Odyssey

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Odyssey

• English 9
• Fall/ Winter 2006

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Homer in Ancient Greece

• Earliest Greek Literature
• Written c. 750 BCE from oral trad. (c. 1200 BCE)
• Recited by Rhapsodes
• Epic dactylic hexameter or long poem on
  war/myth
• Cultural Importance for Greeks
• Taken as History
• Hellenic Unity
• Educational Texts

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Greece and Trojan War
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Some Themes

• Glories of War/Adventure
• Reasons for War
• Realistic Descriptions
• Ideals of Heroism
• Areté, timé, and kleos
• Fate Courage
• shame culture
• Others
• Gods Humans
• Individual vs. Society
• Word vs. Deed

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BONUS VOCABULARY!

• Areté
• Excellence, virtue, or what makes and individual
  the best or among the best usually some
  combination of physical prowess persuasive
  speech or command.
• Timé
• Honor, material symbol of status among others,
  usually capable of being taken away (prize,
  booty, trophies).
• Kleos
• Glory or Fame, understood as public opinion, or
  what others say or remember.

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The OdysseyA Testament of Morals and Values

• Journeys
• Disguise, Deception Craftiness
• Fantastic Voyages
• Women in the Odyssey
• Homecoming Loyalty Order
• Concluding Remarks

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Two Journeys in One Story

• Odysseus and Telemachus
• Fantastic and Worldly
• Narrative Thread Time and Memory
• Heroic Struggles
• Gods/immortality (Bk. V)
• Monsters
• Finding home
• Hospitality Xenia
• generosity and courtesy towards strangers

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6. Aeolias Island 7. Laestrygonians 8.
Circes Kingdom 9. Land of the Dead 10. Sirens
11. Scylla Charybdis 12. Calypso 13. Ithaca
1. Mt. Olympus 2. Troy 3. Cicones 4. Lotus
Eaters 5. Cyclops
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MORALS AND VALUESDisguise, Deception and
Craftiness

• Odysseus is polutropan
• of many twists (Bk. I, Proem)
• Odysseus arete
• Cf. Achilles Hector
• Examples
• Nausicaa (Bk. VI)
• Polyphemus (Bk. IX)
• Circe (Bk. X)
• Homecoming (Bk. XXIII)

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Fantastic Voyages

• Horrible and Seductive
• Cyclops (Bk. IX)
• Circes Island (Bk. X)
• Land of the Dead (Bk. XI)
• Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis (Bk. XII)

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Women in the Odyssey

• Seduction and Symbol
• Cf. Women in the Iliad
• The Women
• Calypso
• Nausicaa ( mother)
• Circe
• Penelope

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Land of the Dead (Bk. XI)

• Rites of the Dead
• Vision of the Underworld
• The Message

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Homecoming (Bk. XXIII)

• Disguises at Ithaka
• Now Athena
• Killing the Suitors
• Xenia?
• Penelope Telemachus
• Loyalty and Order

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Iliad Odyssey

• Heroic Ideals arete, time, kleos
• Gods and Humans mortality or fate
• Moral and Social Order xenia, arete, women
• Place of Homer in Greece

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• Where do we, as readers and as an audience, see
  HOSPITALITY in action?
• On your worksheet, cite 5 examples of hospitality
  demonstrated. Remember being a host and
  respecting your host are both parts of
  hospitality.
• How does Homer show the audience VALUES AND
  MORALS (both acceptable and unacceptable)
  throughout the Odyssey?
• On your worksheet, write 5 instances where we see
  examples of this.
• Who exemplified HEROIC characteristics and when?
• Give 5 specific examples of a HERO IN ACTION
  and what it shows.
• Religion and its rituals are very important
  parts of the plot in the Odyssey.
• List 5 instances where we see characters and/or
  gods demostrating acceptable religious practices,
  or religious standards.
• In the final column, LIST 5 more teachings that
  Homer offers his audience as to the ideal
  standard for Greek living.