Odyssey complete notes summary

The Odyssey
“The improvisational medium of Rap Music, along with the Hip-Hop
culture to which it is allied, has parallels with Greek oral epic. They
both depend on a distinct rhythm and dialect featuring
conventional formulaic phrases.” (Edith Hall, The Return of Ulysses:
A Cultural History of Homer’s Odyssey)
Book 1
The invocation of the Muse:
 Introduces his hero – the man of many turns
 Fixes his topic – the man and his journey
 Sets theme – endurance and “nostos”
 Sets character in motion
 Invokes divinity
ODYSESUS NAME IS NOT MENTIONED!!!!
 Actions have consequences
 Talks about how the crew caused their own downfall
Three groups:

Mortals: Gods: Beyond the Poem:

The man The Muse Me - the poet
Trojans Zeus Us – the audience
The men he saw Hyperion
The comrades


QUOTES:
Athene - “It is for Odysseus my heart is wrung” (Book 1)
- “As brave as Orestes” (Book 1)
- “With Penelope for your mother, I cannot think that your house is doomed to
an inglorious future.” (Book 1)
- “the daughter of Zeus, the august Lady of Triton.” (Book 3)
- “filled his eyes with sleep and sealed their lids – sleep to soothe his pain and utter
weariness” (Book 5)

,- Every nobleman in Phaeacia, where you yourself were born and bred, wants you for
his wife.” (Book 6)
- Pallas Athene … had thrown a mist over the place,” (Book 13)
- “I will go to Sparta … to summon Telemachus,” (Book 13)
- “You were always an obstinate, cunning irresponsible intriguer,” (Book 13)
- “Athene endowed him with such supernatural grace that all eyes were turned
on him in admiration,” (Book 17)
- “Athene shed sweet sleep on her eyelids,” (Book 19)
Penelope – “incomparable prize”
- “wise Penelope,”
- “She seldom shows herself to her Suitors … but keeps away from them,”
- I hope the Archer Apollo strikes you as you struck him,” (Book 18)
- “Honoured wife of Laertes’ son Odysseus,” (Book 19)
- “wise Penelope,” (Book 19)
- “my friend,” (Book 19)
Telemachus – “godlike youth” (Book 1)
- “For in that case the whole Achaean nation would have joined in building him
a mound, and he would have left a great name for his son to inherit.” (Book 1)
- “looking like a god” (Book 2)
- The gods made him grow like a young sapling (Book 14)
- I propose to reward you for coming on the voyage with a sumptuous feast,”
(Book 15)
- May Zeus destroy them before they destroy us,” (Book 17)
- I am certainly not delaying my mother’s marriage,” (Book 20)
- “great Telemachus,” (Book 21)
- I suppose I shall always be a coward and a weakling,” (Book 21)
Menelaus – “Few or none can rival me in wealth,” (Book 4)
- “It is my earnest hope … that Zeus the Thunderer and husband of Hera will
make your home-coming all that you desire,” (Book 15)
The suitors – “Strike [Telemachus] as domineering and insolent.” (Book 1)
- “murder for Telemachus in their hearts” (Book 4)
- “that incomparable schemer, who is the culprit.” (Book 2)
Helen – “Looking like Artemis with her golden distaff.” (Book 4)

, “she slipped a drug that had the power of robbing grief and anger of their sting and
banishing all painful memories.”
Odysseus – “heart of iron”,
- “it is my never-dying wish,” (Book 5)
- “Princess, I am at your knees,” (Book 6)
- “I dare not clasp my knees, though my sufferings are serious enough,” (Book 6)
- May the gods grant you your heart’s desire,” (Book 6)
- “it is of Artemis, the Daughter of almighty Zeus, that your beauty, grace and
stature most remind me,” (Book 6)
- “Are you some goddess or mortal man?” (Book 6)
- “Odysseus with his sturdy hands,” (Book 8)
- “He looks like and immortal god,” (Book 8)
- “well-enough built: look at his thighs and legs […] all that great strength,”
(Book 8)
- “My name is Nobody,” (Book 9)
- I dragged the bronze pear out of the wound, laid it on the ground, and left it
there,” (Book 10)
- “Circe at once swore as I ordered her,” (Book 10)
- “Favourite of Zeus,” (Book 10)
- “I poured libations to all the dead, first with a mixture of honey and milk, then
with sweet wine, and last of all with water,” (Book 11)
- “Why do you not wait for me? I long to reach you, so that even in Hell we may
throw our loving arms round each other,” (Book 11)
- “I kept shifting from one part of the ship to another,” (Book 12)
- “I swung myself up to the great fig-tree, on which I got a tight grip and clung
like a bat,” (Book 12)
- “Are they some brutal tribe of uncivilized savages?” (Book 13)
- His brain was teeming with thoughts of what he would do to the Suitors,”
- “long suffering friend,”
- Displays excellent “xenia” towards Eumaeus as the guest of the house.
- “ the gods found no difficulty in untying the knots for me,”
- “you have learnt that Odysseus himself how he will make it come true,” (Book
19)
Others – “tamer of horses” (Nestor)
- “For a whole month Aeolus entertained me and questioned me,” (Aeolus)
- “He dismissed me from his palace,”
- “A god is going to make your journey hard,” (Teiresias)
- “Death will come to you far away from the sea,”
- “King of men,” (Agamemnon)