Do all of us embark on our own personal odyssey? - Exam 2

Intentional fallacy

• term from literary criticism that describes the problem in trying to interpret a text by assuming the intent or purpose of the author

• created by coming up with allusions - particularly difficult when the author is from a very different time and culture

Intertextuality

• the relationship between texts

• where a reader interprets a works’ meaning by recognizing its interconnectedness to other texts

Reader Response Theory

• literary theory that focuses on the individual reader’s experience and interpretation of a text

• asserts that the meaning of a text is subjective and dependent on the reader’s interpretation and response to it

Iliad

• intertext with Aeneid

• Homeric epic - not entirely written by Homer, but by many people over centuries

• about dispute of Achilles and Agamemnon in 10th/final yr of Trojan war

Odyssey

• intertext with Aeneid

• Homeric epic

• Odysseus trying to get home to Penelope

Argonautica

• intertext with Aeneid

• Apollonius of Rhodes

• Jason and the Argonauts

  • golden fleece

  • Medea

Nostos

• voyage home

• Odyssey basis

Aeolus

• encountered in Odyssey (direct) and Aeneid (indirect)

• god of the winds

• puts unfavorable winds in bag for Odysseus - guest of god

• Juno bribes him with her maid to send unfavorable winds to Aeneas

Harpies’ ID and Etymology

• encountered by Jason and Aeneas - both direct

• name comes from “Harpazo” meaning “I snatch”

• birds with virginal faces and foul vaginal discharge

• reflect male fear of female power, womb, emasculation

• Aeneas’ only direct encounter with mythical beasts of other epics

Helenus

• twin brother of Cassandra

• Trojan prophet

  • Circe

  • Scylla and Charybdis

  • Underworld

  • allows Aeneas to avoid most fictional characters - Roman demythologizing

• marries Andromache

• inherits kingdom of Pyrrhus

• encountered in Aeneid, originally Homeric - tells Aeneas how great his descendants in Rome will be

Andromache

• originally Homeric character seen in Aeneid

• widow of Hector and mother of murdered Astyanax

• went from slave of Pyrrhus to queen of his kingdom

• gives Pyrrhus’/Achilles’ armor to Aeneas - sees his line as the new heirs of Troy

  • Ascanius shall be the heir to Hector

Hermione

• daughter of Helen and Menelaus

• betrothed to Orestes (son of Agamemnon) before Trojan war

• given to Pyrrhus during Trojan war

• Orestes murdered Pyrrhus to win back Hermione

Discuss how the Aeneid echoes the Odyssey while also demythologizing it

• In Odyssey, Odysseus encounters Aeolus, Scylla and Charybdis, Polyphemus and Cyclopes, Circe, and the Underworld, all directly - stays with Aeolus, sails between Scylla and Charybdis, fights Polyphemus, sleeps with Circe, goes to Underworld

• Aeneas avoids every obstacle

  • Aeolus - Juno talks to him, Aeneas never meets him

  • Scylla and Charybdis - Helenus warns him and he avoids it

  • Polyphemus - they land on the island, rescue Achaemenides (abandoned crewman of Odysseys) who warns them, and he leaves

  • Circe - Helenus warns him, so they sail past the island

  • Underworld - Aeneas goes, but by exiting through the gate of false dreams, it appears that this could have been a false event

• Aeneas has an encounter with many of the obstacles that Odysseus faced, but it’s never direct, so instances of “magic/myth” don’t have to be faced head on