Returning to the Underworld. We will spend some time examining the advice Odysseus receives from the shades he encounters while in the land of the dead, and then students will write A-A-B-B stanzas describing what he learns from each, matching the meter of “The People in Your Neighborhood.” How do these lessons fit the same lessons about community and responsibility that we began studying last week?
HW: Book 12 should be read by class tomorrow. Every person in your group should write a verse for ONE additional person Odysseus meets in the Underworld.

HW: Start book 13 tonight, due by Friday. Pay careful attention to how Odysseus returns to Ithaca, to whom he speaks, and his course of action while there. Nothing is accidental! Almost every decision, every action is purposeful and carries symbolic importance. For example—why does he stay with the Swineherd?

Returning to selections from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. We will pick up where we left off, with the Olympian gods, re-starting with Artemis.

Odysseus will return to a hostile environment. Keep in mind all the encounters he’s had on mysterious islands over the last ten years; these experiences haven’t exactly been positive. So here he’s returning to another island, facing his greatest unknown: what will his kingdom be like, twenty years after his departure? Will his son be alive? Will his wife have remarried? What has happened in Ithaca over the last two decades?

HW: Read Book 14 over the weekend. How is the swineherd loyal to Odysseus? How does he demonstrate responsibility to his community via his actions?