Week 4 Syllabus: January 29
AS YOU READ THROUGH HOMER’S ODYSSEY, pay attention to key Greek themes, particularly xenia (hospitality) in the first four books. Why is the suitors behavior so egregious? Now that Telemachus is a young man, how should he behave in response to their transgressions? Note that our story does NOT begin with the key hero, Odysseus, but rather his progenitor. What does this tell us about the importance of lineage to the future survival of Ithaca and Odysseus & Penelope’s kingdom?
MONDAY, January 29
Questions: How asking the right question is the only way to get to the right answer.
Brainstorming questions for books one and two of the Odyssey.
Lecture answering students’ questions, covering divine mantle, xenia, the suitors behavior and Telemachus & Penelope’s dilemma.
Second part of class, watching part of lecture on Heracles’s role in Greek myth, while students finish Heracles cartoon panel.
HW: read and annotate book three, Telemachus’s visit with Mentor.
WEDNESDAY, January 31
Listening to book four together as a class.
Make sure you’re reading the questions/notes prior to reading the chapter. You should review those same questions AFTER reading, checking your annotations.
HW: Revisit your annotations for books one through four.
Revisions to your short story essay are due tomorrow. Finish those!
Thursday, January 25
What are the key take-aways from the Telemachia? Class wide discussion/lecture.
Notes on homeric similie (nature based, compares action of poem); anthropormorphic; libations/hekatombs—ritual sacrifice to gods); suppliant—one who asks/begs in a servile manner
Meeting Odysseus for the first time.
HW: Finish reading book five. Also, read books six and seven for class on Monday.