...THE ODYSSEY Is a good leader classified as one who personally gains a lot or one who benefits his or her community at large? After fighting in the brutal Trojan War, Odysseus travels the sea in hopes of returning to Ithaca, his homeland, and his wife and son, Penelope and Telemachus. Homer’s The Odyssey reveals the struggles and obstacles Odysseus and his men face traveling home. As prophesized, twenty years later, Odysseus returns to a devastated Ithaca, alone, penniless and unrecognizable. Odysseus has hubris, a flaw that costs him, as well his men, excessive troubles. Odysseus does not learn from his and others’ past mistakes, again leading him into traps that could have easily been avoided. Odysseus constantly puts his men in harm’s way for selfish purposes. For these reasons, Odysseus is an incompetent leader, and therefore should be criticized. Odysseus has hubris. This excessive pride and arrogance leads Odysseus and his men into difficult situations that would not have otherwise arisen. Towards the beginning of Homer’s epic, Odysseus narrowly escapes from a Cyclops’ cave. In triumphant victory, Odysseus taunts the Cyclops, Polyphemus. His men advise him against further agitating Polyphemus after the Cyclops starts throwing massive boulders at their ship; however, Odysseus displays hubris and does not listen. ‘Godsake, Captain! Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!’ ‘Aye He’ll smash our timbers and our heads together!’ / I would not heed them...
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...The classic tragedy, as defined by Aristotle, has six major parts. These parts include a plot, characters, theme, melody, spectacle, and language. All stories, according to Aristotle must have a beginning, middle, and end, and must follow a logical sequence according to these six elements. The plot is the series of events, or sequence in which the action of the play occurs. Plot must follow a cause and effect relationship, which follows a logical pattern. Characters are the people in the play, who have certain qualities that can be determined by what they say, do and what others say about them. The theme of the play is the general feeling or statement made by the author that presents an observation or thought to the audience. Melody is the musical quality of the play, which includes a change of pitch by the voice, musical instruments , and also includes the high and low points of the play giving it an overall melodic quality. Spectacle includes the visual elements of the play, anything that is observed by sight. Often in modern movies and plays spectacle can be overdone, especially if a reason for the spectacle cannot be found. Language is the dialog or speech that makes up the story, and is used by characters to present the play to the audience. Aristotle lays out a very specific definition of what a tragedy should include, and how each element should be presented. He tells us that the tragedy must include these six elements and that they must be laid out in a logical manner...
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...A summary of Civilization: Greek Era What really is education? It is not literacy, nor information. Education is a logical attempt towards human learning. There are two types of leaners, passive learners and purposely engaged learners. Purposeful engagement is said to equal successful learning; so instead of spending time getting interested, find what is interesting. Making connections is what creates learning. Everything we learn may not be interesting, but it is important to make connections to something that is. Find meaning in what is taught and interpret the idea, thinking deeply and meaningful about ideas helps discover new learning and interest. Intellect performance shows what we know what we are trying to portray. During the highest peak of the Greek era the society valued body and mind intellect; creating some of the most famous philosophers known to time. Main Ideas and Values of Ancient Greek Civilization Ancient Greek civilization has contributed too many parts of today's society. The teachings and doings of Ancient Greeks have contributed important lessons that many societies still use to base their own laws and ethics on. The Ancient Greeks realized values of loyalty, glory, intelligence and hospitality were important to incorporate into everyday life. Ancient Greek civilization valued dualism, truth and “good society”. Helping your fellow man was an important aspect of ancient Greek society. They offered food, shelter and protection to travelers without...
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...comes from the ancient Greek poet Homer. Homer’s epic the Odyssey relates to the magnitude that choices play in our lives and how he thought choices should be made. The Odyssey revolves around the hero Odysseus and the choices he and his crew make on their decade long journey home at the end of the Trojan War. Sometimes the characters make good choices and sometimes they make bad choices, more often than not these good choices are made by using good judgement and consulting those who are wise....
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...Macbeth vs Odyssues Often in literature, the view we have on the strengths of a character is frequently stereotyped, some characteristics being seen as a strong leader who can defeat anyone with a single punch. However, this isn’t the case, there is more to strengths, including, intelligence, charisma, and cleverness, which allow individuals to be strong and overcome challenges without issues. In the epic of the Odyssey, written by Greek author Homer, the main character Odysseus follows this core example of showing intellect over strength. These characteristics allow Odyssey to overcome near death experiences and return to his home island of Ithica. As for the gullible king, Macbeth, he doesn’t follow any case of Odysseus. The Tragedy of Macbeth,...
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...Literature and Philosophy Ancient Greek intellectuals also made influential developments in literature. We owe most of our best selling novel genres to when they first defined in Greece, throughout the 400s B.C. where topics such as comedy, tragedy, poetry and philosophy were born. During the Archaic period of Greece writing, the earliest period, individuals told aloud stories in the form of legends or fables. The famous writer Homer emerged from this time frame and wrote epics inspired by events occurring in the Greece Dark Ages. Homer’s most popular poems were the Iliad and the Odyssey, creating a story, that has been modified throughout the years of retelling, taking place during and after the Trojan War between Greece and Troy. In 1795, Friedrich August Wolf came up with a contradictory idea, debating Homer's existence bringing forth the great Homeric...
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...lessons, instilling moral values, recording history, bringing meaning to the unknown, or simply entertaining an audience, the oral tradition is a necessity to all societies. Though the written word is a well respected art form in and of itself, there are many ways in which the oral telling of stories can achieve more than a literary work. I do not believe true epics, such as Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, survive the transition from oral storytelling to literary works. I believe this to be true because a reader will not get the same story as an audience listening to an oral telling. One of the ways that the literary transitions of epics falls short of the oral telling is the lack of control the author has over the reader’s understanding of the intended emotional response. Devices such as emphasis, volume, delivery, intonation, cadence, and facial expressions are all together lost when a work is being read as opposed to heard and seen. An oral storyteller has the ability to change a single sentence from a sorrowful tragedy to a comedic parody using simply their voice and tone. The first lines of Homer’s The Iliad could be argued to be the most important in the book. Within the first stanza, the whole tone and mood of the epic is set; imagine the immense power a story teller possess here: “RAGE: Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greek incalculable pain, pitched countless souls of heroes into Hades’ dark, and left their bodies to rot as feasts...
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...The portaryal of the Sirens and their luring but destructive song is compared in both Homer's Odyessey and Margaret Atwood's poem Siren Song as being inevitable and trecharous to the Odysseus sailors. The leader of the Odysseus recounts about thier encounter with the Sirens and with an ominous tone addreses his crew to heed of the cataclysmic dangers the Sirens are forcasted to perform. The Siren in the poem narrarates her tragedy of causing such pernicious accidents and through her point of view manipulates the reader to belive Sirens have no desire to hurt those who cross their path. In the Odyssey, the leader of the Odysseus applies his point of view on the Sirens by expressing how the song causes his,"...heart inside..." to throb...
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...alphabet does change to left to right but that’s during the fifth century. (Bantwal, 2008) Greek Education For Greek children, their education mostly consisted of poetry and song. (Hadas, 1950) Education was more popular among young boys but it was not uncommon for girls. The wealthier children remained in school for ten years. Grammatistes, paidotribes and kitharistes were the teachers who taught the children. Grammatistes taught literature, arithmetic, reading and writing. Paidotribes coached boxing, wrestling, and gymnastics. Kitharistes taught music. At age eighteen, boys would train for the military for two years before further education. (Discovery Channel, n.d) The Illiad and the Odyssey Homer wrote the two most classic poems titled the Illiad and the Odyssey. The Illiad is based on the last six weeks of the Trojan War. The main character of the Illiad is Achilles. Achilles and Agamemnon get in a heated argument and Achilles retracts from the war. The Greeks are losing the battle and Achilles does not rejoin the battle until he hears that his friend Patroclus has been killed. Achilles comes up with a plan to build a hollow wooden horse, known as the Trojan horse, as a gift to the Persians. The Greek men entered the horse and waited for instruction. The Persians pushed the horse into their territory behind guarded walls. Once night fell the Greek men jumped...
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...Walcott: History as Dis-Ease.” Callalloo 9, 2 (1986): 331-40. Fuller, Mary. “Forgetting the Aeneid.” American Literary History 4,3 (1992): 517-38. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literature. Oxford UP, 1989. Griffin, Jasper. Homer on Life and Death. New York: Oxford UP, 1980. Hamner, Robert D. ed. Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott. Washington: Three Continents P, 1993. ------Derek Walcott. Twayne, 1993. Lernout, Geert. “Derek Walcott’s Omeros: The Isle is Full of Voices.” Kunapipi 14.2 (1992): 90-104. Livingston, James T. “Derek Walcott’s Omeros: Recovering the Mythical.” Journal of Caribbean Studies 8, 3 (1991-92): 131-40. Myrsiades, Kostas, ed. Approaches to Teaching Homer’s Iliad...
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...Greek culture began to develop around 1150 BC with the emergence of Greek religion, drama, and Athenian values coming together to create a common value of individualism and pride. Ancient Greece relied heavily mythology, which functioned as religion in Greek society and was comprised of stories, or myths, that explained their beliefs about life, the world and their gods. As a polytheistic culture, they believed in many gods, examples being Apollo the sun god and Zeus the god of the sky. These gods were important to Greek culture as they were the center focus of worship for the Olympic Games, which still carry on to this day, even though they are not directly connected with pagan worship any more. The Olympic Games were culturally impactful...
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...humans hoped that gods could answer wisely their inner dilemmas, and could help them discern more vividly and clearly the content of their incubation”. Another way to grasp how important the oneiric world was during the Ancient Greece era is found in literature. It is remarkable that in the vast majority of Greek stories there is always a role for dreams that either predict the future or deceive the mortals, who are often tricked by the gods. We can find examples of this in Homer’s Iliad,...
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...Theme of Revenge in Homer's Odyssey Homer’s The Odyssey is not just a tale of a man’s struggle on his journey home from the Trojan War, but of his struggle from the consequences of revenge. The Odyssey weaves in different characters’ tales of revenge from the gods and what impact revenge actually had on those characters. Revenge is an important underlying theme in The Odyssey because, in essence, it explains why Odysseus’ journey was so prolonged and treacherous. A few examples of revenge in the poem include Orestes’ revenge on Aegisthus, Zeus’ revenge on Odysseus and his men, and Poseidon’s revenge on Odysseus. These different examples of revenge in The Odyssey show the importance of the gods’ revenge in the epic journey of Odysseus. Orestes’ revenge is the first important example of the gods’ revenge in the poem. In Book 1, Hermes told Aegisthus, “’Don’t murder the man,’ he said, ‘don’t court his wife. Beware, revenge will come from Orestes…” (Homer 260). King Nestor delivers the story of Orestes’ revenge to Odysseus’ son Telemachus, while Telemachus is visiting Nestor to discover answers about his fathers’... The Character Medea's Revenge in Euripides' Medea Medea is a tragedy of a woman who feels that her husband has betrayed her with another woman and the jealousy that consumes her. She is the protagonist who arouses sympathy and admiration because of how her desperate situation is. I thought I was going to feel sorry for Medea, but that quickly changed as soon...
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...Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; its sequel, the Odyssey describes Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord, gave them a golden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan...
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...Jacqueline Aldaco Anthony Bullock Classics 28 27 April 2012 Knowledge and its Limitations Greeks could never know exactly what their gods were up to, so they often had to travel to visit oracles that were able to give them insight. Greeks saw knowledge as a form of power that helped them gain some control over their lives. To ancient Greeks knowledge was such an important aspect of life they had a divinity symbolize it. Apollo was the god of knowledge and medicine, in many Greek myths the quest for knowledge, or attaining too much knowledge altogether was a common source of tragedy. Ancient Greek cultures believed that even if mortals had the knowledge they sought, once they acquired it they did not know what to do with it. There are many examples in Greek myth that plainly show how knowledge eventually leads to tragedy. For instance, Oedipus’ search for knowledge of the king’s murderer ends up becoming his demise and the major source of pain in his life. Oedipus needed to find out why Thebes was suffering from a plague, so he sent Creon to the temple of Delphi to ask Apollo what he could do to life the plague from his people. As the oracle of Apollo Tiresias goes to Thebes and tells him that the person responsible for the death of the prior king, king Laius was living amongst them, and the plague would only be lifted once they found the murderer. In the quest for the knowledge that would save his people, King Oedipus summoned the messenger that was given the...
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