Cheiron's Way

Abstract

This book studies the social and ethical formation of selected characters in ancient Greek epic and tragedy. Its point of departure is the claim made by Achilles’ tutor Phoenix, who reminds his former pupil, “I made you the man you are” (Homer, Iliad 9.485) as he pleads with him to let go of his anger. Following an introduction that sketches the conceptual background for literary representations of teaching and learning, Chapter 1 considers the pedagogic persona of Cheiron the centaur, the first teacher in the Greek tradition. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the Iliadic Achilles, who achieves maturity by way of successive crises of disillusionment and empathy and who becomes an influential prototype for tragedy. Chapter 4 discusses Telemachus and Odysseus in the Odyssey; Chapter 5, Ajax in his name play; Chapter 6, Neoptolemus in Philoctetes; Chapter 7, Hippolytus in his name play, with an excursus on Ion; and Chapter 8, Achilles and Iphigenia in Iphigenia in Aulis, with a preliminary discussion of Nausicaa in the Odyssey. A coda summarizes results and takes note of the perennial lure (despite its uncertain results) of the educational enterprise for communities, students, and teachers.