1. The Adventures of Odysseus
Greek Mythology
The Adventures of Odysseus

2. The Odyssey
Structure

3. I. Ithaca without Odysseus
II. Odysseus’s adventures
(mostly in flashback)
III. Reunion at Ithaca

4. Books 1-4: Telemachus’s coming of age
Books 5 -12: Odysseus’s adventures
Books 13-24: Odysseus back at Ithaca

5. The Order of Narrative The tenth year after Troy fell
Odysseus on the island of Calypso
Odysseus about to sail back with Zeus’s help
Odysseus arriving at Scherie, home to the Phaeacians
Odysseus relating his adventures to his host
Odysseus’s way home with Phaeacian’s help

6. Books of The Odyssey: 1
Books 1-4: Zeus’s decision & the scene of Ithaca
Book 5: Calypso
Book 6: Nausicaa
Books 7-8: Scherie
Book 9: Polyphemus
Book 10: Aeolus
Book 11: the underworld

7. Books of The Odyssey: 2 Book 12: the cattle of the Sun god
Book 13: arrival at Ithaca
Book 14: the Swineherd
Book 15: Telemachus back home
Book 16: Father & Son
Book 17: Stranger at the gate
Book 18: Beggar King
Book 19: Penelope

8. Books of The Odyssey: 3 Book 20: portents gather
Book 21: Odysseus strings his bow
Book 22: slaughter
Book 23: rooted bed
Book 24: peace & order restored

9. A Question to Ponder Over
Why Homer spent so many books on the stuff other than adventures?

10. A Possible Answer
Adventures are not the focus of The Odyssey.

11. A Further Question to Ponder Over
If the adventures are not the focus, what is the major concern of Homer in this epic?

12. After reading
What were the concerns of Homer, if adventures themselves were not his focus?
If you were Odysseus, what is the biggest temptation? Why?

13. Adventures as temptations to test Odysseus’s mental & physical endurance
Lotus flower: forgetfulness of home and
family
Circe: life of ease and self-indulgence
Phaeacia: the love of a young princess
Sirens: to live in the memory of the
glorious past
Calypso: greatest temptation immortality

14. What are the essences of life?
Possible answers:
Basic needs
Sense of security
Sense of belonging
Dignity
Self-fulfillment

15. Odysseus’s dedication to life
The value Homer stresses in The Odyssey as a contrast/supplement to The Iliad
Glory in battlefield is probably not the only value in life
In refusing Kalypso, Odysseus chooses the human condition, with all its struggle, its disappoints, and its inevitable end.

16. Odysseus’s dedication to life
Against the dark background of Achilles’s regret for life, Odysseus’s dedication to life—his acceptance of limitations and his ability to seize its possibilities—shines out.
(the teacher’s note) Odysseus’s heroic qualities in seizing the possibilities of life are also set off by the vulgarity of his crew.

17. Other important notes
The celebration of return to ordinary life as a worthy prize after excitement, toil, and danger
The setting right of social disorder
Telemachus as a foil/potential rival to Odysseus’s mature wisdom

18. The Mysterious Figure of Penelope
Her dilemma in marriage: the weaving as a metaphor
The ambivalence in her trick of web
Her setting up the contest of the bow
The trick of the marriage bed
What motivates her to do so?

19. Homer’s affirmation of the Greek political life
Through the disorder created by the suitors during the absence of the ruler, Homer affirms Odysseus’s restoration of hierarchical and patriarchal order in house and polity.

20. Homer’s affirmation of the Greek political life
Self-fashioning by reference to the foreign:
---the Cyclops
---Aeolous
---the Laestrygonians
---Calypso
---Circe
---the Phaeacians

21. The great difficulty in resolving the issue of violence
The Odyssey is no more successful than The Iliad in resolving the problem of violence.
How can human aggression be controlled, if not eliminated?
Can violence within the community be channeled into safe, perhaps socially creative, forms?

22. Homer’s self-fashioning of the Greek civilization by reference to the foreign
See Norton, p. 104