Lecture 10

Question 1

Odyssey vs. The Iliad

Answer 1

• starts off with invocation of muses
• talks about specific gods (Zeus in the Iliad, Hyperion in the Odyssey)
• starts with negative note of description of death
• tells us exactly what will happen in the beginning
• starts toward the end of the war. (medias res)

Question 2

Beginning (Athena)

Answer 2

• Athena causes a storm because she’s angry that Ajax raped Cassandra in her temple and scatters all the Greeks and this is how Odysseus first gets lost
• when he gets back she’s no longer angry with him and she becomes his major supporter in getting him home

Question 3

Zeus on nostos

Answer 3

• gods aren’t responsible for all of mortals’ issues
• mortals cause their own issues
• story of Aegisthus who marries Agamemnon’s wife and then murders Agamemnon. Later Aegisthus is murdered. Shows homecomings aren’t always good and mortals bring their bad luck upon themselves

Question 4

Penelope in Ithica

Answer 4

• want to marry her off because that will give the suitors a step ahead in obtaining the kingship
• Telemachus (his son) resents the suitors trying to marry his mom
• they’re taking advantage of xenia

Question 5

Meeting Odysseus

Answer 5

• crying because he wants to go home but Calypso has trapped him and won’t let him leave
• trapped for 7 years

Question 6

Odysseus compared to common greek heroes

Answer 6

• crying (lots of heroes do this)

- conflict with female force common to Greek heroes

Question 7

Hermes and Calypso

Answer 7

• really wants to return home
• only allowed to leave when Hermes comes down to tell Calypso that she has to let Odysseus go
• She complains that any time a goddess has a human lover the gods take him away but it’s totally fine for the gods to have dozens

Question 8

Odysseus’ intro vs. Achilles

Answer 8

• Achilles is full of rage and whole story is about that while Odysseus is full of sorrow
• both poems involve angry god (Calypso and Apollo)
• both struggle with loss of something (Achilles with Chreseas and Odysseus with lack of free will to return home)
• Odysseus is very passive and Achilles is full force going head to head

Question 9

Nausicaa

Answer 9

• Odysseus meets her when he ends up on a new island after leaving Calypso’s
• she is washing her clothes in the river
• she invites him back to the palace but doesn’t say who he is
• blind bard sings of the fall of Troy and the Trojan horse (Odysseus’ plan) and this makes him cry and reveal who he is.

Question 10

Polyphemus

Answer 10

• Son of Poseidon, cyclops
• Odysseus and his men get trapped in his cave and he eats them
• comes up with a plan to escape
• told cyclops his name was Noman

Question 11

Odysseus’ plan

Answer 11

• get cyclops drunk and sleepy
• stab him in the eye
• hide on underbelly of sheep to escape the cave because he’s sitting by the entrance feeling around and letting his sheep out to pasture
• they escape and Odysseus taunts cyclops

Question 12

Odysseus’ taunts

Answer 12

• “Odysseus the marauder did it” and where he’s from
• lapes in judgment cause cyclops is Poseidon’s bb.
• gives into his pride to taunt
• Cyclops prays to poseidon asking that Odysseus never gets home but if he has to only after a very long time, on another ship, without any men, and that he arrives to troubles at home