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The Odyssey
Epic
“An epic is an encyclopedia of the
manners, customs, and values that bind
a whole civilization together.”
W.T. Jewkes
But the textbook definition is…
• A long narrative poem about the
adventures of a hero who embodies the
values of their culture.
Characteristics of an Epic
• The protagonist is a physically impressive hero
of national or historical importance who goes
on a quest or journey and is glorified at the
end of the work
• The setting involves much of the known
physical world and sometimes the land of the
dead
• The story is rooted in a specific culture and
society
What Makes an Epic
Hero?
•Noble birth
•Superior strength and intelligence
•Embodies the values of his culture
•Possesses a flaw
•Goes on a journey or quest
•Overcomes obstacles
•Continually put through tests
•Travels to places most people cannot go
•Assisted by divine being(s)
•Attains immortality
The Style of an Epic
Epics begin in medias res, literally translated it
means in the middle of things… the audience is
thrown into the story and the missing pieces are
filled in using literary techniques like extended
flashbacks, multiple story lines, and a variety of
narration techniques.
Epics contain a unique
combination of …
• History (Trojan War)
• Legend (an unverified story handed
down by generations and generally
accepted as factually based)
• Myth (stories that use fantasy to
express ideas about life that cannot be
expressed easily in realistic terms… the
gods, creatively woven tales, fantastical
creatures)
How is an Epic a
form of Poetry?
The earliest forms of “story telling” were
sung tales. Our literary tradition began
as an oral tradition. To help people
remember long stories, rhapsodes
combined these stories with a “beat”…
more like a chant. Is it easier for you to
remember a 3 minute song or a 3 minute
speech?
Poetic Devices Unique
to the Epic
Epithets
•
A descriptive phrase that is used to characterize a person. An
epithet would be used in place of a person’s name to avoid too much
repetition and to give life to the character with added description.
In a long tale this was a subtle way to remind the audience what/who
a character is.
•
One of the most common epithets in the Odyssey is “Gray-eyed
goddess” (Athena)
Homeric Simile
•
An extended comparison using heroic or epic events and compares
them to easily recognizable items
•
"He pushed aside the bushes, breaking off with his great hand a
single branch of olive, whose leaves might shield him in his
nakedness, so came out rustling like a mountain lion, rain-drenched,
wind-buffeted, but in his might at ease, with burning eyes - who
prowls among the herds or flocks, or after game, his hungry belly
taking him near stout homesteads for his prey."
Homer
• He was a well known storyteller from ancient
Greece
• By trade, he was a rhapsode (literally a “singer
of tales”)
– These men were the historians and
entertainers as well as the myth-makers of
their time
– They traveled from place to place singing of
recent events, heroes, or gods/goddesses
• Credited with telling the epics the Iliad and
the Odyssey
The Iliad
•
•
An epic… this is Homer’s account of
the Trojan War
This epic is set in the final weeks of
the 10th year of the Trojan War
The Trojan War
The war began when the goddesses Athena, Hera and
Aphrodite, bribed the prince of Troy, Paris, to name one of
them as the most fair. He was offered power, wealth or the
most beautiful woman as bribes. He chose Aphrodite as the
most fair and in return, she gave him the most beautiful
woman, Helen of Troy. The problem was that Helen was already
married. Her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta and his
brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, led an expedition of
Achaean troops (Greeks) to Troy and thus began the 10 year
war. After the deaths of many Greek heroes, including the
Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris,
the city fell after Odysseus’s Trojan Horse trick caught the
Trojans off guard.
The Odyssey
This epic tells of the adventures of a famous
Greek hero, Odysseus as he makes his way
home from the Trojan War.
This narrative has everything the ancient Greek
could have wanted in a story…it was suspenseful,
action-packed, thought-provoking, romantic,
scary, funny, gory, and didactic (taught lessons)
all at once!