This is a home recording of me rapping the first 9 lines of Iliad 3 and accompanying myself on acoustic guitar (barely). In these lines the armies are meeting for the first time in the poem, with the Trojans charging noisily while the Greeks come on in silence. The sound of the advancing Trojans is compared in a long simile to the clamor of cranes flying toward Ocean's stream and one can hear the word KLANGE (pronounced CLAN-GAY), meaning clash or clamor, occur three times in the simile in an example of Homeric onomatopoeia (at 8,12,and 19 seconds, to be precise). (42 seconds long)

Iliad 3.1-9 (solo rapping with acoustic guitar/ live demo)

In this passage (Iliad 3.10-20) the poet describes first the dense cloud that rises beneath the feet of the armies closing with each other. Here the poet employs another simile, in which the cloud of dust is compared to a mist on the peaks of a mountain that is helpful to the robber, but hateful to the shepherd. After this, Paris (listen for ALEXANDROS THEOEIDES, "godlike Alexander," at :29) leaps in front of the Trojans to challenge "the most excellent of the Argives" to single combat. Notice at :08 the Greek word KLEPTE, meaning "thief," which we find in the English "kleptomaniac." 

Iliad 3.10-20 (solo rapping with acoustic guitar / live demo)

This is a recording of the first ten lines or so of Book 21 of Homer's Iliad. The first half of the book focuses on Achilles' battle with the river Xanthos but these lines merely describe how the pursuing Achilles divides the fleeing Trojans in two, driving some across the plain and the others into the river...This demo differs from the others I posted in that I am singing the notes in a monotone instead of rapping them and using the organ for accompaniment instead of a guitar or electronic instruments. Note how my left hand mirrors the rhythm of the hexameters...it sounds like Morse code!

eurhapsodoi

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