Journal 8

10/15

Before Class: Book One

• Along with reading the original text, it helps me to read a condensed version of the text so I can really retain the information
• I also use the condensed text on poetryintranslation.com to find plot points because they use line numbers; the line numbers help me to cite specific evidence when working on my discussion questions

Class activities:

• Today in class we discussed Book One of The Odyssey and compared certain story aspects to The Iliad
• We also learned that The Iliad and The Odyssey can be referred to as the opposite of each other

Two types of hero

• The Iliad (Achilles): Achilles; driven because he is ‘destined’ for greatness; fights for glory and because he enjoys the atmosphere of war
• The Odyssey (Odysseus): driven to reunite with his family; he is fighting out of necessity and just ready to go home

Paternal Relationships

• The Iliad: Fathers losing sons to battle/war prisoners
• The Odyssey: Sons coming to maturity and reuniting with fathers

The role of god’s in mortal conflict

• The Iliad: The god’s take a more literal role in influencing the mortal world (ate: delusion on behalf of the god’s will)
• The Odyssey: Plot is driven by human folly/atalasthia (recklessness)

Story elements

• The Iliad:Mostly realism
• The Odyssey: fantasy, magic, and monsters

Relationships

• The Iliad (Achilles-Patroclus): The loss of one’s soulmate
• The Odyssey (Odysseus-Penelope): Being reunited with one’s soulmate

Characters

• The Iliad: is about tons of characters/ensemble
• The Odyssey: focuses on the trials of one family

Group Activities:

• There were no group activities today; mainly just discussion of our readings

Discussion Questions:

1. What does Athena do to “mentor” Telemachus, son of Odysseus?

OD.1.178 Bright-eyed goddess Athena said back to him:
OD.1.179 “So then, I’ll tell this to you quite exactly.
OD.1.180 I claim I’m Mentes, son of skilled Anchialus,

• she takes the form of Mentes (an old family friend and Telemachus’s father figure); she instructs him to go find his father and kill off his mother’s suitors

2. What does Telemachus do to demonstrate his readiness to take over his father’s kingdom?

OD.2.6 At once he bid his clear-voiced heralds
OD.2.7 to summon to assembly the hairy-headed Achaeans.

• he calls a town meeting where he tells the public/suitors that he will be leaving to go find his father

3. How similar is Telemachus’ maturation to the maturation you yourself are expected to go through today?

• Telemachus’s maturation was about taking on the role of his father by defending his mother against suitors and setting off to find Odysseus
• I personally feel like a lot more was expected of children back then; I don’t feel the same pressure as him to defend my family’s honor or anything but I do see where he’s coming from having to fill his father’s shoes; almost like he had to grow up too fast

Study Activities:

• My journals usually center around the two sessions of class I attend before the journal is due, and I start on them as soon as we turn in the journal for the previous week
• This week’s journal is going to center around this session and this Tuesday’s session; I usually complete the first half of the journal by the end of the class period

Menaus

• Mentes, Mentor; Mentors often use storytelling to model the kind of behavior they want in a mentee.
• activation with storytelling (black panther)
• Telemachus’s mentor (Athena) tells him he needs to go find his father; kill off suitors

Xenia

• guest/stranger — the relationship between guest and host

10/20

Before Class: Books 2–4

• Along with reading the original text, it helps me to read a condensed version of the text so I can really retain the information
• I also use the condensed text on poetryintranslation.com to find plot points because they use line numbers; the line numbers help me to cite specific evidence when working on my discussion questions

Class activities:

• Today in class we discussed Books 2–4 as well as our impression of The Odyssey so far; we also pulled distinct passages from the first few books to examine

Menelaus to Telemachus and his companions

OD.4.30 Vexed greatly, blond Menelaus said to him:
OD.4.31 “You weren’t a fool before this, Eteonus Boethoides,
OD.4.32 but now you babble nonsense like a child.
OD.4.33 We’d eaten many guest-meals of other men
OD.4.34 before we got here, in hope that Zeus would
OD.4.35 somehow stop our sorrow. So, free the strangers’ horses
OD.4.36 and bring the men forward to be feasted inside.”

• Nepios (πάϊς): childlike; disconnected from parents/ancestors and religious and social norms
• they have also been put in situations where they needed the help of strangers

The Relationship of Penelope and Odysseus

• homophronsune: like-mindedness

OD.4.835 The faint phantom said to her in reply:
OD.4.836 “I won’t tell you in detail about that one,
OD.4.837 whether he’s dead or alive. It’s bad to talk like empty wind.”

• does her suffering derive from patriarchal society or is it used to elevate her character; she is suffering as much as Odysseus

OD.2.104 Then by day she wove her great web,
OD.2.105 but at night, when she had torches placed beside it, she unraveled it.

• very dedicated to her husband; she is characterized as clever; only Odysseus could stimulate her mind that’s why she doesn’t like the suitors

Characterization of Odysseus

OD.4.265 Blond Menelaus said to her in reply:
OD.4.266 “Yes, wife, you’ve said all these things duly.
OD.4.267 By now I’ve learned the mind and will of many
OD.4.268 hero men and traversed much of the earth,
OD.4.269 but with my eyes I’ve never seen such a one
OD.4.270 as was the dear heart of steadfast Odysseus.

• Odysseus and Menelaus as a ‘mind-researchers’; Menelaus emphasizes that out of everyone he’s gotten to know Odysseus is the only one who he can’t completely understand

OD.4.282 We were both eager, and set out to
OD.4.283 either get out or immediately answer from inside,
OD.4.284 but Odysseus restrained and checked us despite our eagerness.
OD.4.285 Then the rest of the sons of the Achaeans were silent.
OD.4.286 Anticlus was the only one who wanted to answer,
OD.4.287 but Odysseus pressed on his mouth continuously
OD.4.288 with his mighty hands and saved all the Achaeans.

• Odysseus doesn’t trust easily; his skepticism is shared with Penelope

Group Activities:

• There were no group activities today; mainly just discussion of our readings

Discussion Questions:

1. Based on what you’ve read so far in the Odyssey, how is someone expected to treat a guest/stranger in their home?

• you are expected to welcome them into your home with no qualms; in ancient greek society they believed that if you didn’t welcome a stranger you would be met with the wrath of Zeus
• they took hospitality very seriously

2. What do we learn about Odysseus as a hero in the first four books of the Odyssey?

• he's not your typical hero; his intelligence and cunning get him out of situations rather than strength/brute force
• remains loyal to his family throughout

3. In Book 4 what are your impressions of Menelaus’ and Helen’s marital partnership? Has it been a happy reunion?

OD.4.250 I alone recognized him, such as he was,
OD.4.251 and I questioned him, but he eluded me with cunning.
OD.4.252 But when at last I’d bathed him and anointed him with olive oil,
OD.4.253 dressed clothing about him, and swore a great oath
OD.4.254 not to make him known among the Trojans as Odysseus

• Helen claims that Odysseus entered Troy in disguise but didn’t out him to the others

OD.4.259 Then the rest of the Trojan women shrieked loudly, but my heart
OD.4.260 rejoiced, since by now my heart had changed about going

• Helen claims to have switch sides as soon as she encountered Odysseus but Menelaus tells a story that implies otherwise

OD.4.277 Three times you walked around and felt about the hollow ambush,
OD.4.278 and called out to the best of the Danaans by their names,
OD.4.279 making your voice like the voices of the wives of all the Argives.

• Menelaus implies that Helen’s timeline doesn’t check out

OD.4.274 Then you came there. A divinity, who planned to grant glory
OD.4.275 to the Trojans, must have urged you on,

• Menelaus does not trust his wife; their relationship is a good juxtaposition to Odysseus-Penelope
• After Helen claims she was on the side of the Greeks after her ‘secret meeting’ with Odysseus, without outright saying it he accuses her of lying

Study Activities

• I like to finish up my journals a couple of days before the next class because I like to be able to focus on the reading so I work on the last section of the journal as its happening
• It’s really easy to get distracted in class by my phone, my dog, my family, food, pretty much everything else but working on my notes in-class helps to keep me engaged because I also pull things from my notes to include in my journals

Theme of Vengeance:

• Throughout the story (so far) Telemachus is encouraged to avange his father by killing the suitors or finding Odysseus
• Menelaus is one of these people and we learned an interesting backstory as to how deeply vengeance runs in this family

Atreus and Thyestes were brothers

Atreus: father of Agamemnon and Menelaus

Thyestes: father of Ageisthus

Atreus feeds Theyests his own children; goes into exile; Thyestes has a child with his daughter named Ageisthus

10/22

Before Class: Book 5

• I’ve found that it helps to read a summary of the reading before actually looking at the text so before reading I read a LitCharts summary
• This helped me better understand the original; along with the original I read a condensed version to make sure the story is sticking in my head
• Line by line annotation of the story helps me to better retain information so I copy and pasted lines into my notebook for this class and picked out
• We also have a quiz tomorrow so I’ve been exchanging notes with my study group to get ready for the 1–4 quiz