The Odyssey  Book 1 Ithaca: "Athena Inspires the Prince" pp. 77-92 Reading Comprehension Quiz Book One 1. Where is Odysseus when the story begins? 2. What happened to Agamemnon when he arrived home from the Trojan War? 3. Which god now despises Odysseus? Why? 4. What has happened to Odysseus' home in Ithaca during the twenty years that he has been gone? 5. As whom does Athena disguise herself when she comes down from Olympus to meet with Telemachus? 6. What advice does Athena give to Telemachus? E.C. What is the name of the island where Odysseus is imprisoned? Creative Writing Assignment: The Telemachiad Write your own version of the first four books of The Odyssey, except set it in contemporary times. Find your own way to tell the story of Telemachus' call to adventure.  - Re-create Telemachus' situation: imagine a boy who has grown up in a broken family, never having known his father. - Dramatize his deteriorating relationship with his mother and describe his response to the persistent presence of unwanted guests in his house: freeloaders who seek his mother's hand in marriage.  - Tell us about the fateful day when a stranger comes to the house and encourages the boy to take off on his own to find his father.  - Include as many of the details from Books One through Four as possible, translated into a modern setting. Class Notes: Lecture on Book One: "Athena Inspires the Prince" (lines 1-24) The Proem - the poem is meant to be read aloud, accompanied by the lyre and by dancing and drums - it is an invocation to the goddess of memory who alone can impart the truth: history - the song alone can safeguard the eternal memory of the hero; the whole epic is committed to the memory of the singer/poet who then passes the story on to the next generation in the act of chanting the poem; the poet will improvise sections of the poem and add different episodes depending upon his audience - the epic tells the story of a human being with a unique fate, not the story of a god: -a man of great fame (kleos) who achieves his name through guile and endurance - the catastrophic fate of others: the suitors and all of Odysseus' men teach a moral lesson about the relationship between humans and their fate in life: - the result of Odysseus' own rage and pride? - or the result of their own recklessness?  - (a blatant transgression of the order of civilized behavior; a lack of xenia) - Odysseus' relationship with the gods, particularly with Athena, is grounded in respect and reciprocation (warmth, but also the material exchange of gifts) (l. 25-112) The Assembly on Olympus - Nostoi (stories of return): Odysseus's story is immediately compared with the tragic outcome of Agamemnon's return home to Clytemnestra's deceit and to certain death at an assassin's hands (Aegisthos). (Aeschylus, the first tragedian, wrote a trilogy of plays about Agamemnon's fatal return home from war. In his version, though, Clytemnestra herself does the dirty deed, and her son Orestes, thus, is compelled to commit matricide to avenge his father's death.) - Will Odysseus return at all?  Obstacles: Poseidon and Calypso Danger exists, but does he really want to go home? - If Odysseus is able to return at all, what will he return to? - A kingdom demolished by a gang of barbarians; the danger of death - But even worse: - An unfaithful wife - A son who has never known him - Although absent, Odysseus' presence dominates the scene in Ithaca: he is in the thoughts of Penelope, Telemachus, and the suitors all the time. (l. 95- 112) Athena's Plan - force Calypso to free Odysseus - appear in disguise to Telemachus and send him in search of his father (and his own renown- kleos- ) (l. 130-385) Telemachus - Homer opens the poem the way he does for a specific reason. He wants the focus, initially, to be on Telemachus- who has arrived at a crux: the moment between boyhood and manhood. - Telemachus is in the throes of an identity crisis (first sight l. 132: a dreamer, like Odysseus on Calypso's Island) - the immediate cause of Telemachus' crisis is the presence of the suitors who are destroying his home and threatening to take his mother as well as his inheritance. - However, the deeper and more difficult cause underlying Telemachus' problems is the long absence of his father: an absence of kleos: the mysterious shared identity between father and son. - Kleos:  - successful renown (fame): the only way to achieve immortality - the account of you which will remain after your death, the consolation for death. (The Greeks conceived the afterlife as an insubstantial diminishment of the self.) - the spiritual connection between father and son; unlike flesh, which is shared between mother and child, the connection between father and child must be discovered in action.  - in the eyes of the ancient Greeks of Homer's time, kleos was even more important than virtue - the search for kleos is the oldest theme of the epic - kleos needs material counterpart for true expression: you need trophies, jewels,  - Telemachus exhibits the symptoms of an identity-less person: he has no sense of who he is or what he might achieve in life. - despondency, exaggerated pessimism - he doesn't believe that Odysseus is alive (l. 185) - he doesn't believe that he is Odysseus' son (l. 248) - he wishes he were someone else's son; he feels utterly impotent to deal with the situation on Ithaca; he is curt and rude with his mother (l. 396), and he feels closer to his nurse than to his mother - he yearns for a father figure, even thinks he has found one in Mentes (l. 355) - Yet he also demonstrates potential for greatness. Despite his problems, Telemachus' innate politeness shows that he is indeed Odysseus' son: - Xenia: he knows how to treat a guest properly (unlike the suitors). - Xenia is that understanding of hospitality, that friendship between families, which is the central foundation of civilized society. First rule: Do not eat your guests! - the leisurely description of the details of household living  (l. 148-68) indicate a central theme of the poem: surprising for an epic is this celebration of the joys and obligations of domestic life. The Odyssey is an adventure story, but it is also a domestic drama, a celebration of domestic life. - the poet's song is a chief pleasure of civilized company - Courage/guile: after meeting with Athena, Telemachus is touched by inspiration, and he stands up to the suitors, asserting his authority over the household. He lies blatantly to Eurymakhos (l.470), evidence of Odyssean guile. - Impetuosity: Telemachus' response is qualified by the fact that he jumps the gun. Athena told him to wait to confront the suitors until the next day. He does so right away and will have nothing to say the next day at the important meeting. Implication: he's not ready yet. Odysseus has learned to control this aspect of his personality. Athena - A goddess who appears as Mentes, a man:  - the stranger who is in reality the divine friend in disguise - a typical motif in an adventure story: (see Obi Wan Kenobi) - a pirate trader, mysterious and rough - a friend of Odysseus - a man: she must appear as a man; otherwise Telemachus would not have believed or respected her. - Athena bolsters Telemachus' spirits - Likens him to his father - Reminds him of the example of Orestes' action - Encourages him to set forth in search of his destiny - If all else fails, she will kill the suitors herself. - She leaves gifts (365-75) - Telemachus has proof of a divine experience: Athena's spear. (l. 385ff.) Penelope - famous entrance as she silences the company, entering down the stairs - Penelope appears veiled (within her own home), makes a complaint, is rebuked by her own son and then exits, leaving quite a stir in her wake because of her beauty. - She continually tries to intervene and is continually frustrated. - She does not completely understand what is going on. - She is alone in her struggle to cling to her life as Odysseus' wife. - She is shocked and hurt by Telemachus' behavior. - She hints that Odysseus may be dead. The Suitors - typified by Eurymakhos and Antinoos (a Homeric doublet) - Eurymakhos: oily, hypocritical - Antinoos: vicious and openly hostile - taking power in a house without a host to send the guests home - The suitors should be wooing Penelope with gifts, but instead they are consuming her inheritance. - They do not respond to the appearance of a stranger; instead they concentrate on partying: wasting oxen, drinking, outraging decent people.  - Their chief sin: self-centeredness, recklessness, laziness. - They cannot think of feasting as anything more than stuffing their gullets, animal sustenance: not far from cannibalism. - They never thank the gods for their food.