The Odyssey

1. The Odyssey You will: • learn about Homer • why the Greeks are hospitable • See where Odysseus travels • Review theme, irony, characterization, and symbolism

2. Who Was Homer, Anyway? • Blind poet from the island of Chios • describes events as a seeing person • lived around 900-700 B.C.E • Wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey • he told stories to entertain and to make his living; audiences had to listen carefully (This is “oral tradition” so there was a lot of repetition and improvisation used.)

3. One scholar suggests Homer was a woman because home and hearth played such an important role in his stories. • Some scholar think there were two Homers. Some think he was just a legend. • Homeric poems could be the work of one or more talented bards – singers who make up their verses as they sing

4. Some say he is just a legend, others say that a whole series of rhapsodes (traveling poets) composed various parts of the epics • Rhapsodes were the historians, entertainers, and mythmakers of their time responsible for spreading news about recent events or the doings of heroes, gods, and goddesses • Singers might have summarized part of the tales, depending on how long they stayed in one community. • They memorized and recited these epics in the banquet halls of kings and noble families

5. The epics were not originally written--the Greek alphabet didn’t appear until 725 BC • Homer’s works were the first read by Greek children. • Homer is concerned with the relationship between human and gods. • In Homer’s stories, a god can be an alter ego—a reflection of a hero’s best or worst qualities • For Homer, the gods control all things, including Odysseus’s fate.

6. The Greeks used Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, to teach Greek virtues. • Homer used POETRY because rhyme/meter is easier to memorize and more stable as passed-on • Homer did not invent the story, but transcribed it into its longest-lasting form • All versions we read are translated from ancient Greek language – Translations can vary greatly

7. Who is Odysseus? • Odysseus is known for his mental abilities, so he receives aid from Athena, the goddess of wisdom. • Odysseus can also be cruel and violent. Odysseus’s nemesis is Poseidon, the god of the sea, who is known for arrogance and brutishness. • Greek mythsplay an important role in the Odyssey

8. Why were the Greeks so hospitable? • Hospitable means receiving or treating guests or strangers warmly and generously • Hospitality in Homer’s time was well shown through long travels such as Odysseus' in The Odyssey as well as the guest-friend relationship, known as xenia. • Traveling in Homer’s time was much more extensive and lengthier than in modern times. The less advanced methods of transportation used in Homeric times, such as by boat or by foot, were much slower than modern forms of transportation

9. There were not hotels or inns where travelers could pay and stay the night. Even if there were, travelers probably could not afford to pay for every night they were gone. • Some payment for this hospitality in the form of a gift exchange. • Xenia is the Greek relationship between two people from different regions. This allowed for the members of the relationship to safely travel into the other member’s territory and receive a place to stay and something to eat

10. Wheredid Odysseus travel?

11. Review of vocab: • Characterization – how a writer develops characters: physical appearance, his nature is revealed by own thoughts, feelings, & actions; other character’s thoughts, feelings, actions toward that person; a narrator’s direct comments • Theme – the message the author wants to get across, a thought about life or human nature that the writer wants to share • Irony – reality is the opposite from what it seems;when someone says one thing and means another • Symbolism – when an author use a person, place, activity or object to represent something else