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The Odyssey  II: An Epic Identity The Odyssey  II: An Epic Identity

The Odyssey II: An Epic Identity - PowerPoint Presentation

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The Odyssey II: An Epic Identity - PPT Presentation

The Odyssey II An Epic Identity Prof Foster Chamberlin October 15 2018 HUM 101 Cultural Encounters I Boğaziçi University Class Outline Historical Background Odysseuss Backstory The Beginning in the Middle of the Story ID: 765340

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The Odyssey II: An Epic Identity Prof. Foster Chamberlin October 15, 2018 HUM 101- Cultural Encounters I Boğaziçi University

Class Outline Historical Background Odysseus’s Backstory The Beginning (in the Middle) of the StoryThe Tale of the CyclopsThe Rest of the StoryFinal Thoughts

Mycenae (1600-1150 BCE?)

Lion Gate

Mycenaean Tombs

Troy(?) VII

The Trojan War

Early Greece Timeline Mycenae (1600-1200 BCE) Warlike Bronze Age civilization with writing Late Bronze Age Collapse (1200-1100 BCE)Greek Dark Age (1100-900 BCE)Writing lostArchaic Period (900-480 BCE) Civilization restared, poleis emergeOral stories about the Mycenaeans (1000-750)The Iliad and the Odyssey compiled (700s?)The poems written down (500s?)

Odysseus’s Backstory Identity- king, warrior, husband, father Cunning tactician or deceitful trickster? Homecoming or nostosTelemachus as son, Penelope as wife

Telemachus

Penelope

The Nymph Calypso

The Phaeacians

Flattering Others’ Desires for Reputation “ Nausikaa , daughter of great-hearted Alkinoös,even so may Zeus, high-thundering husband of Hera,grant me to reach my house and see my day of homecoming. So even when I am there I will pray to you, as to a goddess,all the days of my life. For, maiden, my life was your gift.” (pg. 133, lines 464-8)“If you can tell me the course of all these things as they happened,I will speak of you before all mankind, and tell themhow freely the goddess gave you the magical gift of singing.” (pg. 134, lines 496-8)

The Trauma of War? “So the famous singer sang his tale, but Odysseus melted, and from under his eyes the tears ran down, drenching his cheeks. As a woman weeps, lying over the bodyof her dear husband, who fell fighting for her city and people as he tried to beat off the pitiless day from city and children;she sees him dying and gasping for breath, and winding her bodyabout him she cries high and shrill, while the men behind her,hitting her with their spear butts on the back and the shoulders,force her up and lead her away into slavery, to havehard work and sorrow, and her cheeks are wracked with pitiful weeping.” (pg. 134, lines 521-30)

Community Identity “Tell me the name by which your mother and father called you in that place, and how the rest who live in the city about you call you.” (pg. 135, lines 550-2)“Now first I will tell you my name, so that all of youmay know me… I am Odysseus son of Laertes, known before all menfor the study of crafty designs, and my fame goes up to the heavens.I am at home in sunny Ithaka.” (pg. 137, lines 16-7, 19-21)

The Kikonians - Still in Warrior Mode “I sacked their city and killed their people, and out of their city taking their wives and many possessions” (pg. 138, lines 40-1)

The Cyclopes as Barbarism “From there, grieving still at heart, we sailed on further along, and reached the country of the lawless outrageous Cyclopes who, putting all their trust in the immortalgods, neither plow with their hands nor plant anything, but all grows for them without seed planting, without cultivation,wheat and barley and also the grapevines, which yield for themwine of strength, and it is Zeus’ rain that waters it for them.These people have no institutions, no meetings for counsels;rather they make their habitations in caverns hollowedamong the peaks of the high mountains, and each one is the lawfor his own wives and children, and cares nothing about the others.” (pg. 140, lines 105-15)

Seafaring, Trade and Colonization as Civilization “For the Cyclopes have no ships with cheeks of vermilion, nor have they builders of ships among them, who could have made them strong-benched vessels, and these if made could have run them sailingsto all the various cities of men, in the way that people cross the sea by means of ships and visit each other,and they could have made this island a strong settlement for them.” (pg. 140, lines 125-30)

Odysseus as Explorer “The rest of you, who are my eager companions, wait here, while I, with my own ship and companions that are in it, go and find out about these people, and learn what they are,whether they are savage and violent, and without justice,or hospitable to strangers and with minds that are godly.” (pg. 141, lines 172-6)

Dual Revelations of Identity “Cyclops, you ask me for my famous name. I will tell you then, but you must give me a guest gift as you have promised. Nobody is my name. My father and mother call meNobody, as do all the others who are my companions.” (pg. 146, lines 364-7)“Cyclops, if any mortal man ever asks you who it was that inflicted upon your eye this shameful blinding,tell him that you were blinded by Odysseus, sacker of cities.Laertes is his father, and he makes his home in Ithaka.” (pg. 150, lines 502-5)

A Harsh Punishment “’Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge yourself as my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who makes his home in Ithaka, may never reach that home;but if it is decided that he shall see his own people, and come home to his strong-founded house and to his own country,let him come late, in bad case, with the loss of all his companions,in someone’s else’s ship, and find troubles in his household.’” (pg. 151, lines 528-35)

The Rest of the Story

Odysseus Kills the Suitors

Odysseus Reunites with Penelope

Conclusions The Trojan War may or may not have happened, but the Odyssey reveal the values of the early Greek poleisThe Odyssey about a homecoming journey where Odysseus reshapes and reclaims his identityOdysseus faces many obstacles from unhospitable, uncivilized representations of nature, not always very successfully, but he never gives up Odysseus uses his wits and self-control to restore order to his community, choosing reputation over immortality

Questions for Discussion Where are boundaries being transgressed? Is Polyphemus just an uncivilized monster or does he have some humanity to him? Does Odysseus deserve the punishment Polyphemus and Poseidon give him?What are the similarities and differences between Odysseus’s and Gilgamesh’s journeys? Do they have similar goals? Do they teach us similar lessons?Are the values expressed by Homer similar to those of Hesiod?