OU Course A229 really triggering me, anyone else?

[FernsRGreat]

I was hoping there might be an OU board but I can't find one, but if anyone knows better, can you point me in the right direction pls? 💐
I just wondered if anyone else is on A229 Exploring the Classical World, that started this month?

We've just started by looking at the Iliad by Homer, which I understood to be about the Trojan war before I started studying it. However, it turns out that it is only about a very small part of the Trojan wars, being (in a nutshell) two angry men called Achilles and Agamemnon plunder towns on the Mediterranean and routinely kidnap and rape teenage girls, then fall out with each other about one of them taking the other's kidnapped girl to rape. These men are referred to as 'heroes' in the course study materials.

I'm finding it really difficult to engage with this because it kind of blows my mind that we are studying this text as though it is an interesting, informative, ancient tale with no mention so far of the horror of it. It might as well be an Enid Blyton story as far as the OU is concerned as far as I can gather. I can cope with the notion that these kind of things perhaps really did take place 3000 years ago, but I'm struggling with the perpetrators being referred to as 'heroes'. Before the course formally began, several other students posted on the forums things like "I've started reading the Iliad early and I'm really enjoying it" . Like, what??? You are really enjoying a tale of teenage girls being kidnapped and raped?

I'm struggling with this to put it mildly. I'm astounded that in the UK in 2025, university students are expected to study a text about kidnap and rape, with no mention of it being kidnap and rape, and just wondered if anyone else was on the course and had found a way to handle this? I don't want to post this on the OU forums in case I become labelled a problem student. Roll on the next study block which I think leaves the Iliad behind.

Nearly all ancient civilisations involved men raping and kidnapping women and unfortunately it still happens. It was normalised behaviour for soldiers and armies. I do agree though that the word hero shouldn’t really apply.

There are OU boards on FB. Also, there will be a board for your course on the OU website as well as your tutor’s group.
You might like Pat Barker’s trilogy The Women of Troy which tells the story from the viewpoint of the women.

The Iliad is a very important text for the classical world and many people are familiar with the story of it.

a common question which is set when writing essays on it is to what extent are the “heroes” heroes?

these days people tend to think in terms of goodies and baddies. The Iliad is written from a time when that wasn’t really a way of thinkong.

achilles and Agamemnon are heroes in the Ancient Greek sense, not in the modern sense. Achilles in particular is absolutely not seen on any sense as a role model and there’s definite authorial disapproval of (some of) what he is doing.

Did you not have any knowledge of the classical world before you signed up for this course?
You seem to have misunderstood the use of the word 'hero', this isn't a case of modern writers saying that behaviour is heroic. The Iliad is literally a story of Homeric heroes, as in warriors who gain kleos (eternal glory) through warfare. And yes, attitudes towards women were somewhat different in archaic Greece. There's a lot more to study in the Iliad but if you're not able to see past this, perhaps you should consider changing course?

I'm finding it really difficult to engage with this because it kind of blows my mind that we are studying this text as though it is an interesting, informative, ancient tale with no mention so far of the horror of it.

But wouldn't it be a bit facile to take a judgemental stance right from the start? All literature from long-ago periods contains events and attitudes that are profoundly alien to our own. We use it as a window into a different world, to glean info about that world and try to see it from the points of view of the actors in it.
There are likely to be examinations and critiques of Achilles and Agamemnon's behaviour as you go along. Or if that doesn't come up as part of the course structure there will be opportunities to introduce it yourself.
But those critiques don't have to be rehearsed right from the start, as a kind of mutual reassurance that everyone sees the treatment of women in the story as appalling.
Also, the pettiness, and selfish squabbling of the heroes is also present in the gods themselves. It seems to be part of the ancient Greek world view that we are the playthings of squabbling deities, just as women are the playthings of 'heroic' men. That's something really worthwhile to explore, so your concerns put you in a really good place to begin your study of the Iliad.

👏👏

Agree the word hero doesn’t mean what you seem to think it means! They’re heroes in the sense of a protagonist who goes through some sort of transformational arc or journey through the story. One author argues all stories boil down to 7 basic story types and the hero’s journey is at the centre of them all. It doesn’t mean anything like the protagonist being held up as an example or someone to idolise (maybe not til the end of the story anyway). I haven’t read the materials but wonder if the raping/pillaging part might be earlier in the story before the character develops values, morals and finds their sense of purpose and usefulness to society etc??

It sounds like a fascinating module tbh, jealous. I’d stick with it as it will broaden your mind and awareness of archetypes etc. I did a couple of OU modules ages ago - The Arts Past and Present and another art history one and they were brilliant.

https://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/tag/hero-stories/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

If you are interested there are other Ancient Greek works of literature that look at the Trojan war from a completely different perspective - Euripides play The Trojan Women looks at it from their perspective and is generally considered anti-war.

I don’t think this course is for you OP. Maybe try geography?