Download Onto The Odyssey

Everything You Need to Know
Before We Embark on This Epic Journey
What is The Odyssey?
 An epic poem
 Told in the oral tradition (not written down)
 Attributed to the ancient Greek storyteller Homer
This Homer
Not this one
© Fox Flash
What is The Odyssey about?
 The story picks up where Homer’s
previous epic, The Iliad, left off.
 The Iliad is the story of the Trojan
War, in which a coalition of Greek
states battled the city of Troy in order
to rescue their kidnapped queen,
Helen of Sparta. Helen became
known as “Helen of Troy,” “the
woman with the face who launched a
thousand ships.”
Helen of Troy by Evelyn de
Morgan (1898, London)
What is The Odyssey about?
 The Greeks eventually won the war
by hiding inside a giant wooden
horse (“the Trojan Horse”) they gave
as a present to the Trojans, taking
the Trojans by surprise once inside
the castle walls, but this is not
actually included in The Iliad.
http://realisticbeinggreen.wordpress.co
m/2012/07/29/beware-the-trojan-horse/
Odysseus, the hero of The Odyssey, was one of
the soldiers who fought in the Trojan War.
What is The Odyssey about?
 The Odyssey mainly centers on Odysseus and his
journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus
ten years to reach his home in Ithica after the war.
Mosaic from the A . D . 300S
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Ni-Pa/OdysseyThe.html#ixzz2EBkfho6V
What is The Odyssey about?
 While Odysseus is away, everyone back home assumes
he died in the war. A group of unruly men constantly
swarm in his house to court his wife, Penelope, and
compete for her hand in marriage.
Penelope and the Suitors
by John William
Waterhouse (1912)
What is The Odyssey about?
 Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, does not like this one bit,
and, with a little push from the god Athena in disguise,
ventures out to search for news of his father.
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Telemachus.html
What is The Odyssey about?
 The poem takes us back and forth between the adventures
of Odysseus and Telemachus, in which they face various
monsters, temptations, and other dangers.
 Lotus-eaters, a race of people who eat narcotic fruits
which induce sleep and lethargy
 Calypso, a seductive sea nymph
 Circe, a witch-goddess who turns men into swine
 Sirens, mermaid-like female creatures who lure sailors
to shipwreck with their enchanting music
 Polyphemus, a Cyclops (a giant with a single eye in the
middle of his forehead)
Who are the gods?
(Images from greece.mr.donn.org/greekgods/index.html)
 Zeus
 The god of the heavens
 The king of all the gods
 Hera
 The goddess of marriage
 The queen of all the gods
 Zeus’s wife AND sister
Who are the gods?
(Images from greece.mr.donn.org/greekgods/index.html)
 Zeus’s other siblings:
Poseidon
god of the sea
Hestia
goddess of
home & hearth
Hades
god of the
underworld
Demeter
goddess of
agriculture & harvest
Who are the gods?
(Images from greece.mr.donn.org/greekgods/index.html)
 Zeus’s children with Hera:
Ares
god of war
Hephaestus
god of fire and forge
Who are the gods?
(Images from greece.mr.donn.org/greekgods/index.html)
 Zeus’s children with other gods/mortals/unknown:
Artemis
goddess of hunting
& the moon
Aphrodite
goddess of love
& beauty
Athena
goddess of wisdom
Who are the gods?
(Images from greece.mr.donn.org/greekgods/index.html)
 Zeus’s children with other gods/mortals/unknown:
Hermes
messenger god
Apollo
god of music
Heracles (Hercules)
half-man, half-god