Transcript The Odyssey - Treasure Mountain Junior High

The Odyssey
What you need to know before you read
Mr. Parker
Treasure Mountain International School
Gods and Goddesses

The Ancient Greeks were pantheistic
 many gods and goddesses.

The Greeks believed that gods and
goddesses controlled everything in their
lives.

Gods lived on Mount Olympus

There was a god for many aspects of
life.

It was important to please the gods;
happy gods helped you, but unhappy
gods punished you.

Gods were like a big dysfunctional
family
Zeus

Youngest son of Cronos and
Rhea

Supreme ruler of the gods

God of thunder and lightening

Married to Hera

Symbol is the lightening bolt

Had sex with lots of women,
both gods and mortals
Hera

Daughter of Cronos and Rhea

Wife of Zeus

Goddess of women and
marriage

Extremely jealous of Zeus

Often took revenge on the
women Zeus slept with
Hades

God of the Underworld

Older brother to Zeus

Abducted Persephone, daughter
of Demeter, to be his bride

Always has Cerberus, his 3headed dog, by his side
Demeter

Goddess of the earth, harvest,
and fertility

Mother of Persephone

Symbol is wheat
Persephone

Daughter of Demeter

Abducted by Hades

Ate 4 pomegranate seeds

Must spend one month for every
seed she ate with Hades

While she is absent, her mother
goes into mourning and the
earth is barren
Poseidon

God of the sea

Brother of Zeus

Father of the Cyclopes

Symbol is the trident

Antagonist to Odysseus
Aphrodite

Goddess of love, beauty, and
sexuality

Born in the sea

Married to Hephaestus, the
blacksmith god, god of fire and
technology

Mother of Eros, otherwise
known as Cupid
Athena

Goddess of wisdom, war, and
the domestic arts

Daughter of Zeus and Metis

Born from Zeus’ head

Very logical, admires
intelligence

Unmarried, virgin

Frequently helps Odysseus
Apollo

Son of Zeus and Leto

God of light/the sun, healing

Rides a chariot through the sky,
its golden wheels are the sun

Also god of wisdom, the arts,
and plague
Hermes

Messenger of the gods

Acted as a conduit between gods
and mortals

Wore winged sandals

Mischievous

Symbol is the caduceus
Ares

God of war

Rumored to have had an affair
with Aphrodite

Often argued with Athena

Kind of a psycho
The Trojan War

Started by the gods

Eris, goddess of dischord, threw
a golden apple into a wedding
dance (that she wasn’t invited to)
with a tag that read “for the
fairest”

It was immediately fought over
by

Aphrodite

Hera

Athena
Who is the fairest?

Zeus refused to decide, so the
goddesses turned to a mortal,
Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy.

All 3 goddesses promised Paris
rewards
 Athena promised he would
defeat the Greeks
 Hera promised he would be the
lord of Europe and Asia
 Aphrodite promised he would
marry the most beautiful
woman in the world

WHICH WOULD YOU
CHOOSE?
The problem was …

Helen, the most beautiful
woman in the world, was
already married to Menelaus,
king of Sparta.

Aphrodite lead Paris to Sparta

Menelaus left for Crete

Helen ran away with Paris, back
to Troy

Helen became “The face that
launched a thousand ships.”
The Meeting of the Greeks

The kings of Greece met, swore
allegiance to Menelaus, and
agreed to wage war on Troy.

Kings of Greece:

Menelaus of Sparta

Agammenon of Mycenae,
brother of Menelaus

Nestor of Pylos

Odysseus of Ithaca

Achilles of Phtia
The battle wore on …

The siege of Troy lasted for 10
years

Became the subject of Homer’s
epic The Iliad

Ended only because of Odysseus

The Trojan horse: Giant
sculpture/booby trap

Troy was sacked, only Aeneas
survived
 Subject of Virgil’s Aenead,
another epic poem
The Odyssey

Written around 800 B.C.

Credited author is Homer, a
blind poet

Passed down through
generations orally, probably a
collection of authors, refined
over the years

Spans the ten years after the fall
of Troy, follows Odysseus as he
tries to get home to Ithaka
Vocabulary and Terms
 epic
 arete
 hero
 allusion
 invocation
 archetype
 epithet
 oral
tradition
Epic

a long poem

typically derived from ancient oral tradition

narrates the deeds and adventures of heroic or
legendary figures or the history of a nation
Hero

a person, typically a man, who is
admired or idealized for courage,
outstanding achievements, or noble
qualities

the chief male character in a book,
play, or movie, who is typically
identified with good qualities, and with
whom the reader is expected to
sympathize

(in mythology and folklore) a person of
superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one of those
whose exploits and dealings with the
gods were the subject of ancient Greek
myths and legends
Invocation

the action of invoking something
or someone for assistance

the summoning of a deity or the
supernatural
Epithet

a descriptive term accompanying a name and having
entered common usage

examples from Homer:


“rosy-fingered Dawn”

“swift-footed Achilles”

“the wine-dark sea”
other examples:

“Alexander the Great”
Arete

excellence

courage and strength in the face
of adversity

what all people in ancient
Greece aspired to
Allusion

an expression designed to call something to mind
without mentioning it explicitly

an indirect or passing reference

often used in literature

many allusions have to do with 3 things:

Greek mythology

Shakespeare

The Bible
Archetype

a very typical example of a certain person or thing

an original that has been imitated

a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or
mythology
Oral Tradition

a way of passing cultural history
down through generations
without using written language

exists in both pre-literate and
post-literate cultures

storytellers, bards, musicians,
and actors are all part of an oral
tradition

in some cultures, oral tradition
was a way of educating children,
as well as mapping their
surroundings
The Monomyth

First examined by Joseph
Campbell in 1954 in The Hero
With a Thousand Faces

Campbell noticed similarities in
hero folklore from different
cultures and in different time
periods

Wrote about the hero’s journey,
largely based on The Odyssey

Work has been used by other
important storytellers
Works Cited
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"Google Images." Google. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.methodevolutionblog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2010/01/imagesGoldenApple_B.jpg>.
Greek Mythology. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. http://www.greekmythology.com/
“Homer's Odyssey.” Great Books Summer Program - Reading Camp for Middle and High School
Students . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.greatbookssumme
Welcome to the Joseph Campbell Foundation Website. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.jcf.org/>.
“Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr.
2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono
"Zeus Clipart." Educational Technology Clearinghouse . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2011.
<http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/400