ClSt / ComL 200

Lecture notes for Monday, February 15, and Wednesday, February 17, 1999

Homer's Odyssey

• The Trojan War Cycle and the Homeric Poems
• The Iliad and the Odyssey compared:
• plot structures
• "epic" vs. "romance"
• "tragedy" vs. "comedy"
• Aristotle
• death and rebirth
• Achilles vs. Odysseus:
• Helen's description of Odysseus in Iliad 3
• Achilles' reaction to Odysseus' speech in Iliad 9
• The First Song of Demodocus (the quarrel between Achilles and Odysseus) in Odyssey 8
• Achilles' words to Odysseus in Odyssey 11
• Major Odyssean themes and motifs:
• xenia (guest-friendship)
• Telemachus' behavior towards Athena/Mentes and her comments on the behavior of the suitors
• Odysseus' men devour the cattle of the Sun
• Odysseus helps himself to the Cyclops' provisions
• cyclical patterns / encounters with the "Other"
• truth and lies
• Lying in the Odyssey
• Odysseus' lies:
• Odysseus lies to the Cyclops Polyphemus:
• about the loss of his ship
• about his identity ("Noman" = "Outis" or "Metis" in Greek)
• Odysseus and Athena lie to each other
• Odysseus lies to Eumaeus the swineherd
• Odysseus lies to Penelope
• Odysseus lies to Laertes
• Penelope's lies:
• Penelope's shroud for Laertes
• Penelope questions "the beggar"
• Penelope and Odysseus lie to each other
• Hesiod's Muses on Truth and Falsehood
• mortality and immortality
• Achilles' words to Odysseus in Odyssey 11
• Odysseus contrasts Penelope with Calypso in Odyssey 5
• Complementarity of the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Pattern of movement from center to periphery and then return
• Parallelism between the hero's adventures and coming of age
• Similarity between overall shape of the Trojan saga and cultic practices