The Odyssey

Part 1

Lesson Essential Questions

• How do the presence of unusual figures of speech and other literary elements help create memorable characters and situations?

• How has my knowledge of a subject, culture, or type of traditional tale increased as a result of reading this text?

Knowledge and Skill

• Identify symbols symbol and archetypes and evaluate their effect on the meaning of a story.

• How do character’s actions advance the plot?

Characters- the gods

• Cronus – Titan ruler of the universe; father of Zeus

• Zeus – does not take sides in Trojan War• Apollo – supported the Greeks• Poseidon – supported the Greeks• Athena - always on Odysseus’ side• Persephone & Hades • Hermes – messenger of the Gods• Aphrodite – supported Troy• Gods and Goddesses

Characters – the people

• Odysseus – King of Ithaca• Penelope – Odysseus’ wife• Telemachus – Odysseus and Penelope’s son• Laertes – Odysseus’ father• Agememnon – King and leader of the Greek

forces• Alcinous – King of Phaeacians, to whom

Odysseus is telling the story• Perimedes & Eurylochus – members of the crew• Tiresias – Blind prophet that advised Odysseus• Eumaeus – old swineherd and friend of Odysseus• Euryname – housekeep of Penelope• Antonious, Eurymachus, Amphinomus - suitors

Characters – the monsters

• Calypso – Sea goddess who loved Odysseus• Circe – enchantress who helped Odysseus• Polyphemus – The Cyclops who imprisoned

Odysseus• Sirens – creatures whose song lure sailors to

their death• Scylla – sea monster of gray rock• Charybdis – enormous and dangerous

whirlpool• Lampetia – nymph

The Odyssey: Part 1

• The Odyssey describes the experiences of the Greek hero Odysseus as he makes his way home after the Trojan War.

• The story is marked by melancholy and a feeling of postwar disillusionment.

• Odysseus and his family are people searching for the right relationship with one another and with the people around them– The journey is as much internal as it is

external, a search of identity

The story begins… Invoking the Muses

• “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Tory.”

– Page 890

A Captive

• Books 1-4 tell about Odysseus’ son, Telemachus, who has been searching the Mediterranean world for his father, who is MIA from the Trojan war. (10 years)

• When we first meet Odysseus, he is prisoner of the beautiful goddess Calypso. The old soldier is in despair: He has spent 10 years trying to get home (7/10 her captive)

Story of Calypso• Calypso is a goddess of

seduction– Lives on a beautiful island by

herself

• She saves Odysseus when his ship wrecks on his way back to Ithaca

• She wants to make him her lover and promises him immortality if he will stay

• Odysseus only wants to go home

• Calypso keeps him prisoner for 7 years– Kind – saved Odysseus from

death, helps him build raft– Jealous- she doesn’t want him to

leave her for his wife, Penelope

Story of Calypso• Zeus sends Hermes to

Calypso’s island to order Odysseus be released

• Calypso agrees and Odysseus builds a raft and sets sail but Poseidon causes a storm and Odysseus is ship wrecked

• The Goddess Athena has supported and helped him on his journey and she begs her father, Zeus to help him; he agrees.

Story of Calypso

1. Whom does Zeus send to Calypso’s island to order Odysseus’s release?

2. Why is Odysseus crying?3. What does Calypso promise Odysseus to

try to keep him on the island?4. How does Odysseus use tact in

responding to the jealous Calypso?5. Odysseus sets sail for home. Specifically,

how is he hindered? Who helps him in his struggle?

Calypsoby Suzanne Vega Salt of waves

And of tearsAnd though he pulled away I kept him here for yearsI let him go.

My name is CalypsoI have let him goIn the dawn he sails awayTo be gone forever moreAnd the waves will take him in againBut he’ll know their ways nowI will stand upon the shoreWith a clean heartAnd my song in the windThe sand will sting my feetAnd the sky will burnIt’s a lonley time aheadI do not ask him to returnI let him goI let him go.

My name is CalypsoAnd I have lived aloneI live on an islandAnd I waken to the dawnA long time agoI watched him struggle with the seaI knew that he was drowningAnd I brought him into meNow todayCome morning lightHe Sails awayAfter one last nightI let him go.

My name is CalypsoMy garden overflowsThink and wild and hiddenIs the sweetness there that growsMy hair it blows longAs I sing into the windI tell of nightsWhere I could taste the salt on his skin

Calypso

1. What is the tone of the poems first stanza?2. What do you think the words “I let him go”

are repeated so many times in the song? How does this differ from Calypso in the Odyssey?

3. Why does the Calypso of the song say she has a “clean heart”?

4. Does Calypso in the Odyssey have an equally clean heart?

5. Would you consider this to be a love song? Explain why or why not.

The story begins… I am Laertes’ Son

• Odysseus is found by the daughter of Alicnous, king of the Phaeacians. She brings him home.

• All guests are “god sent” and he is treated with reverence and gifts and then they ask who he is

• He begins to tell his story as flashbacks

The Lotus Eaters

• Odysseus tells the king of Calypso and all the years spent traveling from Troy

• He tells the story of the “Lotus Eaters,” people who live on an island and eat the plants which make them forget home

Story of Lotus Eaters

• Odysseus and men land on the Island of Lotus Eaters

• So beautiful he wants to stay there and rest

• Sends men to see if natives are friendly– Men don’t return

Story of Lotus Eaters• Odysseus goes to find men

and realizes natives are friendly

• Given his men Lotus to eat– A flower that grows on the

island– Like a drug that makes them

forget about home, their mission and Odysseus all together

• Drags men back to boat and orders his crew to row FAST– Doesn’t want any more of his

crew forgetting the way home back to Ithaca

The Cyclops

• The Cyclops named Polyphemus, Poseidon’s one-eyed monster son, represents brute forces that any hero must overcome before he can reach home. Odysseus’ curiosity leads him to the cave of the Cyclops and his intelligence must get him out….

– 899

Story of Cyclops

• Odysseus and his men come to island without knowing Cyclops monsters live there– Cyclops- large, one eyed

monsters– Have no manners or laws to

follow– Eat humans whenever

available

• Find a large cave and enjoy the food and drink they find there

• Men fell asleep with full stomachs

Story of Cyclops

• Polyphemus, the Cyclops who lived in the cave, returns with his sheep

• Rolls big stone in front of the entrance to his cave

• Finding men, Cyclops angrily grabs two men, slams heads against rocks and eats them. Falls fast asleep.– Odysseus is too scared to

take on the beast without a plan

Story of Cyclops• Cyclops awakes and eats two

more men for breakfast before leaving with his sheep– Odysseus and his men make

sharp spear out of wood

• Cyclops returns and eats two more men for dinner– Six men total!

• Odysseus speaks up and offers Polyphemus wine– Never drank before and loves

it!– Thanks Odysseus. Asks his

name and Odysseus responds, “My name is No-Man.”

Story of Cyclops• Men jab spear into Polyphemus’ eye

when he is asleep• Cyclops wakes up wailing but is

already blind– Men hide from him

• Neighbor cyclops come to see him. When they ask who did it, Polyphemus remarks, “No-man”– Other cyclops laugh at him

• Next morning, Odysseus ties each man to the belly of a giant sheep.– Polyphemus feels the back of each

sheep as they walk out of cave. Can’t see men.

• Run to ship and sail away– Odysseus yells to Polyphemus

laughing and telling him that it was not “No-man”, but Odysseus who fooled and blinded him

– Polyphemus responds that his father is Poseidon and will punish him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv2d0-dRrHI

Reading: The Cyclops• Describe

Polyphemus. Draw him.

• Does the Cyclops abide by the Greek Code of hospitality?

• How do the Greeks escape the Cyclops?

• What character flaw does Odysseus show at the end of the story?

The Cyclops in the Oceanby Nikkie Giovanni

Moving slowly…against time…patiently majestic…the Cyclops…in the ocean…meets no Ulysses

Through the night…he sighs…throbbing against theshore…declaring…for the adventure

A wall of gray…gathered by a slow touch…slash and slither…through the waiting screens…separating into nodules…making my panes….accept the touch…

Not content…to watch my frightened gaze…he clamorsbeneath the sash….dancing on my sill…

Certain to die…when the sun….returns…

Topical Storm Dennis, August 15 – 18, 1981, Florida

The Cyclops in the Ocean

1. What does the comparison of a tropical storm to the Cyclops suggest?

2. Ulysses is the Roman name for Odysseus. What might have happened if the Cyclops in the Odyssey had not met Odysseus (Ulysses)?

3. Why is the metaphor of the Cyclops appropriate for describing a tropical storm?

The story continues…

• After sailing from the Cyclop’s island, Odysseus and his crew land on the island of Aeolia where they meet the wind king, Aeolus. As a favor, the wind kind puts all the stormy wind into a bull’s-hide bag so the winds would not harm the Ithacans.

• The crew becomes curious, thinking the bag is treasure. They unleash a hurricane.

• The storm blows the ship back to Aeolia and the king drives them away again.

The story continues…The Witch Circe

• Odysseus then lands on the island of the Laestrygonians, gigantic cannibals. All ships are destroyed, save one.

• Odysseus escapes and lands on Aeaea, the home of the witch Circe.

• When Odysseus and his men reach the island of the witch Circe, the sailors are beguiled by the sorceress, who turns and shuts them into a pigs.

The story continues… The Witch Circe• Odysseus leave the ship and

rushes to Circe’s hall to save his men. He is armed with a plant to weaken Circe’s power, garlic, given to him by Hermes.

• Odysseus is able to resist her magic and she releases the men.

• Next, Circe, “loveliest of all immortals,” persuades Odysseus to stay with her. He does.

• After many seasons of feasting and other pleasures, Odysseus and his men beg Circe to help them get home.

• She tells Odysseus he must go to the underworld.

The story continues…The Land of the Dead• In the Land of the

Dead, Odysseus seeks to learn of this destiny. The source of his information is Teiresias, the famous blind prophet of Thebes. – The prophets lack of

external sight suggests the presence of true insight.

.

The story continues…The Land of the Dead

• Tieresias tells Odysseus that Teiresias tells him:– Don’t eat Sun God’s

cattle– He will survive alone– Slay Penelope’s suitors– Make sacrifice to

Poseidon• Odysseus and his men

return to Circe’s island, where Circe warns him of the perils that await him.

Readings: Sirens• The Sirens sing

songs from Odysseus’ past: The Trojan War.

• What do the Sirens symbolize?

• What is the message of the story?

• Is this message still relevant today?

Sirens

• Songs lure sailors to their death

• No man has ever heard the song and lived to tell the tale

• Crew plugs up ears with beeswax and ties Odysseus up– Begs to be released– Men tie him tighter

Readings: Scylla & Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis

• Scylla- six headed monster who swallows a sailor per head

• Charybdis- enormous whirlpool that could swallow entire ship

• Follow Circe’s instructions to hold tight to cliffs by Scylla’s lair, avoiding whirlpool– Consequence: 6 of

Odysseus’ best men get eaten by Scylla

• Why doesn’t Odysseus tell the men about Circe’s final prediction?

• What does Scylla symbolize?• What does Charybdis symbolize?• How are these two monsters different?• Does these monsters exist in our own

lives?• Is any of this real? Check this out: The

Strait of Messina

Readings: Scylla & Charybdis

The story continues…Cattle of the Sun God

• Odysseus urges his exhausted crew to bypass Thrinakia, the island of the sun god, Helios.–men insist on landing– he makes them swear not to touch the god’s

cattle.

• Storms rage for a month and food supplies get low. So, while Odysseus slept, the crew lead by Eurylochus decide one cow is better than they all starve – The crew feasted on the cattle. – Odysseys did not.

The story continues…Cattle of the Sun God

• The crew sets sail again, and Zeus destroys the vessel.

• No one survived except Odysseus.• He managed to land of the island of Calypso.• Now the story is up

to date. The adventures are behind him as he rests in Alicinous’ court.

• His greatest challenge is yet to come: reclaiming his thrown.

Activity: The Map

• Complete a graphic organizer chronicling the main character’s journey and how that journey impacts him/her.

The Journey

http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~cfarring/Odyssey/index.html

Journal #4Step into the shoes of a character from the story – it could be Odysseus himself or one of his crew, it could be a made up character who is watching the other characters in the story. It could be that your character is a monster, an enchantress or Odysseus’s son growing up without his father. Look at the example letter on the back for inspiration! Make yours an original.  Think about where your character is now. Is he/she in the boat, or on an island? What is the weather like? Is the sea calm or is there a storm brewing? Is there anyone with your character? Or is he/she alone? Decide how you character feels: sad, happy, lonely, angry, tired, homesick, or excited. Note down all the things you know about you characters: their dreams, fears, who their friends and family might be. Write a letter or journal entry in the voice of your character. You might be the Cyclops. How did he feel when Odysseus and his men had left his island and he was all alone, blinded and angry?