The Odyssey Inquiry #1

The Odyssey by Homer
translated by Richmond Lattimore

Book I:
Why was Odysseus driven far from home?
Who is Kalypso? Why is she important?
Why Odysseus important?
Why is Poseidon the only God that doesn't pity Odysseus?
Is it an issue of supplication?
Is Cyclops Poseidon's son?
What one god against many mean?
Why are all these suitors hanging around?
What does it mean to Telemacho's that his father hasn't returned?
Does is thwart Telemacho's honor since his Odyssey hasn't had a proper burial?
Why does Telemachos blame the Gods for his father's disappearance?
Does this book foreshadow the death of the suitors?
How come he blames the Gods but still prays to the god?
If Odysseus doesn't return will Telemachos become king or if his mother remarries will he lose all rights and honor?
Why does he trust the stranger more so than past rumors and diviners?

Book II:
Why is penelope forced to have suitors?
Is this a cultural aspect?
What does this say about women's position in Classical literature?
Why does she need a suitor to begin with? 
What is Telemachos lacking that he cannot rid the household of the suitors?
Is Antinoos implying that Penelope is doing this on purpose?
Is this about greed for Telemacho?
or about his lack of honor since Odysseus is gone? 
He wouldn't be king anyway if Odysseus was around as Laertes would still be. 
Here are these eagles again. What do they represent? 
I know they bear some sort of message. but what is it?
Why doesn't he want Penelope to know of his adventure?
Why does Telemachos tell eurkilas does he trust her?

Book III:
How come Telemachos is concerned about his inexperience?
How does this book show a change in Telemachos' character?
Is Telemacho's unaware of the stature of his father's greatness?
Why is Agamemnon's death important to tell?

Book IV:

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ~ James Joyce

Image
I recently  picked  up Ulysses and felt like I probably should read  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man before fully jumping into Ulysses. My experience with Joyce before this novel was his short story “The Dead” from his collection The Dubliners. I remember absolutely enjoying “The Dead,” but like most readers, who approach Ulysses for the first time,I felt a little overwhelmed. I am a big fan of stream-of-conscious narration. Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner are two of my favorite Modernist writers. Further, as a fan of serious literature, I need to conquer Joyce at somepoint (and prepare for my intense Faulkner course next semester).  So now, onto this fine piece of literary experimentation. Joyce’s   A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man  poses basic questions about the human condition. A coming-of-age story in its truest sense, Stephen Dedalus finds himself asking and pondering some life’s most trivial questions. These questions, however, were some of the most
Read more

Pragmatic Overtones in Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper

Image
 I n Walter Sullivan’s 1965 review of Cormac McCarthy’s first novel The Orchard Keeper, Sullivan claims McCarthy’s novel takes shape in “the middle of the agrarian influence” (721). This quote sends up a flare within the McCarthy community of scholars, who continue to debate Sullivan’s claims. Sullivan also acknowledges that McCarthy can be read as an author who has “had enough sense to see in the land a source of human salvation. [McCarthy] is a kind of anachronism who celebrates the traditional values in the traditional way” (721). However, many recent scholars disagree with Sullivan’s claims about the “land as a source of human salvation.” In her book Reading the World: Cormac McCarthy’s Tennessee Period, Dianne Luce states that, “[i]t is a mistake either to confuse East Tennessee with the plantation South or to label McCarthy a latter-day Agrarian” (271). In making this comment, she also argues that The Orchard Keeper can be read “in the context of the classic Southern Agrar
Read more

Classics Club Book List

http://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/ Here it is. Finally, My Classics Club Book List. There are several key titles missing, well that is because I have read those. I do plan to review each book and also back track and review the classics I have read. I would like to complete this list by December, 12, 2017 five years. I'm sure that many more will fall into this list. Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart Anderson, Sherwood: Winesburg, Ohio Austen, Jane: Emma Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice Bellow, Saul: Herzog Bellow, Saul: The Adventures of Augie March Bellow, Saul: Henderson the Rain King Bellow, Saul: Seize the Day Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury, Ray: The Illustrated Man Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre Browning, Elizabeth Barrett: Aurora Leigh Burke, Edmund: A Philosophical Enquiry Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland Cather, Willa: A Lost Lady Cather, Willa: My Antonia Cather, Willa: Death Comes for the Archbishop Cather, Willa: Lucy Gayheart
Read more