Homer’s The OdysseyHomer’s The Odyssey

The Odyssey is also a story about a hero . . .

Adventure lurks around every corner during his long journey home…

Scholars credit the blind poet Homer with authorship of The Odyssey and The Iliad, both thought to have been written about 800 B.C.

Both stories were first told orally and may not have been written down until several generations later.

The Heroic Story of Odysseus

• Odysseus longs to return home after ten years of fighting in the Trojan War.

• He begins the trip home with 12 ships carrying 720 men.

• The gods and goddesses toy with Odysseus, creating obstacles which delay his journey home another ten years.

• Odysseus’s intelligence set him apart from others.

The trip home from Troy

• Athena felt wronged after the war and convinced Poseidon to make the Greek’s trip home difficult.

• Storms blew ships in all different directions• Odysseus wouldn’t arrive home for another 10

years.

Back in Ithaca

• In Ithaca, all assumed Odysseus dead except his wife, Penelope and son, Telemachus. Penelope was receiving suitors at her door, but she stalled by claiming to be weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus’ father, Laertes, which had to be done before she could marry. She wove during the day and unwove it at night until the suitors found her out.

Story within a Story

• The Odyssey has two plots: the main plot is of Odysseus traveling from Calypso’s island home to Ithaca.

• While Odysseus is traveling to Ithaca, he stops at many places along the way telling the story of where he has been as he goes. This is the second plot, or the “story within the story.”

Agamemnon

Menelaus

Achilles

Ajax

The role of gods and

goddesses in Homer’s The Odyssey

The Ancient Greeks believed in many different gods and goddesses. The Greeks believed that these gods and goddesses controlled everything in their lives. There was a god for many aspects of life. It was important to please the gods; happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you.

The Greeks believed that the most important gods and goddesses lived at the top of Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in northern Greece.

The gods were a family and, just like a human family, they argued as well as looked after

each other.

During Odysseus’s journey home, some gods and goddesses helped him.

Other gods and goddesses attempted to keep Odysseus from returning home.

Zeus

Zeus is the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus and of the gods who reside there.

Athena

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. She is also Zeus’s daughter.

She frequently helps Odysseus, who was well-known for his clever mind.

Hermes

the messenger of the gods

In addition to being the god of invention, commerce, and cunning, Hermes is also Zeus’s son.

Hermes helps Odysseus several times in The Odyssey.

Some goddesses both help and hinder Odysseus during his journey home.

Circe, a goddess and enchantress will use her magic to toy with Odysseus.

The sea goddess Calypso delays Odysseus’s return home because of her desire for companionship.

Poseidon

Odysseus’s excessive pride angers Poseidon.

Poseidon is the god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses.

Poseidon is also the father of the one-eyed cyclopes.

Helios/ApolloAs the god of the Sun, Helios rides a chariot drawn by horses through the sky, bringing light to the earth.

Odysseus angers Helios when his men ignore Helios’s warnings.

Important Literary Terms

• Epic• Epic Hero• Epic Simile• Epithet

Epic

• An epic is a long narrative poem that tells about the adventures of a hero who reflects the ideals and values of a nation or race.

• The epic portrays the past, but it is an imaginary past.

Epic Hero

• An epic hero is a larger-than-life figure, usually male, who embodies the ideals of a nation or race.

• Epic heroes take part in long, dangerous adventures and accomplish great deeds that require courage and superhuman strength.

Epic Simile

• A simile is a comparison of two things using like or as.

• An EPIC SIMILE is a longer, more detailed simile that can go on for several lines.

• Example: “And Odysseus let the bright molten tears run down his cheeks, weeping [like] the way a wife mourns for her lord on the lost field where he has gone down fighting the day of wrath that came upon his children . . .”

Epithet

• An epithet is a brief descriptive phrase that helps to characterize a person or thing.

• Example: “Son of Laertes and the gods of old, Odysseus, master mariner and soldier. . .”

• Epithets were used to give story telling a musical effect.

Get ready to enjoy Homer’s The Odyssey!