STUDY GUIDE FOR PRE-AP: Important Background Information
An odyssey is a long series of wanderings or adventures, especially when filled with extraordinary experiences, hardships, etc.
The Odyssey is an epic poem credited to Homer, describing Odysseus's adventures in his ten-year attempt to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.
Odysseus was a Greek king of Ithaca. (Epithet: Odysseus the Cunning)
Trojan War
¨ The war started when Aphrodite was chosen as the prettiest goddess, according to Paris (a Trojan).
¨ The Greeks attacked Troy because Aphrodite promised to give Helen (a Greek married to Menelaus) to Paris.
¨ The Greeks won the war because of Odysseus’ idea of the Trojan horse.
An epic poem is a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds.
Epics were told orally, and then later written down.
Epics have nine main characteristics:
1. opens in medias res (in the middle of the story; the poem does not start at the beginning of the tale).
2. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.
3. begins with a summon to a muse (who were known to be the singers of stories).
4. starts with a statement of the theme.
5. the use of epithets (Alexander the Great; mighty Zeus).
6. includes long lists.
7. features long and formal speeches.
8. shows divine intervention on human affairs.
9. “star" heroes that embody the values of the civilization.
Characteristics of the Archetypal Hero
1. Hero is often of obscure/unusual origin.
2. Hero is neither a fool nor invincible.
3. Hero is called upon to make a journey or to follow a goal/quest.
4. Hero’s way is not always direct/clear to him. [Not on test]
5. Hero faces dangers, loneliness, and temptations.
6. Friends, servants, or disciples usually accompany the hero.
7. Hero has a guide(s).
8. Hero descends into darkness and is not the same after emerging.
9. Hero’s journey is a symbol of what he hopes to find.
10. With few exceptions, archetypal heroes are male.
Understand/analyze the following quotes.
cunning / The Cyclops “thought he’d find out [where my ship was], but I saw through this, and answered with a ready lie…”cunning / “My name is Nohbdy: mother, father, and friends, / everyone calls me Nohbdy.”
cunning / “So three sheep could convey each man…with fingers twisted deep in sheepskin ringlets for an iron grip.”
cunning / “Here is an instance of her [Penelope’s] trickery: / she had her great loom standing in the hall / and the fine warp of some vast fabric on it… / But… / we found her unraveling the splendid shroud.”
disguise / “She [Athena] seemed a family friend, the Taphian captain, Mentes…”
disguise / “Athena was nearby and came to him, / putting on Mentor’s figure and his tone…”
disguise / “…Athena came to him [Odysseus] from the nearby air, / putting a young man’s figure on—a shepherd, / like a king’s son, all delicately made.”
divine intervention / “Grey-eyed Athena / presently cast a sweet sleep on her [Penelope’s] eyes.”
divine intervention / “…by Athena’s heart and will / he [Odysseus] won his passage home.”
divine intervention / The Phaecians’ “…ocean-going ship / he [Poseidon] saw already near, heading for harbor; / so up behind her swam the island-shaker / and struck her into stone, rooted in stone, at one / blow of his palm…”
Homeric simile / The Cyclops “seemed no man at all of those / who eat good wheaten bread; but he seemed rather / a shaggy mountain reared in solitude.”
Homeric simile / “straight / forward they sprinted, lifted it [the stake], and rammed it / deep in his crater eye, and leaned on it / turning it as a shipwright turns a drill / into planking…”
Homeric simile / “In a smithy / one sees a white-hot axehead or an adze / plunged and wrung in a cold tub, screeching steam—/ just so that eyeball hissed around the spike.”
Homeric simile / “Think of a man whose dear and only son, / born to him in exile, reared with labor, / has lived ten years abroad and now returns: / how would that man embrace his son! Just so / the herdsman clapped his arms around Telemachus / and covered him with kisses…”
Homeric simile / “Salt tears / rose from the wells of longing in both men, and cries burst from both as keen and fluttering / as those of the great taloned hawk, / whose nestlings farmers take before they fly. / So helplessly they [Telemachus and Odysseus] cried…”
Homeric simile / “But the man skilled in all ways contending, / satisfied by the great bow’s look and heft, / like a musician, like a harper, when / with quiet hand upon his instrument / he draws between his thumb and forefinger / a sweet new string upon a peg: so effortlessly / Odysseus in one motion strung the bow. / Then slid his right hand down the cord and plucked it, / so the taut gut vibrating hummed and sang / a swallow’s note.”
hospitality / “…here we stand, / beholden for your help, or any gifts / you would give—as custom is to honor strangers... / Zeus will avenge / the unoffending guest.”
hospitality / “Straight to the door he [Telemachus] came, irked with himself / to think a visitor had been kept there waiting…”
hospitality / “When they [Mentor and men of Pylos] saw the strangers / a hail went up and all that crowd came forward / calling out invitations to the feast.”
hospitality / “’But wait a while, and let me serve my friend.’ / She [Calypso] drew a table of ambrosia near him [Hermes] / and stirred a cup of ruby-colored nectar…”
importance of family/heritage / “I [Telemachus] wish at least I had some happy man / as father…”
importance of family/heritage; importance of home; and Homeric simile / “And Odysseus / let the bright molten tears run down his cheeks, / weeping the way a wife mourns for her lord / on the lost field where he has gone down fighting / the day of wrath that came upon his children…but no more piteous than Odysseus’ tears…”
importance of home / Ancient of Sea makes Menelaus travel back the way he came after the Trojan war and make the proper sacrifices to ensure safety home. Menelaus’ reaction: “Ah, how my heart sank, hearing this…” (Menelaus is anxious to go home.)
importance of home / “…my [Odysseus’] shipmates one day summoned me and said: / ‘Captain, shake off this trance, and think of home— / if home indeed awaits us, / your own well-timbered hall on Ithaca.’ / They made me feel a pang, and I agreed.”
loyalty / “Those [three men] who ate…the Lotus, / never cared to report, nor to return…I drove them, all three wailing to the ships, / tied them down under their rowing benches…”
loyalty / “She [Penelope] still sits where you [Odysseus] left her, and her days / and nights go by forlorn, in lonely weeping.”
loyalty / “As though I had not trouble enough already, / given me by the gods, / my mater gone, true king that he was. I hang on here, / still mourning for him, raising pigs of his / to feed foreigners, and who knows where the man is…”
loyalty / “Eumaios crossed the court and went straight forward / into the megaron among the suitors; / but death and darkness in that instant closed / the eyes of Argos, who had seen his master, / Odysseus, after twenty years.”
storytelling / “Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story / of that man skill in all ways of contending…”
storytelling / “Recall the past deeds and the strange adventures. / I could stay up until the sacred Down / as long as you might wish to tell your story.”
temptation / “Eurylochus made his plea to [to my men]: ‘All deaths are hateful to us, mortal wretches, / but famine is the most pitiful, the worse / end that a man can come to. Will you fight it?’”
temptation / Helen is entranced to tempt men out of the Trojan horse; a superhuman force “…planned an exploit for the Trojans…making your [Helen’s] voice sound like their [Acheans’] wives…”
temptation/curiosity / “My men came pressing round me, pleading: ‘Why not / take these cheeses…and make a run for it?’ Ah, / how sound that was! Yet I refused. I wished / to see the cave man, what he had to offer…”
temptation/curiosity / “…you are to tie me up, tight as a splint, / erect along the mast… / and if I shout and bed… / take more turns of the rope to muffle me.”
temptation/pride / “Cyclops, / if ever mortal man inquire / how you were put to shame…tell him / Odysseus…took your eye…”
Read the following excerpt from The Odyssey. Analyze the interaction between Odysseus and Athena, keeping the following aspects in mind:
· characterization
· cultural background
· purpose
· plot
· themes
“But soon / Athena came to him [Odysseus] from the nearby air, / putting a young man’s figure on—a shepherd, / like a king’s son, all delicately made. / She wore a cloak, in two folds off her shoulders, / and sandals bound upon her shining feet. / A hunting lance lay in her hands.
“At sight of her / Odysseus took heart, and he went forward / to greet the lad, speaking out fair and clear: / ‘Friend, you are the first man I’ve laid eyes on / here in this cove. Greetings. Do not feel / alarmed or hostile, coming across me; only receive me into the safety with my stores. / Touching your knees I ask it, as I might / ask grace of a god. / O sir, advise me, what is this land and realm, who are the people? / Is it an island all distinct, or part / of the fertile mainland, sloping to the sea?’
“To this grey-eyed Athena answered: ‘Stranger, / you must come from the other end of nowhere, / else you are a great booby, having to ask / what place this is. It is no nameless country… / No one would use this ground for training horses, / it is too broken, has no breadth of meadow; / but there is nothing meager about the soil, / the yield of grain is wondrous, and wine, too, / with drenching rains of dewfall. / There’s good pasture for oxen and for goats, all kinds of timber, / and water all year long in the cattle ponds. / For these blessings, friend, the name of Ithaka / has made its way even as far as Troy— / and they say Troy lies far beyond Akhaia.’
“Now Lord Odysseus, the long-enduring, / laughed in his heart, hearing his land described / by Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus who rules / the veering stormwind; and he answered her / with ready speech—not that he told the truth, / but, just as she did, held back what he knew, / weighing within himself at every step what he made up to serve his turn.
“Said he: ‘Far away in Krete I learned of Ithaka— / in that broad island over the great ocean. / And here I am now, come myself to Ithaka! / …Here, then, by night / we came, and made this haven by hard rowing. / All famished, but too tired to think of food, / each man dropped in his tracks after the landing, / and I slept hard, being wearied out. Before / I woke today, they put my things ashore / on the sand here beside where I lay, / then reimbarked for Sidon, that great city. / Now they are far at sea, while I am left / forsaken here.’
“At this the grey-eyed goddess Athena smiled, and gave him [Odysseus] a caress, / her looks being changed now, so she seemed a woman, / tall and beautiful and no doubt skilled / at weaving splendid things. She answered briskly: / ‘Whoever gets around you must be sharp and guileful as a snake; even a god / might bow to you in ways of dissimulation. / You! You chameleon! / Bottomless bag of tricks! Here in your own country / would you not give your stratagems a rest or stop spellbinding for an instant? / You play a part as if it were your own tough skin. / Nor more of this, though. Two of a kind, we are, / contrivers, both. Of all men now alive / you are the best in plots and story telling. / My own fame is for wisdom among the gods—deceptions, too.’
“…Now I am here again to counsel with you— / but first to put away those gifts the Phaiakians / gave you at departure—I planned it so. / Then I can tell you of the gall and wormwood / it is your lot to drink in your own hall. / Patience, iron patience, you must show; / so give it out to neither man nor woman / that you are back from wandering. Be silent / under all injuries, even blows from men.’ (XIII, 279 – 397).
Use the excerpt from The Odyssey to answer questions 1-10.
1. What theme is most apparent in Paragraph 1?
A. hospitality
B. Homeric simile
C. divine intervention
D. disguise
2. In Paragraph 2, Odysseus’ inner conflict stems from—
A. the presence of a stranger
B. the abandonment of the other men
C. not knowing where he is
D. Athena’s deceit
3. Read the following dictionary entry.
fertile \fur-tl\ adj 1. capable of producing offspring 2. having nutrients capable of sustaining an abundant growth of plants 3. able to be transformed into fissile or fissionable material, especially in a nuclear reactor 4. conducive to productiveness
Which definition best matches the use of the word fertile in paragraph 2?
A. Definition 1
B. Definition 2
C. Definition 3
D. Definition 4
4. Why does Odysseus laugh “in his heart” in Paragraph 4?
A. Odysseus discovers Athena’s true identity
B. Odysseus enjoys being deceitful
C. Odysseus is amused by Athena’s deceit
D. Odysseus is happy to be home
5. Which words from paragraph 6 best help the reader understand the meaning of the word dissimulation?
A. Bottomless bag
B. even a god / might bow to you
C. You chameleon
D. you must be sharp and guileful
6. In paragraph 6, Athena’s reaction to Odysseus’ story shows that—