Heroism Flashcards
Odysseus questions Ino’s offfering of help
‘I’m afraid this is one of the immortals setting a snare to catch me’
Athene intervenes throughout - he is favoured by her
‘his skin would have been torn off him and bones broken had Athene not put into his head to grab hold of a rock’
Odysseus uses metis to secure help from Nausicaa
‘Are you some goddess or a mortal woman?’
‘Artemis… your beauty, stature and grace most remind me’
The travels in books 9-12 add experience to Odysseus’ life and thus emphasise his status as a hero
Lotus eaters - saved his crew
‘Those who ate the honeyed fruit… lost any wish to come back’
‘I had to use force to bring them back to the hollow ships’
Hears the siren’s song but ensures the ears of his crew are plugged with wax and he is tied to the mast.
Odysseus’ trustworthiness and leadership can be called into question
Bag of winds
‘After all this talk the evil counsels prevailed. They undid the bag… when I awoke my spirit failed me’
Cattle of the sun god
Initially they ‘kept their hands off the cattle as they valued their lives’ however…
‘Eurylochus was broaching a wicked scheme’
‘His ideas found favour with the rest’
‘I suddenly awoke from my deep sleep… the sweet sell of roasting meat was wafted all around me’
Odysseus saves his men from Circe with the help of Hermes
Hermes ‘I will save you and deliver you from your trouble’
‘The gods call it moly’
‘Nobody’ proves his metis - yet hubris dooms his men
Cyclops ‘O my friends, it’s nobody’s treachery, not violence, that is doing me to death’
‘Well then… if your are alone and nobody is assaulting you you must be sick’
Later…
‘But my temper was up, their words did not dissuade me… tell them your eye was put out by Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.’
Development in character and control of emotions is demonstrated in later books
When Antinous hits him with a stool he ‘did not reel at the blow. He just shook his head in silence, filled with thoughts of revenge’
Worth noting that Telemachus also controls himself showing his more mature character ‘though the blow made him bitterly sorry for his father… he shook his head in silence, filled with thoughts of revenge’
Conversation with Athene proves them as equals - highlighting just how clever he is
‘That shows me how your mind always works!’ said the goddess of the flashing eyes.
Odysseus final slaughter of the suitors
‘she found Odysseus amongst the corpses of the dead, spattered with blood and gore, like a lion when he comes home from feeding on some farmer’s bullock, with the blood dripping from his breast and jaws on either side, a fearsome spectacle’
Odysseus’ ability to string the bow when nobody else could
‘Then with his right hand he tested the string, and it sang when he plucked it with a sound like a swallow’s note.’
Conversations at the Phaeacian games
Euryalus ‘I should never have taken you for an athlete… you are more like a skipper on a merchant crew’
Odysseus ‘You have stirred me to anger with your inept remarks’
‘the gods do not grace men equally with the attributes of good looks, brains and eloquence.’
‘there is no one I will back away from and no one I’ll consider beneath me’
‘I am not bad at any kind of manly sport’
Telemachus still has a way to go
Telemachus was meant to lock the room to the armoury so in book 22 when the suitors begin to arm themselves as Melanthius brings them armour he admits his mistake.
‘Father… the mistake was mine and no one else is to blame.’
Achilles questions the whole idea of kleos in the underwold
‘I would rather work the soil as a serf on hire to some landless impoverished peasant than be king of all these lifeless dead. Come, give me news of that son of mine.’
Heracles in the underworld
‘One look was enough to tell Heracles who I was’
