Introduction to Homer and The Odyssey

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Introduction to Homer and The Odyssey
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Why are there so many translations?

• The Odyssey is three thousand years old!
• Numerous translations exist. Each focus on
  different aspects of the story. Some focus on the
  poetry, some on the prose, others on the imagery.
  
• Imagine playing Telephone with a room full of
  painters, poets, rappers, and actors the same
  story would be interpreted beautifully, and very
  differently, by each artist.

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W.H.D. Rouse

• A British teacher and Latin scholar.
• Translated numerous Latin works specifically so
  that they would be didactic teaching and learning
  tools.
• Rouse, William Henry Denham in Venn, J. J. A.,
  Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University.
  Press, 10 Vols, 19221958.

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HOMER Made beards cool long before Zack
Galifianakis stole a baby.
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Facts about Homer the Author

• Nothing certain many theories
• Some scholars believe the poems cannot be
  attributed to a single author
• He was probably a blind bard who wandered from
  place to place reciting poems
• bard bärd a composer, singer, or declaimer of
  epic or heroic verse

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Homers Language

• Attempted to be as natural, simplistic, and
  realistic as possible.
• Tellings occurred most often after large feasts.
• Audience was usually full, rowdy, and in
  party-mode. Short attention spans abounded.
• Homer had to keep his story interesting if he
  expected to be invited back.
• Word of mouth was the only form of advertising.

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The Odyssey

• The epic poem

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Our Friend Odysseus

• The hero of The Odyssey goes on one of those
  dangerous and long journeys, coming across many
  obstacles and fighting for his life numerous
  times before being able to return home after 10
  years!
• He comes home to suitors trying to take over his
  house.

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Why we read The Odyssey

• Considered one of the most important works in The
  Canon
• canon ka-n?n\ noun an authoritative list of
  books accepted as the most influential or
  important books that have shaped a culture
• Like Greek Mythology, its widely alluded to in
  classic and modern literature.
• It is everywhere I am not kidding. Pretty much
  every high-schooler around the world reads it at
  some point. It will come up in conversation.
• Professor Stokol, Harvard-Westlake High School

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Homers Major Works

• The Iliad
• Hero Achilles
• Main Conflict The Trojan War
• The Odyssey
• Hero Odysseus
• Main Conflict Odysseus attempt to return home

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The Odyssey

• Odyssey noun
• Etymology the Odyssey, epic poem attributed to
  Homer recounting the long wanderings of Odysseus
• 1 a long wandering or voyage usually marked by
  many changes of fortune
• 2 an intellectual or spiritual wandering or
  quest

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The Heroism of Odysseus

• The Odyssey is about Odysseus adventures in
  Ithaca on his way home from Troy.
• He departed from Troy with a fleet of 12 ships
  carrying 720 men.
• He encounters various monsters who attempt to
  keep him from his wife, Penelope and his son,
  Telemachus.
• He uses many tricks to get out of these difficult
  situations.

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Epic

• Epic adjective
• Etymology Latin epicus, from Greek epikos, from
  epos word, speech, poem. Date 1589
• extending beyond the usual or ordinary
  especially in size or scope lthis genius was epic
  Times Literary Supplementgt b heroic

• Epic Poem
• a long narrative poem describing a hero's deeds
• a narrative poem is one that tells a story

Epic and Yucky.
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Divine Intervention
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Tea Time Discussion

• Which is more important
• the journey
• or
• the destination?

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• The following are the first two paragraphs of The
  Odyssey. Pay attention to the initial details of
  the story.
• What kind of man is Odysseus? How is he
  characterized?
• What is important to him?
• Describe the language of the text.

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The Story of Odysseus Book One What Went On in
the House of Odysseus

• This is the story of a man, one who was never
  at a loss. He had travelled far in the world,
  after the sack of Troy, the virgin fortress he
  saw many troubles and hardships in the struggle
  to save his own life and to bring back his men
  safe to their homes. He did his best, but he
  could not save his companions. For they perished
  by their own madness, because they killed and ate
  the cattle of Hyperion the Sun-god, and the god
  took care that they should never see home again.

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• At the time when I begin, all the others who had
  not been killed in the war were at home, safe
  from the perils of battle and sea but he was
  alone, longing to get home to his wife. He was
  kept prisoner by a witch, Calypso, a radiant
  creature, and herself one of the great family of
  gods, who wanted him to stay in her cave and be
  her husband. Well then, the seasons went rolling
  by, and when the year came, in which by the
  thread that fate spins for every man he was to
  return home to Ithaca, he had not yet got free of
  his troubles and come back to his own people. The
  gods were all sorry for him, except Poseidon, god
  of the sea, who bore a lasting grudge against him
  all the time until he returned.

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• What did you notice?
• Why does it matter?

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Book One Pay attention to

• Athenas intervention
• The suitors
• Telemachus
• Penelope

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