1. HOMER The Odyssey Copyright Polly Hoover

2. Trojan War Background story to The Odyssey Ten years of fighting Historical Archaeological evidence

3. Trojan War Mythological: Judgment of Paris Who is the most beautiful woman? Aphrodite, prize is Helen

4. Contestants Greeks Odysseus Achilles Menelaus Poseidon (until when?) Athena (why?) Trojans Paris Laocoon Hector

5. Who wins? How do we know this?

6. HOMER A series of poets who each composes orally an entirely different version of the story Similar to a hip hop DJ, such as Common Traditionally a blind author of The Iliad & The Odyssey A bard

7. The Odyssey Odysseus returns home Constructs self through narrative The encounter with Nausicaa The meeting with Polyphemus

8. Nausicaa Episode Beauty and Beast or Frog Prince folktale motif Appropriate host-stranger gift exchange Non-Greeks (Phoenicians) act like Greeks Who are you? At end of encounter

9. Polyphemus Encounter Reason for Poseidons rage Transgressive god and human exchange Inappropriate host-stranger exchange Greek (son of Poseidon) acts like non- Greek Who are you? At beginning of encounter

10. Narrative Conventions Embedded narratives Folklore motifs Suspense Unreliable narrator Who speaks/who sees?

11. Questions? What are some of the characteristics of Polyphemus? What are human and inhuman characteristics about Polyphemus? How are the gods and goddesses represented in The Odyssey? How does this compare with your own conception of divinity/God?

12. More Questions? Is this a good story? Why or why not? Do you anticipate or know the ending of this story? Is Odysseus responsible for the trouble he gets into during this episode? Is Odysseus a hero? Why or why not?