The Odyssey

ex: "Sometimes in farmyards when the cows return / well-fed from pasture to the barn, one sees / the pens give way before the calves in tumult, / breaking through to cluster about their mothers, / bumping together, bawling. Just that way / my crew poured round me when they saw me..."

(Homer 9. 118-123).

ex. "The trees wept,"or "The ocean roared," or "The rain clawed at the window."

ex. "Fleet-footed Achilles"

• "Odysseus, son of Laertes"

Blindness=

The Odyssey: Odysseus' long journey home from the Trojan War. The Iliad, a ten year war, introduces Odysseus, the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse which

leads to Greek victory.

glory, honor, pride, homecoming, and

hospitality

The Odyssey

"Sing in me, Muse,and through me tell the story

of that man skilled in all ways of contending..."

Just like Shakespeare's poetry, which was written in blank verse using iambic pentameter, epic poetry follows a distinct pattern called didactic hexameter:

• every line contains six units, or feet
• each foot contains three syllables or two syllables
• each foot is called a dactyl: one of more words that create a single stressed or long syllable, followed by two unstressed or short syllables
• Téll mé,/ Múse, of the / mán versa/tíle and re/soúrceful, who/ wándered

Epic Poem:

a long narrative poem about a legendary national hero who usually embarks on a journey.

The poem is 12,000 lines long (which is partly what makes it so epic)! For our purposes, we'll be reading a shorter version. The poem is essentially broken up into twenty-four books, but for us, we'll concentrate on the The Great Wanderings and The Homecoming of Odysseus. The tale is fraught with adventure both on land and on the high seas (the Mediterranean, to be specific), Greek gods and goddesses, monsters, betrayal, and even romance.

I'm bored.

I'm bored...

Oh, Penelope!

Oh, Odysseus!

Ahhhhh!!!! That monster is so mythical it should be in an epic poem!

Epic Poems typically represent a culture's

values and traditions.

Every epic has an

epic hero:

larger than life

character possess the cultural values and traits a country deems important.

Basically, I'm a stud.

Simile: a comparison of two unlike things

using "like" or "as":

ex: Mr. Staber is like a god.

Epic Simile: just like a

simile, only EPIC! Seems like

the speaker is on a tangent. An epic simile is also called a

Homeric simile. Phrases that indicate an epic simlie include:

so, just as, just so, even so,

and just that way.

Personification: giving inanimate objects

life-like qualities (can include human

traits or even animal like traits).

Epithet: a short description about a

character that helps to provide more

insight about that character.

Blind Poet

The Odyssey:

a continuation of another

epic poem, The Iliad.

The Iliad: concerns the

Trojan War (war over a

woman--Helan).

Called a Bard

Central character changes.

HOMER:

Troy vs. Greeks (Achiens)

Achilles is the main character

The gift of

foresight (the ability to see the future)

Not this one...

...this one

There's no way

this could be a trap!

A giant wooden

horse?! This is so

awesome!

Topics:

Essential Questions:

• Is Odysseus a hero? How do we define a hero?
• Why read classical literature?
• What values did the ancient cultures possess or claim to be worthy?
• How did ancient societies view gender?

So why do we read

The Odyssey?

The Odyssey is about a journey. In fact, the very definition of the word is "a long and eventful journey." And what is life, but a journey that we all take. This by itself is reason enough (I think, anyway) to read this epic. But it doesn't stop there. Greek culture itself has paved the way for much of modern society. The Odyssey is, in itself, a history lesson seen through the eyes of a larger than life hero; and who doesn't like a good hero? But what makes Odysseus so interesting is that he's flawed, just like the rest of us. Thus, he's human (just like the rest of us), so he shares with us what it's like to navigate through a world fraught with evil and temptation. Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses. We can all relate to that.

Even with all that being said, The Odyssey is a foundational piece of literature, paving the way for many of the great epics. Without Homer's The Odyssey setting the ground work, we might not have other epics like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings. The Odyssey is one that helped to start it all. But even with all this being said, The Odyssey deals with fundamental questions concerning man's mortality, the struggle between good and evil, defending one's home and honor, and even pondering what the heck happens to us after we die. Those are heavy ideas to think about on our own. But with a little help from Homer, we just might be able to do it.