Homer: The Odyssey (Volume A)

Homer (8th century B.C.E.)

Mycenean Greece and the Orient

Trojans/ Troy

• Myceneans• syllabary language • Bronze Age

Map for the Odyssey

• length

• content: historic, mythic

• motifs

• divine intervention

• heroic flaw

• orality and performance, writing

• language

• magical or legendary objects

Elements of Epic Writing

• in media res (“Of the cunning hero…After he plundered Troy’s sacred heights” I:2–3)

• invocation (“Speak, Memory” I:1)

• epic/ Homeric simile

• epithet (“Dawn’s pale rose fingers”)

• ekphrasis

Literary Devices

Background

• “andra” (man)• females: Calypso,

Sirens, Scylla, Penelope, Circe, Nausicaa

• mythical lands: Lotus Eaters, Cyclopes, Phaeacia

• real places: Sparta, Ithaca

Eris

• Odysseus (angry, hated, cursed)

• Polyphemus (much-named)

• Penelope (duck face)

• Telemachus (distant fighter)

• Circe (bird)

• Nausicaa (burner of ships)

Naming Conventions

• glory (kleos)

• reciprocity (negative reciprocity) (charis)

• valor

• guest–host hospitality (xenia)

• loyalty, piety, filial respect (eusebeia)

• duty (aidos)

Ancient Greek Values

Cyclopes

Test of the Bow

• “Start carrying out the bodies, and have the women help you…when you have set the house in order, take the women outside…slash them with swords until they have forgotten their secret lovemaking with the suitors” (XXII: 462–69).

• “These women, their heads hanging in a row, the cable looped around each of their necks. It was a most piteous death” (XXII: 494–96).

Execution of the Maids

The Conjugal Bed

How do ancient Greek values of heroism and appropriate behavior compare to those promoted in other ancient works and in your current culture?

Discussion Questions

Are women, according to Homer’s epic, to be trusted, cherished, feared, or treated as possessions? How does this compare to the treatment of women in other ancient epics, as in Gilgamesh and the Ramayana?

Discussion Questions

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The Norton Anthology Of World Literature.

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The Norton Anthology

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