ARCH 0412
From Gilgamesh to Hektor:
Heroes of the Bronze Age
March 16, 2016:
Divine Help: Odyssey
Characters of the Odyssey
Odysseus
King of Ithaca, the protagonist of Odyssey
Telemachos
Prince of Ithaca, Odysseus’s son
Penelope
Queen of Ithaca, wife of Odysseus
Athena
The goddess who protects Odysseus
Polyphemos
A giant, Poseidon’s son, and the reason of Poseidon’s anger
Calypso
The goddess who keeps Odysseus on her island for years
Circe
The goddess who turns Odysseus’s men into animals
Suitors
The men of Ithaca trying to get Penelope’s hand in marriage
Laertes
Father of Odysseus
The parts of the Odyssey
The Telemachy: Books i-iv
The Nostos: Books v-viii and Book xiii.1-187
The Great Wanderings: Books ix-xii
Odyseeus on Ithaka: Books xiii.187-xxiv
Synopsis of the
Odyssey
Odysseus’s Route
http://www.classics.upenn.edu/myth/php/homer/index.ph
p?page=odymap
Odyssey: Larger
Themes
Odyssey: Larger Themes
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Divine intervention (positive and negative)
Loyalty (to family and friends)
Fate
A different understanding of «hero»
Perseverence
Temptation (Penelope, suitors, Odysseus and his crew)
Friendship
Trial
Nostoi (homecoming)
Redemption
Wrath
Main Theme 1: Divine Intervention
Athena Parthenos
Roman copy, 2nd century CE
Poseidon of Milos
2nd century BCE
Athena and Athens
The Parthenon, temple of Athena Parthenos
Constructed between 444-438 BCE
The Panathenaic Procession
The Panathenaic Procession
The Panathenaic Games
Black-figure Panathenaic prize amphora
Attributed to the Euphiletos Painter
c. 530 BCE
Black-figure Panathenaic prize amphora
Showing athletes on the front (left) and an armed Athena on the back (right)
c. 530-520 BCE
The Parthenon, 444-438 BC
Curved Stylobate of the Parthenon
Metope
Frieze
Parthenon-reconstruction of east and west pediment
Parthenon- frieze
Main Theme 2: Nostoi ‘Homecoming’
The Achaians’ bitter homecoming
From Troy, which Pallas Athene had inflicted upon them
(Odyssey i.326-327)
But after we had sacked the sheer citadel of Priam,
And were going away in our ships, and the god scattered the Achaians,
Then Zeus in his mind devised a sorry homecoming
For the Argives, since not all were considerate and righteous;
Therefore many of them found a bad way of, because of
The ruinous anger of the Gray-eyed One, whose father is mighty.
(Odyssey iii.130-135)