Books 9, 10, and 11



Odysseus' Journey

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Odysseus Retrieves His Lotus Eating Men 

Odysseus Accepts Aeolus' Gift, the Bag of Winds

   

Odysseus Tries to Get Polyphemus Drunk



Polyphemus Being Blinded



  



The Laestrygonians Hurling Boulders at Odysseus' Squadron









 

   





Poseidon





Swine-man, Odysseus,  and Circe

Rennaissance Wood Print of Circe and Pig Boat

Hermes Visits Circle

Zeus

Elpenor Confronts Odysseus, Hermes Onlooking

Odysseus and Tiresias

Tiresias and Odysseus

Bard with a Lyre

Ajax and Achilles

The Death of Agamemnon

 



Odysseus Resists the Sirens



Books 5, 6, 7, and 8

 

Odysseus, Athena, and Nausicaa



Before Tuesday's  presentation by Kenny, Tiffany, Katherine S., and Melida post all your 
thoughts, observations, and questions about the books which follow "The Telemachy." What do you think of Odysseus' behavior? How do you feel about Homer having Odysseus take over the narration of his own story?  
                                                                



Let Us Thank Yenifer and Brandon for Their Impromtu Puppet Show

WHAT A MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE!
The two of you  and your puppets wonderfully animated Book Five of The Odyssey.
Yenifer you adjusted so adroitly from being an Olympian goddess to being a cave dwelling nymph, and you did it so with such enthusiasm and emotional conviction!
Brandon you gave Odysseus an extraodinary sagacity, emotional range, and sensitivity, from his weeping at the seashore, to his love making in the cave.

Student Presentation Schedule

Each presentating group is to create a study guide including:

• probing key questions
• observations about Odysseus' characterization
• key characters, their function and characterization
• examples of literary devices employed by Homer
• cogent quotations from each canto
• places and the journey's process
• how the narrative is organized and presented
• supernatural intervention   

OUR STUDENT CANTO SPECIALISTS ARE:
March 25:

Books 1-4  TheTelemachy: Maurice, Jeanette, Stefanie, Alexis

March 29:

Books 5-8  Raftwreck to Palace: Kenny, Katherine S., Melida, Tiffany

March 31:

Books 9-10  No Man, Polyphemus, Queen: Susan, Amy, Brandon,Victor

April 4:

Books 11-12 Hades and Back: Sergio, Alyssa, Chandandie

April 7:

Books 13-16 Alone, Home, Reunion: Brittany, Kenia, Katherine

April 11:    

Books 17-20 Father, Son, Wife: Raymond, Yenifer, Medina, Jamila

April14:

Books 21-24  Retribution: Malthen, Yunrui, Ivy, Shabranti

THE ODYSSEY Reading schedule



Let's get moving.

      

                

YOUR READING SCHEDULE:

Odysseus' Travels:

Books 5, 6, 7, 8  This Week

Book 9      This Weekend

Books 10, 11, 12, Week of March 28 - April 1



Odysseus' Return to Ithaca:

Books 13, 14   Weekend of April 2 - 3

Books 15, 16, 17, 18, 19  Week of April 4 - 8

Books 19, 20   Weekend of April 9 - 10

Books 21, 22, 23, 24  Week of April 11-15

If you would like me to get you a different (prose) translation of The Odyssey, please let me know. Just tell me or send me an email.






 

Homeric Narrative Structure

Zeus

". . .  Homer has imposed a form which is clarity itself. The masterstroke, as Horace pointed out, was the decision to begin in medias res - in fact, near the end, with Odysseus, already for seven years a prisoner, now on the point of being set free. This, the starting point, is made clear with great brevity; very cunningly Homer keeps back the story of Odysseus's wanderings, those of the past and those to come, so that we may have them in an unbroken sequence. For the tale of the past wanderings he contrives the perfect setting: it is told by the suffering hero himself, and to an audience that has dined well, has been enormously impressed by the stranger . . .  and is prepared to listen, if need be all night. This half of the material is enfolded within the other half - all that concerns Ithaca and Telemachus . . .  The poem is made to circle around itself . . . "
From "The Odyssey: The Exclusion of Surprise" by D. H. Kitto

Finish Reading The First Four Books, then . . .

        Homer uses very few epithets for
      Telemachus in "The Telemachy."
      Write five of your own epithets
      for Telemachus.
         SEE IF NOW YOU CAN IDENTIFY THESE: 

          far seeing__________

         breaker of horses____________

         rose-red fingered_____________

         quick-witted___________
         wary and reserved_________

         bright-eyed___________

         Icarus' daughter _____________

         warlord dear to Zeus____________  
           shameless whore ____________ 
         earth shaker___________

         bard of Ithaca ______________

         red-haired____________

         flashing steel grey-eyed___________

         noble charioteer ___________

         Menelaus’ wife__________

         Laertes' son____________

         Agamemnon’s son__ __________

         Clytemnestra’s lover ____________
         Agisthesis’ murderer ____________
         Agamemnon’s brother___________

   .           a prophetess of doom____________

                    visits Ithaca and advises Telemachus__________

   2          accompanies Telemachus to Sparta___________

               Odysseus’ nursemaid ____________

                glancing eyed_______________    

Essay on "The Telechamy"



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a scholar's model of an Ancient Greek boat
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DUE THIS MONDAY:                                                                                       

Based on your reading of the first four books (cantos) of The Odyssey, write an essay about the character Telemachus. Here are some suggestions you may wish to follow:  

1. While reading have a pencil handy.

2. Underline or bracket passages you may want to use or return to, and write light pencil notes in the margins about what you think as you read.

3. Carefully read everything Telemachus says. (His words are within quotation marks.)

4. How does Telemachus respond to what he is told?

5. How is Telemachus as a son?

6. What does Telemachus' behavior in Ithaca and elsewhere reveal about him?

7. How has Telemachus been affected by his father's twenty year absence?

8. How does what Telemachus learns about his father Odysseus affect him?

9. What do 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 reveal about him?

10. Write descriptive statements (in sentences) about Telemachus, which you believe to be true.

11. Write down as many adjectives as you can which you believe describe Telemachus.

12. Where in the text, by book and by line number, is there evidence supporting your statements and adjectives?  For example: ....." (IV, 290-301)

13. Cross out from 10 and 11 what you cannot find Homeric textual support for.

14. Select, use, and judiously postion meaningful quotations in your essay to support what you write about Telemachus. Use citations after every quotation, e.g.,    . . . . ." (IV, 290-301).

BE PREPARED ON MONDAY.

 






John Keats'

Ode on a Grecian Urn

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape	5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?	10
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave	15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!	20
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!	25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.	30
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,	35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.	40
O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'	50