Term 2 - Lecture 6 Flashcards
Where is Odysseus’ family from?
Ithica
How long is he absent from Ithica for, away from Penelope?
20 years - 10 in battle, and 10 journeying home
What two things does Penelope preserve for Odysseus?
- Her body - she remains faithful to Odysseus
- Her household - she does not marry another man into the house
Who is the son of Odysseus and Penelope? How old is he at the beginning of the Odyssey?
Telemachus. He is approaching manhood, the age that he may be considered to look over the household.
What occurs in the house of Atreus in Argos with Orestes? What is the function of this story in the Odyssey?
Agamemnon returns from war, and his previous wife, and mother of his children (Electra, Iphigeneia, and Orestes), Clytemnestra, has taken up a new lover, his cousin Aegisthus (the only remaining son of Thyestes). Clytemnestra and Aegisthus team up and brutally murder Agamemnon. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon comes of age, avenges his father’s death by killing Aegisthus. This saves Argos from having Aegisthus as the ruler.
This story functions as a model for Telemachus to emulate. He should stop the suitors in his house.
Who tells Telemachus of the story of Orestes?
Athena
Who is Arete?
The mother of Nausicaa, Phaeacian queen. Lives in Scheria.
Who is Anticleia?
The mother of Odysseus
Who is Eurycleia?
The old nurse of Odysseus - recognizes the scar on his leg
Who is Polyphemus?
A cyclopes, the son of Poseidon
Who is Tireseis?
A dead prophet of Apollo. He gives advice to Odysseus.
Laertes?
The father of Odysseus
Eurylochus
A companion of Odysseus - the one who warned Odysseus that his men had been turned to swine by Circe on Aeaea
Who is Eumaeus?
The old swineherd of Odysseus
What is Odysseus’ lineage?
Zeus
Hermes (trickster)
Autolycus (trickster)
Anticleia (Laertes)
Odysseus
Who is Hermes to Odysseus?
His great-grandfather.
What are books 1-5 of the Odyssey called?
The Telemacheia
What is the first word of the Odyssey? What does it mean?
Andra - man, hero, or husband
Where does Odysseus tell the story from?
Scheria - the island of the Phaecaians, in the household of Nausicaa, Arete, and Alcinous
Who is Alcinous?
The Phaeacian King on Scheria (husband of Arete, father of Nausicaa)
Where is Odysseus, at the beginning of the Odyssey? Where is Penelope? What is happening?
Odysseus is detained on Calypso’s island, Ogygia. Penelope and Telemachus are in Ithica; the house is filled with suitors and Telemachus is coming of age.
At the beginning of the Odyssey, how long has it been since Odysseus left Troy?
9 years
What concepts are introduced at the beginning of the Odyssey?
Odysseus is the man who “plundered Troy”. The Muses are called upon to give the story authority. His men were fools who were destroyed by their own recklessness. Poseidon is against him.
What is a main difference between the characters in the Iliad vs. the Odyssey?
The Odyssey contains many more female characters than the Iliad does.
Which god comes to visit Telemachus for the first time? How is this visit initiated?
Athena - disguised as “Mentes”. She speaks to Zeus, asking him whether or not it is fair for Odysseus to be detained on the island of Calypso. Zeus does not think he can interfere because of Poseidon’s anger. Athena says to send her to Telemachus, and to send Hermes to Calypso’s island.
Why did Odysseus’ men lose their nostos?
Because of their inability to restrain their appetites.
What happens when Telemachus meets Athena?
He practices very good xenia. He invites her/him in, gives her dinner, then asks who she is, to which hse replies that she is Mentes, a friend of Odysseus’.
Where does Mentes tell Telemachus that Odysseus is?
Being held captive by savages (truthfully he’s being held captive by Calypso, who he sleeps with every night)
What is the main purpose of Athena visiting Telemachus?
To reassure him that Odysseus really is his father, and to tell him that it’s time to knock the suitors out of his house. He has to man up. Either go and find out if his father is dead (if so, hold a proper funeral and marry off his mother) or to find Odysseus if he is living.
Who visits Calypso to tell her to let Odysseus go? How long has Odysseus been concealed on her island for?
Hermes, and 7 years.
What is Penelope’s trick on the suitors?
She sits at her loom, day and night. She tells the suitors that she is weaving a funeral shroud for Laertes. She claims that Odysseus is dead, and that once she is done weaving the shroud she will choose one of the suitors to marry. This will buy her some time. She secretly unravels it every night. One of the suitors realizes her trick eventually.
What does Calypso talk about once Hermes tells her she needs to stop detaining Odysseus? What does she say to Odysseus?
She calls the gods jealous bastards, and complains about how it isn’t fair that the goddesses are not allowed to take mortal men as lovers. Calypso loves Odysseus.
She tells Odysseus that he is free to go, he is crying on the seaside by day and sleeping with her by night. She offers to make him immortal, but he declines.
How does Odysseus leave Ogygia, the island of Calypso?
By raft. She tells him to build a raft. Odysseus spends time doing so, giving it an upright pole, and a sail.
Compare Odysseus’ raft from Calypso’s island to Penelope’s loom.
Odysseus’ raft is handmade. Upright pole, with a sail hanging across it. It is a symbol of his motion.
Penelope’s loom holds a handmaid tapestry. It has an upright pole, and the tapestry is like the sail. The difference is that it is a symbol of her being stuck in the house.
Hermes is sent to free Odysseus from Calypso’s island. Compare this to another story.
Hermes liberates Persephone from Hades
What does Calypso offer to Odysseus before he leaves?
To make him immortal. He does not want this, he only wants Persephone. Odysseus knows who he is. Calypso does not understand how Odysseus could overlook her beauty for Penelope.
How does Book 5 end (the Telemacheia)? How does Book 6 begin?
With Odysseus building his raft to leave Calypso’s island.
Book 6 begins with Odysseus and Calypso sharing a final dinner. Odysseus is washed ashore on Phaeacia.
How does Odysseus end up on Phaeacia? Where was he previously? Who does he meet?
He is washed ashore by a giant wave, sent by Poseidon. His ship is wrecked, his clothes are gone. He was previously on Ogygia with Calypso.
He meets Nausicaa almost immediately.
What is the Phaeacian society a model of?
Xenia. Nausicaa does not pursue Odysseus, and her family is welcoming to him.
What books are Odysseus’ narrative contained in?
9-12
What was Nausicaa’s dream?
Athena came to her, in the form of her best friend. Her friend asks her why she has her clothing all over the place, and why she isn’t taking care of the laundry if she’s at marrying age.
How do Odysseus and Nausicaa meet? Who does Odysseus compare her to?
Nausicaa awakes from the dream, sent by Athena, and decides to take care of the laundry. She is out with her friends, and they are on the Phaeacian seaside. They lay out their laundry to dry, and play ball. Odysseus is washed ashore, and one of the girls wakes him up in the bushes by hitting him with the ball. All of the other girls are scared, but Nausicaa goes to see him.
Odysseus compliments her. He needs help but doesn’t know how to ask. He compares her to Artemis in her beauty and virginity. She tells him to bathe, and then follow behind them (but not with them) into the city. Exactly how she should respond.