The Odyssey

Major themes:
Loyalty - Telemachos searching for his father who has been gone for 20 years.
             - Penelope waits 20 years for her husband to return
Disloyalty - Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter
Pride/Arrogance - When Odysseus blinds the Cyclops he yells out something like "You have just been blinded by Odysseus, prince of Ithaca!"
Coming of Age - Telemachos starts out with good intentions and a naïve spirit but faces many barriers and eventually prevails 
                         - Odysseus grows in wisdom and judgement, making him a better king
Forgetting (or the evils of drugs and women) - The lotus eaters
               - Circe made the men forget 


What type of questions would this be good to answer?
Questions dealing with loyalty
Questions dealing with storytellers
Questions dealing with family dynamics


List of Major Lit Devices:
Motifs -
Storytelling ~ Telemachos and Meadelails are very good at this


Symbols - 
Birds ~ owls, falcons, sea ravens, eagle - Zeus watches in the form of an eagle. Eagle symbolizes the gods




Important Scenes or Favorite Scenes:
Favorite: When Odysseus wants to hear the sound of the siren's voices, he is told that he can hear them only if he shoves wax in his men's ears and if he is tied up tightly to the mast.




Important: Telemachos beginning his journey. (Backs up the Coming of Age theme)











List of Characters:

Odysseus
Telemachos
Agammenon- sacrifices his only daughter. He is murdered by his wife and her new boyfriend

Achilles – only weak in is his ankle. We see him in the Underworld, and he says he would rather be a slave in the living rather than a hero in the Underworld.

Helen – she was considered the most beautiful girl alive- reason the trojin war happen

Menelaus- Goatherd who insults Odysseus and taunts the swineherd and the beggar.

Aias (Ajax): The greater Ajax of the Iliad. He dies an early death after the war and is mentioned when Menelaus asks Proteus about his companions and when Odysseus goes to the land of the dead.

Orestes- Agamemnon’s son who killed his mother and her lover to get revenge

Nestor: Old king of Pylos who entertains Telemachus and advises him to go seek news for his father from Menelaus.

Mentor: the servant left in charge of Odysseus things 

Nausicaa: Daughter of Alcinous who finds Odysseus in the thicket near the river where he washed up on the island. She was prompted to go to the river by Athena.

Alcinoos: King of the Phaiakians who welcomes Odysseus and hears his long tale. He presents Odysseus with great treasures and gives him secure passage to Ithaca.

Arete: Wife of Alcinoos. Odysseus had to approach her to get to

Eumaios: swineherd

Theoclymenos: Seer who Telemachus brings with him from mainland Greece.

Melanthios: Goatherd who insults Odysseus and taunts the swineherd and the beggar.

Arnaios: (Iros) The beggar who comes into the house and taunts Odysseus and they fight and Odysseus kicks his butt

Eurycleia – Housekeeper and Telemachos's nanny

Tityo:

Sisyphus: rolls rock up

Amphinomos: One of the suitors who is opposed to killing Telemachus.

Telemachos- Odesseus son

Laertes: Odysseus' father. He appears only at the end of the poem and prepares to stand with his son against the Ithacan mob.

Penelope- Odyssies wife, mother of Telemachos

Antinoos: he head suitor, son of a man Odysseus saved from death. He is the first of the suitors to speak at all times and plans to kill Telemachus. He is also the first of the suitors to be killed by Odysseus.

Eurymachos : The second suitor, Eurymachus always speaks after Antinous or in place of him. He is the second suitor to die.

Lotus Eaters

Ciconians: Cyclops son of Poseidon who is blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus is a shepherd who refuses to be a host to Odysseus and eats some of his men. He curses Odysseus and asks his father for revenge.

Polyphemos: Cyclops son of Poseidon who is blinded by Odysseus. Polyphemus is a shepherd who refuses to be a host to Odysseus and eats some of his men. He curses Odysseus and asks his father for revenge.

Scylla: Six-headed beast who inhabits the cave parallel to the whirlpool Charybdis. Scylla eats six of Odysseus' men.

Charybdis: swallows water to create a whirlpool and then spits the water back out

Aiolos: King of the winds who entertained Odysseus at an early part of his journey. He presents Odysseus with a bag of the winds so that he may get home safely. When Odysseus' men release the winds and the ship is blown back, Aeolus has no pity.

Elpenor: Young sailor who dies on the island of Circe from falling from her roof. He appears to Odysseus in the land of the dead and asks him to come bury him.

Teiresias: dead seer in hades that tells Odysseus how to get home

Eurylochos: Blind prophet who Odysseus goes to find in the land of the dead. He tells Odysseus how to get home and that he must appease Poseidon once he gets there.

Cassandra: raped and murdered by Little Ajax on Athena’s alter.

Tantalus: from hades. 

Structure: 
24 books (like chapters)
Chapters 1-4 ~ Telemachos and his journey to find his father to Phaiacia
Chapter 5-8 ~ Odysseus and his escape fromCalypo's island and his travels/adventures
Chapters 9-12 ~ Odysseus telling his back story of how he ended up on Calypso's island and how he got to Phaiacia to King Alcinoös.
Chapter 13-16 ~ Odysseus and Telemachor return to Ithaca
Chapters 17-20 ~ Odysseus returns home
Chapters 21-24 ~ Odysseus and Telemachos get revenge against the suitors and disloyal servants


Brief Summary:


Odysseus is trying to get home after being gone for 20 years (10 fighting the Trojan War, 10 trying to get home). His son Telemachos goes out looking for him because he is afraid that one of the suitors that is trying to woo his mother will actually woo her. And he misses his father. The entire book is the story of how Odysseus fought his way home and how Telemachos becomes a man.


Lots of monsters!


http://www.shmoop.com/odyssey/summary.html

Odysseus’s tragic flaw is his PRIDE