The Odyssey

I. Historical Situation

A. The Trojan War and after

B. Homer’s time, ca. 8^th century BC

C. Homer’s works in the archaic and classical ages

II. The Epic Genre

A. Characteristics

B. Popular (Oral) vs. Literary epics: differences

C. Oral-formulaic composition

III. Horizontal Treatment

A. Plot

B. Viewpoint on the gods

C. Vs. “vertical” treatment – e.g. Hebrew Bible

IV. Values Expressed through Plot and Character

A. Home (the megaron):

1. The plot

2. O’s eagerness to get home

3. A place for everyone: women (Penelope vs. Klytaimnestra, Kirke&Kalypso), retainers (Eumaios, shipmates), kings

B. Hospitality (as guest and host) as central virtue

1. Violators of hospitality lack other virtues: Polyphemos, suitors

2. Exemplars of hospitality have reverence, skill, love of home, loyalty: Eumaios, Nestor and Menalaos, the Phaiakians, Odysseus especially

C. Reverence for the gods

1. Homer’s own approach (“Sing, Muse, in me…”, reverent to all the gods)

2. O’s positive example (e.g. the stream in Phaiakia)

D. Being “skilled in all ways of contending” (polytropos): Odysseus, Penelope

1. Physical skills in battle and games

2. Thinking up solutions

3. Speaking well