a literary piece. How did the author manipulate point of
view, characterization, poetic form, archetypal hero patterns, for example?

Example: In GILGAMESH, what is the symbolic function of the female characters?

Guidelines for Participants in a Socratic Seminar

1. Refer to the text when needed during the discussion. A seminar is not a test of memory. You are not "learning a subject"; your goal is to understand the ideas, issues, and values reflected in the text.

2. It's OK to "pass" when asked to contribute.

3. Do not participate if you are not prepared. A seminar should not be a bull session.

4. Do not stay confused; ask for clarification.

5. Stick to the point currently under discussion; make notes about ideas you want to come back to.

6. Don't raise hands; take turns speaking.

7. Listen carefully.

8. Speak up so that all can hear you.

9. Talk to each other, not just to the leader or teacher.

10. Discuss ideas rather than each other's opinions.

11. You are responsible for the seminar, even if you don't know it or admit it.

Expectations of Participants in a Socratic Seminar

When I am evaluating your Socratic Seminar participation, I ask the following questions about participants. Did they….

Speak loudly and clearly?
Cite reasons and evidence for their statements?
Use the text to find support?
Listen to others respectfully?
Stick with the subject?
Talk to each other, not just to the leader?
Paraphrase accurately?
Ask for help to clear up confusion?
Support each other?
Avoid hostile exchanges?
Question others in a civil manner?
Seem prepared?

ODYSSEY Quiz #3

Answer the following question in depth, supporting your answers with references to the text. Please type and double-space your response and bring it to the next class meeting. You will answer the remaining four questions on your sheet:

"In many ways one of the most moving moments in the poem for me is when Odysseus strings his bow at the end of the 21st book. The simile for stringing the bow describes the hero as 'an expert singer skilled at lyre and song' who tunes his harp to a new pitch. That means the bow, the killing instrument, is really a musical instrument at the same time. Story-telling at that point becomes action.

"It's as though Homer were taking his whole narrative art and conferring it upon his hero and saying, all right, take your bow and treat it as a lyre and play a new song. With that lyre-bow Odysseus recomposes his kingdom; he rids it of discordant elements--the suitors--and establishes a new era of harmony. The storytelling image and the whole activity of heroism come together and are one and the same."
--Robert Fagles, ODYSSEY translator

Consider Fagles' thoughts above. Again, the importance of the art of storytelling is being highlighted within the text itself (think of the walls of Uruk telling a story in GILGAMESH, or in a moder sense, think of the way Ferris Bueller in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" always look at the camera, telling the audience, in essence, that he is the storyteller here). Comment on this technique by the storyteller. What does it do for the story.

Essay #1

Students, I have crossed the River of Death and have returned from the House of Dust (after all appropriate and gruesome sacrifices have been made) with questions for all of you. Enlil must have been angry, because the gods gave me questions instead of answers to share with you.

Utanapishtim seems to think that if each of you writes a four to six page paper (typed, double spaced, with one inch margins all around) on the epics with which we began the fall, you, too, may be granted safe passage through this semester.

Later, Enkidu said the questions are just prompts and that it will be up to you to flesh them out. He suggested you use an axe. When I told him you didn’t have any, he suggested you use your brains.

Here then, are the questions, straight from the faraway. Choose one and work it into an original thesis. Use textual evidence in the form of quotations and paraphrasing from GILGAMESH, or THE ODYSSEY to support your claims. Use MLA style in citing the text.

Finally, Gilgamesh, in his wisdom, recommends that you conference your paper with me. While not mandatory, the gods (and I) would be pleased. Turn in your essay Friday, September 21, in class

FROM GILGAMESH:

Defend the following statement from literary critic Bernd Jager:
“Both Gilgamesh and Enkidu repeat in their voyage humanity’s passage from an original, savage state based on violence and contained by natural barriers to a new poetic, civic, and religious order that is based on neighborliness and the principle of the threshold.”

Consider the issues of sex and gender in GILGAMESH. You might look at the role of women, the ambiguous relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Enkidu and the harlot, etc.

Compare GILGAMESH to elements of the Old Testament. Why might it be significant to draw these comparisons? What universal lessons are the ancients imparting?


FROM THE ODYSSEY:

Consider Telemachus and/or Nausicaa as initiates, and their evolving identities and choices as they enter adulthood.

Consider the intensity of the violence throughout this book - do you find it unsettling or "over the top"? Why or why not? Does the epic narrator take up an attitude towards the violence?

Consider the following question: Does Odysseus want to go home?


COMPARING and CONTRASTING:

Consider the role of hero in both epics. What are the responsibilities of a hero? Are Odysseus and Gilgamesh good at the role? Or have they upset the world order with their heroics?

Compare the ways in which nature is viewed in both epics. Is the killing of Humbaba and the Cyclops merited? How might human insolence conflict with the natural world in the epics?

Compare the role of the powerful woman in both epics. Think about the ways that Circe and Ishtar use sex to control the heroes. What about the “good wife” archetypes of Utanapishtim’s wife and Penelope? Are there any similarities here?