Odyssey Power Point Notes

Homeric Epics• Iliad and the Odyssey

• Composed in Greece around 750-725 B.C.

• First told orally or sang

• Put into writing generations later

• Blind poet – Homer – gets credit~ scholars have long debated if Homer really existed

~ agree that work might have been the work of one or two talented bards

(singers who made up their verses as they sang)

Important Epic Elements of the Plot

• Trojan War

• Heroism of Odysseus

• Interference of the Gods

Trojan War

• Legendary war around 1200 B.C.

• Earliest accounts of ancient Greece are recorded in Iliad and Odyssey

• According to Legend~ Trojan prince Paris kidnaps Helen from Sparta

~ King Menelaus recruits Greek kings and soldiers

~ recover his wife and honor

~ Lasts 10 years

Iliad • Takes place during last year of war

• Focuses on Achilles and his quarrel with Agamemnon~ over a girl/spoil of war

• Odysseus devises scheme to end war~ Giant wooden horse (Trojan Horse)

~ Greeks leave it outside gate and “flee”

~ Trojans think they are gone – horse is offering

~ Bring it inside = Greeks jump out during night~ Defeat unsuspecting Trojans

Odyssey • Deals with Odysseus’

adventures on his way home to Ithaca

• Depart from Troy with 12 ships and 720 men

• Details accounts with monsters, enchanting women, and homecoming

~ uses his craft and guile to concur opponents and difficult situations

Intervention of the Gods• Greeks believed the gods interacted with

humans

• Hera, Athena, Poseidon supported Greeks

• Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis supported the Trojans

• Zeus stayed neutral (but liked the Trojans more)

• Odysseus has Athena on his side~ angers Poseidon = difficulties

• Odyssey supports Greek moral = don’t upset gods

Terms• Epic -- long narrative poem

-- about adventures of a hero

• Epic Hero -- larger-than-life figure

-- usually male

-- possesses superhuman

strength, craftiness, and confidence

-- helped/harmed by interfering gods-- embodies ideals and values of a

culture

-- since he is mortal = character flaws

• Epic Plot -- Involves a long journey, full of complications:

-- strange monsters-- large-scale events-- divine intervention-- treacherous weather

• Epic Setting – includes fantastic or exotic lands

and more than one nation

• Epic Themes – courage, loyalty, beauty, a

homecoming, life and death, the fate of a nation

• Archetypes -- characters found in works across time and cultures

-- sea monster, trickster, hero, wicked,

-- destroyer, loyal servants, temptress

• Allusion -- reference to a famous person, place, or event

-- Example: When Odysseus’ son describes the palace of Menelaus he says, “This is the way the court of Zeus must be.”

Every Greek would have understood this allusion to the ruler of the gods.

• Epithet -- brief descriptive phrase used to characterize a particular person or thing

-- Odysseus is known as “son of Laertes” “raider or cities” “master mariner”

• Simile -- comparison using like or as

• Epic Simile --simile that goes on for several lines

Example: “At sight of the man panting and dying there, she slips down to enfold him, crying out;then feels the spears, prodding her back and shoulders, and goes bound into slavery and grief. Piteous weeping wears away her cheeks: but no more piteous than Odysseus’ tears”

-- A weeping Odysseus is being compared to a wife who first weeps for her husband, who has died on the battlefield then is taken into slavery