WESTERN LITERATURE
CHAPTER 1: Greco-Roman Literature
LESSON 1: Excerpt from Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
LESSON OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, students are expected to attain the following:
a. retell the excerpt in their own understanding;
b. explain how the literary piece is an example of a tragedy; and
c. identify the mood of the excerpt.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
One of the three great writers of tragedies in ancient Greece, Sophocles (496?– 406 BCE) was
born in Colonus, near Athens, into a well-to-do family. Well educated, he first won public
acclaim as a tragic poet at the age of 27, in 468 BCE when he defeated Aeschylus in a
competition for writing a tragic play. He is said to have written some 120 plays, but only seven
tragedies are extant: among them are Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus. He
died, much honored, in his ninetieth year, in Athens, where he had lived his entire life.
Excerpt from Oedipus Rex
Sophocles
I care not for thy counsel or thy praise;
For with what eyes could I have e'er beheld
My honoured father in the shades below,
Or my unhappy mother, both destroyed
By me? This punishment is worse than death,
And so it should be. Sweet had been the sight
Of my dear children--them I could have wished
To gaze upon; but I must never see
Or them, or this fair city, or the palace
Where I was born. Deprived of every bliss
By my own lips, which doomed to banishment
The murderer of Laius, and expelled
The impious wretch, by gods and men accursed:
Could I behold them after this? Oh no!
Would I could now with equal ease remove
My hearing too, be deaf as well as blind,
And from another entrance shut out woe!
To want our senses, in the hour of ill,
Is comfort to the wretched. O Cithaeron!
Why didst thou e'er receive me, or received,
Why not destroy, that men might never know
Who gave me birth? O Polybus! O Corinth!
And thou, long time believed my father's palace,
Oh! what a foul disgrace to human nature
Didst thou receive beneath a prince's form!
Impious myself, and from an impious race.
Where is my splendor now? O Daulian path!
The shady forest, and the narrow pass
Where three ways meet, who drank a father's blood
Shed by these hands, do you not still remember
The horrid deed, and what, when here I came,
Followed more dreadful? Fatal nuptials, you
Produced me, you returned me to the womb
That bare me; thence relations horrible
Of fathers, sons, and brothers came; of wives,
Sisters, and mothers, sad alliance! all
That man holds impious and detestable.
But what in act is vile the modest tongue
Should never name. Bury me, hide me, friends,
From every eye; destroy me, cast me forth
To the wide ocean--let me perish there:
Do anything to shake off hated life.
Seize me; approach, my friends--you need not fear,
Polluted though I am, to touch me; none
Shall suffer for my crimes but I alone.
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Have fun answering the following questions:
1. What is the whole excerpt all about?
2. Why do you think Oedipus took out his eyes? Research on this.
3. Do you think Oedipus is a tragic hero? Why do you think so?
4. After reading the whole excerpt, what was the initial feeling that came to you? What
could be the reason why?
LESSON 2: The Iliad: Book 22 by Homer
LESSON OUTCOMES:
At the end of this lesson, students are expected to attain the following:
a. compare and contrast the traits of both characters;
b. evaluate the actions of the characters; and
c. reflect on the concept of hubris in real life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Homer (c. 750 BCE) is perhaps the greatest of all epic poets and his legendary status was well
established by the time of Classical Athens. He composed (not wrote, since the poems were
created and transmitted orally, they were not written down until much later) two major works, the
Iliad and the Odyssey; other works were attributed to Homer, but even in antiquity their
authorship was disputed. In conjunction with Hesiod, Homer acts as a great pool of information
for the Greeks about their gods. Homer is the earliest poet in Western culture whose works
have survived intact.
The Iliad: Book 22
Homer
Thus did he stand and ponder, but Achilles came up to him as it were Mars himself, plumed lord
of battle. From his right shoulder he brandished his terrible spear of Pelian ash, and the bronze
gleamed around him like flashing fire or the rays of the rising sun. Fear fell upon Hector as he
beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was but fled in dismay from before the
gates, while Achilles darted after him at his utmost speed. As a mountain falcon, swiftest of all
birds, swoops down upon some cowering dove—the dove flies before him but the falcon with a
shrill scream follows close after, resolved to have her—even so did Achilles make straight for
Hector with all his might, while—Hector fled under the Trojan wall as fast as his limbs could take
him.
On they flew along the wagon-road that ran hard by under the wall, past the lookout station, and
past the weather-beaten wild fig-tree, till they came to two fair springs which feed the river
Scamander. One of these two springs is warm, and steam rises from it as smoke from a burning
fire, but the other even in summer is as cold as hail or snow, or the ice that forms on water.
Here, hard by the springs, are the goodly washing-troughs of stone, where in the time of peace
before the coming of the Achaeans the wives and fair daughters of the Trojans used to wash
their clothes. Past these did they fly, the one in front and the other giving chase behind him:
good was the man that fled, but better far was he that followed after, and swiftly indeed did they
run, for the prize was no mere beast for sacrifice or bullock’s hide, as it might be for a common
foot-race, but they ran for the life of Hector. As horses in a chariot race speed round the turning-
posts when they are running for some great prize—a tripod or woman—at the games in honor of
some dead hero, so did these two run full speed three times round the city of Priam. All the
gods watched them, and the sire of gods and men was the first to speak.
“Alas,” said he, “my eyes behold a man who is dear to me being pursued round the walls of
Troy; my heart is full of pity for Hector, who has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my
honor, one while on the crests of many-valleyed Ida, and again on the citadel of Troy; and now I
see noble Achilles in full pursuit of him round the city of Priam. What say you? Consider among
yourselves and decide whether we shall now save him or let him fall, valiant though he be,
before Achilles, son of Peleus.”
Then Minerva said, “Father, wielder of the lightning, lord of cloud and storm, what mean you?
Would you pluck this mortal whose doom has long been decreed out of the jaws of death? Do
as you will, but we others shall not be of a mind with you.”
And Jove answered, “My child, Trito-born, take heart. I did not speak in full earnest, and I will let
you have your way. Do without let or hindrance as you are minded.” Thus did he urge Minerva
who was already eager, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus.
Achilles was still in full pursuit of Hector, as a hound chasing a fawn which he has started from
its covert on the mountains, and hunts through glade and thicket. The fawn may try to elude him
by crouching under cover of a bush, but he will scent her out and follow her up until he gets her
—even so there was no escape for Hector from the fleet son of Peleus. Whenever he made a
set to get near the Dardanian gates and under the walls, that his people might help him by
showering down weapons from above, Achilles would gain on him and head him back towards
the plain, keeping himself always on the city side. As a man in a dream who fails to lay hands
upon another whom he is pursuing—the one cannot escape nor the other overtake—even so
neither could Achilles come up with Hector, nor Hector break away from Achilles; nevertheless
he might even yet have escaped death had not the time come when Apollo, who thus far had
sustained his strength and nerved his running, was now no longer to stay by him. Achilles made
signs to the Achaean host, and shook his head to show that no man was to aim a dart at Hector,
lest another might win the glory of having hit him and he might himself come in second. Then, at
last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time, the father of all balanced his golden
scales and placed a doom in each of them, one for Achilles and the other for Hector. As he held
the scales by the middle, the doom of Hector fell down deep into the house of Hades—and then
Phoebus Apollo left him. Thereon Minerva went close up to the son of Peleus and said, “Noble
Achilles, favored of heaven, we two shall surely take back to the ships a triumph for the
Achaeans by slaying Hector, for all his lust of battle. Do what Apollo may as he lies groveling
before his father, aegis-bearing Jove, Hector cannot escape us longer. Stay here and take
breath, while I go up to him and persuade him to make a stand and fight you.”
Thus spoke Minerva. Achilles obeyed her gladly, and stood still, leaning on his bronze-pointed
ashen spear, while Minerva left him and went after Hector in the form and with the voice of
Deiphobus. She came close up to him and said, “Dear brother, I see you are hard pressed by
Achilles who is chasing you at full speed round the city of Priam, let us await his onset and
stand on our defense.”
And Hector answered, “Deiphobus, you have always been dearest to me of all my brothers,
children of Hecuba and Priam, but henceforth I shall rate you yet more highly, inasmuch as you
have ventured outside the wall for my sake when all the others remain inside.” Then Minerva
said, “Dear brother, my father and mother went down on their knees and implored me, as did all
my comrades, to remain inside, so great a fear has fallen upon them all; but I was in an agony
of grief when I beheld you; now, therefore, let us two make a stand and fight, and let there be no
keeping our spears in reserve, that we may learn whether Achilles shall kill us and bear off our
spoils to the ships, or whether he shall fall before you.”
Thus did Minerva inveigle him by her cunning, and when the two were now close to one another
great Hector was first to speak. “I will no longer fly you, son of Peleus,” said he, “as I have been
doing hitherto. Three times have I fled round the mighty city of Priam, without daring to
withstand you, but now, let me either slay or be slain, for I am in the mind to face you. Let us,
then, give pledges to one another by our gods, who are the fittest witnesses and guardians of all
covenants; let it be agreed between us that if Jove vouchsafes me the longer stay and I take
your life, I am not to treat your dead body in any unseemly fashion, but when I have stripped
you of your armor, I am to give up your body to the Achaeans. And do you likewise.”
Achilles glared at him and answered, “Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no
covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each
other out and out and through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me,
nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall and glut grim Mars with
his life’s blood. Put forth all your strength; you have need now to prove yourself indeed a bold
soldier and man of war. You have no more chance, and Pallas Minerva will forthwith vanquish
you by my spear: you shall now pay me in full for the grief you have caused me on account of
my comrades whom you have killed in battle.” He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it.
Hector saw it coming and avoided it; he watched it and crouched down so that it flew over his
head and stuck in the ground beyond; Minerva then snatched it up and gave it back to Achilles
without Hector seeing her; Hector thereon said to the son of Peleus, “You have missed your
aim, Achilles, peer of the gods, and Jove has not yet revealed to you the hour of my doom,
though you made sure that he had done so. You were a false-tongued liar when you deemed
that I should forget my valor and quail before you. You shall not drive spear into the back of a
runaway— drive it, should heaven so grant you power, drive it into me as I make straight
towards you; and now for your own part avoid my spear if you can—would that you might
receive the whole of it into your body; if you were once dead the Trojans would find the war an
easier matter, for it is you who have harmed them most.”
He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. His aim was true for he hit the middle of Achilles’
shield, but the spear rebounded from it, and did not pierce it. Hector was angry when he saw
that the weapon had sped from his hand in vain, and stood there in dismay for he had no
second spear. With a loud cry he called Deiphobus and asked him for one, but there was no
man; then he saw the truth and said to himself, “Alas! The gods have lured me on to my
destruction. I deemed that the hero Deiphobus was by my side, but he is within the wall, and
Minerva has inveigled me; death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand and there is no way
out of it—for so Jove and his son Apollo the far-darter have willed it, though heretofore they
have been ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me; let me not then die
ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among
men hereafter.”
As he spoke he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong by his side, and gathering
himself together he sprang on Achilles like a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds
on to some lamb or timid hare—even so did Hector brandish his sword and spring upon
Achilles. Achilles mad with rage darted towards him, with his wondrous shield before his breast,
and his gleaming helmet, made with four layers of metal, nodding fiercely forward. The thick
tresses of gold with which Vulcan had crested the helmet floated round it, and as the evening
star that shines brighter than all others through the stillness of night, even such was the gleam
of the spear which Achilles poised in his right hand, fraught with the death of noble Hector. He
eyed his fair flesh over and over to see where he could best wound it, but all was protected by
the goodly armor of which Hector had spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the
throat where the collarbones divide the neck from the shoulders, and this is a most deadly
place: here then did Achilles strike him as he was coming on towards him, and the point of his
spear went right through the fleshy part of the neck, but it did not sever his windpipe so that he
could still speak. Hector fell headlong, and Achilles vaunted over him saying, “Hector, you
deemed that you should come off scatheless when you were spoiling Patroclus, and wrecked
not of myself who was not with him. Fool that you were: for I, his comrade, mightier far than he,
was still left behind him at the ships, and now I have laid you low. The Achaeans shall give him
all due funeral rites, while dogs and vultures shall work their will upon yourself.”
Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, “I pray you by your life and knees, and by your
parents, let not dogs devour me at the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of
gold and bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home, that the
Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead.” Achilles glared at him
and answered, “Dog, talk not to me neither of knees nor parents; would that I could be as sure
of being able to cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill you have done me, as I am
that nothing shall save you from the dogs—it shall not be, though they bring ten or twenty-fold
ransom and weigh it out for me on the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam
son of Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so your mother shall never
lay you out and make lament over the son she bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly
up.”
Hector with his dying breath then said, “I know you what you are, and was sure that I should not
move you, for your heart is hard as iron; look to it that I bring not heaven’s anger upon you on
the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you at the Scaean
gates.”
When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereon his soul went out of him
and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting its sad fate that it should enjoy youth and
strength no longer. But Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, “Die; for my part I will accept
my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send it.”
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Have fun answering the following question.
1. Using a Venn diagram, compare and contrast Hector and Achilles. Give at least three for
differences and similarities.
2. In the confrontation between Achilles and Hector, which warrior has the greater
strength? Which has the greater integrity? Elaborate.
3. Eventually, Achilles will be killed by an arrow to his heel, his weakness. Today’s
definition of Achilles’ Heel is despite showing unsurmountable strength, everyone has
their own weak spots. Do you know anyone, even a fictional character, who met their
downfall even at the height of their power and strength? Expound.
LESSON 3: SELECTED FABLES FROM AESOP’S FABLES
LESSON OUTCOMES
At the end of this lesson, students are expected to attain the following:
a. show understanding of the moralistic nature of Aesop’s Fables; and
b. demonstrate application of morals in real life
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Little is known about the ancient Greek writer Aesop (c. 620 B.C.E.–c. 560 B.C.E.), whose
stories of clever animals and foolish humans are considered Western civilization's first morality
tales. He was said to have been a slave who earned his freedom through his storytelling and
went on to serve as advisor to a king. Both his name and the animist tone of his tales have led
some scholars to believe he may have been Ethiopian in origin.
Two Crabs
Aesop’s Fables
One fine day two crabs came out from their home to take a stroll on the sand. “Child,” said the
mother, “you are walking very ungracefully. You should accustom yourself to walking straight
forward without twisting from side to side.” “Pray, mother,” said the young one, “do but set the
example yourself, and I will follow you.”
The Tortoise and the Hare
Aesop’s Fables
A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.
"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.
"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove
it."
The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of
the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and
started the runners off.
The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it
was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the
Tortoise should catch up.
The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place
where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did
wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not
overtake the Tortoise in time.
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Have fun answering the following questions.
1. Aesop’s fables are notable for their moralistic implications. This means that these are
stories that always have lessons we can learn from. In the first fable, it tries to tell us to
lead by example. Looking back at history, who were the leaders who led by example?
Give one and elaborate.
2. The second fable teaches us that it’s not always the fastest who wins the race. Has
there been an instance in your life that relates to this? Do share.
3. Search for another fable of Aesop. Identify the lesson from the fable you’ve chosen.
