the Odyssey Flashcards
Characters 2
Agamemnon
Clytemnestra
Orestes
Aegisthus
Son of King Atreus of Mycenae, forced to give back Chryseis to her father Chryses by Apollo takes Achilles’s prize, Menelaus’ brother
Agamemnon’s wife
Agamemnon’s Son
Clytemnestra’s lover who murders Agamemnon on his return to Mycenae
Characters
Odysseus
Penelope
Telemachus
Laertes
King of Ithaca
His Queen
His Son
His Father
Characters 3
Zeus
Poseidon
Cyclops/Polyphemus
Hermes
Pallas Athena
Calypso
Apollo
King of the Gods
God of the sea
Poisidon’s son
Messenger of the Gods, Odysseus’ Great Grandfather
Daughter of Zeus, goddess of warfare and divine intelligence
A nymph who lives on Ogygia island,
God of music, poetry, sun and plague!
Characters 4
Achilles
Nestor
Kronos
Themis
Helios
Circe
Greek hero of Troy - forced to surrender prize-Woman Briseis to Agamemnon to ensure his honour
Gerenian horseman of Pylos
King of the Titans
Goddess of order and justice
The sun god
A nymph/witch of Aeaea, daughter of Helios transformed her victims into animals
Characters 5
Patroklos
Artemis
Eurykleia
Menelaus
Cassandra
Companion of Achilles killed by Hector
Goddess, daughter of Zeus
Odysseus’ nurse
King of Sparta
Daughter of Priam taken by Agamemnon
Characters 6
Helen
Paris
Priam
Hector
Andromache
Antyanyx
Thetis
Wife of Menelaus
Son of Priam, King of Troy
King of Troy
Priam’s son
Hector’s wife
Hector’s son
Achilles mother a sea nymph
Characters and places 7
Pirate Raid
Wind King
Cannibals
Witch Goddess
Philosopher
Helped by
Ismaros, the Cicones
Aeolus
Laestrygonans
Circe
old prophet Tiresias
Phacians
Reciprocity and Background
Honour is all!
Did the world of Homer actually exist Schillemann tried to prove it via Troy IV
Homer looked back at a ‘Golden Age’ that was several hundred years distant and imagined the golden palaces
Dishonour -Hubris
Rape and abduction are apparently condoned in the Ancient World as part of conques
Synopsis 1
When
Beginning
Athena
A meeting is called
10 years after the end of the ten year long Trojan War
Odysseus’s house, 108 suitors demanding Penelope marries one of them as Odysseus is believed dead, Telemachus and Penelope furious
Athena asks her father to consider assisting Odysseus, his brother Poseidon bitter at Odysseus’s blinding of his Cyclops son Polyphemus . Athena visits Telemachus disguised as a Taphian Chieftain called Mentor, finds him a ship and crew to search for his father
Telemachus tries to rally the citizens to obtain justice against the suitors but to no avail
Synopsis 2
The Grenian Horseman
Escape
Wrecked
He says who he is
Telemachus visits one of the venerable heroes of Troy, Nestor of Pylos for help, rides to Sparta and talks with a reconciled
Menelaus. And Helen - Aphrodite drove her to it. Telemachus hears that his father is a captive of Calypso the nymph. He also learns of Agamemnon’s fate
Odysseus is released from 7 years captivity by Calypso at Ogygia, she loves him, but Zeus orders Hermes (at Athena’s behest) to order Calypso to free him. He builds a raft and leaves
Poseidon wrecks the raft and Odysseus is cast up (with the help of Ino, a sea nymph’s veil) on the beach at Scherie the Island of the Phacians. Naked and exhausted he encounters Nausicaa (Athena inclines her to be enamoured of Odysseus) daughter of King Arête and Alcinous.
Odysseus reveals his name due to the blind bard Demodocus’ song
Synopsis 3
The raid
Forgetful
Cyclops
Winds
Pirate raid on Ismaros in the land of the Cicones, his fleet f twelve ships driven off course by storms
The lethargic Lotus Eaters make two of his men forget their Nostos and they have to be retrieved by frce
Captured by Polyphemus, they blind him incurring Poseidon’s wrath, Odysseus told Polyphemus his name, hence Poseidon’s curse that he wander the earth for ten years
Visits King Aeolus who gives him the winds in a bag except the West wind. Greedy sailors open this as they approach Ithaca and they are blown away ack to where they as come from
Synopsis 4
Cannibals
Witch-goddess
Raising the dead, personal Wail
Escapes the S S & C
11 ships lost to the cannibalistic Laestrygonans
Circe turns half his men into swine, but Odysseus is helped to recover them by Hermes vis the drug in the plant moly which inoculates him against Circe’s power. He says a year
Using Circe’s advice, Odysseus raises The old prophet Tiresias for help - (Tiresias and Circe advise - do not eat Helios’ cattle) - in appeasing the Gods, he also sees his now dead mother who has passed away due to grief of his loss
He manages to pass by the Sirens and the six headed Scylla, who devours six of his crew and also the whirlpool Charybdis
Synopsis 5
Cattle of the sun
Calypso
Return
Suitors
Peace
Arrives at Thrinacia, prevented by Zeus’ storms from leaving, greedy men kill several f Helios’ cattle, Helios demands reciprocity, his last ship is driven towards Charybdis and all but Odysseus are drowned
Odysseus is washed up on Calypso’s Ogygia
Phacians assist his return (nostos) place him on the beach at Ithaca and is assisted by his slave Eumaes and Telemachos. Argos his old dog dies in his arms
Ridiculed by suitors esp. Antinous. Eurycleia knows who he is, the bow, the contest, a dozen axe heads, the suitors are slaughtered 12 house maids hanged for aiding and succouring the suitors and betraying Penelope and kill the goatherd Melanthius who had mocked Odysseus
Athena nullifies the vendetta that Ithaca’s citizens had planned against Odysseus fir the loss of the men in the ships and suitors and peace returns to Ithaca
Important Lines
Penelope - ‘They force their way upon me and recklessly plot against me’
Telemachos - ‘No the gods have spun out no such strand of prosperity for me and my father,
Hector (Iliad) ‘I feel shame’ - ‘Better to bring on the fight with him’
Priam on the youthful dead - ‘Though dead still all about that shows him is beautiful’
Apollo - And nothing is gained thereby for good, of his honour’ on Achilles’ dragging of Hector’s body
