20: Odyssey Flashcards
1
Q
Story of homecoming of Odysseus. Where was his home island? Son and wife?
A
- 10 years fighting at Troy
-named Wily Odysseus
-Polytropos: ‘of many twists and turns’ - 10 years to return home
-Nostos (Pl. Nostoi): homecoming
-Poseidon as the nemesis and Athena as the protector - Ithaca is the home island
- His wife is Penelope and son is Telemachus
2
Q
“A Complicated Man”
A
quote on how he wrecked town of troy and tried to bring his men back home and failed. They ate the Sun god’s cattle
3
Q
Odysseus and Calypso (and meaning of her name)
A
- sea nymph calypso (meaning concealer) keeps Odysseus prisoner on Ogygia for 7 years
- zeus sends hermes to get her to release him
Calypso + Ogygia prisoner
4
Q
The Cicones and Lotus Eaters
A
- Cicones: Odysseus and companions arrive at Ismarus, the home of the Cicones
* City is sacked but Maron, priest of Apollo, was spared and he gives them 12 amphorae of wine - Lotus Eaters: Odysseus driven off course to land of Lotus Eaters
* one taste of fruit is blissful oblivion and only desire is to ear more lotus fruit
5
Q
Odysseus and Polyphemus (who?)
A
- Polyphemus is the son of Poseidon and one eyed giant
- He kills and eats Odysseus’ men
- Odysseus gets him drunk on Maron’s wine and tells him his name is ‘nobody’
- he blinds polyphemus
- they escape tied beneath giant’s sheep
- polyphemus curses odysseus
POlyphemus cannibal
6
Q
Odysseus and Aeolus (who)
A
- aeolus is the keeper of winds
- he gives odysseus a bag containing all winds and one will blow him home safely
- within view of ithaca odysseus falls asleep. His men open up the bag and winds blow them back to Aeolus’ island
Aeolus winds
7
Q
where are the cannibals located
A
- Land of the Laestrygonians
- cannibals that kill and devour almost all, only Odysseus and crew escape
8
Q
encounter with a sorceress
A
- circe the sorceress
- daughter of helius
- lives on island of Aeaea
- circe welcomes odysseus’ men on the island but he stays behind with ships
- his men are transofrmed into swine
- hermes gives odysseus the antidote: Moly
- odysseus immune to circe’s magic
- circe makes love to odysseus and changes men back into human form
9
Q
Odysseus journey in book if the dead and from which book
A
- homer’s odyssey book 11, known as the book of the dead
- Nekuia: rite by which spirits summoned
- Odysseus’ Katabasis: sent by circe to learn how to get home. Consulted spirit of tiresias (seer)
- Seer’s response: to return home alone and must face suitors trying to marry Penelope
10
Q
Sirens’ song
A
- Sirens: women who lure sailors onto rocks
- In Homer: human form
- In popular tradition: human heads and avian bodies
- odysseus eager to hear song
- he is tied to mast and crews’ ears stoppped with wax
- crew sail on unharmed but odysseus cries out for them to heed song
11
Q
Odyssean self control and examples
A
- Odyssean/Ulyssean Constraints
- Named in honor him. Present self handicaps future self
- thomas schelling: choice and consequence book
- ex: toss out cookies when full and avoid shopping on empty stomach
12
Q
Version 1 of Scylla myth and wh is involved
A
- Scylla is the daugther of sea god Phorcys
- Poseidon tries to seduce her
- Amphitrite transforms scylla into horrific monster. Scylla’s lower half is raging dogs
- charybdis (monster) also associated with her
13
Q
version 2 of scylla myth and from which book
A
- In Ovid’s Metamorphoses
- Glaucus falls in love with Scylla and asks sorceress Circe for aid
- Circe loves Glaucus so she transofrms Scylla
- scylla’s hangout is the Straits of Messina (between Sicily and iTaly) where she eats 6 of Odysseus’ crew
14
Q
Who is Charybdis
A
- daughter of poseidon and gaia
- a whirlpool that sucks down and spews up water 3x a day
- located in straits of messina
- ‘caught between Scylla and Charybdis’
15
Q
cattle of the sun
A
- Island of Thrinacia: where Helius pastures herds. Circe had warned Odysseus to not touch the cattle
- his crew touch the cattle and is trapped on island without food. Slaughter a few head
- when they sail again helius has zeus blast ship with thunderbolt. they all drown but odysseus, who avoids Charybdis
- odysseus washes up on Ogygia, the island of Calypso
16
Q
story with the land of the phaeacians
A
- Odysseus alone at sea after poseidon shatters his raft near Scheria, the island of Phaeacians
- Leucothea (sea goddes) and Athena help him and he washes up ashore
- He encounters Nausicaä, daugther of Alcinous and Arete, king and queen of phaeacians who send him home
17
Q
Penelope and Suitors
A
- Back in Ithica
- Circumspect Penelope
- She puts off suitors and will decide when her weaving is done. She undoes day’s work nightly because does not want to pick
- Penelopes son, Telemachus is sent on journey to find father, Odysseus.
- He goes to Pylos and asks King Nestor and to Sparta to talk to King Menelaus. Finds out his dad is alive
18
Q
Odysseus Disguised
A
- Athena disguises odysseus as a begger
- he encounters swineherd, Eumaeus and faithful dog Argus. Argus recognizes him and drops dead
- he reveals himself to Eumaeus and Telemachus but keeps it hidden from Penelope to give her hope
19
Q
Contest of Bow
A
- Penelope plans archery contest for suitors. They have to string Odysseus’ bow and shoot arrow through row of 12 axe heads, she revealed this plan to ‘beggar’ (Odysseus)
- No one wins but beggar odysseus does so easily and kills main rivel, Antinous and kill remaining suitors
- odysseus only spares Medon, a herald and Phemius, a bard
- 12 servant girls are forced to clean blood and hanged for disloyalty because they slept with suitors and insulted beggar odysseus
- goat herd melanthius is mutilated and killed
20
Q
aftermath of bow competition with penelope
A
- penelope sent away before slaugther
- penelope tests beggar odysseus if he is really him –> asks Euryclea to move marriage bed, which is built by him out of live olive tree (which cannot be moved)
- odysseus knows this and proves it to her
21
Q
afterlife of odysseus
A
- heroic quest: trickster figure
- plato’s myth of er: chastened hero
- roman Ulysses: patient
22
Q
planctae
A
23
Q
parents of odysseus
A
anticlea and laertes
24
Q
who is periphron
A
one of penelope’s suitors
