Download “The Odyssey”---Background Notes

“The Odyssey”---Background Notes
Power Point #1: You will need to closely follow the power point presentation and teacher discussion to complete the
following study guide. This is on my website, so you will have homework to finish it if we get behind.
“The Odyssey” is a special kind of poem called an ___________________, which is
a____________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________. It was written by the Greek poet
______________. Legend tells us that he was __________. Homer got his information for his poem from stories that
were told ___________ and were passed down from one generation to the next. They could remember stories
because _________________________________________________________.
Homer is famous because he was the first poet to combine ______________________ into a _____________
_______________.
Characteristics of the Epic Poem:
1. Has an ______ ________
2. Often written in ____________
3. Includes _______, legends, and/or __________
4. Has a ________ _________
5. Deals with a ___________________
6. Often based on some _______________
7. Includes ____________ and ___________________
8. Usually involves a
Some national EPICS are:
A. Greek: The Iliad
B. Roman: The Aeneid
C. English: Harry Potter
D. Spanish: El Cid
E. American: ___________ Your own
Characteristics of an Epic Hero:
1. A ________________________ figure, usually _____, who embodies the _______ of a _______ or race.
2. Take part in long, dangerous adventures and accomplish great deeds that require __________ and
______________ ____________.
3. Often, the divine world of the _______ or other supernatural forces will interfere with the human world of the
epic hero.
4. Usually has to battle some type of monsters or demons, including his own.
Characteristics of an Epic Simile:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Like a simile, it is a comparison between 2 unlike things using ______ or _______.
A more __________ simile
Extended over ___________________.
Also known as a “____________________”
Epithets:
1. Brief, descriptive phrases that help __________________________________________.
2. Often a repeated word or phrase
3. Epithets used to describe Odysseus were “master __________,” “old contender,” “man of _________ and
________,” and “old tactician.”
4. Zeus was known as “the king of the gods” and Poseidon was knows as “the earthshaker”
5. In the Harry Potter series, the epithet used to describe Lord Voldemort was “He who ________________
_________________.”
Brief Background to Homer’s Epics—Fill in the blanks after reading the 2 slides on the mini-version of the legend
behind the Trojan War.
The __________ _______ was the historical event that served as the background to Homer’s Epics. The war
occurred around __________B.C. The legend is that “forbidden love” started a war and destroyed a kingdom. Paris,
the youngest prince of __________ and son to King ________ and Queen __________ fell in love with
______________, the most _______________ woman, and he took her back to Troy. However, she was already
married to ________________, King of _______________, who after discovering her absence, becomes enraged and
seeks advice from his brother, ______________, king of _______________. This _______ _________ king saw this as
a great opportunity to seize more land, and he especially wanted to conquer _________. So, Agamemnon convinces
his brother to gather as many _____________ to fight for their cause to go to Troy and get _______________ back.
The Trojan War lasted _____ years, during which time many ___________ and great warriors emerged.
In the left corner fighting for the GREEKS:
In the right corner fighting for the
TROJANS:
Odysseus—a “__________ ___________” who is
the hero of Homer’s 2nd epic, _______________.
_____________, the greatest Trojan warrior
prince who would give his ________ for his
kingdom, which is exactly what he did.
Ajax—the very large warrior who wounded
Hector during the Trojan War.
__________—the greatest Greek and all time
warrior.
____________, the youngest prince who
brought 2 things home with him when he
returned to Troy after visiting Sparta:
_____________ and ____________.
STOP POWER POINT
Before we discuss Homer's 1st epic that takes place during the Trojan War, let's go back to the
myth of how the Trojan War "supposedly" began and the background behind the mighty
warriors that fought in the war. It's Stonitsch Story time. Listen to the story and see how much
you remember before we fill in the notes.
BACKGROUND TO THE ILIAD; THE CAUSE OF THE TROJAN WAR
THE WEDDING
A. __________, the fleet-footed nymph of the sea (goddess) was forced by __________ to marry a mortal
named ___________. Let Mrs. S tell you why.
B. All the gods and goddesses and many mortals were invited except for _______, the goddess of
____________.
C. In her anger for not being invited, she decided to wreak some havoc, and from above the wedding, she
dropped a _________________ that had the words ______________________ inscribed on it.
D. The three goddesses who found it were Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena.
E. They began to argue over who was the true winner of the gift.
F. They decided to have a beauty contest.
G. They asked ____________ to be the judge, but he refused to be a part of this ridiculous feud.
THE PROPHECY
A. A prophet told ____________ and ______________, the King and Queen of _________ that their son
__________ would be the downfall of ____________.
B. Fearful of this prophecy coming true, the king and queen gave their son to a soldier to take to a mountain to
kill, as one version states.
C. In one version, the soldier felt guilty and left the baby to die on the side of the mountain, but a shepherd
finds him, takes the infant home with the shepherd, and raises the baby as a shepherd’s son. In another
version, the soldier didn’t have the heart to kill a baby and took him far off to a shepherd and his barren
wife to be raised as their own son.
D. Knowing his true identity, the goddesses, by Aphrodite’s influence (in one version) and Zeus’s influence (in
another version), ask him to be the judge of their beauty pageant.
THE BEAUTY PAGEANT
A. Each of the goddesses offer Paris gifts in exchange for him selecting one of them as the most beautiful
goddess.
B. Hera, the goddess of ____________________ and wife to __________, offers
_____________________________ to Paris if he chooses her. Answers vary based on different versions of
the story.
C. Athena, the goddess of ______________ and _____________, offers _________________________ if he
chooses her. Answers may vary based on different versions.
D. Aphrodite, the goddess of __________, offers the most beautiful woman, __________, if he chooses her.
E. In one version, Aphrodite also tells him who he really is and tells him she will get his rightful place as
______________ of Troy restored to him if he chooses her.
F. Paris chooses _________________.
Watch video clip
THE CONFLICT THAT LEADS TO THE TROJAN WAR
A. Paris and his parents mend everything, and Paris is returned to Troy to be with the other prince, his
brother __________, the mighty __________ of Troy.
B. With the assistance of Aphrodite, Paris is sent to ____________ to establish peace between __________ and
___________. He meets with King _________________.
C. One version of the story is that while the king was on a hunting exhibition, Aphrodite places a spell on
_______________, the most beautiful woman in all of Greece, and she runs away with him to _______.
D. Another more popular version is their fated romance led them to find one another, and they fell madly in
love upon first sight, and when King ______________ was away from Sparta, they escaped to Troy.
E. One version is that Helen was the daughter of a beautiful mortal, Leda and the most powerful god Zeus,
who took her mother by force. Leda was devastated by this and her husband, King ___________
disappeared for most of her pregnancy. Once Helen was born, Leda threw herself off the top of the castle,
and Helen’s step-father, King __________ blamed Helen for all of this.
F. Helen was so beautiful that many warriors and princes fought for her hand in marriage. Her step-father
was worried that a war could be started because of her beauty (foreshadowing). Odysseus, ruler of Ithaca,
came up with an idea. Odysseus said for the king to force all the ___________ to make an oath: whoever
was ___________ by the king to be ___________ husband, the others would support him. And if anyone
tried to break up the new marriage, the other suitors and warriors of Greece would come to the couple’s
rescue. The suitors and other warriors took the oath, and Menalaus was chosen as Helen’s husband.
G. When King ____________ returns home to find his bride missing and figures out what happened, he
furiously contacts his brother _________________, the ruthless and more powerful king of Mycenae as well
as commander of the entire Greek forces.
H. Under the rule of ___________, an army is put together. They needed many good warriors, but they
especially needed two of the best warriors, who took an oath to be under their command whenever the
marriage between __________ and __________ was jeopardized. They had to go whether they wanted to or
not.
I.
When the two kings went to seek _____________, one of the mightiest and smartest warriors, this man
pretended to be _______________ because he did not want to leave his wife _____________, his home
____________, and his newborn son _______________.
J.
King Agamemnon’s lieutenant Palamedes decides to test this supposed madness by placing
__________________ son in front of a wheat slicing contraption and if ____________________ was
____________ then he would allow _____________________________________________ because he was
________. However, just as the boy was about to be killed by the apparatus, the warrior desperately rushes
to save his son, causing his ruse to be uncovered. He was then forced to set sail to __________ to help
retrieve ___________ and Odysseus never forgave Palamedes.
BACKGROUND ON ACHILLES
A. Thetis, the mother of _____________, was forced to marry a mortal. When she had her son, many gods and
goddesses were angered by this birth because they hated half-gods or half-bloods.
B. While Achilles was an infant, one account says that she anointed Achilles in ________ before
____________________, burning away the ________ parts of his body, making him invulnerable from
ordinary weapons. When Ahcilles’ father _______discovered she held their son over a fire, he cried out in
alarm, and snatched him out of the flames, leaving Achilles ____________ except for his heels. Annoyed
with her husband's interferences, Thetis left her husband and son and returned home to the sea.
C. Another more popular version is in fear for her infant’s life, holding him by the ____________, Thetis
dipped him in the _________________ in order to make him invincible. Only one spot was not protected.
This is where we get the term _________________________.
D. When the kings chose to find ________, they were told he was in Scyros in a disguise.
E. His mother was told of a prophecy that the ________ or Acheans could not defeat _____ without _________.
When he was a _______, she hid him on the island of Scyrus, disguised as a girl to be one of the young girls
in the court of King Lycomedes . While there, one of the princesses Deidaemeia fell in love with Achilles and
bore him a son Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus).
F. _________ was sent by Agamemnon and Menelaus to uncover the disguised Achilles and bring him to Troy
to fight. In order to figure out which one was the great warrior ________, they offered all of the women
gifts.
G. They offered _____________, _________________, and ______________.
H. Odysseus knew which young girl was actually Achilles in disguise because _________ was the only
“woman” to be fascinated with armor and ___________ and when the Greeks blew their trumpets as if the
island were being attack, Achilles snatched the_______, thereby revealing his ________. Once discovered
however, Achilles willingly joined the Greeks.
I. Achilles was very hubristic (full of excessive pride), but King Agamemnon was worse, and Achilles did not
respect him. No matter what, you are to always support and honor your king, and Achilles did not always
do that. He and King Agamemnon butted heads.
Video clip showing Achilles' as an amazing warrior and the animosity between him and King Agamemnon
J.
When Achilles is about to depart for Troy, his mother begs him to reconsider.
**Video Clip first**
K. She tells him that he has a choice of how his fate will be decided. If he stays and doesn’t go to ________, he
will live a happy life with a wonderful woman who will give him many sons and daughters. However, once
his family line dies out, his _________ and ___________ will also ____________. If he goes to Troy, he will
receive _______________ fame and __________ and will be talked about for the rest of __________; but, he
will not return from Troy. He will die there.
L. Achilles chooses fame and glory and because of this, he actually chooses ________.
Now that the myth has been told, let's go to Homer's epic dealing with the Trojan War. This
comes before The Odyssey
The ILIAD—Homer’s ______ epic.
A. Serves as a ______________ to __________________.
B. Covers only about _______ days of the ______ and final year of the Trojan War.
C. In this epic, Homer concentrates on one main Greek hero, ___________ and one main opposing hero for
the Trojans ____________.
D. The epic begins in the ___________ of the story, as is a common characteristic of a true epic poem.
E. This is known as ____________________, which means in the middle.
F. The epic opens with _______________ furious with King _____________ over a slave girl named
_____________, to whom Achilles has become emotionally attached.
Mrs. S will provide a little back story
Video Clip = Spoils of War
G. Achilles refuses to ____________, causing the _____________ to start winning and beating back the
____________.
H. Agamemnon is forced to give the girl back to Achilles, who still refuses to fight. Achilles even decides he
is going to take his army and return to his home.
I. Patroclus, Achilles’ servant and _________________, begs Achilles to forego his pride and help his
fellow Greeks win the battle against the Trojans.
J. Achilles still refuses. Patroclus disguises himself by wearing the armor of ____________, tricking the
Mermadons, Achilles’ army. They are happy to go back into battle with their fearless leader, not
knowing that _____________ is behind the “mask.”
K. Hector mistakes Patroclus for Achilles and slays Achilles’ dear friend, stripping him of his armor.
L. Achilles is infuriated and returns to battle to ______________________.
Based on the myth, here is a little background regarding the great battle between Hector and Achilles.
The goddesses Athena and Hera favored the Greeks and Apollo and Aphrodite favored the Trojans. The
battle between these two warriors is known to be the greatest battle in all Greek history. The gods and
goddesses starting fighting each other, and Olympus was becoming its own battle zone. Zeus had to stop the
chaos, so Zeus had to make a decision of who was to live and who was to die. The death of Achilles would
probably lead to the Trojans winning the war, and the death of Hector_ would be the beginning of the
downfall of Troy_.
While on the battle field, each warrior had invisible support. Hera was on Achilles' side and Ares was on
Hector's, but once Zeus made a decision, the god supporting the one who will be fated to die has to leave the
warrior to fend for himself.
Zeus takes a scale and places a symbol representing Hector's life force on one side and Achilles’ life force on
the other. After a few minutes of deliberating, he makes his decision. He lets the side with Hector’s life fall.
**Video Clip of Hector's Death
M. Hector is killed, and Achilles desecrates his body by piercing his ankles and with a rope looped through
his ankles, Achilles drags Hector’s body around the walls of Troy, in front of Hector’s grieving wife,
Andromache, their child, and his grief-stricken parents.
N. Achilles is killed by Paris’s arrow to the great warrior’s only weakness, his heel. Once pierced, he
becomes vulnerable, falls off of his horse, and is mortally wounded by a blow to the head. (One version)
O. After Hector is killed, the walls of Troy were still impenetrable.
P. ________________ devised a plan to build a giant wooden __________.
Q. The Greeks moved all of their ships to make it appear as if they had finally retreated, and when the
Trojans discovered their departure, the found a giant Trojan Horse.
R. The horse was to be a gift to the _____________, who wheel it inside Troy’s walls.
S. While the Trojans are sleeping after a night of celebrating the end of the war, the Greeks that had been
hiding inside the giant gift crawled out of the horse, __________ the gates, and let it the rest of the
Greek army.
T. Once inside, the Trojans were no match for the Greeks and Troy burned to the ground.
Video Clip of the Fall of Troy
The Odyssey—Homer’s 2nd epic
A. ____________ is the hero who is trying to find his way back home to ____________ to be with his wife
______________ and son _____________.
B. He has been gone for _____ years. He was fighting in the Trojan War for ______ years and it took him
______ years to get home.
C. He leaves Troy with _______ men and _____ ships. We will read the epic to find out what happens to
him and how many men and ships are left when he finally makes it back to _________.
D. Odysseus finds allies in a few gods and enemies in others, he encounters and battles mythical beings,
and he has to battle a few of his own personal “demons” or character flaws in order to find his way
back to his heart, soul, and home.
In The Iliad, the hero is _____________; in The Odyssey, the hero is ___________. Of the two epics,
___________________ is more popular. It is not only the story of a national _________, but a ______ story of every
human because everyone is trying to find one’s ____________________ and searching for the
_____________________; we must endure many ________________________ to get there. No wonder our journey
through life is often called our ____________.
________ is known as excessive _________ and _____________.
______________ allowed his pride to get the best of him quite often, especially when it came to the great warrior
____________, who was also very _________ himself. Achilles allowed his pride to get the best of him when
_____________ took his girl Briseis from him, causing him to refuse to fight, leading to Patroclus taking his place
while wearing Achilles’ armor, causing Hector to fight and kill Patroclus (who he thought was Achilles), then
causing Achilles to slay Hector in vengeance which leads Paris, with the help of the god Apollo, to slay Achilles.
Some could say this downward spiral that led to Achilles’ death began with his pride or Hubris.
Quick Overview
Trojan Side
King Priam and Queen Hecuba
Warrior Prince Son = Hector m. Andromache
Long lost prince son = Paris who runs of w/ Helen
Paris's prophecy was to be the downfall of Troy
Greek Side
Ruling Brothers
King Agamemnon of Mycenae--rules Greek armies
King Menelaus of Sparta married to Helen
His wife Helen = face that launched 1,000 ships
Warrior Achilles = Greatest Greek Warrior
Odysseus = Smartest / Trojan Horse
Paris runs away with Helen and King Aga saw the perfect opportunity to control all passageways if he conquered Troy. So,
he plays on his brother's pain of being betrayed and convinces Menelaus to go to war. Achilles kills Hector. Troy falls.
As we begin The Odyssey, we begin in medias res or 1/2 way through. Troy has fallen, and the Greeks have won. It is
time for the Greeks to make the long journey back home. The Odyssey details his travels as Odysseus struggles to
get home.
OLYMPIAN GODS AND GODDESSES
***ON MT. OLYMPUS, WHERE THESE OLYMPIANS LIVE, ONLY 12 RESIDE THERE AT
A TIME; HOWEVER, THERE ARE 14 TOTAL BECAUSE 2 TRADED PLACES AT
TIMES—FILL IN THE BLANKS—LOOK THEM UP--GOOGLE THEM. IF YOU CANNOT
FIND IT, I WILL HELP YOU.
GREEK NAME
POWERS OR WHAT
THEY ARE OVER
King of the Gods;
Father of the sky
SYMBOL
ROMAN NAME
JUPITER OR
JOVE
HERA
JUNO
APHRODITE
MINERVA
APOLLO
Archery, healing, fine
arts, 9 muses, prophecy
Goddess of archery, the
moon, and wildlife
PHOEBUS
APOLLO
Moon and Stag
DIANE
Goddess of harvest and
the seasons
CERES
PERSEPINE
God of the underworld
and husband to
_______
HESTIA
VESPA
Winged feet
&
MERCURY
God the sea and
earthquakes
God of celebration,
wine, and fertility
BACCHUS
God of fire and
blacksmiths
VULCAN