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Odyssey Secondary Scholarship - Coggle Diagram
Odyssey Secondary Scholarship
Context of Poem / Homer
Sowerby: 'Early literary sources report the existence of a guild called the Homeridae ... devoted to the recitation of his poems'
Friedrich Wolf thinks the Homeric poems have progressively evolved over time
Sowerby: 'This new knowledge has tended to suggest that the culture and events of the Homeric poems have some basis in historical truth'
Milman Parry showed that metre was most important in choosing which epithet to use at a given time
Jones: 'Greece was dominated by the great palace-cultures ... most unlike anything in Homer'
Jones: 'alternative 'routes' may be causing inconsistencies or awkwardness in our text'
Thorpe: 'It is therefore wrong for us to expect from an oral poet ... consistency of detail'
Longinus called the Odyssey a 'comedy of how people behave'
Heroism
Sowerby: 'The all-round man is indeed a Greek ideal'
Sowerby: 'art triumphs over love and war'
Jones: '[Demodocus' songs] are the objective ratification of the heroic stature of Odysseus'
Sowerby: 'they decide to honour him with gifts. The hero thus acquires maximum status and honour'
Jones: 'it was a sign of greatness in a man to be helped by a god: no god ever supported a loser'
Sowerby: 'only a good reputation can survive death'
Jones: 'A number of incidents ... are characteristic of aristeia'
Different Societies
Sowerby: [about Pylos] 'here is Homeric civilisation at its best'
Sowerby: 'Phaeacia is represented almost as the Greek ideal'
Jones: 'It is tempting to label Phaeacian values unheroic'
Jones: 'these are very Greek giants: they have assemblies and glorious homes'
Odysseus
Sowerby: 'proving himself here the all-round man comprising the Greek ideal'
Sowerby: 'Part of Odysseus' completeness is that he is not completely ideal'
Jones: 'Odysseus is held up as a model of intelligent behaviour among men and of respect to the gods'
Jones: 'We are given a powerful sense of his greatness and of the desperate need for his return'
Jones: 'two of his most important qualities - his capacity to disguise himself and to control himself and others'
Sowerby: 'wholly set on return'
Sowerby: 'On his first appearance he is both resourceful and long-suffering'
Sowerby: 'his tact in human relations'
Sowerby: 'he is no more perfectly good than the cyclops is perfectly bad'
Sowerby: 'Odysseus' leadership can be questioned'
Sowerby: 'humanises the hero, who for a moment is simply a mother's son'
Sowerby: 'To absolve his hero of any blame for the loss of his companions'
Sowerby: 'This is a frank admission of the hero's materialism from his own mouth'
Jones: 'Odysseus' control over events in the household is growing'
Sowerby: 'another display of Odysseus' practical talents'
Bowra argues that he is unheroic as he is only faced by monsters or his inferiors rather than equals
Penelope
Sowerby: 'Penelope is not just a figure of suffering, but a woman of intelligence and cunning'
Jones: 'We sense the tension between herself and Telemachus'
Jones: 'the veil ... was usually discarded in the security of the home'
Jones: 'her high intelligence ... and her Odyssean cunning'
Jones: 'the negative aspect of Penelope's character, her weakness and dependence ... her dream-world is her only escape'
Goldhill: 'she is the one figure to outsmart Odysseus'
Fowler: 'Perhaps she knows none of them can string the bow and this is another trick'
Jones: 'She may just be using her decision to get married to her financial advantage'
Jones: 'her loyalty to the memory of Odysseus ... is truly heroic'
Jones: 'She sets up the trial for one purpose only - to produce the man whom she will marry'
Sowerby: 'Penelope no less than Odysseus has been through seas of adversity'
Telemachus
Sowerby: 'his new-found confidence, now that he is about to take matters into his own hands'
Jones: '[Homer] maintains a tension throughout between Telemachus' youth and potential'
Jones: 'there are signs of youthful haste'
Jones: 'The young man must not rival Odysseus, but at the same time he must be seen to be a son worthy of his father'
Jones: 'the kleos that Nestor has bestowed upon him'
Clark: 'a despairing Telemachus lost in the dreamworld'
Clark: 'Telemachus had to be baptised into the heroic life ... or he would never be a trusted ally to his father'
Clark: 'For Telemachus the decision to accept Theoclymenus demonstrates his newly won authority'
Clark: 'Telemachus becomes so much like Odysseus that he is indistinguishable from him'
Sowerby: 'He offers good advice ... modifying the plan'
Jones: 'a young man whose kleos ... is now firmly established'
Circe
Jones: 'she herself does not obstruct him in the way that Calypso does'
Jones: 'Circe ... seems the greater threat, but in the end has Odysseus' best interests at heart'
Calypso
Jones: 'Her primary purpose is to keep Odysseus in Ogygia for long enough to allow Telemachus to grow up'
Jones: 'she
seems
warmly affectionate to Odysseus'
Goldhill: 'kept him an unwilling sex slave for 7 years'
Nausicaa
Jones: 'Homer teases us with Nausicaa's apparent attraction to Odysseus'
Jones: 'Nausicaa is delightfully portrayed'
Haward: 'Nausicaa knows she is not expected to choose her own husband
The Suitors
Sowerby: 'Leocritus' outburst ... further darkens their cause'
Sowerby: 'The plot to ambush and kill Telemachus puts them unambiguously in the wrong'
Jones: 'they virtually never acknowledge the gods in their feasting'
Jones: 'the suitors want control of Odysseus' possessions, and Penelope is merely a means to that end'
Jones: 'more sensible and humane suitor Amphinomus'
Sowerby: 'The indignities he suffers further alienate the audience from the Suitors'
Athene
Clark: 'we read little that convinces us that Telemachus has profited by Athene's encouragement'
Sowerby: 'Athene's appreciative response establishes the affinity between them'
Zeus
Jones: 'the important role that Zeus plays in this epic as overseer of human moral behaviour'
Nostos
Sowerby: 'The main subject is the hero's return and the re-establishment of order in his own house'
Disguise / Dolos
Jones: 'he is still a Homeric hero, and concealment and reserve must at some stage be cast off'
Fenik: 'the hero's secrecy about himself is used to build scene after scene of irony, suspense and poignant emotion'
Jones: 'only the man of metis can survive, because the only way to defeat overwhelming force is to outthink it'
Sowerby: 'The physical disguise, necessary for survival'
Fantasy / Supernatural
Jones: 'The story of his fabulous encounter with Proteus makes the fabulous adventures of Odysseus less out of the ordinary'
Jones: 'such fabulous adventures entirely befit a legendary hero'
Sowerby: 'supernatural events ... serve to suggest an underlying fate'
Page thinks Homer minimises magic and humanises incredible events
Jones: 'the descent elevates him above ordinary humanity'
Jones: 'The fairy tale is from now on banished from the world of Odysseus'
Jones: 'The omens too are building ... develops in the reader a powerful sense that a triumphant climax is at hand'
Fate
Sowerby: 'an inevitability about its destined end'
Jones: 'They have their fate in his own hands - and pay the penalty'
Gods
Sowerby: 'human actions in the poem generally have their origin in divine promptings'
Walcot: 'the gulf separating gods and humans ... adultery does not stop the gods from collapsing with laughter'
Sowerby: 'Homer uses divine machinery here to absolve his hero of blame for the apparently indiscriminate slaughter at the end'
Sowerby: 'They have to earn divine support'
Justice / Morality
Sowerby: 'a moral tale that turns on individual moral choice'
Sowerby: 'despite the clear moral outline, characters and incidents are seldom presented in black and white terms'
Shahabudin: 'the ethical outrages which set him apart from the Greeks: his lack of respect for the gods and refusal to comply with the laws of hospitality'
Jones: 'scene in Hades shows justice at work among the dead'
Sowerby: 'It is perhaps because the Suitors' ignoble conduct renders their death a just punishment that Odysseus rebukes Eurycleia for her exultation'
Xenia
Jones: 'The theme of xenia runs through the Odyssey ... it is sanctioned by Zeus'
Jones: 'The rituals of xenia ensure there are a number of points of comparison between their adventures abroad'
Sowerby: '[The Phaeacians] welcome the visiting stranger unconditionally'
Kelly: 'the Phaeacians are characterised several times as unfriendly hosts'
Jones: 'all these experiences foreshadow, and prepare him for ... the meeting with the suitors'
Jones: 'the adventures themselves revolve mostly around the institution of xenia'
Sowerby: 'the contrast [with Heracles] serves to stress the civilised nature of Odysseus'
Family / oikos
Sowerby: 'the main action concerns domestic affairs and a struggle with ignoble opponents'
Clark: 'The primary complication of the Odyssey is the disunion of a family'
Clark: 'sons are like their father because they grow up in their shadows'
Jones: 'Ancient Greeks placed an absolute value on a man's loyalty to his own household'
Sowerby: '[Laertes'] active part in the campaign ... reasserts the family's control'
Goldhill: 'The oikos exists in one place ... one's father's house'
Women
Goldhill: 'surprising because commonly in Greek writing marriage is portrayed with little sense of equality'
Kelly: 'rape victim' or 'helper' or 'temptress/monster'
Kelly: 'marriage and detention become linked'
Mheallaigh: 'her quiet weaving is symbolic of her unpredictable plans and motives'
Haward: 'The chief task of women of all ranks was spinning and weaving'
Slaves
Thorpe: 'He cannot even choose when he will sing and when remain silent ... more of a performer than a creative artist'
Sowerby: 'Eumaeus fulfils the highest obligations of Homeric society ... out of uncontaminated respect for the laws of hospitality'
Austin: '[Eumaeus is the] stalwart paradigm of order'
Jones: 'those loyal to the household, under Odysseus' leadership, finally bring an end to the rule of the suitors'