1. What have you learned about Greek culture, values, and religion? Address the roles of women and men, honor and virtues, gods and goddesses, etc. (200 words)
I have learned that in Greek culture, people accept guests from foreign lands with amazing hospitality. I also learned that men fight or hunt while women attend to the services of the household. They honor their gods with sacrifices of animals and the more sacrifices you make the more they’ll help you. Religion is very important to the Greeks, when Odysseus won the war in Troy, he didn’t thank Poseidon, the god of the sea, in return Odysseus couldn’t return to his homeland of Ithaca for a long time. While he thanked Athena, she helped him on his long journey home to his son and his wife and to defeat the suitors who were trying to take away his kingdom. Most Greeks keep their values, they thank the gods for all that they have with sacrifices, they treat visitors with a huge supper with offerings for their journey. Greek culture is very accepting of other cultures yet they are strict to there own values and virtues.
2. What resonated with you in reading about Odysseus’ adventures? Why? (100 words)
When I read the Odyssey, the adventure of Odysseus on the Cyclopes Island resonated in my head. To me that was the most exciting part that I’ve read. There was so much adventure and excitement when he pierced the Cyclops’s eye. What also resonated with in me was at the end when Odysseus and Telachamus fought against the suitors. Odysseus battle strategy to hide the spears while he shows them he can string the bow and then fire the arrow while his son kills the suitors. The book was saturated with great adventure mixed with sex, drugs, and violence. Its hard to believe that this was one of the first books ever written.
3. This epic poem is dated nearly 3000 years ago, why is it still relevant? (100 words)
This book is relevant because it really shows the foundation of Greek Mythology. Now it is used as a history book, it shows how the Greeks lived their way of life. The Odyssey shows their customs, culture, religion, and living styles, like how they dressed and bathed. Without this book our knowledge on Greek culture would be very limited. The Odyssey is a plethora of knowledge and culture.
4. How would you characterize the narrator, the fictive "Homer" whose voice we imagine as singing the verses of the Odyssey?
Nobody has any solid proof of who homer was, so that could mean he was just a beggar saying the story to the children and eventually wrote it.
5. What kinds of behavior are treated as contemptible in the Odyssey?
Poseidon’s revenge can be treated as contemptible as well as the suitor’s greed and laziness and leisure. All the suitors do is sit around, drink wine, eat, and have sex with the maids.
6. How does the poem represent mortal women? Since Penelope is the most important woman in the Odyssey, what qualities does she possess, and how does she respond to the troubles she faces? (Some of the other women are of note, too-Eurycleia the serving woman, the faithless maidservants, Nausicaa the Phaeacian princess, and Helen of Sparta, Menelaus' queen, whose elopement with Prince Paris sparked the Trojan War.)
The poem represents women as humble servants that have the power to choose their husbands. They are servants of the husband though they choose their husbands
7.How do Homer's gods think and behave? How do their actions and motivations differ from the conception of god in other religions of which you have knowledge? What role do the Homeric gods play in human affairs, and what is the responsibility of humans with respect to those gods?
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
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