Homer

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Homers The Odyssey

• Must you have battle in your heart forever?
• The bloody toil of combat? Old contender,
• will you not yield to the immortal gods?
• From The Odyssey, Book 12

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Notes for The Odyssey

• The Odyssey is an ____ poem. It has more than
  ____ lines and is divided into ____ books.

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Notes for The Odyssey

• The Odyssey is an epic poem. It has more than
  ____ lines and is divided into ____ books.

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Notes for The Odyssey

• The Odyssey is an epic poem. It has more than
  12000 lines and is divided into __ books.

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Notes for The Odyssey

• The Odyssey is an epic poem. It has more than
  12000 lines and is divided into 24 books.

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Notes for The Odyssey

• The Odyssey is an epic poem. It has more than
  12000 lines and is divided into 24 books.
• Epics address universal concerns
• Good and Evil
• Life and Death
• Sin and Redemption

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Some characteristics of an epic

• 1) The story is set in many locations, real or
  imaginary, across a wide area.
• 2) The hero is an important historical or
  legendary character of high social rank a king
  or a prince, for example.
• 3) The hero is pitted against overwhelming odds
  and must be strong and courageous.

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• 4) Supernatural events play an important role in
  the plot.
• 5) The story is told in language that is formal
  and grand but also simple and clear.

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The hero in The Odyssey is
Odysseus.
Armond Asante in The Odyssey
Marble carving of Odysseus from 2nd century BC -
Greece
Sean Bean in Troy
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The hero in The Odyssey is Odysseus.
He is from _______________ which is located
_____________________________.
Armond Asante in The Odyssey
Marble carving of Odysseus from 2nd century BC -
Greece
Sean Bean in Troy
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The hero in The Odyssey is Odysseus.
He is from the island of Ithaca which is
located _____________________________.
Armond Asante in The Odyssey
Marble carving of Odysseus from 2nd century BC -
Greece
Sean Bean in Troy
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The hero in The Odyssey is Odysseus.
He is from the island of Ithaca which is
located off the west coast of Greece.
Armond Asante in The Odyssey
Marble carving of Odysseus from 2nd century BC -
Greece
Sean Bean in Troy
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The Trojan WarWho?

• Menelaus, King of Sparta, and the kings and
  soldiers of Greece sail to Troy.
• Greeks Agamemnon leader of Greek Army
  Achilles
  Greatest Greek warrior one physical weakness
  Odysseus
  The Cunning One
• Trojans Priam King of Troy
  
  Paris Son of Priam
  
  Hector Troys greatest warrior, son of Priam

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The Trojan WarWhy?

• Paris kidnapped Helen, wife of Menelaus, who then
  sails to kill Paris and destroy Troy, and
  retrieve his wife.
• Helen is known as the most beautiful woman in
  the world, but is also forever associated with
  treachery and infidelity.
• Shakespeare wrote of her the face that launched
  a thousand ships.

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The Trojan WarWhere?

• The battles take place on the coasts and lands
  surrounding Troy.
• Today this land is the country of Turkey.
• When?
• 1200 BC When the events told in Homers poems
  are supposed to have occurred.
• This means these stories have been told for over
  3200 years.
• 900-700 BC The oral tradition is thought to be
  first written down by Homer.

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The Adventures of OdysseusWho?

• Odysseus and his men 12 ships and 720 men leave
  Troy and head for home.
• Rather than soldiers, they now must battle
  monsters and enchanting women.
• Meanwhile, Penelope waits for him at home while
  their son, Telemachus sails the sea looking for
  his father.

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The Adventures of OdysseusWhy?

• Odysseus angers the gods who were on the side of
  Troy, and one god who was on his side. They have
  decided that he must suffer.

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The Adventures of OdysseusWhere?

• The Mediterranean Sea this was the entire known
  world for the ancient Greeks.
• When?
• The 10 years immediately following the Trojan war.

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The Olympian Gods and Goddesses

• The ancient Greeks believed that the gods and
  goddesses were very human and their pettiness,
  jealousies, and anger caused humans to suffer.
• The Trojan war was prolonged because the gods
  took sides during the conflict.

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Gods Siding with Troy

• Aphrodite

Goddess of Love and Beauty Protector of Paris
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Gods Siding with Troy

• Ares

Greek God of War - Greatly disliked by Greeks
- Defeated by Achilles in
battle and saved by his sister, Aphrodite.
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Gods Siding with Troy

• Apollo

God of light and the sun truth and prophecy
archery medicine and healing music, poetry, and
the arts. Most known for sun and archery, and
music.
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Gods Siding with Greece

• Athena

Goddess of Wisdom and War Protector of
Odysseus Athens takes its name from her
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Gods Siding with Greece

• Hermes

Messenger of the Gods
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Gods Siding with Greece

• Poseidon

God of the Sea and Earthquakes Inventor of
horses Second only to Zeus in power
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Zeus

• King of the Gods
• God of the sky and thunder
• Also the god of hospitality
• Neutral in the Trojan war
• Known for his infidelities against his wife, Hera

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From Bureaucrats Barbarians The Greek Dark
Ages by Richard Hooker

• No other texts in the Western imagination occupy
  as central a position in the self-definition of
  Western culture as in the two epic poems of
  Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey. They both
  concern the great defining moment of Greek
  culture, the Trojan War.

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From Bureaucrats Barbarians The Greek Dark
Ages by Richard Hooker

• If the Greeks regarded the Trojan War as the
  defining moment of their culture, they did so
  because of the poetry of Homer. It would not be
  unfair to regard the Homeric poems as the single
  most important texts in Greek culture.

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From Bureaucrats Barbarians The Greek Dark
Ages by Richard Hooker

• Whether or not this war really occurred, or
  occurred as the Greeks narrate it, is a
  relatively unanswerable question. We know that
  such a war did take place around a city that 
  quite likely was Troy, that Troy was destroyed
  utterly, but beyond that its all speculation.

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