
Please take your seats
Take out your notebooks and a pen
 Give me your attention when the music
ends


You will have 5 minutes to write on one of the
following prompts:
1.
2.
Why doesn't O tell his crew all of Circe's warnings?
Does he follow all her advice himself? What does
this tell us about O?
How is his crew like the suitors back in Ithaca?
Compare and contrast these two groups of men.

The Offering to the Dead





Elpenor – Asks for a proper burial
Teiresias’ prophecy
O’s Mother – O’s father?
The Queens of the Past
O stops his story to the Phaecians (Phaiakians, Altinoos’
people)
 Their offer?

Agamemnon – Plotting wife (original sin?)
 His advice




Achilles
Sisyphus
Hercules
Back to Circe

Circe’s Island


Elpenor’s body
Circe’s advice
 Sirens, Roving Rocks, Skylla, Charybdis, Helios’ cattle

Helio’s island
 One month of wind, eating Circe’s provisions
 Nap time
 Offering of the cattle, eating of the cattle
 Helios’ complaint to Zeus

The storm, the wreck, Calypso’s island


A theme of a story might be thought of as the
story’s point or its message. It is often a
generalization about life or human behavior or
values.
Stories often have multiple themes or meanings

Fables make this explicit and clear
 Slow and steady, the ant and the grasshopper


Most stories have room for interpretation depending
on the reader and his/her experiences/insights.
What themes have we seen so far?

Write two things/topics The Odyssey is ‘about.’

Respect for the Gods



“What do you want me to learn?!”
“That without the Gods, man is nothing!”
Characters find success in respect for the gods and
failure when they disrespect them.
 Athena’s admiration leads her to help O and T
 O’s mistreatment of Polyphemus brings Poseidon’s
wrath
 O’s men slaughter Hyperion’s cattle and are cursed by
Zeus

Hospitality

Guests might be a god/goddess in disguise
 Athena
O’s presumption of Polyphemus
 O’s welcome by Alkinoos


Pride


O taunts Polyphemus after his escape
O rarely admits guilt/faults
 (It’s the gods’ fault I fell asleep!)


Suitors’ Pride
Crewman Pride

Intelligence Over Strength

O’s foes are physically more powerful
 O is crafty when his crew panics
Penelope and her loom
 O’s confrontation of the suitors


Temptation

Giving in to temptation produces bad results
 The lotus
 Circe’s unlimited meat and sweet wine
 Helios’ cattle

All food related, for some reason…

Revenge

The action is often started when someone does
something they shouldn’t, and vengeance must be
taken.
 This is a theme of the Epic in general

It is usually the main motivator for action
 Remember the Trojan war?
 Poseidon’s anger?
 The Suitors?

These heroes were without the modern justice
system, therefore, justice came only to those
who sought after it.


This usually took the form of killing or otherwise
inconveniencing those who wronged you.
It is not always swift:
 Beowulf and Grendel
 O and the suitors

But it can be:
 Grendel’s mother
 O and Polyphemus

The Hero Code

Honor and Pride are at the heart of this


Characterize Odysseus as well as one other
major character and one minor character
Quote/Text/Scene/Incident/Page number on
left and inference/explanation/illumination on
right

By the end of next week, you will have produced
one of the following assignments:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Conflict analysis paper
Modern retelling of any book
Odysseus personal journal entries
O taunting Polyphemus re-imagining
We will brainstorm next period, a rough draft
will be due early next week, and final drafts and
presentations will be at the end of next week.