Odyssey Test
1.What have you learned about Greek culture, values, and religion? Address the roles of women and men, honor and virtues, gods and goddesses, etc. (250 words)
While reading the Odyssey, I’ve learned that an offering of goats and lambs was a very good way to bring peace and happiness between people. Greek culture is also very similar to the culture in the biblical days. In the Odyssey there were a lot of celebrations where men would drink and dance and fight but women were at none of them. Drinking wine was a normal thing to do daily for men. The Greeks valued their kings, queens, gods, and goddesses the most. I think that they were valued the most because of the power that they had and the fear that people had of them. For example, Odysseus’ men valued, feared, and respected him but some didn’t even necessarily like him while they were on the boat they betrayed him by opening the bag of wind when he asked them to. Also when Odysseus feared Poseidon and he begged for mercy when he was in the sea and Poseidon brought a storm. The Greeks valued their kings and queens very much, when Odysseus came back, Penelope’s maid kissed his feet. Now in these days many people would do that to no one, so that’s one thing that has changed. Men were considered more important than the men. Like the men were the people who built things, fought in war, worked to get the money and so on. Women were in the background doing the laundry and tending to the children. Even the kings were treated better than the queens on certain occasions.
2. What resonated with you in reading about Odysseus’ adventures? Why? (150 words)
The Odyssey being mainly about love, one thing that resonated with me was how Odysseus slept with two other women numerous times but was scared when he was about to return home when he wasn’t sure if Penelope had been faithful to him. That is just another representation of how men had more privleges than women and could do more things then they could. The same thing happens now. Men can sleep around and cheat on their wives or girlfriends and to other men that can be considered a good thing. When women sleep around they become nasty and they get called names. It’s just not right for a girl to cheat on a boy is really the rule that has always been set for everyone to abide by. Another thing that resonated with me was his passion to get back home but not only so he could be away danger or sleep in his bed but so that he could get back to his wife and son.
3. This epic poem is dated nearly 3000 years ago, why is it still relevant? (150 words)
This poem is still relevant today because it was mainly about love and that is a topic that never gets old, no matter how old or how long ago. The stuff that he goes through still goes on today and the audience likes to hear or read things that they can relate to. Some ladies today have been waiting for their husbands or boyfriends to come home from Iraq since 2001 and many have waited. Those women can relate to how Penelope was feeling waiting for her husband to arrive from his journey. It shows how some men will stop at nothing to fight for something. It also shows the strength of men not only physically but mentally and I think that that is very relevant today because even though there are few men like that, there are some. It reaches the youth because it displays how some children don’t grow up with a father figure and how they hurt in the inside and the out. How Telemachus was always talking about where his father was and when he was coming back. A lot of youth can relate to that now, because a lot of kids and teenagers now don’t grow up with their father or a man in their like at all.
4. How would you characterize the narrator, the fictive "Homer" whose voice we imagine as singing the verses of the Odyssey?
I would characterize Homer as a humble, nice, loving person that loves to write but he’s been hurt before and he’s been through many trials and triumphs and he puts them down on paper into words and uses his voice to share them with everyone.
5. What kinds of behavior are treated as contemptible in the Odyssey?
Killing yourself is treated as hatred in the Odyssey and when you kill yourself you go to hell. When the men fight in the ring or take their anger out by using weapons.
6. How does the poem represent mortal women? Since Penelope is the most important woman in the Odyssey, what qualities does she possess, and how does she respond to the troubles she faces? (Some of the other women are of note, too-Eurycleia the serving woman, the faithless maidservants, Nausicaa the Phaeacian princess, and Helen of Sparta, Menelaus' queen, whose elopement with Prince Paris sparked the Trojan War.)
Penelope possesses good qualities such as patience, faith, respect, kindness, and gratitude. When Penelope faces troubles she deals with them very calmly and doesn’t make a scene and usually keeps it to herself and handles it over time.
7. How do Homer's gods think and behave? How do their actions and motivations differ from the conception of god in other religions of which you have knowledge? What role do the Homeric gods play in human affairs, and what is the responsibility of humans with respect to those gods?
Homer’s gods and goddesses always try to teach you a lesson with almost everything that they do, some are selfish and some are more worried about themselves. The difference between these gods and other gods from other religions is that most gods from other religions can not be seen and are usually statues. Homeric gods can either help humans or hurt humans it’s whatever they decide to do. Humans who respect the gods get respect and help back.
