Classics A-level - World of the hero modern scholarship

Bonifazi - Nostos

Nostos is a central theme of the odyssey

Thornton - Nostos

-Agamemnons' Story is an example of what could await Odysseus when he returns home

-The pheacians represent the transition from mythical to normal and the begining of odysseus' journey home

Nagy - Nostos

The Odyssey is the final and definitive statement about the theme of a heroic homecoming

Jones - Nostos

Odysseus has only one goal, to return home

Thornton - Xenia

Polyphemus' perverse gift to Odysseus is that he will eat him last

Reece - Xenia

an important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and promising them safety

Goldhill - Xenia and Civility

-The word xenos means both guest and host in aincient greek

-the xenia displayed by different groups in the odyssey enables us to judge how civilized they are

Hall - Xenia

Xenia provides the structure for the entire epic

Bruce - Xenia

Xenia was a fundamental Greek custom

Clarke - Kleos

The Homeric Warrior is driven by a need for social validation, status , respect and honor in the eyes of others

McDonald - Kleos

Possessions measure a families wealth and determine its importance reputation and kleos

Barker - Kleos

Odysseus glory comes from his own storytelling

Kifaru - Kleos

Odysseus is constantly striving to prove himself as a great hero worthy glory and fame

Griffin - Kleos

Odysseus tries hard as he can to win glory by being able to live to tell about his achievements

W.A Camps - War

The Odyssey looks back to the war at troy with grief and regret

Jones - War

In the Odyssey the household rather than the battlefield is the center of the world

David - War

-From Odysseus' Encounter with Achilles in the Underworld , We get a sense that one's heroics in life cannot in any way soothe the misery of death

- one the one hand, he is well aware that war creates suffering and large scale death, and the ultimate aim of his journey remains to return home. on the other hand the odyssey does tend to revel in feats of martial valor, strengths of arms, and its heros own heroic exploits

Jones - Disguise

-Odysseus Disguises are all means to a justifiable and suitably heroic end

-deception and disguise are traits shared by Odysseus and athene

Griffin - Disguise

The ability to conceal one's true emotions is important in a world full of treachery and hostility

Williams - Disguise

The poet uses disguise to provide not only suspense but also to inject comic relief

Murnaghan - Disguise

The theme of diguise, which relies on plausible lies highlights the nature of belief and the power of falsehood and creates the mixture of realism and fantasy which gives the odyssey its distinctive texture

W.A Camps - Odysseus

one of the unique features of odysseus is his capacity to inspire affection and regard as a man and king

Griffin - Odysseus

-Odysseus is presented as a good father and husband with valuable oikos he does not wish to throw away for the glory that comes with death

Jones - Odysseus

-Odysseus is an anti hero : A mean selfish time server

Clayton - Odysseus

Odysseus Compensates for his lack of physical impressiveness by means of his verbal skills

Schien - Odysseus

A comic character , a stoic sage and a villain odysseus could never be pinned down

Shay - Odysseus

-Time and time again odysseus shows himself as a man who does not trust anyone, who's capacity for social trust has been destroyed

- Odysseus often creates despicable failures of leadership

finely - Penelope

Penelope is the key to the unity of the poem, and the tension of her conflict is treated just as seriously as all the other conflicts in the poem

Wilson - Penelope

-she's strong willed she has grit , she has a vivid imagination, she's loyal , shes a competent mostly single mother who shows a deep lover for her moody son and she keeps a big complex household running for two decades

-odysseus has a lot of freedom to travel and assume multiple identities but penelope is trapped by her marital status , either waiting for odysseys or marrying someone else

Griffin - Penelope

by her self command and guile , penelope shows herself to be like him : the true wife for the hero of the odyssey

Schein - Penelope

the reverse simile in book 23 that likens penelope to a shipwreck survivor , presents her and odysseyus experiences as equal

Shay - Telemachus

Telemachus is not in any sense a seperate being from odysseus

Smith - Telemachus

Telemachus is weak and powerless in the begining only to slay his tormentors by the end

Jones - Telemachus

-The story of the odyssey serves as an example to telemachus

-Telemachus Willingly Embraces his fathers traits of deception and disguise

Morrison - Telemachus

the figures in the agamemnon story serve as role model, both positive and negative for the major figures in the epic ,Will Penelope prove herself better than Clytemnestra? Will Telemachus act as nobly as Orestes?

Griffin - Telemachus

The Odyssey shows a young man in the process of achieving adulthood

Stanton - Suitors

-Modern and Ancient Audiences view the deaths of the suitors very differently

-by killing the suitors odysseus demonstrates a developing concept of retributive justice based on fairness and reciprocity

C.M Bowra - Suitors

The suitors are the exact opposite of the heroic ideal , a degenerate corruption of heroes

Morrison - Suitors

-the suitors are terrible guests and clearly violate the code of Xenia

-The death of the suitors is clearly approved of by the gods and treated as a necessary victory of good over evil

Jones - Suitors

-the most significant characteristic of all the suitors is that they constantly say one thing and think another such duplicity is untypical of Homeric characters, and is why Odysseus and Telemachus Must scheme as they do

-Whatever one may think of the severity of Odysseus' revenge against the suitors no Greek would have argued that he did not have a right to take it

W.A Camps - Gods

Supernatural powers are at work everywhere and always in the Homeric poems

Jones - Gods

-The gods play a relatively small role in the Odyssey

-The relationship between Athene and Odysseus is unlike any other mortal/god relationship in its intimacy, evidenced by the playful conversation they share in book 13

-in homer the gods only help those who are worthy of it

Griffin - Gods

The gods are a way to attribute meaning to otherwise random events e.g storms at sea

Morrison - Gods

Odysseus needs the advice and favour of the gods if he is to return to Ithaca but he clearly contemplates his options and makes his own decisions

Camps - Gods

Homeric Heroes are almost braver than gods because they are faced with mortality

Hastings - Gods

Even the gods are subject to fate and cannot avoid it : The Greek gods are utterly human , they are the mirror of men and women and are subject to the whims of fate

Bendarek - gods

The ritual slaughter of animals , as described in the homeric poems, can be treated by the protagonists as the practice of great practical impact ( it provides the heroes with food) rather than that of symbolic value

Wilson - Women

The Odyssey traces deep male fears about female power and it shows the terrible damage done to women

Nimheallaigh - Women

Ask an ancient Greek or Roman about the ideal virtuous woman and his or her answer would probably say something about weaving.

Doherty - Women

Penelope and Athene , whilst sharing Odysseus' characteristic metis, also represent extremes of ignorance and knowledge , vulnerability and control

Chrystal - Women

-it is wise Queen Arete, not Alcinous who holds the key to Odysseus' homecoming and rehabilitation

-Nausicaa , penelope and helen are all free to come and go as they please they are certainly not secluded or segregated from their men. their domestic roles are clearly delineated but they are active and integral to their respective households

Murray - Women

-Odysseus encounters a number of female characters all of whom present him with some kind of threat to his identity as a hero

Griffin - Slaves and servants

Homer doesn't only portray noble characters , but tells the stories of farmers, servants ect with care and attention

Thalman - Slaves and servants

-Slaves in the Odyssey represent the labour on which the more leisurely aristocratic style of living is based . it is their work and its products that support the way of life and the activities of the families

-Slaves are portrayed selectively and from a particular viewpoint, they are viewed from above and categorized and their representation is simplified accordingly

Mcdonald - Slaves and servants

In Homers' poem, the family is always and everywhere aristocratic . no ordinary men, in our sense of the word are of any consequence in the work. even the slaves are noblemen fallen on hard times, and their stories are told with reference to their noble familial origins and to the noble families with whom they are connected

Jenkys - Slaves and servants

-The Odyssey gives prominence even to slaves and beggars among those honoured to greet odysseus in a scene of recognition are not only his wife, son and father , but eumeaus and the herdsman philoetius , Eurycleia , a slave woman and even a dog

jones - Slaves and Servants

Eumaeus is the idea of 'order' in the face of the collapse of authority in the place. his ordered world out at his hut away from the chaos of the palace, his closeness with the family from old , his concern and careful attention to Odysseus estate, all serve to show us what the place used to be like . it is on these loyal secure foundations , through his faithful servants that Odysseus must rebuild what was once his

Nelson - Techniques and composition

through The contrast between 'historical and mythic' time in the odyssey homer highlights the complexity of the human experience of time

Wilson - Techniques and composition

Bird metaphors are used to represent women - athene transforms herself into many types of bird, the slave girls are like doves or thrushes and Penelope is a pale grey nightingale

Griffin - Techniques and composition

The speeches in the Odyssey use an importantly different style and vocabulary from the narrative

Jones - Techniques and composition

-homer is unique in comparison with other epic poets in that he concentrates on one moment e.g the moment of Odysseus' return , twenty years after he had left

-Epithets describe innate qualities and serve to remind us of the permanent eternal qualities of the characters

Rambo - Techniques and composition

Homers use of similie in the Odyssey is lavish and illuminates the detail of the poem

Reece - Techniques and composition

Patterning held a practical function for an orally composing poet, but it also came to have an aesthetic value, providing for the audience a pleasing sense of recognition and ultimately a satisfying sense of completion

Griffin - Context

Singers performing the poem would probably adapt it for different audiences

Jones - Context

-whether homer physically wrote the poems or not the style of the poetry is oral

-The oral poet reflects his own society to a much greater degree than we had imagined

Scodel - Context

Heroic stories were a valuable cultural resource; they provided entertainment, historical continuity and a method of ethical thought.

Morrison - Context

The Ancient Greek idea was that the singer needed inspiration from one of the gods to be able to sing at all