| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

20090827-11 The Odyssey, Books 9-12 (Group 1)

Page history last edited by Elizabeth Cooney 14 years, 6 months ago

Summary

 

     To finish up Tuesday's discussion on similes, we spoke about how Homer uses expanded similes throughout "The Odyssey".  Homer's similes usually consist of two important subjects: nature and how men perform crafts/trades.  We then began to discuss Book I, focusing on the first stanza.  Book I begins by invoking the muse; this is how many epic poems begin, by invoking some great person or power.  However, the speaker is calling upon the muse to tell a story about mankind, not of the usually idolized figures--the gods.  "The Odyssey" focuses on mankind, the struggle of being mortal and the lessons we should learn from Odysseus. 

     Homer uses the "The Odyssey" to teach Greek people how to conduct their lives and give them someone to look up to for guidance.  One example is the story of Telemachus, Odysseus' son, and how after speaking to Athena, grows to be a man even without the presence of his father. This sheds light on the Greek culture-- how men were to act and how Greek homes were run.  Even though Odysseus is a hero, he cries.  Homer wanted readers to realize that crying is accepted in Greek culture during this era. 

     Homer writes a lot about the guest-host relationship and how it is a religious obligation to be hospitable to strangers.  Guests could be gods in disguise, so it was to the host's benefit to feed, provide drink, bathe, and give a parting gift to the stranger.  In class, we talked about the three governing principles of Xenia, Greek hospitality: 1. respect from host to guest (provide them will all their needs) 2. respect from guest to host (do not be a burden) 3. host provides a parting gift to their guest (Xenion).  Xenia, hospitality, and mankind were important concepts throughout the poem. 

word count- 298

 

 

Passages

 

 

Book XII page 419, lines 262-277 

"and ashen terror gripped the men.  But now, fearing death, all eyes fixed on Charybdis-- now Scylla snatched six men from our hallow ship, the toughest, strongest hands I had, and glancing backward over the decks, searching for my crew flailing, high, higher, over my head, look-wailing down at me, comrades riven in agony, shrieking out my name for one last time!  Just as an angler poised on a jutting rock flings his treacherous bait in the offshore swell, whips his long rod- hook sheathed in an oxhorn lure-and whisks up little fish he flips on the beach-break, writhing, gasping out thier lives...so now they writhed, gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there at her cavern's mouth she bolted them down raw-" 

 

This was one of Homer's lenghtened similes.  These similies are common in his writings and occur often in "The Odyssey."  This relates to our class discussion on how Homer writes many long similes and uses nature as a common themes.  This example describes how Scylla catches Odysseus' men like a fisherman catches small fish. This is a description not only of the motion Scylla uses to pick up the men, but also how easily it was for her to scoop them up. This simile is easily relatable to the Greeks because the most of the Greek population lives on the ocean, and fishing has great importance to their culture. So Odysseus, after seeing this, forgets his idea of taking revenge for his men and attacking Scylla.  He chooses not to fight, going against his earlier desires. 

 

Book I page 274, first stanza

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.  Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.  But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove-the reckless of their own ways destroyed them all, the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of hte Sun and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return.  Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus, start from where you will-sing for our time too." 

 

The narrator is invoking the muse in this stanza. Rather than asking the muse to tell a story about the gods, the narrarator asks to hear a story about a man.  This stanza lets the audience know "The Odyssey" is about humanity and mankind. 

 

Book V page 330, lines 71-87

"Thick, luxuriant woods grew round the cave, alders and black poplars, pungent cypress too, and there birds roosted, folding their long wings, owls and hawks and the spread-beaked raves of the sea, black skimmers who make their living off the waves.  And round the mouth of the vacern trailed a vine laden with clusters, bursting with ripe grapes.  Four springs in a row, bubbling clear and cold, running side-by-side, took channels leaft and right.  Soft meadows spreading round were starred with violets, lush with beds of parsley.  Why, even a deathless god who came upon that place would gaze in wonder, heart entranced with pleasure.  Hermes the guide, the might giant-killer, stood there, spellbound...But once he'd had his fill of marveling at it all he briskly entered the deep vaulted cavern.  Calypso, lustrous goddess, knew him at once," 

 

This short passage gives insight to Greek culture and what they envisioned as beautiful. If even Hermes, an immortal god, is left breathless at the sight of this landscape, then those characteristics are what the Greeks truly valued. This may also show Greek culture was not used to luxury objects such as these.

 

 

Terms

 

similes- the comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as"

 

repetition- the act or process or an instance of repeating or being repeated. In "The Odyssey," certain phrases or passages were repeated to help the author continue the story.

 

epithets- characterization or description of a person or a thing. In epic poems, epithets are often repeated to meet the required amount of syllables per line.

 

invocation- to invoke, call upon, inspire

 

in medias res- to begin in the middle of the overall story

 

Xenia- Greek concept of hospitality towards guest (Trojan War started from xenia violation)

 

xenion- parting gift, from host to guest

 

Guest-host relationship (g/h)- relationship between the guest and host. Both parties were socially required to treat each other in a respectable manner. 

 

suppliant- a person who makes a humble request

 

siren song- The temptation given off by any object desireable to an individual.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

Brian Croxall said

at 2:10 pm on Sep 4, 2009

In general, this is a very good set of notes with which to start the assignment. Your summary is very good in most places. You've hit on many of the things that were most important in our discussion for the day (similes, the opening of the poem, Greek culture and how we can see it in the poem, and xenia). The paragraph that seems a bit strange is the second. You start by talking about Telemachus's maturation and how this reveals osmething about Greek culture. Then you suddenly move on to talking about how Odysseus cries a lot. Eventually it becomes more clear how/why these two things are related, but there should be a transition between the two. Or perhaps a stronger topic sentence to the paragraph that lets the reader know that you'll be talking about culture.

Let me give you a secret hint for future summaries: If you don't have space to talk about everything, you can use a passage to talk about something else that we did in class (and that you don't have space for in the summary).

You've chose good passages, but you've made a few mistakes. First, you can only have three passages. We'll almost always talk about more than three in any given class, but you need to narrow it down to a smaller group. Second, you need to type out the passages. You've done a good job of making sure we know where to find them, but the notes are more useful if you have already given them to us. In general your discussion of why the particular passages matters is very good. With the first passage of the book, however, you might have wanted to include something about how the poem is going to be teaching its readers in the present.

Your definitions are good, although you didn't need to include everything that you did since some of the terms had been defined on the previous day of class. Your definition for suppliant is incorrect. "Suppliant" is a noun and you've given the definition for an adjective.

You don't have permission to comment on this page.