Nual, Mike Oliver D.

III - AMA
July 27, 2016
Type of Literature:
Title:
Author:

Poetry
Odyssey
Homer

Author's background

He is credited as the first and the greatest epic poet, and the author of Europe's first
known literature.
Homer's poem Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, including the battle of Troy.
In Greek mythology the battle of Troy is one of the most important historical events. In
Plato's work Republic, Homer is portrayed as the leader of Greek culture.
Approximately 50 percent of all of Homer's work was in the form of speeches.

Summary:
Ten years have passed since the fall of Troy, and the Greek hero Odysseus still has not returned
to his kingdom in Ithaca. A large and rowdy mob of suitors who have overrun Odysseuss palace
and pillaged his land continue to court his wife, Penelope. She has remained faithful to
Odysseus. Prince Telemachus, Odysseuss son, wants desperately to throw them out but does not
have the confidence or experience to fight them. One of the suitors, Antinous, plans to
assassinate the young prince, eliminating the only opposition to their dominion over the palace.
Unknown to the suitors, Odysseus is still alive. The beautiful nymph Calypso, possessed by love
for him, has imprisoned him on her island, Ogygia. He longs to return to his wife and son, but he
has no ship or crew to help him escape. While the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus debate
Odysseuss future, Athena, Odysseuss strongest supporter among the gods, resolves to help
Telemachus. Disguised as a friend of the princes grandfather, Laertes, she convinces the prince
to call a meeting of the assembly at which he reproaches the suitors. Athena also prepares him
for a great journey to Pylos and Sparta, where the kings Nestor and Menelaus, Odysseuss
companions during the war, inform him that Odysseus is alive and trapped on Calypsos island.

Telemachus makes plans to return home, while, back in Ithaca, Antinous and the other suitors
prepare an ambush to kill him when he reaches port.
On Mount Olympus, Zeus sends Hermes to rescue Odysseus from Calypso. Hermes persuades
Calypso to let Odysseus build a ship and leave. The homesick hero sets sail, but when Poseidon,
god of the sea, finds him sailing home, he sends a storm to wreck Odysseuss ship. Poseidon has
harbored a bitter grudge against Odysseus since the hero blinded his son, the Cyclops
Polyphemus, earlier in his travels. Athena intervenes to save Odysseus from Poseidons wrath,
and the beleaguered king lands at Scheria, home of the Phaeacians. Nausicaa, the Phaeacian
princess, shows him to the royal palace, and Odysseus receives a warm welcome from the king
and queen. When he identifies himself as Odysseus, his hosts, who have heard of his exploits at
Troy, are stunned. They promise to give him safe passage to Ithaca, but first they beg to hear the
story of his adventures.
Odysseus spends the night describing the fantastic chain of events leading up to his arrival on
Calypsos island. He recounts his trip to the Land of the Lotus Eaters, his battle with Polyphemus
the Cyclops, his love affair with the witch-goddess Circe, his temptation by the deadly Sirens, his
journey into Hades to consult the prophet Tiresias, and his fight with the sea monster Scylla.
When he finishes his story, the Phaeacians return Odysseus to Ithaca, where he seeks out the hut
of his faithful swineherd, Eumaeus. Though Athena has disguised Odysseus as a beggar,
Eumaeus warmly receives and nourishes him in the hut. He soon encounters Telemachus, who
has returned from Pylos and Sparta despite the suitors ambush, and reveals to him his true
identity. Odysseus and Telemachus devise a plan to massacre the suitors and regain control of
Ithaca.
When Odysseus arrives at the palace the next day, still disguised as a beggar, he endures abuse
and insults from the suitors. The only person who recognizes him is his old nurse, Eurycleia, but
she swears not to disclose his secret. Penelope takes an interest in this strange beggar, suspecting
that he might be her long-lost husband. Quite crafty herself, Penelope organizes an archery
contest the following day and promises to marry any man who can string Odysseuss great bow
and fire an arrow through a row of twelve axesa feat that only Odysseus has ever been able to

accomplish. At the contest, each suitor tries to string the bow and fails. Odysseus steps up to the
bow and, with little effort, fires an arrow through all twelve axes. He then turns the bow on the
suitors. He and Telemachus, assisted by a few faithful servants, kill every last suitor.
Odysseus reveals himself to the entire palace and reunites with his loving Penelope. He travels to
the outskirts of Ithaca to see his aging father, Laertes. They come under attack from the vengeful
family members of the dead suitors, but Laertes, reinvigorated by his sons return, successfully
kills Antinouss father and puts a stop to the attack. Zeus dispatches Athena to restore peace.
With his power secure and his family reunited, Odysseuss long ordeal comes to an end.
Content Analysis:
Setting (Time):
Bronze Age (approximately twelfth century B.C.E. ); the Odyssey begins where the Iliad ends
and covers the ten years after the fall of Troy.
Setting (Place):
Odysseuss wanderings cover the Aegean and surrounding seas and eventually end in Ithaca, in
northwestern Greece; Telemachus travels from Ithaca to southern Greece.
Characters:
Odysseus
King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, former commander in the Trojan
War, Odysseus is the flawed, beloved hero of this tale of homecoming and revenge. His character
is deeply contradictory: he is both a cunning champion and a plaything of the gods, a wise
commander and a vainglorious braggart. After the Trojan War, which left him swollen with pride
and fame, Odysseus seeks adventure on his way home; but the journey brings much defeat and
humiliation, and the Odysseus that lands on the shores of Ithaca is a humbler, wiser man, more
pious and reserved. As longing for adventure wanes, homesickness grows; the strictures of honor
replace the demands of glory. Only when Odysseus learns to yield some control of his fate to the
gods can he take charge of his life and bring peace to his household.
Telemachus
Odysseus's young son. Telemachus spends his youth helplessly watching the suitors corrupt his
household and harass his mother Penelope, but Athena's forceful guidance helps him mature
from a nervous youth to a confident, eloquent man much like his father. Although Athena's
hovering, controlling presence might seem oppressive and restrictive, it helps the prince to

acquire a great deal of freedom in speech and action. His final passage into manhood is the fight
against the suitors, where he proves his courage and skill.
Penelope
The goddess of wisdom, justice, and courage. She takes a particular liking to Odysseus, and by
extension Telemachus perhaps because Odysseus's suffering is greater than his crimes, perhaps
because he embodies the values she champions. Secretively and light-handedly, she guides
Telemachus and helps Odysseus when she can. She usually appears to mortals disguised as
another mortal or as a bird; it might be that she is naturally reticent (as Zeus is naturally dramatic
and ostentatious), or it might be that she takes pains to allow her heroes freedom of choice. Her
partiality to Odysseus sometimes conflicts with Zeus and Poseidon's resentments, so she must act
indirectly.

Athena
Sometimes called "Pallas Athena" or "Pallas," she frequently intervenes on Odysseus' or
Telemachus' behalf, often in disguise and sometimes as Mentor, the prince's adviser.
Zeus
King of the gods, he is somewhat unpredictable but usually supports wayfaring suppliants,
hospitality, and his daughter Athena in her concern for Odysseus.
Language Style
Clear, Poetic, Epic
Fair enough: at first, the Odyssey feels a lot more murky than clear. But if you look at learning
Homeric style like learning a new dialect, it won't take you long to get the hang of it. Once you
get past the initial strangeness, you'll see that Homer's work is almost never complicated for its
own sake. He just says things in a very clear and direct way.
Look at the very beginning of the story: "Tell me, Muse, of the man of many ways, who was
driven far journeys, after he had sacked Troy's sacred citadel" (1.1-2). In just those two lines,
we're set up with a hero (Odysseus) and a quest (getting home). Like we said, pretty
straightforward.
Epic is defined as a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of
heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. And this poem are composed of 24 books.

Dactylic Hexameter
Homer composed The Odyssey in a meter known as dactylic hexameter, which gives the epic its
elevated style. Each line has six metrical feet. The first five feet may be made up of either dactyls
and/or spondees. A dactyl is a metrical foot consisting of a long sound followed by two short
sounds (BEEEEAT beat-beat). A spondee has two long sounds (BEEEEAT BEEEEAT). However
a line is composed, the last metrical foot usually is a spondee (BEEEEAT BEEEEAT).
In Homer's epic poetry, composed in Ancient Greek, it is the length of the sound that counts, not
the emphasis as is usually the case in contemporary English poetry. Translations, for obvious
reasons, generally cannot mimic the metric foot of the epics and remain true to content and
themes.
Figures of Speech:
He Odyssey Does Indeed use Metaphors
It is frequently said, when critics speak of Homer, that he is singularly lacking in metaphors
(Whitman, 103). In contrast, there is a multitude of metaphor in Homer. Equally important,
Homer utilizes simile, personification, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes, and apostrophe. Metaphor
combines with other figures of speech, painting brightly colored brush strokes of imagery in
Homers The Odyssey.
Apostrophe
The very introduction of The Odyssey is a figure of speech with apostrophe as the orator
addresses the Muse. The hero of the tale which I beg the Muse to help me tell I pray the divine
Muse to unfold to us (25). This introduction merges with the tone of the following paragraphs
blending with the narrative. The address of the Muse is literary apostrophe where we expect an
answer from that which can not, "I pray the divine Muse to unfold to us."

Metaphor
"With that, it [the god Athena at the bedside of Penelope] slipped past the bolt by the jamb of the
door and was lost in the wind outside. But Icarius daughter, waking with a start, drew a warm
sense of comfort from the vividness of this dream that had flown to her through the early night
Synecdoche
Synecdoche also emphasizes a viewpoint; "And we came to the land of Cyclopes, a fierce,
uncivilized people, who never lift a hang to plant or plough but put their trust in Providence
Hyperbole and litotes

Exaggeration or understatement for effect creates a comically ironic situation. These instances
disperse themselves throughout, The Odyssey. Death lets his gentle darts fly (57, 91). In
peril of his life Odysseus finds it no easy matter to swim (96). The very heights of the heavens
have set no limit to the misery of Odysseus (301). Of course, these examples are even more
prevalent written in Greek as some of this type of example are lost in translation.
The Epic Simile
One of the devices used most effectively by Homer is the epic simile. A simile is a figure of
speech in which two unlike things or concepts are shown to be similar, for poetic purposes, often
through the use of the words "like" or "as." For example, we might say that a girl's hair
islike sunshine or that her breath is rank as an old gym sock. An epic simile sometimes extends
the comparison to expansive proportions. One relatively short example in The Odyssey appears
when Odysseus and his men blind the Cyclops: "as a blacksmith plunges a glowing ax or adze /
in an ice-cold bath and the metal screeches steam / and its temper hardens that's the iron's
strength / so the eye of the Cyclops sizzled round that stake!" (9.438-41)
In The Odyssey, Homer uses the epic simile differently. First, the later poem has fewer similes,
and, for the most part, they do not expand the already vast world of the story. Instead, in The
Odyssey, the similes intensify the experience for the reader.

Other example: great Odysseus melted into tears... as a woman weeps, her arms flung around
her darling husband, a man who fell in battle... So from Odysseus' eyes ran tears of heartbreak
now"
Point of View:
The narrator speaks in the third person and is omniscient. He frequently offers insight into the
thoughts and feelings of even minor characters, gods and mortals alike; Odysseus freely gives
inferences about the thoughts and feelings of other characters.

Symbol:
Laertes' Shroud
Homer's world in The Odyssey looms large, and it presents symbols, ranging from specific
objects to geographical entities, that are large in their significance. Examples include the shroud
that Penelope weaves for Laertes, the great bow of Odysseus, the sea itself, and the island of
Ithaca.

The shroud that Penelope weaves for her father-in-law, Laertes', eventual funeral symbolizes the
cunning with which she confronts the suitors. She lacks the power to fight them with physical
strength so she wards them off with her wits. The suitor Antinous bitterly tells the story of the
shroud to the assembly in Book 2: Penelope devoted herself to the shroud for three full years,
promising she would choose a husband when she finished. By day, the queen, a renowned
weaver, worked at a great loom in the royal halls. At night, she secretly unraveled what she had
done, deceiving the young suitors. The ruse failed only when Penelope was betrayed by a
disloyal maidservant.
Odysseus' Bow
Primarily, the bow symbolizes the physical superiority of the king an important point in a
world in which the mighty prevail. But the bow also symbolizes the maturity and perhaps the
character of the king. The suitors can't come close to stringing it (Book 21), illustrating the fact
that none of them is capable of leading Ithaca. Prince Telemachus, trying the bow just for sport,
comes close. The reader is told that Telemachus probably could string the bow on his fourth
attempt, but his father signals him to desist. We take from this passage that Telemachus
is almost ready to be king but patiently and properly acquiesces to his father's judgment. Only
Odysseus can string the bow on his first attempt, and he does so with ease, showing that he is the
proper mate for Penelope and the only man ready to be king of Ithaca.
The Sea
The sea itself is a recurring symbol throughout the epic. It is, in effect, the sea of life. It
represents a great man's journey through life with all its victories and heartbreaks.
Because Odysseus is far from Ithaca and the only way home is by way of the sea, he shows lack
of judgment when he incurs the wrath of the sea god, Poseidon, by blinding the god's son
Polyphemus. The sea god answers the Cyclops' prayer by making Odysseus' struggle long and
hard, assuring that he returns home alone and finds formidable problems in his household. Part
of the appeal of The Odyssey is this universal journey that we all undertake, in ways great or
small.
Ithaca
The island of Ithaca symbolizes home. There Odysseus can share his life with his beloved wife
and son, enjoy the wealth that he has earned, eat the food of his youth, and even sleep in the bed
that he built. Ithaca symbolizes the end of the journey, the goal of the mythic trek. Nevertheless,
it is not gained without a fight.

Odysseus must initially enter his own home in disguise. This is necessary because his home has
been invaded by the enemy: the suitors. Being the military leader that he is, Odysseus first
gathers pertinent information. He then plans the time and place of his attack, doing what he can
to limit the enemy's weapons while procuring his own. His son and two loyal herdsmen stand by
him, and Athena intervenes only enough to encourage victory so long as Odysseus fights well.
The reward is that Odysseus resumes his proper position as king of his homeland, Ithaca.
Theme:
Hospitality
The major themes in The Odyssey are especially significant because they serve to form the moral
and ethical constitution of most of the characters. The reader learns about the characters through
the themes. The more complicated a character is, the more he or she engages these major themes.
Therefore, the most complicated character, Odysseus, appropriately embodies each of the themes
to one degree or another.
Glory and Honor
Odysseus and other characters are motivated by pursuit of glory and honor. In the course of the
story, the two terms acquire distinct meanings. Glory is attained mainly by victory in battle and
by feats of strength and cunning, while honor is attained by just, lawful behavior. Sometimes the
two pursuits conflict with one another, since striving for glory can lead to reckless, proud
behavior that violates customs and angers the gods.
Loyalty
Loyalty is also a major theme in The Odyssey. Perhaps the most well-known example of loyalty
is Penelope and her devotion to her husband Odysseus.
Perseverance
Perseverance of the main character lead him to success even though there is a lot of obstacles. He
overcome those challenges because of his perseverance
Vengeance
Revenge serves as a strong motivator throughout the narrative. Poseidon's anger towards
Odysseus stems from his son Polyphemus' desire to avenge the loss of his eye. Helios forces
Zeus to destroy Odysseus' crew in retaliation for the slaughter of his cattle.

Odysseus and Telemachus exact revenge on the suitors for their crimes. If not for the
intervention of Athena, the suitors' parents would have waged a war of revenge against
Odysseus.

Message:
The message of the story Odyssey is to bring out the real meaning of loyalty. Odysseus's
devotion to his family, his country and his god is unwavering. Odysseus has the opportunity to be
unfaithful to his wife, renounce his country and ignore his beliefs. Even though he sometimes
falters and some of his decisions have negative consequences, his allegiance, love for his wife
and desire to return home never wanes.
This story also point out the strong moral values when it comes to self-control and sexual
temptation. Even though the beautiful Sirens attempt to draw him off course, he warns his men
of their seductive ways, attaches himself to his ship so he won't stray and plugs his crew's ears
with wax. He also shows self-control when he holds back and doesn't kill Polyphemus, the
cyclops. He waits for the right opportunity so he can gouge his eye out and escape. Even though
some of his men -- those with poor riding skills -- are killed by Polyphemus, his self-control
keeps his whole crew from being slaughtered.
The story also conveys perseverence. Despite the many obstacles and challenges he faces,
Odysseus never gives up. Even when Odysseus doesn't know how to escape the cyclops, he
makes a noble attempt to survive by riding under the bellies of sheep, according to "Scope"
magazine. Odysseus's perseverance isn't based on physical strength alone. He uses his
intelligence to outwit those who try to ensnare him. From the very beginning of the poem,
Odysseus shows his determination by escaping the grips of Calypso.
The story also involves about compassion. Even though Odysseus is forced to deal with
opposing forces using violence and aggression, he never loses his soft side. He proves his virtue
when he allows compassion to rule his heart. For example, when Demodocus plays the harp and
sings of the Trojan War, Odysseus cries. Odysseus remembers his fellow comrades who died in
war and mourns their loss. His imprisonment, years away from home and oppressive
confrontations aren't able to destroy his empathetic and compassionate tendencies.