memorization
How does one memorize nearly 300 lines of poetry when they consist mainly of places and people? This was a question that had to be tackled before the project to go any further. At first, there was the usual repetition: say the first little section out loud, then repeat as many times as necessary until it can be said without any aids. This proved mostly unreliable and tedious. Apart from the words, there was nothing to help remember anything. We did not come up with mnemonic devices or songs or sayings, and that first day of memorization seemed almost completely hopeless until Lynn decided to draw it on a chalkboard. And that is how the memory maps, examples of which are pictured below, were born.
This was the first map. The locations correspond with Homer's first stanza on Boiotia. Since merely remembering all of the names seemed impossible, we started adding little pictures and helpful sayings to any names that we could. For example, Aulis is described as "rocky" and so little rocks are drawn next to the name. Eteonos is called "mountainous," hence the mountain range. Thespiai sounds like "thespian," Graia like the Greek name for the sisters who shared an eye and a tooth in mythology and who were also called the Old Ones. The little castle sketch above Medeon became the symbol for "well-built citadel" while plain crenelations stood for "well-built." However, since we had only one chalkboard and many stanzas, the maps got moved to paper form, which were then hung on the walls as a reminder of what was contained in each stanza. In addition, post-it notes with names tagged the walls next to the maps, thereby giving us two different ways to remember the basic structures of the stanzas. Combined with the repetition method and working for approximately six hours a day, we were able to memorize the entirety of the Greek catalogue in about 12-13 days.
