Lecture 4: Odyssey :
Background & Motifs
Pt.1: Background; “Recap” of
Bks i-viii; Odyssey motifs
Pt. 2: Exposition of VIII. 495IX 38
Odysseus,Source:http://www.mediaworkshop.org/humaniti
es/block/task.html
Background,
Book I-VIII Highlights
• Aftermath of The Iliad
• Brief highlights of
Odyssey, Books i-viii.1494)
Odysseus and Penelope Reunited,
Source:http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Odysseus.html
– Invocation to the muse (I.117)
– Beginning in the middle (“In
medias res”)
– A son’s search for his
father (1-IV)
– The hero’s escape from a
goddess’s love and a god’s
wrath (Bk. V)
– A restorative stay in
Phaia´kia (Bks VI-VIII)
“Motifs” of The Odyssey (1)
Source:http://www.irasov.com/Odysseus.htm
• Definition of motif: “recurrent
images, words, objects,
phrases or actions which tend
to unify a work” (Handbook of
Literature, 6th ed.)
• Motifs shared with the Iliad
(and how they change)
1) Piety/Impiety
2) Hospitality/Inhospitality
3) Disguised Identity
4) Arête
– An ethic of valor
augmented by an ethic
of “guile” (Stewart 187)
– Hierarchal emphasis gives
way to exaltation of humility
Odysseus slays suitors having been disguised,
Source:http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull30.html
“Motifs” Cont.
Suitors being slayed by Odysseus
Source: http://www.irasov.com/Odysseus.htm
•
Motifs specific to The
Odyssey
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Illegitimate occupation and
domestic usurpation
Telemakhos’s coming of age
Penelope’s “wily” fidelity
Hindrances to Homecoming
The “Agamemnon foil”
–
Telemachus,
Source:http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical/odyssey.htm
l
6)
A foil is a secondary character
in essentially similar status as
a protagonist (major character).
By comparing and contrasting
this character’s decisions,
circumstances, and fate with
that of the protagonist’s, we
gain a better perspective on
that major character.
“Pitiless death” (Ix.17)
Pt. 2: Exposition of viii.495-ix.38 (1)
• Demodokos as “stand-in”
for Homer
• Demodokos’s “song of
heroes” has a dramatic
impact on Odysseus
– It makes him weep (586-7
[Norton 8th])
– It prepares him to reveal his
identity
• Why this is important
– Spends the epic as a
“disguised” guest (Stewart
188)
– High drama when revealed
– Disaster when prematurely
revealed
Epic singer Cretan geometric bronze figurine Iraklion Museum
Source: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/sh
Pt. 2: Exposition of viii.495-ix.38
• Odysseus describes himself in
two key phrases: “I am…”; “I
am known. . . ”
– “I am Laertes’son, Odysseus. .
. .Ithaca is my home. . “
• Identity=parentage, place,
• More dear than immortality
goddess’s love
• A “home body” or a “nobody”
– “Known too the world for every
kind of craft”
• Adventures as hindrance to
homecoming (and “identity”
recovery)
I am Odysseus, son of
Laertes, known to the world
for every kind of craft—my
fame has reached the
skies.
Sunny Ithaca is my home.
Atop her stands our seamark. . .
I know no sweeter sight on
earth than a man’s own
country,
. True enough, Calypso, the
lustrous goddess, tried to
hold me back (ix. 21-23;
31-33 [Nor. 8th].