Hospitality

In book one: Athena Inspires the Prince, Greek hospitality is introduced specifically on page 81. “Greetings, stranger! / Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome./ Have super first, then tell us what you need.”(1:144-146) In this quote it gives the reader a good idea about how a person in this time period is going to be treated when they are to enter a house of someone they have never met. The significance of this quote is that Prince Telemachus is meeting a complete stranger and he offers him food and he welcomes him into his home before he interrogates this complete stranger. It is obvious that the man welcoming in Telemachus wants him to be able to feel right at home before he asks what he is doing at his home. “Help yourselves to food and welcome! Once you’ve dined we’ll ask you who you are”(4:68-69). It is obvious that Greek hospitality involves making the guest or stranger feel at home by feeding them and making them feel comfortable before they ask who the person is or why they have come there.

Ellye

The Number Nine.

If one reads through the Odyssey and the Iliad, the number nine just keeps popping up. There may be several reasons for this, but i find one particularly compelling. While doing some background research, i found that there were in fact nine muses (the goddesses of literature and the arts). Perhaps this is a coincidence, but it may be a "shout out" to those goddesses. Just to name a few examples of where this pops up:

• After leaving the Aeolian Isalnd. "Nine whole days we sailed, nine nights, nonstop" (231).
• They start the Iliad after nine years of war.
• Also in the Iliad, there is a scene with nine heralds.
• Others examples...

How Badly did Odysseus Really Want to Get Home

Interfering Gods

The Gods in The Odyssey are constantly interfering with the lives of mortals. They play favorites and are big influences to how conflicts between mortals are resolved. Athena often interferes in the life of Odysseus and his family because she likes them. For instance, when The Odyssey first starts, Athena disguises herself and hints to Telemachus that his father is still alive making him want to go out and look for his father. Another example of this is when Odysseus meets the King and Queen of the Phaeacians, Athena tells Odysseus to appeal to the queen first to gain her favor. Whether or not Odysseus would have thought to do this on his own is unknown, but this advice definitely effected the course of the story. One last example is when Hermes helped Odysseus on Circe's island by giving him a plant that will make him immune to her potions. If Odysseus were a pig, his chances of getting back to Ithaca would be very slim.

In Medias Res

The "In Medias Res" style in Homer's The Odyssey and in The Iliad, is a style very common for Homeric style epics. In Medias Res, is where a story begins in the middle or during the conclusion and the beginning of the story is told in flashbacks. This causes some confusion in the case of The Odyssey, when, the actual book starts closer to the time Odysseus will return and then goes a little back in time to meet up with Odysseus. When Odysseus is asked about his journey thus far by Alcinous in book 8 he starts with the Cyclops, from there he talks about Calypso, then Circe and the story once again catches up with the present. I personally don't like this style of writing, because I feel like there is too much going back and forth, and I already know the story of The Odyssey so is feel like a bunch of waiting. However, when it was originally told by storytelling, so it would make more sense for the story to be told in flashbacks instead of from beginning to end. It's the transition from spoken word, to written story.

Odysseus' humanity

Even though Odysseus is thought of as a hero, and has the reputation of almost being a god of all men, he still contains flaws, which is what makes him such a human character, one that we can relate to. He is evidently human, especially in Book Ten, with Circe. Even after spending 8 years with Calypso, and after almost arriving to his kingdom, he lingers to stay a year with Circe, and has to be reminded by his crew mates that it is time to leave. Like both Gilgamesh and Rama, even though Odysseus is thought to be a super human, Odysseus is still a mortal and therefore flawed. Like the other two heroes we have studied this year, Odysseus is on both a figurative and a literal journey. Odysseus has too much pride, self-confidence, and hubris in the beginning of the story. I think this is the reason that Athena, his biggest supporter, lets him find his own way home, no matter how many obstacles he encounters along the way. She is there to help keep him from serious harm, but she doesn’t keep bad things from happening to him. I think the reason for her approach is that she wants him to learn some humility and have his pride lowered in order for him to become a better man.

Fate

Fate. It has been demonstrated that the Greek view of fate is derived from the Indo-European notion of justice- that each being as a fate or Moria assigned to him and marked clearly by boundaries that should never be crossed. Therefore mans energy should not be spent, exceeding the limits of his fate but in baring it with style pride and dignity, gaining as much fame as he can with in the boundaries of his Moria.