Part 1
1) If you were one of Odysseus shipmates, how would you feel about him?Is he foolhardy or a reliable leader? Do you all agree?
Now that we read the book, we know that most of his shipmates died. From the very beginning I would be very scared knowing that he has something to do with the gods and that something bad can happen at anytime. I think he can be reliable to a certain extant because at a point he can be foolhardy. There are times where he tells his shipmates what to do and if the shipmates decide not to listen then that is a other story. The only time he was foolhardy was when he asked to be tied down because he wanted to listen to the sirens sing and when he went inside the cyclops cave. Other than that he s always telling his shipmates what to do and not what to do.
2)The Odyssey was used as part of Greek children's education for centuries after the poem was written down. How could the adventure with the Lotus Eaters teach us about the temptation to forget our troubles by dropping out of society?
The Lotus Flowers could be like drugs now a days that affect you very much. When Odysseus was there his men were tempted by the Lotus Eaters to eat their flower and when they consumed the flower they forget about their home and also the question of why to leave their land. This can be compared to society now by comparing the Lotus Flower as a drug. People sometimes do drugs when they are going through a really hard time, so people do drugs to forget about their troubles.
3)How does Odysseus describe the Cyclopes' way of life? Contrast their customs with those of an ideal human community. (Be sure to think about the significance of the cannibalism.)
He describes them in a way that to us it sounds like they are cavemen. First they are in a cave and they get stuff from nature and it seems like they like to squish their food and then eat it. Homer says that he the cyclopes gets the sheep and squishes it. But then later when the cyclopes notices that Odysseus is there he asks who they are. Odysseus tries to explain and then the cyclopes gets two of his men and chops their head easily and eat it. That is something us regular people do not do which is do cannibalism.
4)"Nobody" in Greek is outis, which sounds like Odysseus. In this episode how does Odysseus show that he is clever with language? What curse at the end of this adventure foreshadows trouble?
This "name" was like a code name for Odysseus instead of saying his real name. When they are with the cyclopes they use that name but Odysseus told the cyclopes his real name. So when Odysseus attacked the monster in the eye and left that is when the trouble happened. Since the cyclopes is the son of Poseidon, Poseidon was going to get revenge on Odysseus.
Part 2
1) Do you think Odysseus has changed since he started on his adventures? Explain your responses to Odysseus as a hero.
I do not think he changed because I feel like he always has been a great hero and a very strong man. He continued life and he continued to be strong even though his journey was very hard to go through. When he gets back, he proves himself again which just again proves that he is very strong still. Through out his journey he suffered a lot but never did he show a sign of weakness.
2)What simile in lines 1031-1032 describes the feelings of Odysseus and his son as they embrace after twenty years? How would you describe exactly what the father and son are feeling here?
This means that they were basically crying a lot. Its been 20 years and the 2 finally met and its like they are tears like finally they meet each other because they missed each other. They are feeling joy and they were like this for a long time and basically sort of like praising the fact that they are together.
3)Dramatic Irony refers to a situation in which readers or the audience knows more than the characters. Where in the scene in the swineherd's hut do we get a great sense of dramatic irony?
Odysseus is in the swineherd's hut because he is acting like a beggar because Athena told him to act like it because he can not let people know right away who he is. Meanwhile his son, Telemachus, also come back from his journey because he was on the search for his father and he finally came back after a year. Odysseus is dressed as a beggar and Telemachus thinks he is on as well and has no clue that it is his father.