The Odyssey What you need to know before you read Mrs. Valaika Treasure Mountain International School.

The OdysseyWhat you need to know before you read

Mrs. ValaikaTreasure Mountain International School

Gods and Goddesses The Ancient Greeks were pantheistic

believed in many different gods and goddesses.

The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses controlled everything in their lives.

Gods lived on Mount Olympus

There was a god for many aspects of life.

It was important to please the gods; happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you.

Gods were pleased by sacrifices

Gods were like a big dysfunctional family

Zeus Supreme ruler of the gods

God of thunder and lightening

Married to Hera

Symbol is the lightening bolt

Had sex with lots of women, both gods and mortals

Hera Wife of Zeus

Goddess of women and marriage

Extremely jealous of Zeus

Often took revenge on the women Zeus slept with

Hades God of the Underworld

Brother to Zeus

Abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter, to be his bride

Demeter Goddess of the earth,

harvest, and fertility

Mother of Persephone

Symbol is wheat

Persephone Daughter of Demeter

Abducted by Hades

Ate 4 pomegranate seeds

Must spend one month for every seed she ate with Hades

While she is absent, her mother goes into mourning and the earth is barren

Poseidon God of the sea,

earthquakes, and horses

Zeus’ brother

Father of the Cyclopes

Symbol is the trident

Apollo God of the sun

Rides a chariot through the sky, its golden wheels are the sun

Also god of wisdom and the arts

Athena Goddess of wisdom, war,

and the domestic arts

Zeus’ daughter

Born from Zeus’ head

Very logical, admires intelligence

Frequently helps Odysseus

Aphrodite Goddess of love, beauty,

and sexuality

Daughter of Poseidon and

Married to Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, god of fire and technology

Mother of Eros, otherwise known as Cupid

Hermes Messenger of the gods

Acted as a conduit between gods and mortals

Wore winged sandals

God of shepherds

Mischievous

Symbol is the caduceus

Ares God of war

Rumored to have had an affair with Aphrodite

Often argued with Athena

Kind of a psycho

The Trojan War Started by the gods

Eris, goddess of dischord, threw a golden apple into a wedding dance (that she wasn’t invited to) with a tag that read “for the fairest”

It was immediately fought over by Aphrodite Hera Athena

Who is the fairest? Zeus refused to decide, so the goddesses

turned to a mortal, Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy.

All 3 goddesses promised Paris rewards Athena promised he would defeat the Greeks Hera promised he would be the lord of Europe

and Asia Aphrodite promised he would marry the most

beautiful woman in the world

WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

The problem was … Helen, the most beautiful woman in the

world, was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta.

Aphrodite lead Paris to Sparta

Menelaus left for Crete

Helen ran away with Paris, back to Troy

Helen became “The face that launched a thousand ships.”

The Meeting of the Greeks

The kings of Greece met, swore allegiance to Menelaus, and agreed to wage war on Troy.

Kings of Greece: Menelaus of Sparta Agammenon of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus Nestor of Pylos Odysseus of Ithaca Achilles of Phtia

The battle wore on … The siege of Troy lasted for 10 years

Became the subject of Homer’s epic The Iliad

Ended only because of Odysseus

The Trojan horse: Giant sculpture/booby trap

Troy was sacked, only Aeneas survived Subject of The Aenead, another epic poem

The Odyssey Written around 800 B.C.

Credited author is Homer, a blind poet

Passed down through generations orally, probably a collection of authors, refined over the years

Vocabulary and Terms

epic

hero

invocation

epithet

arete

allusion

archetype

oral tradition

Epic a long poem

typically derived from ancient oral tradition

narrates the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation

Hero a person, typically a man, who is admired or

idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities

the chief male character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize

(in mythology and folklore) a person of superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one of those whose exploits and dealings with the gods were the subject of ancient Greek myths and legends

Invocation the action of invoking something or

someone for assistance

the summoning of a deity or the supernatural

Epithet a descriptive term accompanying a name

and having entered common usage

examples from Homer: “rosy-fingered Dawn” “swift-footed Achilles” “the wine-dark sea”

other examples: “Alexander the Great”

Arete excellence

courage and strength in the face of adversity

what all people in ancient Greece aspired to

Allusion an expression designed to call something to

mind without mentioning it explicitly

an indirect or passing reference

often used in literature

many allusions have to do with 3 things: Greek mythology Shakespeare The Bible

Archetype a very typical example of a certain person or

thing

an original that has been imitated

a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology

Oral Tradition a way of passing cultural history down

through generations without using written language

exists in both pre-literate and post-literate cultures

storytellers, bards, musicians, and actors are all part of an oral tradition

in some cultures, oral tradition was a way of educating children, as well as mapping their surroundings