Homer, Odyssey, Books 8, 9, 10
Book 8--Songs of Demodokos, the athletic games celebrating Odysseus' arrival, and Nausicaa's farewell
1) How does Athena serve Odysseus
at dawn, and where have we seen this theme before, perhaps used with other
characters?
2) Demodokos' first song clearly is
intended to refer to an epic Homer's audience knew.
What is its relationship in plot/action to the events in the Iliad
and Odyssey? Where would
you go to find it today?
3) The first song also is a "type
scene," a larger chunk of oral-formulaic verse generally reproduced with key
structural features intact every time.
Compare it with Telemakhos and Menelaos in V: 116-30.
What are the key elements in this type scene
4) The games parallel those in
Iliad XXIII for the funeral of Patroclus.
How do they establish the nature of the Phaeakians, and create Odysseus'
peculiar talents and temper?
Especially, why does "Seareach" taunt the hero this way, and how does Odysseus
respond? (Fitzgerald's "Seareach" is Euryalus in the Greek--remember the name
when we get to Aeneid. This is a "type character" found in "type
scenes" common to epics such as Beowulf where the courtier who
taunts/tests the hero is named "Unferth" (lit. "un-faith"). In the
Aeneid, Euryalus is also given a thematically appropriate role.)
5) Demodokos' second song seems
another typical bit of epic divine apparatus.
But does it have any thematic relevance to a man in Odysseus' position?
6) In ll. 397-407, you see the
ball-dance return. Compare it with
Book 5. You will see its complete
significance on the Shield of Achilles (Iliad XVIII: 688-708).
How might this fit together with the deeper thematic undercurrents of
Books 6-8?
7) When Seareach pays Odysseus
compensation for his insult, how does his behavior establish a rule for behavior
in such a delicate situation, and how does Odysseus receive his offer?
Some of the suitors will offer similar compensation--remember and compare
the situation and Odysseus' response.
8) Nausicaa's farewell (VIII:
488-500) brings to a close the important theme which opened Book 6.
How do you interpret the emotional content of this brief interlude?
9) Demodokos' third song derives
from another epic parallel to the Iliad.
How do you account for the differences between the two plots?
What do you learn here that the Iliad concealed from you?
For Deiphobos' role, consult Book IV, Menelaos' story.
10) The song's end brings the poet
to another extended reverse simile.
With what are Odysseus tears compared?
Which characters would occupy those roles were they to be acted out in
this epic?
Book 9--Odysseus' tales to the Phaiakian court: the Kikones, Lotus-Eaters, and the Kyklopes (Polyphemus, Poseidon's one-eyed son).
1) Do you see any change in
Odysseus' character in the tales he
is narrating, when compared to those in the primary narrator's
voice?
2) How would you describe
the attack on the Kikones by Odysseus'
men? What kind of society
does Odysseus represent?
3) How did Odysseus' men respond to
his orders in the raid on the Kikones, and how would you compare them to
Odysseus?
4) How might you use the Kikones,
Lotus‑Eaters, and the Kyklopes as
types of civilization? How do
the ways in which they differ from Odysseus and his men
tell you about the things Odysseus values most in his culture?
5) According to Odysseus, what do
the Kyklopes lack as a people when compared with his own idea of proper human
culture?
6) Why might the Phaiakians have
reason to anticipate a tale about the Kyklopes with more than a little dread and
enthusiasm?
7) Why did Odysseus bring the wine?
Why did he enter the cave of Polyphemos, and how did the crew advise him?
Compare this evidence with the attack on the Kikones?
Why the difference?
8) What reasoning guides Odysseus'
strategy in dealing with Polyphemos while in the cave?
9) Think of Odysseus as a
tale-teller at a feast, a bard like Demodokos.
How does Odysseus use the horrific details of his encounter with
Polyphemos?
10) G.E. Dimock (1956) points out
that Odysseus' name puns on the Greek for "to hate," which also means, by
extension, "to give pain" and "to receive pain" (odyssathai,
L. odisse). The epic's
strongest textual support for this punning reading of the hero's name occurs in
Book XIX: 474-81 when the story of his naming is
told. In the Polyphemos
episode, he also gives out a false name which sounds like "Outis," the
Homeric Greek that, in English, would sound like "Noman." How does
his behavior with Polyphemos fit the name he conceals and the name he reveals?
11) What does Odysseus shout as the
ship pulls away from the island of the Kyklopes, and why does he do this?
What are its consequences, and for how long have we been prepared for
them?
Book 10--Odysseus' tales in the Phaiakian court: Aiolus, king of the winds (twice!), the Laistrygonian cannibals, and Kirke the witch and transformer of men into animals
1) What is Aiolos' function and
what gift does he give Odysseus?
2) What is unusual about Aiolos' family?
3) Why does the crew seek to know
what gift Odysseus has brought aboard, and how might this relate to the plot of
The Iliad? How does it
develop your sense of the crew's character?
4) How does Aiolos respond to
Odysseus on his second encounter with the King, and why?
5) What kind of culture do the
Laistrygonians represent?
6) What strategic decision does
Odysseus make when he first sees the smoke from Kirke's fire, and how does the
crew react to the news of what he's found?
7) In what sense might we interpret
Kirke's transformation of men into
swine other than as a mere "marvel" thrown in to
entertain the audience? How
might men be turned into swine by
their encounter with a beautiful woman?
8) What role does Hermes play in
Odysseus' encounter with Kirke?
9) What does Odysseus demand of
Kirke when she offers to share her bed with him, and to what theme does this
event refer?
10) After the enchantment on the
crew is reversed, the poet says "wild regret and longing pierced them through"
(10: 442--Loeb edition = "they wept and wailed").
Why would their return to human form affect them this way?
11) When Eurylokhos argues that the
crew should not heed Odysseus' command to return to Kirke's house, how does
Odysseus respond? What kind of
strains does this suggest in the way the poet intends us to interpret Odysseus'
actions?
12) What does Kirke offer the crew
and Odysseus, and what are the consequences of this arrangement?
What ends it?
13) What must Odysseus do in order
to find his way home, and what must he seek there?
What are the rules for this unusual encounter,
14) What happens to Elpenor, and why do you suppose the poet has introduced this event at this time?