Download The Odyssey by Homer

The Trojan War
EXPOSITION
The Trojan War takes place
between Troy and Greece.
It all starts because of a
beautiful woman named
Helen.
In Greece, all the men are
fighting over Helen.
ANALOGY
This is very similar to the
way Brad Pitt and Leonardo
DiCaprio fight over Ms.
Rubin.
Finally, after all the fighting,
the men decide that Helen
should be able to pick the
man she wants to marry.
Everyone makes a deal to
defend and honor the man
that she selects.
Helen decides to marry
Menelaus.
SUBPLOT
Meanwhile in another town, there
is a huge party for all of the Gods
and Goddesses.
The God of Discord throws
a giant golden apple into
the party. This apple says,
“To the fairest of them all.”
EXTERNAL CONFLICT
Immediately all of the
Goddesses think the apple
is specifically for them;
they all start fighting.
Finally, three Goddesses
ask Paris to settle the
dispute. The Goddesses are
Athena, Aphrodite, and
Hera.
Each goddess tells Paris if
he selects them, they will
give him a special reward.
Athena, the Goddess of
wisdom, tells Paris that she
will make him the smartest
individual in all the land if
he selects her.
Hera is very strong; she
tells Paris that she will
make him the most
powerful person in all the
land if he selects her.
Finally there is Aphrodite;
she tells Paris that if he
selects her, she will make
sure he can marry the most
beautiful woman in all the
land.
What did Paris pick? That’s
right. He wants to marry
the most beautiful woman
in all the land.
(Ms. Rubin hehe just kidding).
It’s Helen!
INITIAL INCIDENT
So off Paris went and took
Helen away from Menelaus.
Now Menelaus is not okay
with this. He goes to all of
his friends and says, “You
all promised to defend me.
You said if anyone got in
the way of Helen’s decision
you’d stand by my side.”
All the men nod and agree.
So off they go to get Helen
back. This is what started the
Trojan War, a fight over a girl.
Agamemnon, Menelaus’
brother, led the troops to
Troy. However, on the way
over, he upset a God very
much.
It’s important to acknowledge
that in Ancient Greece, there
are multiple Gods and
Goddess who run the world. If
you upset them, it’s very bad.
Agamemnon upset this God
so much, he decided to
stop the wind so the ship
full of men couldn’t go
anywhere.
All the men were annoyed
at Agamemnon so he asked
the God what he could do
to make it up to him. He
told Agamemnon it was
very simple.
All he had to do was
sacrifice his daughter,
Iphigenia.
As you can imagine,
Agamemnon’s wife,
Clytemnestra is not happy
about this. However, she’ll
get her revenge later.
DRAMATIC IRONY
Now Agamemnon knew
that Iphigenia would not
agree to meet him if he
was going to kill her, so he
made up a lie.
Achilles is the strongest and most
beautiful man in all of Greece.
Agamemnon decided to tell Iphigenia
that Achilles wanted to marry her and
be her *bae.
*bae is youthful lingo to show Ms.
Rubin is hip and can relate to you
Iphigenia was so excited
and rushed to go meet her
father. When she got there,
Agamemnon felt a little bad
about lying. He decided to
tell her the truth.
“Um Iphigenia, I was asked
to sacrifice you to the
Gods. I tricked you. My
bad.”
Iphigenia was upset that
she wasn’t going to marry
Achilles, but she
understood that sometimes
you need to do what the
Gods say.
To Agamemnon’s surprise,
Iphigenia said that he could
sacrifice her.
SITUATIONAL IRONY
Agamemnon was scared but
he lifted up the knife to kill his
daughter. As soon as he did
that, she randomly turned into
a deer.
The God was just testing
Agamemnon to see if he
would obey them.
Now the men were able to
set sail and continue on
their journey to Troy.
During the journey, Achilles
gets in a huge fight with
Agamemnon. This is due to
a silly fight over another
girl.
Achilles tells all the men
that he refuses to fight.
This reaction manages to
scare all of the men
because Achilles is the
strongest guy they have.
Here is a little background
on Achilles.
When Achilles was a baby,
he was dipped in a special
potion. This potion has the
power to protect Achilles
from any harm.
However, the only part of
Achilles that was not
dipped in the potion was
his heel. That’s where he
was held to be dipped, so it
never got covered.
DENOTATION
You might have heard the
phrase Achilles Heel. That
means someone’s
weakness.
Ms. Rubin’s Achilles Heel is
chocolate.
Yours is complaining about
homework 
Oh snap!
Anyway, back to the story.
Now you can imagine how
awful that would be if your
strongest team member
refused to help in battle.
All the men were very
discouraged, so Achilles’
best friend, Patroclus
decided to give them men
some confidence.
DRAMATIC IRONY
He put on all of Achilles’
clothing and pretended to
be him. Now all the men
thought Achilles was going
to fight.
ANTAGONIST
It’s important to know that
Troy’s strongest team
member is a man named
Hector.
Now Hector sees Patroclus
dressed up like Achilles and
kills him. He assumes he’s
killing Achilles himself.
Achilles gets word of this
and his blood begins to
boil. Not only is his best
friend dead, but his anger
makes him eager to fight.
Achilles immediately kills
Hector. He does this
because he is so upset that
he killed his best friend.
Achilles also decides to tie
up Hector’s dead body on a
chariot and drive it all
around Troy.
He does this out of rage
and spite. He wants
everyone in Troy to know
that their best player is
now dead and to bring it
on!
So the fight between the
men of Troy and the men
of Greece continue.
Now the men of Greece are
still angry and wonder how
they can trick the men of
Troy.
Odysseus comes up with
an idea to create a giant
wooden horse that some of
the men can hide in.
*Remember Helen of 86th Street
DRAMATIC IRONY
They then place this horse
in front of the walls of Troy.
They pretend to leave it as
a gift of apology.
Before the men of Troy see
the gift, a gentleman gets
scared and warns the men
that it might be a trap.
Suddenly, serpents come
out of the sea and devour
him.
The Trojans view this as a
sign that the man was
lying, so they decide to
bring in the giant wooden
horse.
As the Trojans fall asleep,
the Greek men come out of
the horse, open the gates
to the city, and let the rest
of their army in.
ALLUSION
•Trojan Virus
• This looks like a nice
application but once you
download something, it
messes up your computer
The Greek men win the
war, destroy the city of
Troy, and are ready to
come home.
The Odyssey, is the story of
Odysseus and his men
trying to get back home to
Greece after the war.
Unfortunately, Odysseus
has trouble returning home
due to various obstacles.
These obstacles include:
temptation, sea monsters,
upsetting the Gods, and
trouble with his crew.
Odysseus is away for
twenty years trying to
return to his wife, Penelope
and his son, Telemachus.
Ten of these years with the
war, and ten lost at sea.
Welcome to The Odyssey.