Thursday, February 19

Quiz over books 6 & 7.

Acted out books 6 & 7.

Review from previous days:

odyssey- a long, wandering and eventful trip; quest; adventure

Calypso (in Greek)- to conceal or cover; hide; disguise

Notes:

2 Characteristics (strengths) of Odysseus: 1) His ability to endure  2) His ability to think for himself under pressure

Homeric simile: an extended (long) comparison using like or as; written by Homer (the author)

Heroism: Odysseus thinks it's better to die in battle than to die in the sea.  

Role of women: Up to this point, they have been the ones to help Odysseus (Athena, Nausicaa, Arete, Calypso, Ino)

Poseidon: Angry with Odysseus still, and he's related to the Phaeacians. (warning sign!)

Why doesn't Odysseus reveal himself to King Alcinous and Queen Arete immediately?  He just met them, so he still fears/distrusts them.  Just like we don't share who we are with strangers.  We tell them a little bit, but we don't tell them our whole life story right off the bat.

**Keep reading for setting, characters, and plot.

**Look for vocabulary words.

**Thursday: Night off of reading!

**Over the weekend: Read Book 8.  Quiz on Monday.

Odyssey, Book 5 Notes

Odysseus's Departure from Calypso


Major concepts:

• Odysseus weeping for his home
• Council of the gods
• Calypso and her island
• Hermes's tact with Calypso and admiration of the beauty of her home
• Calypso's reaction to Zeus's decree
• Calypso's involvement in Odysseus's departure
• Odysseus and Calypso's relationship
• The raft
• Poseidon's wrath
• Ino's gift / Odysseus's reaction
• Athena's aid / Odysseus's survival skills
• Odysseus's prayer to the river god
• Odysseus's precautionary measures for survival on land

Study Guide Questions:

1. Who is Hermes, and what is his mission?
2. What can Hermes do with his wand?
3. Who is holding Odysseus captive? For how long?
4. What sort of character is Calypso?
5. What is the source of her power over Odysseus?
6. What is Calypso's reaction to having to release Odysseus?
7. What is the main problem Odysseus faces by sea?
8. Why does Zeus, despite his liking of Odysseus, allow Poseidon to make this journey such an ordeal?
9. Why does Odysseus return Ino's veil to the sea?
10. What happens to Odysseus at the end of this book?

Page 53.
Vocabulary: harbinger, bliss

• "Zeus the lord of thunder" --> epithet
• "...I hope there may never be such a thing..." --> sound familiar? see Mentor's speech on p. 23
• Athena tries to use guilt to get her way with Zeus -- she guilts him into allowing her to help Odysseus -- a very human-like quality --> lit device: anthropomorphism

Page 54.
Vocabulary: raiment, cormorant, reek

• "He is to be convoyed neither by gods nor men, but after a perilous voyage of twenty days upon a raft he is to reach fertile Scheria, the land of the Phaeacians, who are near of kin to the gods, and will honor him as though he were one of ourselves...." --> Zeus foreshadows what will happen in book 6 when Odysseus arrives in Scheria and meets Alcinous.
• "Hermes, guide and guardian, slayer of Argus" --> epithet
• "...glittering golden..." --> alliteration
• "...fly like the wind over land and sea..." --> simile
• "...flies fishing..." ; "...weary wave..." --> alliteration
• "There was a large fire burning on the hearth, and one could smell from far the fragrant reek of burning cedar and sandal wood. As for herself, she was busy at her loom, shooting her golden shuttle through the warp and singing beautifully. Round her cave there was a thick wood of alder, poplar, and sweet smelling cypress trees, wherein all kinds of great birds had built nests--owls, hawks, and chattering sea crows that occupy their business in the waters. A vine loaded with grapes was trained and grew luxuriantly about the mouth of the cave; there were also four running rills of water in channels cut pretty close together, and turned here and there so as to irrigate the beds of violets and luscious herbage over which they flowed...." --> Note the intricate description not only of Calypso but also of her living quarters. Greeks would have appreciated the beauty of her home -- just as Hermes does toward the end of this paragraph. Her home suggests not Nature running wild -- but controlled -- in a balance of trees, vegetation, and animal wildlife. For more information about the contents of this paragraph -- click on the links within.
• "Odysseus was not within...groaning and breaking his heart for sorrow...." --> Greeks placed absolute value on man's loyalty to his own household -- here we see Odysseus -- in the face of such beauty and godliness -- still long for his home and his wife; even though he obviously has had an "affair" (in today's standards) with Calypso -- the fact that she was an unmarried goddess made it acceptible -- just as it would have been if Odysseus had taken a war prize or slave as a lover
• "Calypso gave Hermes a seat and said..." --> again, the importance of hospitality -- even among the gods / goddesses

Page 55.
Vocabulary: transgress, astride, keel

• "Zeus sent me...." --> does this sentence and the following ones suggest that Hermes is not happy to do Zeus's errands?
• "On their way home they sinned against Athena, who raised both wind and waves..." --> it does not go into detail here because as Homer's audience, we're supposed to view Athena as Odysseus's protectress -- not someone he is at odds against; as the Greeks sacked Troy, they took many women as war prizes, including Cassandra, King Priam's daughter; one of the Greek soldiers Ajax supposedly took advantage of Cassandra in one of Athena's temples -- this is the insult which caused Athena's anger at the Greeks source
• "Zeus says that you are to let this man go at once..." --> Hermes delivers Zeus's message
• "You gods...ought to be ashamed of yourselves...." --> Calypso refers to two allusions here of other god/mortal relationships which didn't work out because of jealously. Interestingly enough, both stories end with the death of the mortal. Is Odysseus in danger?
• "Zeus had struck his ship with lightning..." --> Calypso tries to explain herself why she kept Odysseus; yet note she wants to keep Odysseus and make him immortal
• "...for he had got tired of Calypso..." --> Odysseus -- although he had an extra-marital relationship with Calypso -- did so unwillingly
• "I am going to send you away of my own free will..." --> note Calypso's change in wording here; usually when someone receives directives from a god/goddess, rarely is this mentioned when actually completing the task (Instead of "Zeus told Hermes to tell me that I had to let you go" it's "I've decided to let you go")

Page 56.
Vocabulary: none

• "...make yourself a large raft..." --> does Odysseus built a 'raft' or a small 'boat' ? Later description / terminology makes it sound more like a boat. In any rate, the craft he builds shows his skill as he must build the entire thing by himself.
• "Not even a well found ship with a fair wind..." --> Odysseus reveals his distrust -- even of a goddess
• "When she had thus spoken she led the way..." --> Calypso treats Odysseus like a god -- does he really want to leave this place?
• "...so would you start home to your own land at once?" --> this paragraph, Calypso tries to get Odysseus to stay with her; she offers him immortality and compares the beauty of Penelope with herself; note Odysseus's carefully worded response:
• "I am quite aware that my wife Penelope is nothing like to tall or so beautiful as yourself...." --> Odysseus compliments Calypso while still showing his loyalty to home

Page 57.
Vocabulary: adze, augers

• "Calypso went home, leaving him to cut them..." --> note that Odysseus does all of the work to prepare for his departure; Calypso even brings him "some linen to make the sails" rather than helping him at all; again, the description (yard arm, rudder, sails) begs the question: is this a simple raft or an actual ship Odysseus builds?
• "Days seven and ten did he sail over the sea..." --> recall from page 54 that Odysseus will sail for 20 days and suffer a "perilous voyage" -- in this paragraph he sees the Phaeacian coast
• "Still, he shall have much hardship yet before he has done with it...." --> Poseidon still refuses to allow Odysseus to return home without problems

Page 58.
Vocabulary: trident, dismay, reeled

• "Odysseus' heart began to fail him...." --> is fear still heroic?
• "Blest and thrice blest were those Danaans who fell before Troy in the cause of the sons of Atreus...." --> here and in the sentences that follow, Odysseus wishes he had died an honorable death (as did the Greek soldiers who fell at Troy) rather than an unhonorable one (like one at sea); this idea of a 'hero's welcome' is an idea which will develop even more as Odysseus gets closer to home and arrives at home -- he cannot expect a 'hero's welcome' because he must continually hide who he is to protect himself and his family; he will receive honor due to him by being a hero at home -- and not a 'war hero'
• "Ino daughter of Cadmus...." --> Ino used to be a mortal woman, but because of Hera's intense jealousy toward Ino and Athamas, in one myth Hera afflicted them both with madness and the two destroyed not only themselves, but their children as well. Ino drowned herself and one of her children in the sea; her plight as a mortal and her struggle with the sea make it likely that she would pity Odysseus and therefore help him source 1 source 2
• "And here, take my veil..." --> Ino offers Odysseus a magical veil to protect him against Poseidon's wrath; note that again, Odysseus is distrustful of a goddess

Page 59.
Vocabulary: dismay; astride

• "I know what I will do..." --> Odysseus can't decide whether to trust Ino or not; he will stay on the raft/boat until it breaks apart; only then (when he has no other options) will he trust the veil to protect him
• "There now, swim up and down as best you can..." --> here, Poseidon finally relents and leaves Odysseus alone
• "But Athena resolved to help Odysseus..." --> Athena steps in and stops the wind from blowing -- except what might help him reach land
• "Thereon he floated about for two nights and two days..." --> completing the twenty days Zeus said Odysseus would spend before he reached land
• "Then, as children rejoice when their dear father begins to get better after having for a long time borne sore affliction sent him by some angry spirit, but the gods deliver him from evil, so was Odysseus thankful when he again saw land and trees, and swam on with all his strength that he might once more set foot upon dry ground...." --> lit device: Homeric simile; still a comparison of two unlike things using 'like' or 'as' but much longer than a normal simile

Page 60.
Vocabulary: bounteous, dismay

• "He caught hold of the rock with both hands..." --> Odysseus still struggles in the sea
• "...tearing his hands as the suckers of a polypus are torn when someone plucks it from its bed, and the stones come up along with it--even so did the rocks tear fthe skin from his strong hands, and then the wave drew him deep down under the water...." --> another Homeric simile; what does it compare?
• "Hear me, O King..." --> Odysseus prays to the river god for protection
• "Odysseus' knees and strong hands failed him, for the sea had completely broken him..." --> what kind of person wouldn't be exhausted after this? This line is not meant to show Odysseus's but again, his ability to endure
• "...he took the scarf that Ino had given him and threw it back into the salt stream..." --> Odysseus remembers to return the scarf as Ino requested

Page 61.
Vocabulary: deemed, squally

• "Odysseus crept under these and began to make himself a bed..." --> Odysseus must hide himself in order to protect himself; the hero cannot boldly announce his presence
• "Then, as one who lives alone in the country, far from any neighbor, hides a brand as fire-seed in the ashes to save himself from having to get a light elsewhere, even so did Odysseus cover himself up with leaves...." --> Homeric simile

Bibliography