Odysseus at sea (p. 353)

River inlet: Odysseus finally get on the land

A sequel and a complementary to The Iliad Allusions to he actual fall of Troy and

its aftermath How the Greeks faced further danger

in the long voyage back to Greece

Encounter with different cultures The place of literature and memory

in the formation of cultural identity

Major themes

Fantasy Magic Domestic details Human need for a family and a home

The central figure: Odysseus The different skills and capabilities required

for the journey from war to peace:---strength ---physical courage---brains: the cunning hero---adaptable: a man of many turns---psychological strength: an ability both to

endure and inflict pain without flinching---patience and self-restrain to bide his time---the will to go home and to restore it to

order

The diversity of cultures and ways of life: exotic & ordinary---Calypso---Sirens---Scylla the monster---The Lotus flower---island of the sun---Circe---Cyclopes---Phaeacia

A question Homer poses

How ought we behave toward people who are not the same as ourselves?

Hospitality: The key answer illustrated in the Greek society Cultures may vary in other respects,

but any good society will accommodate the wandering guest.

Hospitality is the fundamental criterion for civilized society in this poem.

Telemechus, Nestor and Menelaus in their reception of visitors

Transgressions of hospitality Polyphemus: a grotesque

counterpart to the good Phaecian hosts

Odysseus’s own men: they killed the cattle of the Sun

Why Odysseus was eager to go home despite all?

The poem deals with the fundamental desire we feel for our own people and our own place, not because they are better than any other, but simply because they are ours.

cultural identity

Homer’s reflection on the code of hospitality: what is the limit?

The suitors’ abuse of that code How is Odysseus going to deal with

this dilemma? Homer’s answer lies probably in the

reference to the homecoming of Agamemnon

Temptations Odysseus Meets

The tests of mental qualities as well as physical endurance:

---The Lotus flower---Circe---Phaeacia---Sirens---Calypso

For what does Odysseus turns the temptations down?

A balance of The Iliad: ---The Odyssey defines its values

by contrast with those of the Iliad. Against the dark background of Achilles’s regret for life, Odysseus’s dedication to life—his acceptance of limitations and his ability to seize its possibilities—shines out.

For what does Odysseus turns the temptations down? ---Odysseus chooses the

human condition with its struggle, its disappointment, and its inevitable end.