the odyssey what you need to know before you read mrs. valaika treasure mountain international...
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The OdysseyWhat you need to know before you read
Mrs. ValaikaTreasure Mountain International School
Gods and Goddesses The Ancient Greeks were pantheistic
believed in many different gods and goddesses.
The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses controlled everything in their lives.
Gods lived on Mount Olympus
There was a god for many aspects of life.
It was important to please the gods; happy gods helped you, but unhappy gods punished you.
Gods were pleased by sacrifices
Gods were like a big dysfunctional family
Zeus Supreme ruler of the gods
God of thunder and lightening
Married to Hera
Symbol is the lightening bolt
Had sex with lots of women, both gods and mortals
Hera Wife of Zeus
Goddess of women and marriage
Extremely jealous of Zeus
Often took revenge on the women Zeus slept with
Hades God of the Underworld
Brother to Zeus
Abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter, to be his bride
Demeter Goddess of the earth,
harvest, and fertility
Mother of Persephone
Symbol is wheat
Persephone Daughter of Demeter
Abducted by Hades
Ate 4 pomegranate seeds
Must spend one month for every seed she ate with Hades
While she is absent, her mother goes into mourning and the earth is barren
Poseidon God of the sea,
earthquakes, and horses
Zeus’ brother
Father of the Cyclopes
Symbol is the trident
Apollo God of the sun
Rides a chariot through the sky, its golden wheels are the sun
Also god of wisdom and the arts
Athena Goddess of wisdom, war,
and the domestic arts
Zeus’ daughter
Born from Zeus’ head
Very logical, admires intelligence
Frequently helps Odysseus
Aphrodite Goddess of love, beauty,
and sexuality
Daughter of Poseidon and
Married to Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, god of fire and technology
Mother of Eros, otherwise known as Cupid
Hermes Messenger of the gods
Acted as a conduit between gods and mortals
Wore winged sandals
God of shepherds
Mischievous
Symbol is the caduceus
Ares God of war
Rumored to have had an affair with Aphrodite
Often argued with Athena
Kind of a psycho
The Trojan War Started by the gods
Eris, goddess of dischord, threw a golden apple into a wedding dance (that she wasn’t invited to) with a tag that read “for the fairest”
It was immediately fought over by Aphrodite Hera Athena
Who is the fairest? Zeus refused to decide, so the goddesses
turned to a mortal, Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy.
All 3 goddesses promised Paris rewards Athena promised he would defeat the Greeks Hera promised he would be the lord of Europe
and Asia Aphrodite promised he would marry the most
beautiful woman in the world
WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
The problem was … Helen, the most beautiful woman in the
world, was already married to Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Aphrodite lead Paris to Sparta
Menelaus left for Crete
Helen ran away with Paris, back to Troy
Helen became “The face that launched a thousand ships.”
The Meeting of the Greeks
The kings of Greece met, swore allegiance to Menelaus, and agreed to wage war on Troy.
Kings of Greece: Menelaus of Sparta Agammenon of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus Nestor of Pylos Odysseus of Ithaca Achilles of Phtia
The battle wore on … The siege of Troy lasted for 10 years
Became the subject of Homer’s epic The Iliad
Ended only because of Odysseus
The Trojan horse: Giant sculpture/booby trap
Troy was sacked, only Aeneas survived Subject of The Aenead, another epic poem
The Odyssey Written around 800 B.C.
Credited author is Homer, a blind poet
Passed down through generations orally, probably a collection of authors, refined over the years
Vocabulary and Terms
epic
hero
invocation
epithet
arete
allusion
archetype
oral tradition
Epic a long poem
typically derived from ancient oral tradition
narrates the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation
Hero a person, typically a man, who is admired or
idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities
the chief male character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize
(in mythology and folklore) a person of superhuman qualities and often semidivine origin, in particular one of those whose exploits and dealings with the gods were the subject of ancient Greek myths and legends
Invocation the action of invoking something or
someone for assistance
the summoning of a deity or the supernatural
Epithet a descriptive term accompanying a name
and having entered common usage
examples from Homer: “rosy-fingered Dawn” “swift-footed Achilles” “the wine-dark sea”
other examples: “Alexander the Great”
Arete excellence
courage and strength in the face of adversity
what all people in ancient Greece aspired to
Allusion an expression designed to call something to
mind without mentioning it explicitly
an indirect or passing reference
often used in literature
many allusions have to do with 3 things: Greek mythology Shakespeare The Bible
Archetype a very typical example of a certain person or
thing
an original that has been imitated
a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology
Oral Tradition a way of passing cultural history down
through generations without using written language
exists in both pre-literate and post-literate cultures
storytellers, bards, musicians, and actors are all part of an oral tradition
in some cultures, oral tradition was a way of educating children, as well as mapping their surroundings
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