Mythology Lecture 9
Feb. 5, 2008
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The Odyssey is part of a larger body of things called
nostos
, return home, song
about the return home. The Odyssey is a nostos song that tells us about the return
home.
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Most likely, all other characters have a nostos, but it just hasn’t been
passed down in writing (we only get micro versions of these stories
embedded in the Odyssey).
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Odysseus: metis, cunning, trickster character. Some genealogies make him a
descendent of Hermes.
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He is not necessarily all good—disloyal to use poisoned arrows.
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Kills all the suitors: sense of war veteran coming back home, and
behaving at home the way he would have on the battle.
This presents a
moral problem.
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Beginning of Odyssey told as flashback.
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Andra: man, polytopos: (one of many turns) many ways—refers to his many
wanderings, makes many turns on the sea before arriving home.
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Odysseus is not named until 21 lines, he is just called man. Give us a sense of
ambiguity of him as a character.
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- Winter '08
- Hopman
- The Odyssey, return home
-
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