Table of Content
So Odysseus, master strategist and tactician , travels home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. Delays and detours ensue which take up the first half of the story. Most of these travel snags are caused by Poseidon, who is grudging on Odysseus for stick-poking Poseidon’s son (i.e. the Cyclops) in the peeper. Not to fear, Athena is a proud sponsor of Odysseus and, along with some help for big daddy god Zeus, throws Odysseus some Olympian help. A good companion read is Hal Roth's We Followed Odysseus - maybe not the most eloquent of books, but he retraces Odysseus's voyage in his sailboat, which is a pretty rad idea.
Homer does a superb job of keeping the story epic while providing the reader with wonderful details about the life of the greek people during this period. The earliest civil records for Jews of southern Germany appear towards the end of the 18th century. Prior to this time, only tax records, property lists, and court records documented the presence of individual Jews.
DETAILED MAP OF SOUTH GERMANY
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the poem is the sophisticated structure. I expected that it would be episodic, and it is, but I did not anticipate a non-linear narrative. The Odyssey begins in media res, with a significant proportion of the action already in the past.
This one is my preferred edition for reading the actual poem. I will write more about this one because it's the most interesting. Her introduction is so informative and insightful that it deserves five stars on its own. The adventures are fun to read and they reverberate interesting details about ancient myths of the Bronze Age Greek-speaking world and its surrounding lands. The parts about Odysseus' adventures are full of wonder, whimsy, and excitement.
The deadline is too short to read someone else's essay
My brother and I did not encounter any Sirens, or Lotus Eaters or Cyclops, but our walk through the snow was, in principle, a fight to get home, to overcome adversity and return to the familiar and comfortable. And, on the most basic level, this is just what The Odyssey is about. Eventually, with the help of Pallas Athena, he is allowed to leave; and so continues his famous, epic quest. I don't know about you but I had many misconceptions about this tale.
For instance, Penelope tests Odysseus' identity by saying that she will move the bed into the other room for him. This is a difficult task since it is made out of a living tree that would require being cut down, a fact that only the real Odysseus would know, thus proving his identity. The next day, at Athena's prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus' bow. The man who can string the bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition, and he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot the arrow through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He then throws off his rags and kills Antinous with his next arrow.
Homer’s and Hinds’ “The Odyssey”
Odysseus kills the other suitors, first using the rest of the arrows and then by swords and spears. Once the battle is won, Telemachus also hangs twelve of their household maids whom Eurycleia identifies as guilty of betraying Penelope or having sex with the suitors. She is hesitant but recognizes him when he mentions that he made their bed from an olive tree still rooted to the ground. Having listened to his story, the Phaeacians agree to provide Odysseus with more treasure than he would have received from the spoils of Troy. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca.
Once more I would be able to carry off Operation Replace Homer. I’d been about to head out to Petco, I even had the car key in my hand, when I heard a noise in the kitchen. It was my husband, standing in the kitchen, staring at the little speckled body floating in the tank I’d failed to clean. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work.
As we know today, the health and economic achievements of families depend to a great extent on the literacy of the mothers. Perhaps Emperor Joseph II should be thanked for some of the growth of the Jewish population, and the economic and academic success of 19th-century European Jewry. These lists show the old, patronymic name in one column and the new civil name in the second column. Name adoption lists from Baden were collected by the genealogist and historian Berthold Rosenthal and now are housed at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York.
Odysseus reveals himself to his son, Telemachus, and to his loyal swineherd and cowherd. The old dog Argos, who had known his master as a pup, and the old nurse Eurycleia see on their own through the guise of age and poverty that Athene has helped the man of strategies don. To acknowledge the identity of this stranger as Odysseus is, in effect, to acknowledge authority itself, to demonstrate ones acquiescence to the whole system that legitimizes a kings rule. After all, no one who opposes the rights of Odysseus learns who the old beggar really is until he puts an arrow through Antinoüss throat. Not even such old, disloyal servants as Melantho and Melanthius show the slightest suspicion that the mysterious stranger they enjoy abusing is their dangerous master returned. Only those who submit themselves to the hierarchical system, who recognize their own places, can also recognize Odysseus.
After the cannibalistic Laestrygonians destroyed all of his ships except his own, Odysseus sailed on and reached the island of Aeaea, home of witch-goddess Circe. She turned half of his men into swine with drugged cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus an herb called moly, making him resistant to Circe's magic. Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back to their human forms and was seduced by her.
The pace of the story is fast and moves quickly with hardly a chance to even catch your breath. I want to start with that because this is not one of those classics that I think is worth while only to get it under your belt or checked off a list. This was a great story with great characters and in a style that was both “off the usual path” but still easy to follow.
Once more I whisked a dead Homer from the filthy fish tank, buried him beneath a flowering forsythia, and headed to Petco in search of a new Homer. Every time my husband returned from one of his trips abroad, he’d rush into the kitchen and peer into the little fish tank on the counter, eager to watch Homer do a lap. Although most people don’t think a fish in a tank can communicate with the human on the other side of the glass, I swear Homer was different. Each time he sensed my husband watching him, he set off on a tour of the tank, swimming back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. He was an eager little fellow, for about two months.
It often depends on the translation version you read, as it might make it better or worse for you. I don't recall which one the teacher selected, but it must have been good as I did my quarterly papers on both this book and Homer's other work, The Iliad. The Odyssey was an amazing tale of a journey through the famed Trojan Wars in ancient Greece. Meeting all the gods and goddesses, understanding the genealogy and family structure, the plots between all their shenanigans and games...
The following four are another preamble, which take place roughly at the same time as the previous four. The son and the father are getting ready to meet almost at the end of twenty years of their separation with ten at the war and ten coming back. This has Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, on the rage because the suitors are eating, drinking and servant-boinking him out of his entire inheritance while they wait on Penelope.
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