Download The Odyssey - Northside Middle School

Great Books: The Odyssey (Discovery Channel School) DVD 883 O (MSM Library)
Apollo 13’s command module was The Odyssey
“odyssey” an extended wandering with many changes of fortune
The Iliad (story of the Trojan war—Helen—Trojan horse)
examples of influence on modern culture: Achilles’ heel
and Ajax detergent
The Odyssey by Homer
“allegory of all our lives writ large”
archetype—something generalized, something always with us (recurring themes throughout history)
Achilles
Odysseus
hubris
Odysseus=Ulysses
a draftee
brave, bold, liar
very human (full of love and hate, devious)
“only complete man in literature” according to James Joyce
Action heroes are his descendants.
*Odysseus’ goal is to return home
Legend has it that Odysseus did not want to go to the war. Instead he feigned insanity. Palamedes
put O’s young son Telemachus in the path of O’s plow. When O. swerved to avoid the child, he revealed
sanity and, thus, had to go to war.
Penelope—wife of Odysseus
Ithaca—Odysseus’ kingdom
Extended lesson in decorum and hospitality (code—protection of the stranger)
Practical aspects of hospitality—
Moral aspects of hospitality—
Return trip=adventures=tests (more intense than those we would commonly face)
Troy to Ithaca (normally a two week trip—extended to 10 years)
Hospitality: Good/bad hosts and guests
e.g. Cyclops, Polyphemus—a host with poor manners
Odysseus’ ego—gives his name to Polyphemus as the one who blinded him
Polyphemus’ father is the god of the sea, Poseidon.
Myths—efforts of early people to explain the world about them
gods—reflect the forces of nature
gods—reflect the forces of man
Greek goddess Athena (R. Minerva)—symbolizes reason and civilization
Greek god Poseidon (R. Neptune)—symbolizes passion, emotion, and forces of nature
Who was Homer? No one really knows. He created the first great works of the Western world.
(not in TLC video)
Many feel that Homer was a blind Greek poet who wandered from town to town chanting his poetry to
the accompaniment of a lyre. Some think the Iliad and Odyssey were not written by one person but are
instead a collection of Greek poems.
When did he live? Authorities do not agree exactly when Homer lived. Dates vary anywhere from the
1100s to the 600s B.C. We do not know where he was born.
When did he write? The poetry was written down about the latter part of the sixth century B.C. Before
that it had been recited by minstrels.
What makes his poetry “classic”? simplicity of language, swift movement of narrative, characters with
uncomplicated motives, actions true to human nature, plots that blend the joys of living with the tragic
sense of life, long, musical lines (in the original).
An endless source of amusement and entertainment, his poem has given generations and generations a
past.
Trojan War—was it myth or reality?
Heinrich Schliemann—traveled to Mycenae (legendary home of Agamemnon)
and found gold and a mask (claimed it was the mask of Agamemnon)
All reconsidered the historicity of the age.
Troy was destroyed and rebuilt many times. The earliest discoverer found a primitive city with stone
walls, well-built houses, and hoards of precious metals. In the 20 th century, explorers have found
evidence of at least nine cities, some destroyed by earthquakes, others by plundering and fire. They
believe the one Homer wrote about was one they have dated to c. 1200 B.C.
1550-1100 B.C. Late Bronze Age
Mycenae—rich and powerful civilization that ended abruptly
Alphabet—linear B (early form of Greek that was lost)
What ended the civilization? famine? disease? invasion? natural disaster?
Trojan War coincided with the end of the Mycenaean Empire.
400 years of darkness; bards memorized the tales
Legends survived through oral storytelling. Rhythms and structures of music helped make it easier to
memorize and recite. (Discuss the epic meter, dactylic hexameter)
For the next generation of Greeks, civilization began with the stories from Homer.
The Iliad and Odyssey were nation-building myths.
No alphabet had survived. In his lifetime, they adapted the alphabet of the Phoenicians.
3rd c. B.C. a definitive copy of the epics was made; these were passed on through generations.
Odysseus
Island of Circe (Circe turns men into swine for their bad behavior)
Sirens
Women see him off on all his journeys.
Calypso—offers him immortality; he spends seven years there
He wants to live, not be immortal. Chooses to be a mortal, a human being.
Penelope is always in the background.
Middle Ages—Homer’s works existed primarily in monasteries. But the Renaissance resurrected—first
printed editions appeared in Florence in 1488.
Homer began the epic tradition. (Discuss the epic.)
Other writers were influenced by him--Virgil, Dante, Milton, Keats, Tennyson, and Joyce.
From the Iliad came tragic drama.
From the Odyssey came the novel.
Indiana Jones
Other qualities of Odysseus: intelligent, willing to lie to get what he wants (unlike Achilles);
master negotiator and diplomat (says what is needed not necessarily what is true)
Hero who is a survivor, sometimes more of an anti-hero--he is not a paragon of virtue.
“Choosing Life”
survival
visit to the underworld
Apollo 13’s Odyssey
trip to the moon; adventures had to pass by the moon (like sailors passing by the sirens);
tied to the spacecraft like Odysseus was tied to the mast; they learned about themselves
adventure of their lives
Charybdis—whirlpool or Scylla--monster --lousy choices!
“Homecoming” eternal theme or archetype
Odysseus and Penelope reunite—coming home
has to leave again to make sacrifice but returns
Fate vs. free will
Literary Terms:
epic
“Folk epic” a narrative based on heroic legends, author unknown
“Art epic” author is known (e.g. Aeneid, Paradise Lost)
epic (Homeric) epithet
epic (Homeric) simile
repetition
metaphor
simile