Transcript The Odyssey
The Odyssey Background Information Almost 3000 years ago, people who lived in the starkly beautiful part of the world we now call Greece were telling stories about a great war – Homer gathered these stories together telling them as one unified epic – The Iliad – The Odyssey Homer’s stories probably can be traced to historical struggles for control of the waterway leading from the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea – 1200 BC (as long ago for Homer as the Pilgrim’s landing at Plymouth Rock is for us) Homer’s first epic was the ILIAD – tells of a 10 year war fought on the plains outside the walls of a great city called Troy – Ruins in western Turkey – Trojan War – the people of Troy vs an alliance of Greek kings – The cause of the war was jealousy: Helen abandoned her husband Menelaus (a Greek king) and ran off with Paris (a prince of Troy) The ODYSSEY – the attempt of one Greek soldier, Odysseus, to get home after the Trojan War – All epic poems in the Western world follow these basic patterns Epics & Values EPICS are long narrative poems that tell of the adventures of heroes who in some way embody the values of their civilizations – Greeks used these poems for centuries in schools to teach Greek virtues – Later cultures imitated the style using their own value systems Rome – AENEID France – SONG OF ROLAND Italy – THE DIVINE COMEDY India – MAHABHARATA & RAMAYANA Mali - SUNDIATA ILIAD – primary model for the epic of war ODYSSEY – the model for the epic of the long journey – THE WIZARD OF OZ – STAR WARS – ODYSSEY is the more widely read of the two stories The War-Story Background: Violence & Brutality The ILIAD – set in the 10th and final year of the Trojan War – Greeks attacked Troy – Greek kings banded together under the leadership of Agamemnon – 1000 ships sailed across the Aegean Sea & laid siege to the walled city of Troy Greeks were eventually victorious – Gained entrance to Troy – Reduced the city to smoldering ruins – Butchered all the inhabitants (took some as slaves back to Greece) – Achilles – greatest of the Greek warriors who died young in the final year of the war – Agamemnon was murdered by his unfaithful wife when he returned from Troy Odysseus – Subject of THE ODYSSEY – Known as much for his brains as his strength Odysseus: A Hero in Trouble Heroes were thought of as a special class of aristocrats – They were placed between the gods and ordinary human beings – Experienced pain & death BUT always “on top of the world” Odysseus is different – He is a hero in trouble – We can relate to Odysseus THE ODYSSEY – Melancholy & postwar disillusionment – Odysseus – great soldier in the war but the monsters he faces do not care about his war record – Ithaca lacks respect for him when he returns Odysseus had married Penelope in the years before the great war – Had one son, Telemachus – He was still a toddler when Odysseus was called to war – Odysseus did not want to go to war even though he was under treaty to do so – Pretended to be insane to avoid going to war; but he was quickly figured out The Wooden-Horse Trick Odysseus performed extremely well as a soldier & commander once in Troy – He thought of the wooden-horse trick that would be the downfall of Troy The Ancient World & Ours World of Odysseus was harsh & familiar with violence – Act like pirates on their journey home – Enter towns & carry off all their worldly goods – Pots, pans, cattle, sheep – “palaces” – elaborate mud and stone farmhouses A Search For Their Places in Life Searching for right relationships with one another & with the people around them – Theme – Story begins with Telemachus who is now 20 years old – Threatened by rude, powerful men swarming about his own home, pressuring his mother to marry one of them – Men want to rob Telemachus of his inheritance Odysseus is stranded on an island, longing to find a way to get back to his wife, child, and home – 10 years since Odysseus sailed from Troy – 20 years since he left Ithaca – Odysseus searching for inner peace (as we are all in search of our true selves) Relationships with the gods MYTHS – traditional stories, rooted in a particular culture, that usually explain a belief, a ritual, or a mysterious natural phenomenon – Essentially religious Homer is always concerned with the relationship between humans and gods – – – – Homer is religious The gods control all things Athena, the goddess of wisdom (always w/ Odysseus) ALTER EGO – a reflection of a hero’s best or worst qualities – Poseidon, god of the sea – known for arrogance and a certain brutishness – Odysseus himself can be violent & cruel Who Was Homer? No one knows for sure! – A blind minstrel, or singer, who came from the island of Chios – Just a legend? – Too good to be true? – Model for a class of wandering bards or minstrels later called rhapsodes RHAPSODES, or “singers of tales” – historians and entertainers as well as they mythmakers of their time – No written history – No movies & no TV; no Bible or book of religious stories – Minstrels traveled from community to community singing of recent events How Were the Epics Told? Oral epic poets are still composing today in Eastern Europe & other parts of the world – ILIAD & ODYSSEY originally told aloud by people who could not read or write – Follow a basic story line – Singers were very talented & worked very hard – Audience must listen closely Repetition in Homeric epics HOMERIC or EPIC SIMILES – Similes that compare heroic or epic events to simple & easily understandable everyday events A story as long as THE ODYSSEY (11,300 lines) would not be told at one sitting – Summarize parts & tell the rest in detail A Live Performance Imagine a large hall full of people who are freshly bathed, rubbed with fine oils, and draped in clean tunics – – – – Smell the meat being cooked over charcoal Hear the sound of voices Imagine wine being freely poured See the flickering reflections of the great cooking fires & torches that light the room – A certain anticipation hangs in the air – Perhaps Homer himself is in town, and will appear and entertain tonight!