more Odyssey secondary sources Flashcards Preview

epic poetry > more Odyssey secondary sources > Flashcards

Flashcards in more Odyssey secondary sources Deck (16)
Loading flashcards...
1
Q

weak gods

A

Hastings: “utterly human”

“subject to the whims of fate”

2
Q

powerful gods

A

Johnson: “major role in shaping the plot”

3
Q

gods relations with humans

A

Jones: “help only those who are worthy”

Athene is a “surrogate father for Telemachus”

4
Q

Telemachus

A

Smith: “Weak and powerless” to “slay one of his tormenters”

Jones: “learns from what other heroes have to tell him”

5
Q

Odysseus’ shortcomings

A

Clarke: “dangerous extremes of anger, passion and recklessness”

Hall: “discerning eye of the colonist”
“strictly heterosexual”
“only deficiency might be his fatherhood”

6
Q

Odysseus’ verbal skills

A

Clayton: “lack of physical impressiveness”

Silk: “most heroic quality is his cunning” “polutropos”

7
Q

Odysseus’ kleos

A

Clarke: “driven to action by a need for social validation”

8
Q

Greek view of Odysseus

A

Jones: “disguises and deceptions are all means to a justifiable and suitably heroic end”

9
Q

Roman view of Odysseus

A

Jenkyns: “relies on trickery at times rather than outright bravery”

10
Q

Odysseus is not Achilles

A

Graziosi: “comic character, a tragic character, a stoic sage and a villain”

11
Q

shortcomings of Odysseus’ disguises

A

Murnaghan “could not be sustained for a long time successfully without Athene’s help”

12
Q

what xenia reveals about civilisation

A

Goldhill: “way of judging the different societies”
“develop the characters”

Morrison: “in Pylos… we find a household obviously in fine order”

13
Q

what xenia reveals about contemporaries

A

Reece: “formulaic” and “familiar” rules mocked by Polyphemus

Goldhill: “essential functioning of ancient society”

14
Q

modern reaction to revenge

A

Stanton: “may have seen Odysseus’ killing of the suitors as just, whereas we may see it as murder”

15
Q

revenge is taken too far

A

Stanton: “personal anger and retribution”

Graziosi: “only the crew of one ship who ate the sacred cattle”

16
Q

justification of revenge

A

Morrison: “terrible guests and clearly violate the codes of xenia”

Jones: “minimal sympathy for them overall”
“divine warnings”

Stanton: “Suitors deaths are sanctioned by Zeus”