ODYSSEY INTRODUCTION JANUARY 5
Welcome back. It’s going to be a great semester. Everybody has a clean slate and an opportunity to do their best. What changes will you make to make sure you’re doing everything you can to succeed?
Why are we reading this poem, The Odyssey? What will our focus be?
Topics for today: THE EPIC CYCLE | What is EPIC? | What are XENIA, KLEOS, ARETE?
Everything I ever learned about being a real man I learned from reading Homer’s Odyssey.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading and studying Book 1 for our next class, pages 1-14. Know its contents inside and out; test your knowledge of my summary of the epic cycle and Book 1 by practicing the quiz you’ll take during our next class. This will be the only time you’ll see the quiz beforehand.
ODYSSEY BOOK 1 JANUARY 9
How did it go? What’s challenging about the reading of the poem? How is reading the Odyssey different from reading other texts?
We’ll take the quiz before delving into our first discussion:
We'll discuss the first verse paragraph in detail: Is man’s’ fate caused by their own actions? Is it foreordained? Is it arbitrary?
What are the various qualities of Odysseus introduced at the beginning?
Let's also discuss the portrait of Telemachus’ character. How should we understand Telemachus’s harsh response to his mother Penelope re the bard’s song?
LESSONS 1 and 2.
Moving forward: Parallel stories in the poem
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading our edition’s selections from Book 4 for our next class, pages 15-29. Make sure you also read the short summaries of the omitted portions.
ODYSSEY BOOK 4 JANUARY 10
We’ll begin with a quiz before moving to our next discussion:
Telemachus’s wisdom; Helen’s shame; the story of Proteus as a parallel to Odysseus
Today I’ll also set your first writing assignment of the semester.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading our edition’s selections from Book 5 for our next class, pages 29-44. Make sure you also read the short summaries of the omitted portions.
ODYSSEY BOOK 5 JANUARY 12
In Book 5 we meet Odysseus for the first time. Does he stand up to the ways he’s been characterized by others in the poem so far? How so?
There’s a great deal I’d like to look at during discussion today, but we’ll focus on lessons 3, 4, and 5: Why does Zeus require Odysseus to make a raft? And why a raft rather than a ship?
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading our edition’s selections from Books 6 and 8 for our next class, pages 44-61. Make sure you also read the short summaries of the omitted portions. As always, there will be a quiz during our next class.
ODYSSEY BOOKS 6, 8 JANUARY 13
Nothing really beats Book 5, but Books 6 and 8 will have to do for today. Yes, we’re having a quiz. It’s a bit shorter, and hopefully now you’re getting the hang of them. Let’s talk today about the function of Demodocus’s songs and Odysseus’s encounter with Nausicaa.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading our edition’s selections from Book 9 for our next class, pages 62-77. Make sure you also read the short summaries of the omitted portions. As always, there will be a quiz during our next class. During our next class, we’ll talk about the theory of monsters and why humans invent them.
What an extraordinary part of this poem Book 9 is! Enjoy it. Next time we’ll begin our discussion of Book 9 but will surely need to continue later. One thing we’ll certainly notice is that Odysseus’s encounters at each of his stops forces him to confront a part of himself that needs shaking off. His shortsightedness is at the heart of his encounter of Polyphemus, he who is both literally and metaphorically myopic.
ODYSSEY BOOK 9 JANUARY 18 / 20
Today will begin what will be an extended discussion of Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey. It’s a carefully crafted book that deserves our special attention. In the second half of class I will show you my sample body paragraph that you can use as a model for your current body paragraph assignment due in two weeks.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading Book 10 for our next class, please.
ODYSSEY BOOK 10 JANUARY 23
Today we will work through the essay assignment that is now due next week and discuss Book 10.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
You’re reading Book 11 for our next class, pages 95-114. Study hard; there’s a great deal of information!
ODYSSEY BOOK 11 JANUARY 25
Today I want to have a discussion about Book 11: Why does Odysseus go to Hades, and what does he learn there?
We’ll look at several groups of people he meets while there: Friends/Family, Women, Heroes
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
Your assignment for our next class is to read Book 12, pages 115-28.
ODYSSEY BOOK 12 JANUARY 26
Today we’ll look closely at the episode with Scylla and Charybdis, which is to my mind the single most important episode in the poem. We’ll use the trolly problem as a point of reference to understand the conundrum Odysseus finds himself in.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
Remember your essay is due Monday.
Please read our edition’s excerpts of Book 13, pages 129-40.
ODYSSEY BOOK 16 february 1
Today, after discussing Book 16, we’re going to consider Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth, wherein the hero of any given narrative works through a series of stages he calls the hero’s journey.
Here is a copy of today’s handout.
ODYSSEY BOOKS 17-19 FEBRUARY 6
Today I will guide us through three sections from Books 17-19 before turning to the following:
Revisit the values of the Grad at Grad on SJ’s webpage. I’d like you to choose the two Grad at Grad principles that you think are most applicable to Homer’s Odyssey. Begin to think about some ways Odysseus struggles with, learns about, or practices your chosen Grad at Grad value. Do this by reading through the description of each value completely and recalling moments in the Odyssey that apply. By our next class, I’d like you to find 6 quotes from the entire poem that you think have something to do with your chosen characteristics. Then I’d like you to write a sentence or two that explains how the quote pertains to the principle of the Grad at Grad. Do this in your notebook. It’s the foundation for your next essay assignment.
HOMEWORK FOR OUR NEXT MEETING:
Please read Book 21, pages 184-198.
ODYSSEY BOOKs 21/22 FEBRUARY 8/9
Today, after a quick quiz, we’ll work through the task of stringing the bow and the continued moments of anagnorisis in the poem. We’ll then begin learning what goes into the construction of a thesis statement.
Here are a few samples:
Though many take the pessimistic position that Homer’s female characters exist merely to serve and inspire the males in the poem, the Odyssey actually develops its female characters into complex heroines in their own right with aspirations and desires that run just as deep as their male counterparts. Using the characters of Nausicaa, Calypso, Penelope, and Clytaemnestra as examples, I argue that Homer’s women are, in fact, far more heroic and show a greater moral character than Odysseus and any of the other so-called heroes of the poem.
As long as Odysseus’s thirst for personal kleos outweighs his humility and a desire to put others before himself, the gods will never permit him to return home. By way of the extraordinary episode of Scylla and Charybdis, the Odyssey shows Odysseus’s transformation from a man driven entirely by his own ego to one whose goals are entirely motivated by a love for others. The path toward salvation, the poem argues, begins and ends with altruism and selflessness.
ODYSSEY BOOKs 23-24 FEBRUARY 14
ODYSSEY odyssey FEBRUARY 16
what's due?
January 30 — Homer’s Odyssey Speech Analysis
February 16 — Homer’s Odyssey Test
February 21— Thesis and Topic Sentences for Odyssey Essay
February 28 — First Draft of Odyssey Essay
March 6 — Final Draft of Odyssey Essay
March TBD — Poetry Project and Odyssey Passage Memorization
“Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.”
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
