Dr. Soupios Lectures on Greek Literature

by Alexander Caviris

Literature and History. Surely the relationship is clear to many in either field; however, what may not be so clear is the extent to which it becomes essential, or the degree to which major aspects of history are elucidated by literature, especially fictional and semi-fictional works.

In modern times and Western nations we now have Internet, camera phones, two-way pagers, and, of course, snail-mail and telephones too. Not so in the past. Last Tuesday Dr. Michael Soupios lectured on the effects that the poet Homer has had on our understanding of ancient Greece, and the effects that society has had on the world.

Soupios outlined several key themes from the Homeric epics, including their view of the afterlife, Homeric justice, the code of honor, and how the ways of thinking in Greece are nothing short of shunned by the "civilized nations" of contemporary Europe. "Support those who give you aid and comfort and strike down those who would cause you pain," said Soupios. "That is the way of Homeric morality."

Homer is just one of several works that have historical application in the ancient world, a world that is all but lost to us without the illumination their tales bring. Truly, much of what we know of the time before the writing of history--initiated largely by the Greek, Thucydides--come from Homer, Herodotus, Gilgamesh, the poetry of the Egyptians, and their like. A clear application is seen in the excavations of Troy begun by Schiemann who used the Iliad to find the buried city. And, whether or not you support the method used to initiate the excavation, the results are self-evident.

According to Soupios, the views of the Greeks were severe. The afterlife was a miserable place where there was no warmth, no light, and no joy. "Better a slave in the world of the living than king among the dead" was the quote used to support this view. Intoxicated by his Greek pride, Achilles was goaded into attacking Troy to avenge a small slight despite knowing that he would fall to his death during the endeavor. The affront to the pride of the Ancient Greek, "could only be satisfied with blood," and it was blood that saturated the verse of the Iliad.

By the end of the lecture, it was fair to say that Soupios had clearly illustrated his point. Homer truly ran deep in the Greek culture. He even went as far as to say that lacking a Bible-like text to regulate their values, the Greeks adopted the Iliad and the Odyssey as their models for their existence as a free state, until a formalized religion emerged.

Dr. Soupios is an extremely eminent scholar holding three (yes, three) Ph.D.s, four (yes, four) master's degrees, and a number of other degrees in history and philosophy. He currently teaches at Long Island University, CW Post campus.