It is not an easy poem to read, especially during the summer before starting college, with its seemingly endless list of oddly named Greek heroes and book after book of battle scenes. We have confidence, though, that in the first two weeks of the semester students will come to see some of its beauty and depth, and find that it serves as an effective introduction to the work of Humanities during their first year, and to life and work at Reed generally.
We have chosen the Odyssey for parent orientation for several reasons. Second, and more seriously, reading the Odyssey and attending a Hum conference to discuss it provides a good sense of the Homeric Greek world that your daughters and sons will be inhabiting this semester in Hum , and what their Hum conferences will be like. Third, it seems very appropriate for Orientation Week.
At a time when Reed parents and their daughters and sons are marking a major transition in their lives and relationships with each other, it can have real resonance. It portrays a nineteen year old, Telemachus, becoming an adult, learning who he is, and trying to renegotiate his changing relationship with his parents Odysseus and Penelope, and with the world at large. You are no longer of an age to do that. These words could be a direct quotation of a mother or father dropping their hesitant son or daughter off at college, and with them Athena is giving Telemachus needed advice.
Telemachus is in a tough position as the Odyssey opens, and he needs to grow up. When Athena speaks these words to Telemachus, his father Odysseus has been away for 19 years. He left when Telemachus was just a baby, and Telemachus has no memories of his father.
For the last three years, the situation in their house has been desperate: suitors, convinced that his father Odysseus will not return and attracted by the beauty and intelligence of his mother Penelope, have been living at the palace in a riotous three-year-long party. Athena is right. Telemachus needs to grow up quickly. This morning in my talk on the Odyssey, I want to focus on the problem of Telemachus and how he, at age 19, learns to give up his childhood and become an adult in the Homeric world.
As the Odyssey opens, Telemachus is in the same position that many of us are this morning: in our late teens, needing to continue our education and the process of coming into full adulthood.
One of the main themes of the Odyssey is the nature of heroism, and in particular what the process of education is that one needs to go through to become an adult and a hero. The poem illustrates this process primarily through the figure of Telemachus.
What I want to argue in my talk this morning is that the Odyssey shows through the character and actions of Telemachus that there are in fact two types of education and two kinds of heroism.
There are probably a number of reasons, as critics have pointed out. Can Telemachus become a hero like his father by the end of the epic? These are the questions we are encouraged to think about as we meet Telemachus in Book I and watch his words and actions throughout the poem. Odysseus has a very good memory and ability to remain loyal and respectful of everything even though he has been gone for so long.
Odysseus longs for his return home so he remains loyal and loving to them because he misses them so much. He shows that he wants to go home to his loved ones.
He is responsible in transporting his comrades and ship-mates back home safely. Odysseus is loving, loyal, and thoughtful in remembering his family during his trip home to Ithaca. Odysseus is wise and savvy which contributes to his heroic deeds as a character in The Odyssey. Odysseus is an older man with much experience in war and life.
While in the Trojan War, he discovers new ways to think and fight. He knows how to work around things in a particular way so that nothing can affect him. Odysseus can make tools and weapons if needed, finds a rout back home, and manage to get out of bad situations. These things are very important, especially where he is now in The Odyssey. On their way back home to Ithaca from Aeolus, Odysseus does not want to use the wind that the king gave to him to lead them sailing back home quickly.
When his crew aboard the ship selfishly mistook it for treasure, they opened the bag of wind and all of the wind blows away in the wrong direction away from home.
Before the incident, Odysseus had been savvy because he wanted to use the wind to get home, a brilliant idea. You have the power! Another time Odysseus is smart was when he goes back home and Athena, along with the prophecy, does not want anyone to know who he is until he sets everything right in his kingdom.
It turns out that he's not just strong and smart—he's also kind and sensitive. Look at how Homer describes it:. So the famous singer sang his tale, but Odysseus melted, and from under his eyes the tears ran down, drenching his cheeks. As a woman weeps, lying over the body of her dear husband, who fell fighting for her city and people as he tried to beat off the pitiless day from city and children; she sees him dying and gasping for breath, and winding her body about him she cries high and shrill, while the men behind her, hitting her with their spear butts on the back and the shoulders, force her up and lead her away into slavery, to have hard work and sorrow, and her cheeks are wracked with pitiful weeping.
Such were the pitiful tears Odysseus shed from under his brows, but they went unnoticed by all the others […]. Odysseus is crying as he listens to the Phaiakian bard sing about the Trojan War, but he's not just letting a single tear fall: he's weeping like a widowed woman. Weird, right? This is an epic simile , another characteristic of epics in which the writer spins really elaborate comparisons. So, instead of just saying "Odysseus cried like a girl," he says "Odysseus cried like a woman whose husband died at war," etc etc.
So, add one more quality to our checklist of Ancient Greek ideals: in addition to being strong and smart, a hero has to be sensitive. One last thing: Odysseus may be strong, and smart, and kind—but he's also pious. He sacrifices a ram to Zeus 9. Oh, and he always washes his hands before praying. He's also full of advice for the rest of us.
Feeling good about yourself? Want to gloat over your enemies? It is not piety to glory so over slain men" Let's be real, though. Odysseus may be strong, smart, kind, and pious—but he can't possibly be perfect, right?
He has one major flaw: pride. See, what we didn't mention before is that once the crew was able to flee Polyphemos thanks to Odysseus' trickery, he enjoyed a little ego trip and did end up revealing his real name, taunting Polyphemos. It was truly his arrogance that made his name famous and not his courage. Achilles was a narcissistic, self-serving man who was not concerned with his fellow country man. His actions of courage can easily be revealed as selfishness instead of what most people believe.
The contemporary generation should take inspiration from Achilles but, they should not mimic him. Bravery and strength is something to strive for, especially emotionally.
Achilles was physically strong and mentally brave but he was not emotionally stable. In conclusion, Achilles can be described as a tragic hero because although he had all the qualities of a hero, through his fatal flaw he was killed. Achilles is in all sense of the Greek definition, a hero; brave, strong, noble, and a fantastic warrior, but in the end he died because no one is truly immortal.
The result of Hectors pride was his death and the betrayment of his fellow warriors and friends. Another person within the Iliad whose pride was the downfall of his character, was Patrocleus.
Patrocleus was a great warrior, friend, and asset to the Achiens. But, he made foolish choices on account of his pride. For instance he chose to wear Achille's armor into battle when Achilles refused to fight.
It is an obvious reason, why Hector is against the war is because he was fear this war will result in the fall of Troy, which is a feeling and thought that he has that repeats over the course of the Iliad.
While in a meantime Achilles is the most outstanding character and the hero of the Iliad. He is the pride of the Greek military.
He is the son of Theas.
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