Short Essay Assignment – Recurring Images in the Odyssey
Final 15 sentence essay due: November 19/20—typed and double spaced
Rough draft due November 17/18 – bring it to class for feedback and revision time
Start by choosing one of these topics in the Odyssey:
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o
o
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descriptions of feasting
descriptions of the sea
variations of epithets for the same character
descriptions of bird signs
descriptions of characters deceiving others
Then, go through The Odyssey finding and writing down at least eight different quotes that fit the topic
of your paper (from above). Include the page and line number.
These eight quotes should be written in the grid below. (This sheet will ultimately be turned in
attached to your paper.)
Choose at least three quotes from above that have similarities that would suggest a thematic pattern in
the description of your topic. (as with my example essay on the back, I chose all quotes with
personification in them.)
Write a 15 sentence essay where you consider and analyze the three quotes you chose. See the English
10 web page dated November 5/9 for one possible general outline you may use if you’re not sure how
to organize this paper. (The descriptions of Dawn in-class writing exercise)
Note: I’ve left some proofreading errors in this essay that is (except for the errors) intended to serve as a model for the assignment on the other
side of this sheet.
Good Morning: The Sun Coming Up in The Odyssey
by Edward Derby, English 10
“At earths two verges in sunset lands and lands of the rising sun”… is an
early image of sunrise in a book full of them: Homer’s The Odyssey as
transplanted by Robert Fitzgerald. The author personifies the dawn in myriad
variations that bring freshness and renewal, like dawn itself, to the passage of
time in the book.
The long shafts of colored light at sunrise are often described as fingers.
For example, “When primal Dawn spread on eastern sky her finger’s of pink
light…” appears in book two. The shafts of light themselves are long and pink like
the palm-side fingers of a woman.
Dawn has more than fingers though. In book nine she’s described with
“ringlets sihining.” The image of the light of dawn as curly hair is different from
the oft repeated image of fingers. Imagine a swirl of clouds lit up to look like curly
hair. Lovely hair is attributed to beautiful women like Helen in The Odyseey. The
emphasis on her hair makes Dawn like a beautiful maiden.
Now that we’ve seen her, both hair and hands, we put together the whole
person as in book 5 where, “Dawn came up from the couch of her reclining…” It’s
a lovely notion to think of the morning light personified by a sleepy woman who
rises, and in her rising sheds light on the world. She rises from “Tithonos brilliant
side with fresh light in her arms for gods and men”. While sometimes different
parts of Dawns body are aglow themselves, the light, as in this image, can be
carried by Dawn as well.
Perhaps it reflects the oral tradition from which The Odyssey comes that
the images of dawn are repeated so many times. It makes it easier on the story
teller to return to themes throughout an epic story such as this. But it is through
this repetition that Dawn is fully fleshed out, aglow in her youth and beauty. Even
her name is capitalized as a persons would be. She rises in the eyes of Homer’s
readers again and again.